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The Brave Little Toaster (film)
Encyclopedia
The Brave Little Toaster is a 1987 animated
adventure film
adapted from the 1980 novel of the same name
by Thomas Disch. The film was directed by Jerry Rees
and released by Walt Disney Pictures
. The film is set in a world where household appliances
and other electronics have the ability to speak and move
, pretending to be lifeless in the presence of humans. The story focuses on five appliances— a toaster
, a desk lamp, an electric blanket
, a vacuum tube radio
, and a vacuum cleaner
—who go on a quest to search for their original owner.
The film was produced by Hyperion Pictures
along with The Kushner-Locke Company
. Many of the original members of Pixar Animation Studios
were involved with this film, including John Lasseter
and Joe Ranft
. While the film received a limited theatrical release
, The Brave Little Toaster was popular on home video and was followed by two sequels a decade later. (The Brave Little Toaster Goes to Mars
and The Brave Little Toaster to the Rescue)
The film currently airs in Ireland
on RTE Two
and the United Kingdom
on Channel 4
.
, Radio (Jon Lovitz
), a lamp
, Lampy (Tim Stack
), an electric blanket
, Blanky (Timothy E. Day
), a vacuum cleaner
, Kirby (Thurl Ravenscroft
), and a toaster
, Toaster (Deanna Oliver
) — live in an empty cabin located in the countryside. Each day they await their "Master", a child whom they have not seen for many years, with a growing sense of abandonment. When a car stops at the cabin and turns out to be a real estate broker
placing a "for sale" sign, the appliances spiral into despair. Unable to accept that the Master would abandon them, Toaster decides that the group should head out and find the Master. The appliances rig up a car battery
to an office chair
pulled by Kirby and set out into the world, following the Radio's signal broadcasted from the city, where the Master lives.
From the cabin to the big city, the appliances have many harrowing adventures where they slowly learn to work together. Shortly after stopping to rest within a forest, a violent storm during nightfall wakes Toaster and the others and blows Blanky up into the trees, and Lampy risks his life by using himself as a lightning rod
to recharge the group's dead battery. After recovering Blanky, the group tries to cross a waterfall, only to have everyone fall in except for Kirby. Kirby dives after them and rescues them, and the appliances wash up into the middle of a swamp. Having lost the office chair and battery, the group resorts to pulling the disabled Kirby through the swamp. After almost drowning in quicksand
, they are rescued by Elmo St. Peters, the owner of an appliance parts store. At the store they meet a group of partially dismantled or broken appliances, who have given up on hope and await being disassembled and sold. After Radio is taken from the shelf and is about to have his radio tubes extracted, the appliances trick St. Peters, allowing them all to escape and head into the city.
The Master, whose name is revealed to be Rob (Wayne Kaatz), lives in an apartment as a young adult and is about to depart for college
. The Master leaves with his girlfriend Chris (Colette Savage) to head back to the cabin to pick up the appliances to take with him. The modern electronics in the apartment become disheartened and jealous. When the appliances arrive at Rob's apartment, the modern appliances convince them that they are outdated and unusable, tossing them into the garbage, where they are shortly transported to Ernie's Disposal, a junkyard
. Rob and Chris return home after believing his original appliances were stolen. Rob's black and white television (Jonathan Benair
), who originally lived with the appliances, broadcasts fake advertisements and convinces Rob and Chris to look at Ernie's Disposal for replacements.
At the junkyard, the appliances lose hope and put themselves at the mercy of a giant magnetic crane
that picks up junk and places it on a conveyor belt that leads into a car crusher
. When they discover that Rob is in the junkyard, they are encouraged and attempt to foil the magnetic crane in order to allow Rob to find them. After being thwarted several times, the evil magnetic crane picks up Rob himself as well as all of the appliances, except for Toaster, and drops them on the compactor's conveyor belt. In a climactic act of self-sacrifice, Toaster leaps into the compactor's drive gears and stops the machine from destroying all of the appliances and Rob. Rob returns to the apartment with all of the appliances in tow, including the now mangled Toaster. Rob repairs the Toaster and takes all of them to college with him.
and Glen Keane
had finished a short 2D/3D test film based on the book Where the Wild Things Are
, Lasseter and Thomas L. Wilhite decided they wanted to make a whole feature this way. The story they chose was The Brave Little Toaster, but in their enthusiasm, they ran into issues pitching the idea to two high level Disney executives, animation administrator Ed Hansen, and head of Disney studios Ron W. Miller
. During Lasseter and Wilhite's pitch, the film was rejected due to the costs of having traditionally animated characters inside expensive computer-generated backgrounds. A few minutes after the meeting, Lasseter received a phone call from Hansen and was asked to come down to his office, where Lasseter was told that his job had been terminated. The development was then transferred to the new Hyperion Pictures, the creation of former Disney employees Wilhite and Willard Carroll
, who took the production along with them.
