Critical response
On Rotten Tomatoes, The Indian in the Cupboard holds a score of 70% based on reviews from 24 critics, with an average rating of 6.4/10. The site's consensus states: "The Indian in the Cupboard gussies up its classic source material in modern effects without losing sight of the timeless themes at the heart of the story." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 58 out of 100, based on 25 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale.
Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times applauded the film for its themes of trust and cooperation, writing that it "is intent on teaching lessons [...] with a welcome lack of pretension." In a review for The New York Times, Janet Maslin praised Scardino's acting, but felt that the impact of his role was lessened by the film's use of close-ups. She also criticized the minor status of the character of Omri's mother: "Really wasted here is Lindsay Crouse, who [...] never says much more than 'Boys, time for bed.'" Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times reviewed the film negatively, describing it as "not exhilarating or exciting or funny in the ways that E.T. was," and predicted that children would find the story "depressing." Rafael Munsi of Common Sense Media gave the film five stars, with the summary "Classic, heartwarming fantasy will rivet kids." Brian Lowry of Variety Magazine said it is "one of the most over-scored movies in recent memory, with Randy Edelman's soundtrack swelling to huge crescendos in even the smallest moments." He also said that the visual effects "cleverly capture the little-guy-in-big-room scenario, though the standard apparently hasn't advanced much since The Incredible Shrinking Man.'" He concluded that it is "yet another example that Hollywood can make movies in which critics of sex and violence can find nothing to complain about. It's also a reminder that 'family values' can be, well, kind of boring." Bob McCabe of Empire gave this film two stars out of five, saying that the film "benefits greatly from the casting of the young Scardino who brings a distinct freshness to the role with his unconventional looks that diverts a good deal of the film's saccharine potential." He also said that the special effects were the movie's strong point." Marc Savlov of the Austin Chronicle rated the film three stars out of five, saying that the special effects "bring the character to life wonderfully, though much of the credit here goes to the remarkably well-chosen cast from Litefoot (in his acting debut) on down." Overall, he said the film is "surprisingly well-done nearly all the way around, [and] neither plays down to its target audience, nor fumbles the inherent childhood fantasy of the story."
In 2015, DVD Talk's William Harrison, reviewing the film for 20th anniversary Blu-ray release, called it "clunky and repetitive" and that it "hits a few dramatic high notes, but lacks an adventurous spark to make it truly memorable."
