This movie directed by Jerry Rees probably traumatized a lot 1980's & 1990's kids. For me, the eerie story produced by Hyperion Pictures, distributed by Disney, and based on the 1980's children's novel by Thomas M. Disch: The Brave Little Toaster: A Fairy-Tale For Appliances was a fun watch. It tells the story about five household appliances: Toaster (Voiced by Deanna Oliver), Radio (Voiced by Jon Lovitz), Blanket (Voiced by Timothy E. Day), Lamp (Voice by Tim Stack) and Kirby the Vacuum (Voiced by Thurl Ravenscroft) on a dangerous long quest to find their owner, referred to as the Master. Disney had bought the movie rights to the novel before it was even able to get published! I noticed about the novella, was that it was generally much lighter in tone than the film. The film really is very unsettling for a kid's movie. As much, as I like it, I don't believe, really younger audience members should see it. There are disturbing things that cannot be unseen, like the firefighter clown or the poor blender getting his motor, rip out, like a person getting his organs harvest in the black market. The worst had to be, the withering death of a love-sick flower or car death camp scene. Those scenes still make me sad. The movie really tries hard to contributing a feel-good nature to the already depressing premise. Sadly, it doesn't match up that well. A good example of this is the meadow segment, with a burlesque comedy of beavers, turtles and squirrels, culminating in a grand 1930s style musical water ballet of frogs and an operatic fish. It felt out of place. For a film that has a really dumb premise, it's surprising very smarten delivered. There are tons of fan theories about this movie. You really can go into the movie hidden themes, like how the movie acts like a social commentary and critic to 1980s over-consumerism and throwaway society. The appliances could represented, the older generations like the Baby Boomers & the Greatest & Silence generation trying to find a reason to live in a Generation X, type world, where they don't matter as much. Older people can relate to those appliances, because they saw themselves, being replace in the job field, family life and others. A good example of this, is the scene with the pickup car that formerly belonged to a Hopi reservation. His driver told him to his face that he was worthless and junked him, despite his being in near perfect condition. It could represent how even the Native American became a bit too materialism in the world. Another theory is that movie is secretly really about the Holocaust and how they 'the masters' AKA Nazis dealt with the mentally challenge. People say that the appliances represent mentally ill people that had been abandoned, because people see no use with them. The toaster has extreme Claustrophobia. Lamp has aggression issues. Vacuum has OCD. Blanket has stalking issues/extreme co dependence and Radio is bi polar. I can see, where people might get this idea. After all, characters like the Radio talks as if he's living in the 1940s and the car junkyard could represented the Nazis death camps. Other people think it's about Uncle Toms slave during the days of American slavery. Once again, I can see why people think that way. The biggest fan theory that I heard is that the movie represented how God sees suicide. Just think about it: five appliances wait patiently for their Master to return AKA God/Jesus. They are almost tricked into thinking that he has abandoned them, but they overcome this and set off to find him and the City of Light AKA Heaven, only to believe, they been replace. Their many adventures are metaphorical for the trials and tribulations of life, when they gave up on him, they went sent to the junkyard, representing hell and Satan. Then, we meet sad stories of car, telling stories about their owners giving up on them or themselves like the Texan, the Indy 500 car, and the woody wagon. It's really heavy to take. This movie is 2010's Toy Story 3 if it went to the extreme. It's a lot more mature than a lot of kid's film, even today. A lot of dark imagery, but at least, the movie ends with a happy note. The animation seems a bit dated and grainy, but it somehow acts to reinforce the notion that the appliances are out of pace with their city competitors. It's not the best. The voice acting are pretty good for the most part. The movie has a lot of great music. "It's A B-Movie Show", "City of Light.", 'Worthless' and 'Tutti Frutti' are fun to listen to. The comedy is at a minimum, but somewhat funny. Most of the humor comes from the smartly written dialogue for the Radio. Mostly a hit, with a few misses. It should be noted that some of the people behind this film such as John Lasseter and Joe Ranft went on to work for Pixar. In fact, Lamp may be based on the same lamp used for the design of Pixar's first CGI short - which became the studio's logo. The original film was followed by two sequels. The first sequel was 1997's The Brave Little Toaster & 1998'sThe Brave Little Toaster Goes To Mars. Those sequels are not worth checking out. Can't recommended that. Overall: You can never be too old for this classic, but you could be too young for this film. Not a little kid's movie. More like a PG-13 film in today standards. So, grab a plateful of buttered toast, and your cozy electric blanket for this good, but gloomy film! It's worth watching.
