Our five favorite appliances have a new little
Master (Rob's son) and they all vow that no harm will come to him. One
night their new friend accidentally gets beamed to Mars and it is up to them to
go to Mars and get him back before morning. Before I talk about our
characters, let's talk about the plot. The idea of having five talking
appliances going to Mars sounds like a bizarre set up and believe me, it's not
only a bizarre set up, it's also a bizarre story. Their transportation is a
wastebasket with a Carol Channing ceiling fan at the bottom of it that flies
them there and is all powered by a Microwave with (Organic) Cheddar Cheese
Popcorn as their fuel. How unusual. We not only find out that Appliances,
Animals, one single flower and even street lights are alive, we also find
out that Balloons, Satellites and a statue can also talk. What next, can
the houses talk, can the trees talk, can the sun talk, can toys come alive and
talk in this world too?
Once we get to Mars, we find the young master in a floating
bubble, with no explanation how he got into a bubble or where that bubble came
from and how it manages to never pop, but somehow allows appliances to go
inside it. We also find out that Appliances have banded together and decided to
blow up the world to destroy humans. Wait a minute; if they destroy the world
won't they destroy the other appliances living in that world too, and where are
those creepy appliances from the store "Parts"? Their leader is a
giant talking refrigerator (A What?) that can create rockets and missiles
and when our characters go inside it, it's a winter wonderland filled with
snow, Ice Mountains and seas of melted Ice. If
that's not crazy enough for you, there's a bunch of Military Toasters armed
with machine guns. What the heck were the writers smoking or snorting when they
wrote this film? The story makes no sense and like I said before, it's very
bizarre. However, I will give the film credit for actually making this an
adventure film instead of a film about computer virus's and a thesis paper that
all leads to an anti climatic chase full of bland kidnapped animals.
Another thing I noticed while watching this film is it
defiantly totally lacks the darkness that the first film had. There's no
sadness and no dark moments, it's all just happy, happy, happy! At least in the
second film we had a dying old computer; a tragic back story for one of the
animals; a build up to a scary place (That sadly we never see); and on top of
it all the radio gives away his life to save another. It’s not as depressing as
the first film, but it was something. This film has none of it. The back story
to the race of the appliances wasn't sad; the angel throwing herself away only
lasted for a few seconds before the young master grabs her; and they couldn't
even throw in a creepy looking alien. This is Mars, you have to throw in an
Alien, it sounds a lot better than an appliance revolution!
Now that I bashed the story, I'm sure you're thinking the characters are going to be as over the top as they were in the second film. To my surprise, they actually kept the subtleness and the personality that the characters had in the first film. Lampy has his fun personality; Kirby brings back his old grumpy look and personality; Blanky is back to having cute and sad moments; and the Toaster is not only back to being brave, but also proves that you don't have to big to do big things! All three of the original voice actors are back reprising their roles; Eric Lloyd makes up for his performance from the second film; but sadly Jon Lovitz is still not reprising his character Radio and we're once again stuck with the voice actor from the second film filled with unfunny dialogue.
We also get better supporting characters in this film than
in the second. We got Seinfeld's Wayne Knight as the voice of the Microwave
who's a very cocky character filled with funny lines; Stephen Tobolowsky as the
smart calculator; Fyvush Finkel as the hearing aid; Farrah Fawcett (Take a
guess who she is playing?) playing a Faucet along with her son playing the
voice of Faucet's son Squirt the Rinser; Carol Channing as the ceiling
fan; Star Trek's own DeForrest Kelley (In his last role) as the famous
satellite Viking 1; voice actress Kath Soucie as the Christmas angel Tieselica;
and Alan King as the supreme commander, who plays the role well, but sadly
doesn't bring any humor to his character. The writers were also nice enough to
not only bring back Ratso who's as funny as ever and also have Wittgenstein
make a cameo. Not only is this a good cast of voice actors, but every one of
their characters are likable and memorable.
The songs in this film are just as memorable as the songs
from the first film. You got a good cover on the song "Bread And
Butter" (Which by the way, has anyone noticed that the opening song for
each film is a solid gold oldie?); the heartwarming song "Home Again"
sung by the Toaster; the dueling song for who should be leader "Fight For
Right" sung by Toaster and The Supreme Commander (By the way I want
Toaster to be president of this country); and the cute subtle song "I See
A New You". I personally think the song that beats them all is the Balloon
song "Floating". Yeah, it happens during a scene that you could just
cut out, but it's so catchy that it's hard to not enjoy it. What I love about
it is you see different types of singing Balloons from different events
throughout time. One is a cow girl Balloon from a Buffalo Bill Wild West show;
one is an elegant Balloon from the Worlds Fair; but my favorite out of all them
is the hippie Balloon from my favorite music event "Woodstock". He has a cool hippie look;
he's flying as if he is high; and he sings like Bob Dylan while singing about
the concert. The part that always grabs and really speaks out for this event is
he tells them that "Heard they tried again" which is probably
refereeing to the Altamount Speedway with the Stones and the Hells Angels and
ends his solo by singing "You can't relive a one time thing!", which
is true because you can never have another Woodstock.
The scenes that grab me the most are the scenes with the appliances and the little master. These scenes really capture the subtle feeling you get when watching the first film as you heart that heartwarming tune as you see the little master play with the appliances while you also see him try to walk. Those scenes are so beautiful to watch that it can not only make you shed a tear, but it also gives you an idea on what Rob's relationship was like with them when he was little and why they mean so much to him. The last scene with them together ends the film so well that you'll be thinking to yourself "Yup, those were some of my favorite childhood characters".
So is the film good? Well, as I said before it's a very bizarre setting and makes no sense at all, but it brings back that "Warm Toasty Feeling" to our main characters; it has a good supporting cast of actors and characters; memorable songs; and cute moments. I'm not saying it lives up to the original, but at least it's trying too and for that I say this film is worth watching!
RATING 2/5
The first "Brave Little Toaster Movie" had great, lovable, subtle and funny characters; had memorable songs; nice animation; and great voice acting especially from Jon Lovitz, Phil Hartman and Thurl Ravenscroft. Even though I found scenes that are too suggestive, scary and sad for kids, I actually think that's one of the reasons why the films so unforgettable. Even though I still rate this film as a love or hate film, I still find it to be a really good kids film.
"To The Rescue" toned everything down and made things worse. Our main characters lost all of their likable qualities; the talking animals are annoying; the villain sucks; the songs are downright forgettable and annoying; the plots boring; and the climatic chase was an epic fail. The only thing that I find a tad bit enjoyable are the characters Ratso and Wittgenstein and I'm glad there was a bit of darkness to the film.
"Goes To Mars" has a bizarre unrealistic setting and ideas that has also completely erased the darkness from both films. However, it brought back our childhood characters in the way we remember them; has a great voice cast; catchy and beautiful songs; gives us an idea how their relationship was with their old master; and was the last performance of Thurl Ravenscroft and Deforest Kelley.
As great as the first film is, the sequels just aren't as good. If you put the films together, you'll see the trilogy go from good to being toned down to lame. However a lot of fans of the first film seem to either love or hate the sequels and to be honest, I too have a love and hate thing for the sequels. All I can say is it's not a good trilogy with all the films together, but it still stands out as a love or hate trilogy to a lot of people.
RATING FOR THE TRILOGY 3/5
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