With Disney backing the project, Toaster soon turned into an independent effort; the electronics company TDK
and video distributor CBS-Fox soon joined in. In 1986, Hyperion began to work on the story and characters, with Taiwan's Wang Film Productions
for the overseas unit. The cost was reduced to $2.3 million as production began. Jerry Rees
, a crew member on two previous Disney films, The Fox and the Hound
and Tron
, and a friend of Lasseter, was chosen to direct the film, and was also a writer on the screenplay along with Joe Ranft
. Rees' inspiration for voice casting came from the Groundlings improvisational group, some of whose members (Jon Lovitz
, Phil Hartman
, Timothy Stack
, and Mindy Sterling
) voiced characters in the film. Lovitz and Hartman were stars of Saturday Night Live
at the time. The color stylist was veteran Disney animator Ken O'Connor, a member of Disney's feature animation department
from its establishment.
Halfway through the film, Donald Kushner
thought that the nightmare scene should be cut from the film; due to the clown being extremely frightening to younger children. He also stated that the junkyard scene "Worthless" should be cut from the film too, due to one of the cars driving into a crusher on purpose, using a suicide reference. For unknown reasons, the scenes were left in the film.
and performed by New Japan Philharmonic
. The film contains four original songs ("City of Lights", "It's a 'B' Movie", "Cutting Edge", and "Worthless") that were written by Van Dyke Parks
. Newman's score for this movie was one of his earlier works and apparently one that he felt very close to. He did not view it as a cheerful one, and decided to give the film a dramatic score to reinforce the serious nature of many of the film's themes.
, garnering a Grand Jury Prize nomination. Though the prize went to Rob Nilsson
's Heat and Sunlight
, before the awards ceremony, Rees was told by several of the judges that they considered Toaster the best film but they couldn't give the award to a cartoon as they considered people wouldn't take the festival seriously afterwards. Ironically, Heat and Sunlight, unlike Toaster, would be forgotten in later years.
Despite being a favorite with festival audiences, the film failed to find a distributor. Disney, who held the video and television rights, withdrew its official theatrical distribution, and elected to showcase it on their new premium cable service
instead. The film premiered on The Disney Channel on February 27th, 1988. The buzz it generated at Sundance dissipated, and it only received limited theatrical airings through Hyperion, mainly at arthouse facilities across the U.S., and most notably at the Film Forum
in New York City
, in May 1989.
In July 1991, Disney finally released the film to home video. Throughout the '90s onward, it enjoyed popularity as a rental amongst children as well as a Parent's Choice Award win. The VHS was re-issued in March 1994 in traditional Disney white clamshell packaging, followed by another VHS release in May 1998. The DVD was released in September 2003, to tie in with the film's 15th anniversary. Disney has currently made no official statement on a future Blu-ray release of the film.
. The Washington Post called it "a kid's film made without condescension", while the staff of Halliwell's Film Guide called it an "Odd fantasy of pots and pans with no more than adequate animation."
The film received an Emmy nomination for Best Animated Program in 1988. It was followed by two sequels, The Brave Little Toaster Goes to Mars
(1998), also written by Disch, and The Brave Little Toaster to the Rescue (1999). The two sequels were released out of chronological order; To the Rescue takes place before Goes to Mars.
Animation
Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. The effect is an optical illusion of motion due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision, and can be created and demonstrated in several ways...
adventure film
Adventure film
Adventure films are a genre of film.Unlike pure, low-budget action films they often use their action scenes preferably to display and explore exotic locations in an energetic way....
adapted from the 1980 novel of the same name
The Brave Little Toaster
The Brave Little Toaster is a novel by Thomas M. Disch intended for children or as put by Disch, A Bedtime Story for Small Appliances...
by Thomas Disch. The film was directed by Jerry Rees
Jerry Rees
Jerry W. Rees is an animator and director best known for the 1987 Emmy-nominated animated film The Brave Little Toaster. He supervised and helped create many of the visual effects for the cult classic Tron, and is also a sculptor and fine artist....
and released by Walt Disney Pictures
Walt Disney Pictures
Walt Disney Pictures is an American film studio owned by The Walt Disney Company. Walt Disney Pictures and Television, a subsidiary of the Walt Disney Studios and the main production company for live-action feature films within the Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group, based at the Walt Disney...
. The film is set in a world where household appliances
Home appliance
Home appliances are electrical/mechanical machines which accomplish some household functions, such as cooking or cleaning. Home appliances can be classified into:*Major appliances, or White goods*Small appliances, or Brown goods...
and other electronics have the ability to speak and move
Anthropomorphism
Anthropomorphism is any attribution of human characteristics to animals, non-living things, phenomena, material states, objects or abstract concepts, such as organizations, governments, spirits or deities. The term was coined in the mid 1700s...
