Review 149
The Brave Little Toaster (1987)
I remember being super young - maybe something like four or five years old - and my parents somehow accidentally cracked a ceramic plate. After seeing the plate, I made a comment that I felt bad for the plate because it cracked. While my sister would use this as a way to completely embarrass me shortly thereafter and as I got slightly older, it didn't stop me from shedding a tear for the lamp in that Ikea commercial. While I have since moved my feelings of sympathy to actual living persons and animals, I'd like to blame my little childhood sadness on Jerry Rees' The Brave Little Toaster. Starring (err, voice acting) Deanna Oliver, Timothy Stack, Thurl Ravenscroft, Timothy E. Day, and Jon Lovitz, this film is pretty well known. I'm always surprised when I speak to someone my age about it and they seem to know it. However, while I remembered seeing it as a kid, I watched it when I was really young, so my memory was limited to the cottage home. So, why not check it out and see how it stood the test of time?
Toaster (Deanna Oliver), Kirby the vacuum (Thurl Ravenscroft), Lampy (Timothy Stack), and Radio (Jon Lovitz) all try to console Blanky (Timothy E. Day) after it seems like "Master" Rob (Wayne Kaatz), their owner, is abandoning them. Taking a proactive step, they decide to find him in a modern world.
What can I say about The Brave Little Toaster? Well, it definitely is a kid's film, and the animation definitely is kind of slow, but it still has a great message that I approve of. And I won't even hate on them for the animation because it wasn't horrible - it's just interesting to see what low-budget animation looked like in the late eighties as opposed to what can be done now. Pretty awesome. But I digress. The Brave Little Toaster is definitely an experience, let me say. The writers and director and crew really went ahead and made interesting characters. As the director already mentioned in an interview, he did differ from the novella the story was based on and decided to play with character aspects that related to their functionality as appliances. I mean, I thought this was pretty cool because it's obviously visible in the movie as you watch it. It gives you a view that not all is what is seems necessarily.
Since the director is open in his views of the characters, I'll just skip to discussing the overall theme of fighting a throw-away culture. When our heroes finally make it to Rob's home, new modern equipment tell (sing to) them that they are more modern and thus better than they are. However, we know that one, Rob actually wants them as they are "his", and two, Rob doesn't believe in throwing them away just because they're old as they still work well. His girlfriend continuously tells him to buy new equipment and take the modern goods at his parents' house, but he is insistent on using the old. And given our "always need the new equipment" kind of mentality that exists, it's a nice change. Of course I'm not saying to keep your toaster if it's broken, or to never indulge in new appliances, but the fact is, getting rid of stuff just because it's "old" seems like a wasteful mentality to me. I get critiqued on my old cellphone all the time, and while I complain about its battery life, it nonetheless holds up in my requirements. Why would I buy a new one when this one suits my needs just fine? I think the film has an important message on that, even though it isn't necessarily strict on it.
Otherwise, yeah, I don't think I have much else to say. The film can be pretty dark, and the final scene would have gotten a cry out of me had it been extended. The film doesn't have perfect characters, but they (most of them) nonetheless grow as they continue on their adventure. I thought it was endearing. The singing was not my thing, but this seems to be common in films from this age. It's not awful, just eh. Nonetheless, I would totally recommend this for a child, though make sure they don't take it too far like I did growing up. Happy viewing!
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