The Brave Little Toaster
The film series is about appliances with consciousness and individuality, who when not around humans must hide this. The film series genders the appliances while the original stories do not.
The first film begins with the appliances having been maintaining the house without their owner having visited in years (around 2000 days or so), with them getting excited every time they hear a car coming nearby making quite apparent how much they miss him. The air conditioner out of feelings of jealousy, due to their function of being unable to move or be directly loved gets worked up to the point of failure. Another strong undertone of the film: feelings of inadequacy and abandonment as technologies change and products are discarded. The cottage they’re in and have been for years is now for sale, so they go on a quest to the city to go find their owner.
As the journey continues, they encounter a flower with few others like it around, highlighted in sunlight who sees their reflection in Toaster, seemingly feeling less alone and perhaps even in love? Wilting upon Toaster moving and the reflection disappearing, the flower is now returned to loneliness. Throughout the journey they reminisce about time with their owner, remembering feeling wanted and with purpose…having “value”, ultimately. Toaster drifts to sleep, having a nightmare of death by falling in a bathtub while plugged in, fleeing forks.
Encountering a ravine, all the appliances face their own fears in an attempt to cross it, ultimately all falling in to the waterfall. The vacuum jumps in with them, showing a desire to be with everyone despite a prior defense-mechanism projection of a desire to be an independent individual not weighed down by “dead weight”, ultimately being instrumental in saving them all. Lost, the appliances continue their travels before a misstep sinks them all in to mud together saved at the last second by an appliance repairman who takes them to his shop.
As a customers enters the shop, a blender motor is ordered. The blender panics at the thought of disassembly: fearing death as its “heart” more-or-less is removed. A horror-film-inspired song follows showing the other appliances outside of the main crew seemingly resigned to their fates frightening the new arrivals. The radio goes under the knife, as the repairman begins to disassemble to retrieve the tube as a customer has requested. Ultimately the repairman is distracted allowing all the appliances to escape and the main crew continue their quest with the city appearing in the distance.
Arriving at their owner’s apartment (who is preparing to return to the cabin to retrieve his appliances before leaving for university, finding the place in disarray with his appliances missing).
The Cutting Edge begins with the newer appliances talking up all their new improvements and features and the main crew are shoved out a window directly in to a dumpster. Back at the cabin, the air conditioner is repaired and finally feels wanted and accepted. Returning home, their owner passes the appliances on their way to the junkyard with the appliances feeling outdated, outmoded, and unwanted.
As their owner’s house, the television attempts to persuade him to head to the junkyard to save our heroes and Worthless begins.
Abandoned, unwanted cars lament their lives as a magnet comes to carry them to a crusher:
- “One more dusty road would be just a road too long” worn down and exhausted
- “I just can’t seem to be started”, “don’t have the heart to live in the fast lane; all that is past and gone.” as one laments their past life.
- Other cars panic knowing their fate.
- A car laments all their travels all across the US, attempting to steer away from the crusher to no avail.
- A race car laments its racing career, unsure how well they did. “Out of sight, out of mind, so much for fortune and fame”
- A wedding car, carrying a Texan man to a wedding. “He kept forgetting his loneliness, letting his thought turn to home…and we turned”, with the Texan’s death implied by the next line being a hearse lamenting all the people they had carried clearly distressed by the experiences.
- A car reminisces about travels, before being dropped upside down on to the conveyor
- ‘I worked on a reservation”. “Who would believe they would love me and leave on a bus back to old Santa Fe” “[…] until i heard him say ‘You’re worthless'” as the car willingly runs towards the conveyor, fully aware of the consequences of their actions.
A quite distressing scene for a movie intended for kids. I can’t think of too many other kids movies featuring depression, abandonment, and technically suicide. Distressing.
The appliances see with their owner, while hanging from the magnet musing “maybe he still needs us”. He attempts to retrieve his appliances as the magnet grabs all of them (him included) and places them all on the conveyor to the crusher. Toaster jumps in to the gears of the crusher, saving everyone. The appliances and their owner ride off in to their new lives.
The Brave Little Toaster to the Rescue
The concepts of abandonment continues somewhat through the second film, but less so. This one has an animal-welfare theme, as well touching on recovering from trauma, and accepting fate.
The film begins with their owner travelling back home, as the appliances await his return. The rat comments: “He’s only been gone a day and a half. Every weekend it’s the same thing: is he back yet? Has he abandoned us? All of yous have some deep-seated insecurities”.
The appliances converse with the rescued animals as they are introduced to the audience. They all recount being strays/injured/distressed until rescued by the appliance’s owner. The rat comments: “How do you know he misses you? […] If he misses you so much, why did he dump you here […] instead of keeping you with him in his dorm room?”. The evil assistant is introduced with papers for the owner to sign A power issue causes him to lose his in-progress thesis. The vacuum asks if the stories of the rescued animals were exaggerated, before one of them shows a severe injury inflicted by the research lab.
The appliance’s owner and his girlfriend argue over her use of the vacuum on spilled cat litter as she reminds him he has forgotten their anniversary. The evil assistant offers the monkey a potato chip, but retracts it with a rude comment at the last second and prepares to sell the animals off to a research lab, which had previously traumatised the monkey.
The appliances and the animals work together to “tap in to the information superhighway”. The song follows detailing the internet and its ability to connect people and that “no one ever has to feel alone”.
The evil assistant locks all the animals to prevent their escape, leaving their rescue to the appliances.
The old supercomputer, abandoned to the basement upon invention of the transistor, laments his fate and the effects of the virus he is afflicted with singing: “I was the hope on the horizon, but now i’m realisin’ I’m a giant who’s about to fall”.
The supercomputer comments a significant tube is near failure, with the radio stating they use the same tube. The crew trek to the supply room to look for a replacement tube, finding only one The computer is resigned to his fate of hardware failure and having been replaced. The rat and the radio fight over credit and responsibility for installing the tube leading to it falling and shattering ultimately dooming both the computer and the animals. In a final attempt to help, the computer’s tube fails, which the rat blames on the radio. The radio, guilty, sacrifices themselves by giving up their tube allowing the computer to be restored to operation.
The animals are rescued and the evil assistant is arrested. The computer is suggested to become a museum piece, granting newfound purpose The owner’s thesis is retrieved and printed. The animals are given homes after the appliance owner’s graduation, including the rat who goes with the owner. He proposes to his girlfriend, who gives him the exact tube his radio needs.
The Brave Little Toaster Goes to Mars
This will be filled in at a later date. It gets wild, though: appliances on mars wish to destroy the earth due to being abandoned.