, pretending to be lifeless in the presence of humans. The story focuses on five appliances— a toaster
Toaster
The toaster is typically a small electric kitchen appliance designed to toast multiple types of bread products. A typical modern two-slice toaster draws anywhere between 600 and 1200 W and makes toast in 1 to 3 minutes...
, a desk lamp, an electric blanket
Electric blanket
In the US the electric blanket is a blanket with an integrated electrical heating device usually placed above the top bed sheet. In the UK and Commonwealth, electric blanket commonly refers to an electric mattress pad, which is placed below the bottom bed sheet. Electric blankets usually have a...
, a vacuum tube radio
Radio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
, and a vacuum cleaner
Vacuum cleaner
A vacuum cleaner, commonly referred to as a "vacuum," is a device that uses an air pump to create a partial vacuum to suck up dust and dirt, usually from floors, and optionally from other surfaces as well. The dirt is collected by either a dustbag or a cyclone for later disposal...
—who go on a quest to search for their original owner.
The film was produced by Hyperion Pictures
Hyperion Pictures
Hyperion Pictures is an American film production company founded by Thomas L. Wilhite, who had previously been the head of motion picture and television produced for and owned by Walt Disney Productions, and writer/director Willard Carroll...
along with The Kushner-Locke Company
The Kushner-Locke Company
The Kushner-Locke Company is an American independent motion picture/television production company founded in 1983, it is named after its founders Donald Kushner and Peter Locke....
. Many of the original members of Pixar Animation Studios
Pixar
Pixar Animation Studios, pronounced , is an American computer animation film studio based in Emeryville, California. The studio has earned 26 Academy Awards, seven Golden Globes, and three Grammy Awards, among many other awards and acknowledgments. Its films have made over $6.3 billion worldwide...
were involved with this film, including John Lasseter
John Lasseter
John Alan Lasseter is an American animator, director and the chief creative officer at Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios. He is also currently the Principal Creative Advisor for Walt Disney Imagineering....
and Joe Ranft
Joe Ranft
Joseph Henry "Joe" Ranft was an American screenwriter, animator, storyboard artist and voice actor who worked for Pixar and Disney. His brother, Jerome Ranft, is a sculptor who also worked on several Pixar movies....
. While the film received a limited theatrical release
Limited release
Limited release is a term in the American motion picture industry for a motion picture that is playing in a select few theaters across the country ....
, The Brave Little Toaster was popular on home video and was followed by two sequels a decade later. (The Brave Little Toaster Goes to Mars
The Brave Little Toaster Goes to Mars
The Brave Little Toaster Goes to Mars is the name of both a children's book by Thomas Disch, as well as the film made from same. Both are sequels to the book and film versions of The Brave Little Toaster. The movie was distributed by Walt Disney Home Video. It was released in 1998...
and The Brave Little Toaster to the Rescue)
The film currently airs in Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
on RTE Two
RTÉ Two
RTÉ Two is a free-to-air general entertainment channel operated by Irish state broadcaster Raidió Teilifís Éireann. RTÉ Two is available throughout the island of Ireland through digital terrestrial service Saorview, VHF and UHF bands, and is also available via satellite to Irish subscribers of...
and the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
on Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
.
Plot
Five appliances — a radioRadio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
, Radio (Jon Lovitz
Jon Lovitz
Jonathan "Jon" Lovitz is an American comedian, actor, and singer. He is best known as a cast member of the NBC sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live from 1985 to 1990.-Early life:...
), a lamp
Gooseneck lamp
A Gooseneck lamp is a type of light fixture in which a lamp is attached to a flexible, adjustable shaft to allow the user to position the light source without moving the fixture or item to be illuminated. Gooseneck lamps are often used to position a light for reading, or in industry, to provide...
, Lampy (Tim Stack
Timothy Stack
Timothy Stack is an American film and television actor and screenwriter.-Life and career:He was born in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, the son of Joan and Tom Stack. He graduated from the esteemed Philadelphia-area prep school Germantown Academy in 1973 and graduated from Boston College in 1978...
), an electric blanket
Electric blanket
In the US the electric blanket is a blanket with an integrated electrical heating device usually placed above the top bed sheet. In the UK and Commonwealth, electric blanket commonly refers to an electric mattress pad, which is placed below the bottom bed sheet. Electric blankets usually have a...
, Blanky (Timothy E. Day
Timothy E. Day
Timothy E. Day, also known as Timothy Day, is an American actor best known for voicing the role of Blanky in the 1987 children's movie The Brave Little Toaster.-Career:...
