The Brave Little Toaster facts for kids

Quick facts for kids The Brave Little Toaster
UK release poster
Directed by	Jerry Rees
Produced by	Donald Kushner Thomas L. Wilhite
Screenplay by	Jerry Rees Joe Ranft
Story by	Jerry Rees Joe Ranft Brian McEntee Jim Ryan
Starring	Deanna Oliver Timothy E. Day Jon Lovitz Tim Stack Thurl Ravenscroft Wayne Kaatz Colette Savage Phil Hartman Joe Ranft Jim Jackman
Music by	David Newman
Editing by	Donald W. Ernst
Studio	Hyperion Pictures The Kushner-Locke Company Wang Film Productions Company Limited
Distributed by	Hyperion Pictures (US) ITC Entertainment (UK)
Release date(s)	June 19, 1987 (1987-06-19) (Orlando) July 13, 1987 (1987-07-13) (Los Angeles)
Running time	90 minutes
Country	United States United Kingdom
Language	English
Budget	$2.3 million
Money made	$2.3 million (estimated)

The Brave Little Toaster is a 1987 American-British animated musical film adapted from the 1980 novel The Brave Little Toaster by Thomas M. Disch. The film was directed by Jerry Rees. The film is set in a world where domestic appliances and other electronics come to life, pretending to be lifeless in the presence of humans. The story focuses on five anthropomorphic household appliances, which consist of a toaster, a lamp stand, a blanket, a radio and a vacuum cleaner, who go on a quest to search for their owner.

The film was produced by Hyperion Animation along with The Kushner-Locke Company. Many CalArts graduates, including the original members of Pixar Animation Studios, were involved with this film. The rights were acquired by Disney in 1982. John Lasseter, then employed at Disney, wanted to do a CGI film based on that, but it was turned down and he was terminated the following year. While the film received a limited theatrical release, The Brave Little Toaster received positive reviews and was popular on home video and was followed by two sequels: The Brave Little Toaster Goes to Mars and The Brave Little Toaster to the Rescue.

Plot

Every day for two thousand days, a family of minor appliances, which include a Sunbeam toaster, a radio, a tensor lamp stand named "Lampy", a blanket named "Blanky" and a vacuum cleaner named "Kirby", hope to see Rob return home. On the two thousand and first day, the appliances are devastated to learn that a real estate broker is selling the house. Not wanting to accept the fact that the Master would abandon them, Toaster decides that the group should head out and find Rob. The appliances build Kirby into a carriage by connecting a power strip, an office chair and a battery to him then set out into the world, following Radio's signal broadcasts.

On their journey, the appliances encounter numerous harrowing adventures where they learn to work together. Shortly after stopping to rest within a forest, an evil clown nightmare and a violent storm wakes Toaster and the others, with the storm blowing Blanky up into the trees, and Lampy risks his life by using himself as a lightning rod in an attempt to recharge the group's dead battery. After recovering Blanky, they try to cross a waterfall, but everyone falls in except for Kirby, who dives after them and rescues them, and the appliances wash up into the middle of a swamp. After losing both the chair and the battery, the group resorts to pulling a disabled Kirby through the swamp. After losing their balance and almost drowning in a mud hole, they are rescued by Elmo St. Peters, the owner of an appliance parts store, where they get scared by a group of partially dismantled, worn-out zombie appliances, who have lost hope and are at risk of being disassembled or sold. When Radio is taken from a shelf and about to have his radio tubes taken out, the appliances frighten St. Peters by pretending to be a ghost and flee to Santa Clarita, while the disfigured dead appliances escape the store and quickly return to their owners.

Rob, who is now living in an apartment as a young adult and is about to depart for college, leaves with his girlfriend Chris to return to the cottage and retrieve the appliances to take with him. After secretly witnessing this, Rob's newer appliances in the apartment become resentful. When the appliances arrive at Rob's apartment, the newer appliances explain that they are "on the cutting edge of technology". After answering Toaster and the other four appliances their question of what they mean by singing their song to them, they kick them into the apartment's dumpster from the window, where they are shortly transported to Ernie's Disposal, a junkyard. Thinking that the cottage has been broken into and trashed, and his original appliances stolen, Rob and Chris return to his apartment, where his old black and white television, who originally lived in the cottage, broadcasts fictional advertisements to encourage Rob and Chris to go to Ernie's Disposal to find his appliances.

