small_dict = {"a":"1"}
full_dict = {"a":"1", "b":"test", "c":["junk"]}

template = {"a":int, "c":list}

def check(incoming_args, template):
    res = {}
    for key in template:
        if key in incoming_args:
            res[key] = template[key](incoming_args[key])
    return res

print check(small_dict, template)
print check(full_dict, template)