), a vacuum cleaner
Vacuum cleaner
A vacuum cleaner, commonly referred to as a "vacuum," is a device that uses an air pump to create a partial vacuum to suck up dust and dirt, usually from floors, and optionally from other surfaces as well. The dirt is collected by either a dustbag or a cyclone for later disposal...
, Kirby (Thurl Ravenscroft
Thurl Ravenscroft
Thurl Arthur Ravenscroft was an American voice actor and singer best known as the deep voice behind Tony the Tiger's "They're grrreat!" in Frosted Flakes television commercials for more than five decades. Ravenscroft was also known, however uncredited, as the vocalist for the song "You're a Mean...
), and a toaster
Toaster
The toaster is typically a small electric kitchen appliance designed to toast multiple types of bread products. A typical modern two-slice toaster draws anywhere between 600 and 1200 W and makes toast in 1 to 3 minutes...
, Toaster (Deanna Oliver
Deanna Oliver
Deanna Oliver is an American actress who did the voice of Toaster in the 1987 film, The Brave Little Toaster and its sequels. She also is the producer of My Favorite Martian & other films. In addition, she was a writer of the 1993 television show, Animaniacs and the 1990 show Tiny Toon Adventures....
) — live in an empty cabin located in the countryside. Each day they await their "Master", a child whom they have not seen for many years, with a growing sense of abandonment. When a car stops at the cabin and turns out to be a real estate broker
Real estate broker
A real estate broker, real estate agent or realtor is a party who acts as an intermediary between sellers and buyers of real estate/real property and attempts to find sellers who wish to sell and buyers who wish to buy...
placing a "for sale" sign, the appliances spiral into despair. Unable to accept that the Master would abandon them, Toaster decides that the group should head out and find the Master. The appliances rig up a car battery
Car battery
An automotive battery is a type of rechargeable battery that supplies electric energy to an automobile. Usually this refers to an SLI battery to power the starter motor, the lights, and the ignition system of a vehicle’s engine...
to an office chair
Office chair
An office chair, or desk chair, is a type of chair that is designed for use at a desk in an office. It should be comfortable and adjustable and can swivel 360 degrees.-History:...
pulled by Kirby and set out into the world, following the Radio's signal broadcasted from the city, where the Master lives.
From the cabin to the big city, the appliances have many harrowing adventures where they slowly learn to work together. Shortly after stopping to rest within a forest, a violent storm during nightfall wakes Toaster and the others and blows Blanky up into the trees, and Lampy risks his life by using himself as a lightning rod
Lightning rod
A lightning rod or lightning conductor is a metal rod or conductor mounted on top of a building and electrically connected to the ground through a wire, to protect the building in the event of lightning...
to recharge the group's dead battery. After recovering Blanky, the group tries to cross a waterfall, only to have everyone fall in except for Kirby. Kirby dives after them and rescues them, and the appliances wash up into the middle of a swamp. Having lost the office chair and battery, the group resorts to pulling the disabled Kirby through the swamp. After almost drowning in quicksand
Quicksand
Quicksand is a colloid hydrogel consisting of fine granular matter , clay, and water.Water circulation underground can focus in an area with the optimal mixture of fine sands and other materials such as clay. The water moves up and then down slowly in a convection-like manner throughout a column...
, they are rescued by Elmo St. Peters, the owner of an appliance parts store. At the store they meet a group of partially dismantled or broken appliances, who have given up on hope and await being disassembled and sold. After Radio is taken from the shelf and is about to have his radio tubes extracted, the appliances trick St. Peters, allowing them all to escape and head into the city.
The Master, whose name is revealed to be Rob (Wayne Kaatz), lives in an apartment as a young adult and is about to depart for college
College
A college is an educational institution or a constituent part of an educational institution. Usage varies in English-speaking nations...
. The Master leaves with his girlfriend Chris (Colette Savage) to head back to the cabin to pick up the appliances to take with him. The modern electronics in the apartment become disheartened and jealous. When the appliances arrive at Rob's apartment, the modern appliances convince them that they are outdated and unusable, tossing them into the garbage, where they are shortly transported to Ernie's Disposal, a junkyard
Junkyard
The word junkyard may refer to:*A wreck yard, also known as a junkyard or scrapyard*Junkyard a hero. He is featured in Robot Chicken where he dies of theobromine poisoning.*Junkyard , a hard rock band based in Los Angeles...
. Rob and Chris return home after believing his original appliances were stolen. Rob's black and white television (Jonathan Benair
Jonathan Benair
Jonathan Benair was a screenwriter, film historian, and voice actor who voiced the character of the black-and-white TV in the 1987 animated film The Brave Little Toaster and Jim Bob in The Brave Little Toaster to the Rescue.On June 28, 1998, Benair died of a cerebral hemorrhage and heart attack in...
), who originally lived with the appliances, broadcasts fake advertisements and convinces Rob and Chris to look at Ernie's Disposal for replacements.
