Steve Reviews: The Brave Little Toaster

ah The Brave Little Toaster this one's actually being recommended to me a few times in the comment section people saying that despite its initial appearance this is actually a pretty dark film with some disturbing scenes thrown in somehow though I never managed to see this film as a kid and it was only until people recently started mentioning it in the comment section did I actually decide to check it out for myself so unlike many others I'll be approaching this film with a fresh mind set with no nostalgic attachment will the film live up to its hype raised reputation is it just another case of nostalgia goggles blinding viewers to its flaws let's find out oh and spoilers ahead The Brave Little Toaster is an animated film released in 1987 the story focuses on a set of household appliances though waiting for the human master to return home the human Martian question is actually just a small child who the appliances have grown fond of due to the interaction they had with him over the years several years passed with no signs of the master or his family returning to the cottage so the appliances decide to sell out towards the big city in order to find the master themselves now if your Stein's I think this plot sounds pretty similar to another set of certain films you know inanimate object come to life which are used by child character coming separated from that child captor and making it their mission to reunite with the child character as they believe the child character needs them and they need him yep sound familiar well we'll get back to this point later on but for now let's take a closer look at the characters themselves first up you have a vacuum cleaner named Kirby who's your typical old clumpy I don't need any friends kind of guy in contrast to him you have the electric blanket named blankie who has a very young and innocent persona show an attachment turn near anyone which I guess his nature of being a blanket would suggest then we have the radio which is one of the more unique characters unlike the other appliances the radio doesn't have a proper face and so can't display emotion through facial expression bird to make up for this he does have a very energetic voice which is played in the style of a traditional sports commentator even after narrating situations as if there was some great sporting event and you have the lamp named Lampe who is the cynical and no pun intended the not very bright member of the team and finally the toaster who is the all-round good guy who is also the leader of the group understanding everyone's strengths and weaknesses and using that knowledge to help them on their journey as well as their personality differences the film also uses their unique appliance abilities for the journey which is a nice touch the radio uses his antenna to locate the city the lamp uses his light to guide the way the blanket providing shelter the vacuum clearing the path and the toaster well he's the leader it's also nice to see how these characters evolved to become better friends over the course of the film one moment in particular is early on in the film is when the blanket wishes to cuddle up with someone in the night but sadly all of the other appliances reject him even the toaster but later in the film there's a scene where a lone flower takes a shine to the toaster as it sees another flower in the toasters reflection the toaster basically tells the flower to do one and runs away the Levin looks back and sees the lone flower now drooping and dying the scene in itself seems oddly sad especially seen as how it was only a flower but it has relevance as the toaster then sees what loneliness can do to someone and so from then on in makes a conscious effort to be nicer to the blanket with even the lamp looking confused as to why the toast is suddenly been so nice to him there's another interesting moment where all of the appliances are hanging over a waterfall with all of them except the vacuum cleaner falling to their presumed deaths after which the music goes completely silent and we're given a long still shot of the vacuum cleaner just sitting there by himself [Music] [Applause] [Music] I don't know why but that scene just seemed particularly powerful the vaccum who used to be the independent lone wolf persona is suddenly faced with the reality that the only friends he has had have suddenly gone this is the point where I believe many other films would add overly dramatic music to show the audience that this is sad and we must be feeling very sad right now [Music] but leaving it silent gives you raw mixed feelings the silence gives the moment more intensity and realism it helps emphasize the sudden emptiness the counter on-screen is now feeling and when the vacuum slowly starts to move off-screen I generally wasn't sure if he was just gonna leave them to their fate Sal seems like this is really what makes the film shine in places then there are the not so subtle scenes the scenes that everyone seems to remember or has at least heard about despite not seeing the film I noticed whilst watching the film on how the tone will suddenly shift sometimes even mid scene where all of a sudden we get these really dark and creepy moments like where the toast is having a nightmare and I have nowhere this terrifying clown suddenly appears all that scene where a blender gets pulled apart the whole section is played out like a horror film the eerie music the fact that we never see what's actually happening only the shadow silhouette and the characters reactions to it it Jenny feels like he's ripping the heart out of some poor living creature but probably the most famous scene of all which even I heard about despite never seeing this film is