DISNEY'S THE BRAVE LITTLE TOASTER TO THE RESCUE

Most of you probably remember my review on "The Brave Little Toaster". I found the film extremely scary and disturbing for kids; a major plot hole that takes up the first half of the film; and suggestive material. However, I love the characters; I found the music nice and catchy; the animation is very good; the voice acting is terrific; and the idea and story is very creative. As the years went by, it received a cult following and became a classic house hold film. In the late 90's, two sequels have been made. The first one to be released was "The Brave Little Toaster Goes To Mars", but the film that picked up right after the first film is...

Now I know this is a prequel, but believe it or not these two films were made at the same time and for some weird and strange reason the sequel to this video came out before this film. Still confused?  Well, you're not alone. Well to avoid confusion with the film's plots, I'm reviewing (What was supposed to be first) "The Brave Little Toaster To The Rescue" this week and next week I'll be reviewing "The Brave Little Toaster Goes To Mars".  ON WITH THE REVIEW!

Our five favorite appliances are now in college with their master Rob, and have made friends with the local injured animals at the laboratory where Rob works at. However Rob's assistant Mack plans to ship the animals to an evil science lab for animals called "Tartaras Laboratories". There's also a computer virus in the college that erased Rob's thesis paper. Can our five friends stop the virus and save the animals?

Let’s start by talking about our five lovable and childhood favorite characters. Well, most of the original voice cast members are back. Deanna Oliver as the Toaster, Timothy Stack as Lampy, and the great Thrul Ravencroft (In his last and final role) as Kirby. It's nice to have the three members back, but sadly they do a poor job at reprising their roles. Instead of being subtle, funny and likable; they're all over the top and act like a cheesy Saturday morning cartoon for little kids. The funny Jon Lovitz sadly was replaced by Roger Kalber which is more than a shame because this voice actor has the voice down, but not the comedy as Jon Lovitz had in the first film. Blanky has also been replaced by talented kid actor Eric Lyold (Who you may know him as Charlie in "The Santa Clause" starring Tim Allen). When I found out it was him, I was thinking to myself "WHAT? You were great in "The Santa Clause", how can you stink at playing a cute blanket?".  I'm serious; Blanky has no cute moments in this movie and is more annoying than he was in the first film. At least in the first film he had a few subtle and cute moments. So yeah, our main characters have lost that "Warm Toasty Feeling" we get and the fact that three of the original voice actors are reprising their roles and can't deliver that same feeling we get when watching the first film, is a slap to the face.

Do the supporting characters save us from our childhood friends being brainwashed? Let's start with the animal characters. First, we got Murgatroid the snake (Voiced by Mad TV's Andrew Daly), who is a very forgettable character and when being voiced by Mad TV cast member, you expect the character to be funny, but he's not, he's just boring. Then we have Maisie the cat who is voiced by Oscar nominee Alfre Woodard, who is voicing a character that is so boring that her blind baby cats steal the show away from her. There's a Chihuahua dog named Alberto (Voiced by Danny Nucci), who's just a bland over the top dog with a fake Mexican accent that's so annoying that you wish it was Cheech Marin's voice (Wouldn't that be cool if he voiced ANOTHER Chihuahua dog?). They even got Eddie Bracken to voice Sebastian the monkey and even he couldn't save the film. Half of the time it sounds like he's searching for an Oscar. The only character I liked was Ratso the (The answers in the name!) Rat (Voiced by Andy Milder). The reason why is because he actually has a character development, he's not some innocent animal that looks cute and has a lack of dialogue like most of the animals. This character starts out from being a nasty wise ass to a helpful character with a heart. When I watch the film he gives me a few laughs and the actor sounds like he's having a good time voicing the character.