At the junkyard, the appliances lose hope and put themselves at the mercy of a giant magnetic crane
Electromagnet
An electromagnet is a type of magnet in which the magnetic field is produced by the flow of electric current. The magnetic field disappears when the current is turned off...
that picks up junk and places it on a conveyor belt that leads into a car crusher
Car crusher
A car crusher is an industrial device used to reduce the dimensions of derelict cars prior to transport for recycling.Car crushers are compactors and can be of two types: "pancake", where a scrap automobile is flattened by a huge descending hydraulically-powered plate, or the baling press type,...
. When they discover that Rob is in the junkyard, they are encouraged and attempt to foil the magnetic crane in order to allow Rob to find them. After being thwarted several times, the evil magnetic crane picks up Rob himself as well as all of the appliances, except for Toaster, and drops them on the compactor's conveyor belt. In a climactic act of self-sacrifice, Toaster leaps into the compactor's drive gears and stops the machine from destroying all of the appliances and Rob. Rob returns to the apartment with all of the appliances in tow, including the now mangled Toaster. Rob repairs the Toaster and takes all of them to college with him.
Cast
- Deanna OliverDeanna OliverDeanna Oliver is an American actress who did the voice of Toaster in the 1987 film, The Brave Little Toaster and its sequels. She also is the producer of My Favorite Martian & other films. In addition, she was a writer of the 1993 television show, Animaniacs and the 1990 show Tiny Toon Adventures....
as Toaster, a gallant toasterToasterThe toaster is typically a small electric kitchen appliance designed to toast multiple types of bread products. A typical modern two-slice toaster draws anywhere between 600 and 1200 W and makes toast in 1 to 3 minutes...
and inspiring leader of the five appliances. - Timothy E. DayTimothy E. DayTimothy E. Day, also known as Timothy Day, is an American actor best known for voicing the role of Blanky in the 1987 children's movie The Brave Little Toaster.-Career:...
as Blanky, an electric blanketElectric blanketIn the US the electric blanket is a blanket with an integrated electrical heating device usually placed above the top bed sheet. In the UK and Commonwealth, electric blanket commonly refers to an electric mattress pad, which is placed below the bottom bed sheet. Electric blankets usually have a...
with an innocent, childlike demeanor. - Tim StackTimothy StackTimothy Stack is an American film and television actor and screenwriter.-Life and career:He was born in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, the son of Joan and Tom Stack. He graduated from the esteemed Philadelphia-area prep school Germantown Academy in 1973 and graduated from Boston College in 1978...
as Lampy, an easily-impressed yet slightly irascible gooseneck lampGooseneck lampA Gooseneck lamp is a type of light fixture in which a lamp is attached to a flexible, adjustable shaft to allow the user to position the light source without moving the fixture or item to be illuminated. Gooseneck lamps are often used to position a light for reading, or in industry, to provide...
. - Jon LovitzJon LovitzJonathan "Jon" Lovitz is an American comedian, actor, and singer. He is best known as a cast member of the NBC sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live from 1985 to 1990.-Early life:...
as Radio, a tube-based dial radioReceiver (radio)A radio receiver converts signals from a radio antenna to a usable form. It uses electronic filters to separate a wanted radio frequency signal from all other signals, the electronic amplifier increases the level suitable for further processing, and finally recovers the desired information through...
whose personality parodies loud and pretentious radio announcersRadio personalityA radio personality is a person with an on-air position in radio broadcasting. A radio personality can be someone who introduces and discusses various genres of music, hosts a talk radio show that may take calls from listeners, or someone whose primary responsibility is to give news, weather,...
. - Thurl RavenscroftThurl RavenscroftThurl Arthur Ravenscroft was an American voice actor and singer best known as the deep voice behind Tony the Tiger's "They're grrreat!" in Frosted Flakes television commercials for more than five decades. Ravenscroft was also known, however uncredited, as the vocalist for the song "You're a Mean...
as Kirby, a very low-pitched, individualistic upright vacuum cleanerVacuum cleanerA vacuum cleaner, commonly referred to as a "vacuum," is a device that uses an air pump to create a partial vacuum to suck up dust and dirt, usually from floors, and optionally from other surfaces as well. The dirt is collected by either a dustbag or a cyclone for later disposal...
who dons a cynical, cantankerous attitude towards the other appliances. - Wayne Kaatz (Timothy E. Day, young) as Rob ("The Master"), the original human owner of the five appliances. Rob appears as a child in flashbacks for the first half of the film, but it is revealed that he has reached late adolescenceAdolescenceAdolescence is a transitional stage of physical and mental human development generally occurring between puberty and legal adulthood , but largely characterized as beginning and ending with the teenage stage...
and is departing for collegeCollegeA college is an educational institution or a constituent part of an educational institution. Usage varies in English-speaking nations...