the scene in the scrap yard where the cars are getting crushed alive yeah we see a bunch of scrap cars singing about what they were like in their prime and how they're now useless and must accept death as their fade the fact that we also see the cars getting physically crushed in their final moments it's pretty friggin dark also I noticed on reviewing this car doesn't even wait for the magnet he just drives on the conveyor belt himself he just effectively committed car suicide huh though despite the scenes incredibly dark tone you've got to admit that tune is pretty catchy all that is past and gone [Music] [Applause] now I'm gonna talk about a couple of negatives I had with the film first point is that the film takes a little while to get going especially with that random scene with all the animals by the pond singing away he really fit the tone for the rest of the film and could quite honestly be removed without affecting the rest of the film itself secondly I felt the sacrifice the toast of me towards the end was heavily underplayed don't get me wrong the build-up to it was absolutely immense and I was on the edge of my seat plus seen him get mangled up like that in the gears it's pretty gruesome but literally within the space of thirty Seconds he's completely repaired and back to normal I felt a film like this with it's eerily dark tone and emphasis on friendship would have really been able to make an emotional scene how this like at least have a moment with the other appliances gathered round morning their friend even have it play out like the silent scene I mentioned earlier with the vacuum cleaner that could have been some hard-hitting emotion right there I mean come on if you're able to make me feel bad for a flower I'm sure the writers would have no trouble making me tear up over a toaster but no instead we cut to a scene back at the flat where the master has somehow fixed the toaster and everything is immediately back to normal my final negative is that overall the film's plot does have a weak narrative to it I mentioned how this film shares a similar theme to Toy Story however in Toy Story the idea of a kid feeling attached to his toys even in his later years has a far more believable and relatable feel to it rather than a kid getting overly sentimental about some household appliances especially appliances such as a toaster and a vacuum cleaner and in that same sense it doesn't really make much sense as to why those appliances are attached to the child and refer to him as the master yeah the blanket land and radio makes sense as the child was their primary user wouldn't the toaster and vacuum be primarily used by the adults of the family and so they should view them as the masters speaking of the plot though remember when Ireland that the similarities between this film and Toy Story were no coincidence well that's because part of the film's development team consisted of the original members of Pixar studios including John Lasseter himself the co-creator of Pixar the same people who would later go on to develop the Toy Story film series funny enough John Lasseter pitched the idea to Disney to have the Brave Little Toaster utilized computer animation but due to 3d animation still been in its infancy it was costing far too much and so the decision was made to have the film animated and full traditional 2d oh how times have changed now shortly after the decision was made John Lasseter received the call from the Disney executives informing him that he would now be dismissed from the project so John Lasseter and his crew left his knee to go work for Lucas films instead the film was then shelved for a couple of years before being handed over to Hyperion Pictures who were now having to work with a much smaller budget of just under 6 million which is a third of its original budget further to that Jerry Lee's the film's director later on mentioned that external forces were making the decision to have the film produced abroad and just have it released as a cheap flick for a quick cash grab which the staff actually rejected and were willing to make sacrifices on their behalf in order to give the film its maximum potential quality despite the slashed budget determined to make something they could be proud of rather than simply producing just another kid's film that is something you've really got to respect are the people who made this film and that effort really shows despite the seemingly weak narrative of the film they really make the best with what they're given there was even around 20 to 30 minutes of material cut as the producers wanted the film to fit inside a 90-minute runtime it would have actually been really interesting to see how this film could have looked if it had been given its full potential but I think considering how much this film had gone against it the people did a fantastic job of trying to make it work and so I'd recommend giving this one a watch it's not going to blow you away or anything but it will certainly be an enjoyable viewing for all ages with golden moments sprinkled in and one thing's for sure you'll never look at a scrapyard the same again hey guys thank you for tuning in to watch this video please leave a like if you enjoyed what you saw and comment below what you thought The Brave Little Toaster and any particular films or TV shows you want me to review in the future my name is Steve Simpson and until the next one take care

Channel: Steve Reviews

Views: 426,344

Rating: 4.9518518 out of 5

Keywords: the brave little toaster, steve reviews, scary, dark, animation, review, movie, the brave little toaster review, brave little toaster review

Id: 9n_8F5E9bXw

Length: 12min 54sec (774 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 02 2018