I just recently rewatched this, and now I feel the need to gush about it. GUSH GUSH GUSH
The Brave Little Toaster is a Disney movie that very few people seem to remember. It was released during a time when many animation studios were trying to make 'darker' cartoons to appeal to teenagers and adults, but unlike movies such as The Secret of NIMH or The Black Cauldron, it was never released in theaters. It never got the attention it deserved. This movie does the best job of anthropomorphizing inanimate objects that I have ever seen. They don't just stick eyes and a mouth on something and call it done. The appliances change shape, and move in life-like ways. The only recent movie to bring objects to life as well as TBLT was Cars, and that movie sucked in pretty much every other department. Everyone who remembers seeing TBLT as a kid remembers being terrified by it. The idea of all your modern conveniences being alive is creepy enough, and if you had an imagination as overactive as mine, this movie probably made you afraid that your NES was going to strangle you with its' controller cord. Off the top of my head, here's a few moments that were nightmare-inducing as a child, and are still "dude, that's screwed up"-inducing today; - The Jack Nicholson-esque air conditioner blowing a fuse after being told that "The Master" never loved him. ("I'm not an invalid! I was designed to stick in a wall! I like being stuck in this stupid wall! I can't help it if the kid was too short to reach my dials! It's my FUNCTION!") - The Lamp using himself as a lightning rod to charge the generator. - The scene near the end, where the main characters are being stalked by the giant magnetic crane in the junkyard. - Following the previous thing, the Toaster throwing himself into the trash compactor's gears to jam it, preventing the Master and the other characters from being crushed. - One word; "Run." - Kirby choking on his power cord. - The scene where Elmo St. Peters dismantles the blender and rips out its' motor. The way the characters cringe just watching it happen always gets me. Which brings me back to my earlier point of how do you make a *crag* VACUUM CLEANER look so alive. - The song immediately following the previous thing:
While not as song-heavy as some other Disney movies, TBLT had some great ones. The lyrics from this one still depress me;
(note: in the movie, this song is interrupted in a few spots by another scene. this video has most of those segments edited out, hence the random guy popping up about 2 minutes in)
In short, TBLT is an underrated gem, fantastic for a Disney direct-to-video release. But I'm sure it would have been a flop if it had been released in theaters, just like every other animated movie that isn't easily marketable to six-year-olds.
...I remember it quite clearly... ...But i just didn't like it... ...I was scared or anything... ...never have been of movies... ...It just tried to hard I guess... ...Not my cup of Tea... ~White Shy Guy
I remember this! I used to love it! Geez, and to think I almost forgot about it, it's where I learned of my epic song memorizing skillz! (I was about three and I memorized the whole balloon song, Floating, I think it was, in the Brave Little Toaster Goes to Mars.) Strange how these things tend to slip away from your memory so easily...
Some more slight "OMGWUT" moments During Like a Movie, if you think about it hard enough, the appliances singing are pretty much saying they're zombies. That last green car in Worthless was pretty much giving himself in. He could run well enough to outrun the magnet for awhile judging from his speed.
I was genuinely afraid purely because of the magnet crane. Imagine being chased by a giant magnet with nothing but hate in it's eyes.