. - Phil HartmanPhil HartmanPhilip Edward "Phil" Hartman was a Canadian-American actor, comedian, screenwriter, and graphic artist. Born in Brantford, Ontario, Hartman and his family moved to the United States when he was 10...
as the sarcastic Air Conditioner, who resides in the cabin with the five appliances. He loses his temper in an argument with the appliances and explodes, and is revived by Rob near the end of the film. Hartman also voiced the Peter LorrePeter LorrePeter Lorre was an Austrian-American actor frequently typecast as a sinister foreigner.He caused an international sensation in 1931 with his portrayal of a serial killer who preys on little girls in the German film M...
-inspired hanging lampPendant lightA pendant light, sometimes called a drop or suspender, is a lone light fixture that hangs from the ceiling usually suspended by a cord, chain, or metal rod. Pendant lights are often used in multiples, hung in a straight line over kitchen countertops and dinette sets or sometimes in bathrooms. ...
, as seen in the appliance parts store. - Joe RanftJoe RanftJoseph Henry "Joe" Ranft was an American screenwriter, animator, storyboard artist and voice actor who worked for Pixar and Disney. His brother, Jerome Ranft, is a sculptor who also worked on several Pixar movies....
as Elmo St. Peters, one of the major antagonists of the film. He owns a spare partSpare partSpare Parts may also refer to:* Spare Parts , by Status Quo* Spare Parts is a Doctor Who audio drama.* Spare Parts , by Servotron* "Spare Parts" , by Bruce Springsteen* "Spare Parts"...
s shop, where he disassembles broken machines and sells the pieces. - Colette Savage as Chris, Rob's tomboyish girlfriend.
- Jim Jackman as Plugsy, a table lamp who leads the modern machines, who reside in Rob's apartment. While they were benevolent in the original novel, here they are jealous and antagonistic towards the main characters.
- Jonathan BenairJonathan BenairJonathan Benair was a screenwriter, film historian, and voice actor who voiced the character of the black-and-white TV in the 1987 animated film The Brave Little Toaster and Jim Bob in The Brave Little Toaster to the Rescue.On June 28, 1998, Benair died of a cerebral hemorrhage and heart attack in...
as T.V., a black and white television who lives in Rob's apartment and is an old friend of the five appliances. - The Giant MagnetElectromagnetAn electromagnet is a type of magnet in which the magnetic field is produced by the flow of electric current. The magnetic field disappears when the current is turned off...
is the voiceless final villain, who lives at Ernie's Disposal and makes a career out of sending worn-out cars to their demise in a car crusherCar crusherA car crusher is an industrial device used to reduce the dimensions of derelict cars prior to transport for recycling.Car crushers are compactors and can be of two types: "pancake", where a scrap automobile is flattened by a huge descending hydraulically-powered plate, or the baling press type,...
. It pursues the appliances and attempts to destroy them.
Production
The film rights to The Brave Little Toaster, the original novel, were bought by the Disney Studios in 1982, two years after its appearance in print. After John LasseterJohn Lasseter
John Alan Lasseter is an American animator, director and the chief creative officer at Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios. He is also currently the Principal Creative Advisor for Walt Disney Imagineering....
and Glen Keane
Glen Keane
Glen Keane is an American animator, author, illustrator and director. Keane is best known for his character animation at Walt Disney Studios for feature films including The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, Tarzan, and Tangled...
had finished a short 2D/3D test film based on the book Where the Wild Things Are
Where The Wild Things Are
Where the Wild Things Are is a 1963 children's picture book by American writer and illustrator Maurice Sendak, originally published by Harper & Row. The book has been adapted into other media several times, including an animated short in 1973 , a 1980 opera, and, in 2009, a live-action feature film...
, Lasseter and Thomas L. Wilhite decided they wanted to make a whole feature this way. The story they chose was The Brave Little Toaster, but in their enthusiasm, they ran into issues pitching the idea to two high level Disney executives, animation administrator Ed Hansen, and head of Disney studios Ron W. Miller
Ron W. Miller
Ronald William "Ron" Miller is a former professional American football player, the son-in-law of Walt Disney, and a former president and CEO of what is now The Walt Disney Company.-Marriage and early career:...
. During Lasseter and Wilhite's pitch, the film was rejected due to the costs of having traditionally animated characters inside expensive computer-generated backgrounds. A few minutes after the meeting, Lasseter received a phone call from Hansen and was asked to come down to his office, where Lasseter was told that his job had been terminated. The development was then transferred to the new Hyperion Pictures, the creation of former Disney employees Wilhite and Willard Carroll
Willard Carroll
Willard Carroll is an American film producer, writer, and director. He was executive producer of The Brave Little Toaster series, writing the screenplays for The Brave Little Toaster to the Rescue and The Brave Little Toaster Goes to Mars...
