When I watched Toy Story 3 I was disappointed since I had already seen this story before and that was in a movie I loved as a kid “The Brave Little Toaster”. I used to love this movie and would watch it every time I had the chance and decided to check it out again to see if it held up only to realize that they made two direct to video sequels in the late 90s. I also found out two of these movies are actually adaptations of novels and only one being an original story. So, let’s have a quick look at the Brave Little Toaster trilogy.
The Brave Little Toaster 1987
Watching this movie I can see why it didn’t have the same appeal of Toy Story even though it features many of the same themes. A toaster is simply not as iconic as toys that come to life. Watching it again and this movie is a labor of love and truly a quality film made for kids along the lines of The Land Before Time. It also doesn’t pull any punches and has some rather dark themes about being forgotten and becoming obsolete. The songs in the movie are all fantastic as well and with a depressing song like “Worthless” you can’t go wrong and only wonder how many nu-metal or grunge bands it inspired. This is a real classic that you have to watch if you’ve never done so.
The Brave Little Toaster to the Rescue
It wasn’t until ten years later in 1997 that the movie got a sequel and because of that I guess I never even realized it. This is the only of the three movies not based on an actual novel but then again I think all movies took plenty of liberties so it doesn’t matter. You’d think with ten years they would’ve had a great plot for this film but it’s mostly the same theme of being obsolete but this time modernizing it with computers.
The movie also brought talking animals into the universe which I think was a bit unnecessary so while it was a subplot I think they could’ve done something else as a lot of time is taken to establish all these new animal characters and fit them in the plot. As generic as the movie may be I can’t say it’s horrible as I originally thought and prepared for so I guess it’s a decent story if you’re itching for more Brave Little Toaster Canon.
The Brave Little Toaster Goes to Mars
We only had to way a year later in 1998 this time for another sequel that was based on the second and last novel. While the Going to Mars might seem like a jump the shark idea, it’s actually being faithful to the source material. I can’t say I liked this idea too much at first, especially with all the liberties they’ve taken to get there including the adventures of the baby of their master.
The movie does win you over in the end though and while it’s only continuing the idea of obsolete things, it continues to expand on them and even bring up terms like planned obsolesce which not many movies or shows bring up outside of documentaries so it’s great to see it here. While there are no talking animals for the most part we do have two returning characters from the previous film. The movie doesn’t match the original but it’s already a little better than the previous one and it’s also not bad despite it’s awful sounding plot.
I’m guessing they tried to start a direct to home video movie franchise but they quit after only two which was probably good since I don’t think the quality of the stories would’ve remained strong.Overall the trilogy is much better than I would’ve ever thought, the original film is as good as I remembered it and the two sequels are far from DTV fodder you would’ve expected.
It’s nice to see the theme of becoming obsolete being touched. We also see the relationship of Rob the master and his girlfriend Chris evolve from a couple, to getting married and having a child, hell we even get to see them together in bed which doesn’t seem like something Disney likes to acknowledge too much on other properties. The trilogy is definitely worth a watch if you’re a fan and if you aren’t then watch the original film and you’ll become a fan.
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