Review
THE BRAVE LITTLE TOASTER
Rating: 
USA. 1987.
Director – Jerry Rees, Screenplay – Jerry Rees & Joe Ranft, Story – Joe Ranft, Jerry Rees & Brian McEntee, Based on the Novel by Thomas M. Disch, Producers – Donald Kushner & Thomas C. Wilhite, Music – David Newman, Songs – Dale Van Parks, Art Direction – McEntee. Production Company – Kushner-Locke/Hyperion.
Voices:
Deanna Oliver (Toaster), Tim Stack (Lamp), Jon Lovitz (Radio), Timothy E. Day (Blanky/The Master), Thurl Ravenscroft (Kirby)
Plot: A group of household appliances – a toaster, a radio, a lamp, an electric blanket and a vacuum-cleaner – miss their young master who no longer comes to see them up at a remote mountain holiday cabin.
When the cabin is placed up for sale, they decide to set forth to find him. After a little bit of experimentation they wire up a battery to a wheeled chair to power themselves and set forth on a quest into the outside world. But their quest proves to be one fraught with many perils.
This is a rather sweet and touching film. It is made with a nicely unadorned simplicity. The animation is simple – it is not a film carried by epic animation but rather its softness and anthropomorphism. And the characters are delightfully voiced, most plaintive of all being the heartbreakingly lonesome character of the child-like electric blanket. (Although some of the character voicings quite defy belief – like the lightshade that does a Peter Lorre impersonation or the air conditioner that seems to be modeled on Jack Nicholson).
Both the film and the 1986 novella by celebrated sf writer Thomas M. Disch that it is based on have a dual level charm to them – a soft children’s story on one level and lots of sly jokes that cleverly play around the central metaphor of anthropomorphic appliances. Some of the writing – like where the Toaster tries to explain to the Lamp what caring is like, comparing it to the joy of finding a fresh loaf of bread or popping up a piece of warm toast – is quite lovely. Sadly this is a film that was mishandled and saw almost no cinematic release and lacks the reputation it richly deserves.
The film has gained a slow reputation and was followed by two video-released sequels – The Brave Little Toaster to the Rescue (1997) and The Brave Little Toaster Goes to Mars (1997). Last updated: Thursday, 18 September 2008
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