, who took the production along with them.
With Disney backing the project, Toaster soon turned into an independent effort; the electronics company TDK
TDK
, formerly , is a Japanese company which manufactures electronic materials, electronic components, and recording and data-storage media, and markets them globally. Their motto is "Contribute to culture and industry through creativity"...
and video distributor CBS-Fox soon joined in. In 1986, Hyperion began to work on the story and characters, with Taiwan's Wang Film Productions
Wang Film Productions
Wang Film Productions is one of the oldest and most prolific Taiwanese animation studios...
for the overseas unit. The cost was reduced to $2.3 million as production began. Jerry Rees
Jerry Rees
Jerry W. Rees is an animator and director best known for the 1987 Emmy-nominated animated film The Brave Little Toaster. He supervised and helped create many of the visual effects for the cult classic Tron, and is also a sculptor and fine artist....
, a crew member on two previous Disney films, The Fox and the Hound
The Fox and the Hound (film)
The Fox and the Hound is a 1981 animated feature loosely based on the Daniel P. Mannix novel of the same name, produced by Walt Disney Productions and released in the United States on July 10, 1981...
and Tron
Tron
-Film:*Tron , a franchise that began in 1982 with the Walt Disney Pictures film Tron** Tron , a 1982 science fiction film by Disney, starring Jeff Bridges, Bruce Boxleitner, Cindy Morgan, Dan Shor and David Warner...
, and a friend of Lasseter, was chosen to direct the film, and was also a writer on the screenplay along with Joe Ranft
Joe Ranft
Joseph Henry "Joe" Ranft was an American screenwriter, animator, storyboard artist and voice actor who worked for Pixar and Disney. His brother, Jerome Ranft, is a sculptor who also worked on several Pixar movies....
. Rees' inspiration for voice casting came from the Groundlings improvisational group, some of whose members (Jon Lovitz
Jon Lovitz
Jonathan "Jon" Lovitz is an American comedian, actor, and singer. He is best known as a cast member of the NBC sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live from 1985 to 1990.-Early life:...
, Phil Hartman
Phil Hartman
Philip Edward "Phil" Hartman was a Canadian-American actor, comedian, screenwriter, and graphic artist. Born in Brantford, Ontario, Hartman and his family moved to the United States when he was 10...
, Timothy Stack
Timothy Stack
Timothy Stack is an American film and television actor and screenwriter.-Life and career:He was born in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, the son of Joan and Tom Stack. He graduated from the esteemed Philadelphia-area prep school Germantown Academy in 1973 and graduated from Boston College in 1978...
, and Mindy Sterling
Mindy Sterling
Mindy Lee Sterling is an American actress. Although she had worked in film for over 30 years, she only began to garner attention after playing Frau Farbissina, the diminutive and domineering Germanic cohort of Dr. Evil in the Austin Powers series of comedy films, and has a recurring role as Ms...
) voiced characters in the film. Lovitz and Hartman were stars of Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live is a live American late-night television sketch comedy and variety show developed by Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title of NBC's Saturday Night.The show's sketches often parody contemporary American culture...
at the time. The color stylist was veteran Disney animator Ken O'Connor, a member of Disney's feature animation department
Walt Disney Feature Animation
Walt Disney Animation Studios is an American animation studio headquartered in Burbank, California. The studio, founded in 1923 as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio by brothers Walt and Roy Disney, is the oldest subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company...
from its establishment.
Halfway through the film, Donald Kushner
Donald Kushner
Donald Kushner is an American producer who has worked with animation, live-action and theater productions.He attended high school in Providence, received an undergraduate degree from Syracuse University in 1971 and a Boston University law degree in 1973...
thought that the nightmare scene should be cut from the film; due to the clown being extremely frightening to younger children. He also stated that the junkyard scene "Worthless" should be cut from the film too, due to one of the cars driving into a crusher on purpose, using a suicide reference. For unknown reasons, the scenes were left in the film.
Music
The Brave Little Toaster was scored and conducted by David NewmanDavid Newman (composer)
David Louis Newman is an American composer and conductor known particularly for his film scores. In a career spanning nearly forty years, he has composed music for nearly 100 feature films.-Life and career:...
and performed by New Japan Philharmonic
New Japan Philharmonic
The is a symphony orchestra based in Tokyo, Japan. It was founded in 1972 with Seiji Ozawa as honorary conductor laureate. The Philharmonic's primary concert venue is the Sumida Triphony Hall. Since 2003, its music director is Christian Arming....
. The film contains four original songs ("City of Lights", "It's a 'B' Movie", "Cutting Edge", and "Worthless") that were written by Van Dyke Parks
Van Dyke Parks
Van Dyke Parks is an American composer, arranger, producer, musician, singer, author and actor. Parks is perhaps best known for his contributions as a lyricist on the Beach Boys album Smile....