At the junkyard, the appliances are tormented by a maniacal crusher with its henchman, an evil tower crane with an electromagnet that picks up junk and places them on its conveyor belt that leads to the crusher. When they discover that Rob is in the junkyard, they are encouraged that he still needs them after all, and then, they attempt to foil the magnet in order to allow Rob to find them. After being foiled numerous times, the magnet decides to pick up Rob as well as his appliances, and drops them on the conveyor belt. Toaster risks his life by jumping into the crusher's gears to disable it just in time to prevent it from killing Rob and destroying his appliances. Rob survives and returns back to the apartment with all five appliances, including a mangled Toaster. Rob repairs Toaster and takes the five appliances with him to college, along with Chris.

Voice cast

• Deanna Oliver, doing an impression of Bette Davis, as the Brave Little Toaster, an inspiring pop-up two-slice toaster who is the leader of the clan of small appliances. The main protagonist in the film, Toaster is courageous, intelligent, kind, thoughtful and warmhearted, and is the one who devises the idea of going on a journey to locate the appliances' master Rob. Though Toaster's gender is ambiguous in the film, most official sources describe Toaster as a male. Oliver originally auditioned for the voice of the Air Conditioner, but was given the role of Toaster.
• Timothy E. Day as Blanky, an electric blanket with an innocent demeanor. Childlike and insecure, Blanky is the only appliance who is deeply distressed over Rob's absence, and wants nothing more than to be reunited with him. Toaster and Blanky share a warm, older sibling-younger sibling relationship.
  • Day also voices Young Rob in several flashbacks.
• Tim Stack as Lampy, an easily impressed yet slightly irascible tensor gooseneck desktop lamp stand. He is bright, but tends to be ironically dimwitted, though he has a couple of good points. During the storm scene, he nearly sacrifices his life, using himself as a lightning rod to power the gang's car battery. Lampy and Radio share a like-hate relationship and frequently get into arguments with each other, though their animosity lessens throughout the movie.
  • Stack also voiced a salesman named "Zeke".
• Jon Lovitz as Radio, a wisecracking vacuum-tube-based dial-meter radio with a personality that parodies loud and pretentious announcers. In a running gag, Radio and Lampy get into petty arguments.
  • Jerry Rees as the singing voice of Radio.
• Thurl Ravenscroft as Kirby, a very deep-voiced, individualistic Kirby vacuum cleaner who dons a cynical, cantankerous attitude towards the other appliances.
• Wayne Kaatz as Master Rob McGroarty, the original human owner of the five appliances. After appearing as a child in flashbacks, Rob as an adult is leaving for college. While in the book, Rob plans to sell the cabin along with the appliances, in the film, Rob still has sentimentality towards appliances and takes them to college in the end.
• Colette Savage as Chris, Rob's tomboyish, supportive girlfriend.
• Phil Hartman, doing an impression of Jack Nicholson, as Air Conditioner, a sarcastic air conditioner who resides in the cabin with the gang. He loses his temper while arguing with them, which causes him to overheat and explode, but is repaired by Rob near the end of the film.
  • Hartman, doing an impression of Peter Lorre, also voiced the Hanging Lamp, a tensor desktop lamp stand with extension cords for arms in the spare parts shop.
• Joe Ranft as Elmo St. Peters, the owner of a spare appliance parts shop where he disassembles even his own appliances and sells the parts.
  • Ranft also voiced the clown in Toaster's nightmare.
• Beth Anderson as the Mae West-inspired magnetophone open reel tape recorder in "It's a B-Movie" and the wooded wagon in "Worthless".
• Janice Liebhart as the fan in "It's a B-Movie", the telephone in "Cutting Edge" and the pink convertible in "Worthless".
• Judy Toll, doing an impression of Joan Rivers, as Mish-Mash, a hybrid mish-mash gizmo consisting of a can opener, a gooseneck desktop lamp stand and an electric shaver.
• Darryl Phinnessee as various characters in "It's a B-Movie" and "Cutting Edge", and the hearse in "Worthless".
• Jonathan Benair as Black and White TV, an old monochrome console television who has moved to Rob's apartment and is an old friend of the gang.
• Jim Jackman as Plugsy, a pear-shaped night table lamp stand who is one of the modern appliances that reside in Rob's apartment. While they were benevolent in the novel, in the film, they are initially jealous and antagonistic towards the gang.
• Mindy Stern as Rob's mother, who is an unseen character.
  • Toll and Stern also voiced the Two-Face Sewing Machine, a sewing machine who is one of the modern appliances that reside in Rob's apartment.
• Randy Bennett as Computer, a home computer who is the leader of the family of modern appliances that reside in Rob's apartment.
• Danny Mann as Stereo, a panasonic boombox who is one of the modern appliances that reside in Rob's apartment.
• Susie Allanson as the Toaster Oven in Rob's apartment
• Randall William Cook as Entertainment Complex, an Entertainment center who is one of the modern appliances that reside in Rob's apartment.