As far as the rest of the supporting appliances go, they're very forgettable. Besides, most of them are computers and they all basically share the same personality. There is a key character to all the computer characters in this movie and that's the fictional computer Wittgenstein voiced by one of my favorite voice actors Brian Doyle-Murray. He's another interesting character as well. His design is cool; he helps so much in the film that you could just erase the climax in this movie; and on top of it, you feel just as bad for him as you felt seeing the Phil Hartman as the air conditioner blow up or those sad "Worthless" cars you see in the junkyard. His back story is sad; the position he's in is sad; you see pieces of him get destroyed; and you constantly worry if he's going to live or die. He can also have a good line every now then and sneak in a little humor.

Speaking of computers and viruses, that's basically what the films more focused on than the Animals being kidnapped. Do you think kids are going to understand all that because watching this film as a young adult (And when I was a young kid) I find everything they're trying to teach kids confusing and forgettable. The film also centers around a thesis paper that Rob's trying to write, again where's the interest for the young audience and how the heck are young kids going to know what a thesis paper is. The idea of making those two things the focus in a kid’s film is a boring idea. 

The villain in this film is over the top, but is not threatening and is forgettable. The only time when he sounds threatening is when he mentions "Tartaras Laboratories". Why is that threatening? In a back story, we find out that Sebastian went there and the scientists did evil things to him, such as severely breaking his arm. That's actually a good set up to that place, but sadly you'll never see it in the film, which is a total let down, think of all the dark things that this film can do? Speaking of dark things, this film doesn't have that same dark tone that the first film has. Normally I find that a good thing, but I feel like it's just toning everything down.

There's also a love story between Rob and Chris, which feels like the films foot note. Rob (Just like our main characters) lost nearly everything that we liked about him in the first film and he is as over the top as everybody else in this film. I can't say the same thing about Chris because lets be honest, she was sort of over the top (In a good way) in the first film, but boy has her look changed. In the original she had brown eyes and a bit of a tan. Here she has clear white skin and bright blue eyes. Were the animators even paying attention to the first film?

Everyone who's seen the first Brave Little Toaster film remembers the songs such as the upbeat tune "City Of Lights"; the horror tune "B Movie Show"; the tech tune "Cutting Edge Of Technology"; and the sad disco style song "Worthless". The songs in here are so forgettable and annoying that I wish I never heard them. There's the cleaning song "Remember That Day" that sings about how the animals met Rob. The song is so annoying that I felt exactly how Ratso felt while hearing the song. I'd rather listen to "Tutti Frutti" again from the first film than listen to this badly over the top song. "Chomp and Munch" is a very forgettable song, has annoying singing little viruses, and sadly has Brain Doyle-Murray singing so bad that I'd wish that his character would shut down! The closing song "Hang In There Kid" is a song I barely remember and the only part I remember in the song is when the characters became angels, which I found it to be very weird and awkward. The song that I found so pointless, so annoying, but thank god forgettable is the song "Super Highway". Out of nowhere, some four legged female computers (With Disks for boobs) burst down the door and start singing an educational song about computers (Which to me sounds like a rejected "School House Rock" song), which is sung so fast that you don't know WHAT THE HECK they're singing about as we see weird animation; and the computers leave the room, everything's back to normal and nobody talks about it again. That song was so crazy, so over the top, so fast to understand what they're teaching us, and so pointless that I'm surprised it wasn't cut. The only song I liked in this movie was Peter Noone (From the band "Herman's Hermits") redoing his classic hit "Something Good" but sadly it's only played briefly.

The climactic chase at the end of the film was not exciting, it wasn't funny and it did not pay off the wait. What I really found odd is when the villain is being attacked by Kirby and when he locks Kirby in a room; he acts like it's something normal. Dude, if my vacuum was attacking me, I'd be scared stiff. How can anyone find it normal that your vacuum is attacking you, it’d be like if your refrigerator was running away from you. As I said before, Wittgenstein is the one who saves the day and he does so much that the chase scene could just be cut.

This is a really bad sequel! All the characters (With the exception of Ratso and Wittgenstein) are bland, corny and way to over the top; the songs are forgettable; the animation sucks; the story is boring; and it all adds to an anti climax.

RATING 1/5

Tune in next week for my review on "The Brave Little Toaster Goes To Mars". I'm sure that will be better than this film!