Five Appliances who have been left behind in an old cabin in the country by their master for many years, go out and look for him. The main characters are Toaster the Toaster (Voiced by TV Cartoon writer Deanna Oliver); Lampy the Lamp (Timothy Stack); Blanky the electric blanket (Voiced by Timothy E. Day who also does the voice of their young Master); Radio the Radio (Voiced by SNL's Jon Lovitz) and Kirby (the only one with a real name) the Vacuum Cleaner (Voiced by Disney's Legendary Voice Actor Thurl Ravenscroft. You might recognize his deep voice in old Cartoons, Disney attractions and Disney films. A lot of you know him best as Tony the Tiger for the "Frosted Flakes" commercial and singing the popular Christmas Villain song "You're a mean one Mr. Grinch"). When the film started out, the characters were cute, lovable and funny. The plot even sounded like a cute little Adventure film, but as the film went on it was completely the opposite of a cute Adventure film! This film is the darkest kids' film I ever saw in my childhood years. It defiantly gave me a share of Nightmares!
The film is full of things that can scare kids. A dark
setting in the woods that looks like the setting to Disney's "Sleepy
Hollow" and "Snow White"; Quicksand; An evil Magnet that takes
Appliances, cars and junk to their death'; A creepy hanging lamp with an
ugly face and a voice that sounds like Peter Lorre'; A hand of smoke; and the
most pointless scene in the whole entire movie that has nothing to do
with the plot what so ever, the scary Clown from HELL dream scene. What
was the point in that scene, did Stephen King help a little with the writing?
The film is also kind of violent, disturbing, and depressing
for kids because you see sweet Innocent appliances get torn apart and
die in the style of a B Horror Film; Sad faced and scared
looking cars singing about their life before being crushed into a little
tiny block; and a cute flower who wants love but wilts away because
it feels it will never be loved. Even our main characters either try to
commit suicide or give up their life to save others. The best exampled
scene out of all them is the scene with the Air Conditioner being scary, sad
and disturbing at the same time. I also found the film very suggestive in some
scenes. There are also some plot holes, like why the characters need a
power source for the trip; you can see the characters use their electric power
without being plugged in.
The film isn't totally bad. The Voice acting's terrific, especially from the performances of Jon Lovitz, Thrul Ravenscroft and Phil Hartman. Phil Hartman's voice acting actually stunned me. His voice didn't sound like Phil Hartman, it actually sounded like the people he was impersonating. He does a Jack Nicholson impression as The Air Conditioner and he does a Peter Lorre impression as the hanging lamp, which sounds like the real actors that he’s impersonating. It still surprises me that both of the characters he voiced are one of the many scary and depressing characters. As for the other good stuff; The music score is beautiful; the songs are catchy; and the animation is neat.
What surprises me the most about this film is before Pixar became a company, some of the member's that worked at Pixar worked on the film including John Lasseter, who was later on fired during the project, but kept his classroom number that was used by animation students at CalArt, A113 which appears in other Pixar films. Even voice actor Joe Ranft who lends his voice to numerous Pixar films (My favorite Pixar character he voiced is Heimlich the Caterpillar from "A Bugs Life") is in this film, as the fat shop owner of the store "Parts" and I can swear did the voice of the squirrels making faces at the Toaster.
Is it just me or does the film kind of remind me of "Toy Story".
You got talking toys instead of appliances who move when no ones around.
You got a kid who loves taking toys apart, just like the fat guy who takes appliances apart
And the climax of Brave Little Toaster and Toy Story 3, takes place in a junkyard when our main characters are about to be "Worthless"
I don't hate the film, but personally I think this film should have been rated PG instead of G. It's like how I feel about "Return To Oz" it has its nice moments, but it really pushes past the level of darkness as far as kids films goes, where the darkness at times just become a bit too extreme and disturbing. If I ever get married and have kids, I wouldn't show them this film until they're 7 or use to watching scary things for kids
RATING 3/5
I understand this review's perspective - but I think the sequels to this were all but worthless as they were so bland and toned down.
ReplyDeleteIt felt as if all the darker and rougher edges of the first film - which was what I loved about it in the first place - had been completely sanded away until all you were left with was a product that may as well not have existed.
My personal conclusion is that it's a stone cold cult classic, with some very good songs and (as you say) impressive voice acting. 4/5.