Soundtrack

All songs written and composed by Van Dyke Parks. 

Legacy

This film is unique in that it attracted a substantial amount of talent from both old and new sources. Many of the cast and crew members went on to have successful careers in the animation industry. Co-writer Joe Ranft became a script supervisor at Pixar, while animators Glen Keane, Kirk Wise and Kevin Lima went on to animate and co-direct films of the Disney Renaissance, such as The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Pocahontas, The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Tarzan. Keane would also go on to produce the 2010 animated film Tangled. Effects animator Mark Dindal directed Disney's The Emperor's New Groove and Chicken Little, as well as Warner Bros.' Cats Don't Dance. Character designer Rob Minkoff directed The Lion King, Stuart Little, Stuart Little 2 and Mr. Peabody & Sherman. After directing a financially unsuccessful film The Marrying Man in 1991, Jerry Rees now directs Disney theme park films. Voice actors Jon Lovitz and Phil Hartman wound their way onto animated series such as The Simpsons. Many have noted that this film shares similarities to the Toy Story franchise, also worked on by John Lasseter. Rees saw it as "the next inanimate object feature".

The Brave Little Toaster was followed by two sequels a decade later: The Brave Little Toaster to the Rescue (1997) and The Brave Little Toaster Goes to Mars (1998). The latter (Mars) is based on the sequel to Disch's novella while the former (Rescue) is a brand new story. While reuniting most of the cast, they had a new director and crew. Rees noted that the original film was made out of pure love and not thought of as a kids' film or a product, and that he had heard the new approach was a more commercial venture. Deanna Oliver felt that despite Ramirez being a talented director who handled the franchise with care, instead of "film" and "character-driven", the project seemed more about getting it done because it could be made. Neither Rees nor Oliver have watched the finished sequels.

In 2006, the official website of Hyperion Pictures: http://www.hyperionpictures.com/user_files/anim_archive/brave_little.php posted an image of a possible fourth film in CGI; however, that film was never produced. The website has been inactive since then but was recently updated in 2019. Waterman Entertainment planned a remake, but it was never produced.

Despite its limited release, the cult following of the film has seen the cast and crew get substantial recognition throughout the world. Rees recalled a situation where a person he was doing an online project with messaged him on IMDb, discovering his work on TBLT, and explained how deeply the film affected him due to teaching life lessons. He appreciated this genuine reaction from a real person. Oliver went to the Afghanistan deployment ceremony for her son in June 2010, and he had told Brave Company his mother played Toaster, so they brought toasters with them for her to sign, which the soldiers took to the country with them. She also received fan art from one of the soldiers. The consensus among people who worked on the film such as Tom Wilhite and Donald Kushner is that the original is the one that has the cult following as opposed to the sequels. Rees said that when his future Pixar friends saw the film, they appreciated it despite the animation due to the heavy financial and time constraints.

See also

In Spanish: The Brave Little Toaster para niños