. Newman's score for this movie was one of his earlier works and apparently one that he felt very close to. He did not view it as a cheerful one, and decided to give the film a dramatic score to reinforce the serious nature of many of the film's themes.
Differences from the novel
- In the novel, the character of Air Conditioner is only mentioned in passing as having died when it passed its expiration dateExpiration dateExpiration date can refer to:*The shelf life of a grocery item*Expiration *Copyright expiration*Expiration Date , a 2006 comedy* Expiration Date, a novel by Tim Powers...
, while in the film he dies from overheating, and is later repaired and revived. - Blanky was originally rescued from the tree by two squirrels.
- The vacuum's name was changed from "Hoover" to "Kirby," and was the original leader of the group (rather than Toaster).
- The benevolent appliances in Rob's apartment are antagonistic in the film.
- The appliances originally encounter a river and they find a boat to cross it, while in the film they encounter a waterfall and fail trying to cross.
- Elmo St. Peters was the junkyard owner, rather than the part shop owner.
- The original ending was notably different from the film: the appliances find a new owner, rather than Rob, to live with.
Release
The Brave Little Toaster premiered in 1987 at the Los Angeles International Animation Celebration. The following year, it was shown at the 1988 Sundance Film FestivalSundance Film Festival
The Sundance Film Festival is a film festival that takes place annually in Utah, in the United States. It is the largest independent cinema festival in the United States. Held in January in Park City, Salt Lake City, and Ogden, as well as at the Sundance Resort, the festival is a showcase for new...
, garnering a Grand Jury Prize nomination. Though the prize went to Rob Nilsson
Rob Nilsson
Rob Nilsson is an American independent film director, writer, and sometimes actor. He has won the Caméra d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival and the Sundance Grand Jury Prize.-Early life and education:...
's Heat and Sunlight
Heat and Sunlight
Heat and Sunlight is a 1987 independent film written, directed by and starring Rob Nilsson. It tells the story of a photojournalist who had worked in Biafra trying to patch up his relationship with his lover.- External links :...
, before the awards ceremony, Rees was told by several of the judges that they considered Toaster the best film but they couldn't give the award to a cartoon as they considered people wouldn't take the festival seriously afterwards. Ironically, Heat and Sunlight, unlike Toaster, would be forgotten in later years.
Despite being a favorite with festival audiences, the film failed to find a distributor. Disney, who held the video and television rights, withdrew its official theatrical distribution, and elected to showcase it on their new premium cable service
Disney Channel
Disney Channel is an American basic cable and satellite television network, owned by the Disney-ABC Television Group division of The Walt Disney Company. It is under the direction of Disney-ABC Television Group President Anne Sweeney. The channel's headquarters is located on West Alameda Ave. in...
instead. The film premiered on The Disney Channel on February 27th, 1988. The buzz it generated at Sundance dissipated, and it only received limited theatrical airings through Hyperion, mainly at arthouse facilities across the U.S., and most notably at the Film Forum
Film Forum
Film Forum is a nonprofit movie theater located at 209 West Houston Street in New York City. It began in 1970 as an alternative screening space for independent films, with 50 folding chairs, one projector and a US$19,000 annual budget. Karen Cooper became director in 1972 and under her leadership,...
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, in May 1989.
In July 1991, Disney finally released the film to home video. Throughout the '90s onward, it enjoyed popularity as a rental amongst children as well as a Parent's Choice Award win. The VHS was re-issued in March 1994 in traditional Disney white clamshell packaging, followed by another VHS release in May 1998. The DVD was released in September 2003, to tie in with the film's 15th anniversary. Disney has currently made no official statement on a future Blu-ray release of the film.
Reception
The Brave Little Toaster has garnered a 75% rating on the reviews website, Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
. The Washington Post called it "a kid's film made without condescension", while the staff of Halliwell's Film Guide called it an "Odd fantasy of pots and pans with no more than adequate animation."
The film received an Emmy nomination for Best Animated Program in 1988. It was followed by two sequels, The Brave Little Toaster Goes to Mars
The Brave Little Toaster Goes to Mars
The Brave Little Toaster Goes to Mars is the name of both a children's book by Thomas Disch, as well as the film made from same. Both are sequels to the book and film versions of The Brave Little Toaster. The movie was distributed by Walt Disney Home Video. It was released in 1998...
(1998), also written by Disch, and The Brave Little Toaster to the Rescue (1999). The two sequels were released out of chronological order; To the Rescue takes place before Goes to Mars.
External links
- Jerry Rees and Deanna Oliver on the making of The Brave Little Toaster, 2010, 57 minutes. (YouTubeYouTubeYouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
)