I love this whole video. Probably one of my favorite videos that you've done. Just a huge nostalgia trip the whole way through, left me with a big, goofy smile on my face lol
Actually, the truck 'committing suicide' is a very common misconception; originally the truck was intended to be trying to get away from the magnet to get the appliances out of the junkyard, but when they try to get him to escape with them he gives up and as a result all of them get caught. Presumably this scene was cut because it didn't flow well with the musical number. As a kid I always assumed that the truck tried to get away but was caught and just gave up after the fact, given how he's on the conveyor belt backwards
@@fuzzydunlop1753 seriously. Who cares. I do not understand people like you who feel the need to point out people's spelling errors or grammatical errors. There has to be more important things to do with your life.
Fun fact: as a child, I did not understand that Blankie was an electric blanket. I thought he was a baby blanket with a bar of soap attached. I was an adult before I realized what he was.
I am not even sure what I thought it was as a kid, but I definitely didn't know it was the settings control. Bar of soap sounds familiar though; it IS very soap like.
I feel like if you weren't initiated into The Brave Little Toaster at a certain age (let's be generous and say under 7-8 years) you're never going to fully understand its impact. I watched this movie quite a bit when I was 4 or 5 because my daycare center had a collection of what seemed like four videos total. It's easy as an adult to be like, "Wow, this movie was really fucked-up. How is this for kids?" but that's not how small children think of things. To this day I think it affected how I treat appliances.
Don bluth once said kids can handle anything as long as there is a happy ending. Which is why his movies are some of the most traumatizing kids films to look at now. Movies are a different experience as a kid, you experience them almost like you are in the journey and in the end you are relieved to see them get through. As an adult we tend to analyze the film and dont quite experience it as an experience but rather as a piece of art.
I would not say that Bluth's films are "traumatizing" in the least. I was, for some idiotic reason, allowed to watch movies like Night of the Creeps and The Thing (and many more) when I was between the ages of 6-10, movies that WERE genuinely traumatizing for me to watch, which left a very negative impression and gave me nightmares, made me more afraid of the dark, etc. Movies that have some dark or "scary" moments, as part of their overall pastiche, are hardly traumatizing. I think it's good to present kids with darker and scarier moments, to make them understand that the world is not a safe place, and life isn't often very fair. I agree about giving them a happy ending, hell I'm not even a huge fan of bummer endings as an adult. But I think it's beneficial to have some "dark" content or moements in so-called "children's entertainment". Hell, the original 80s Care Bears movie had that, even they knew the value in it.
@@Retrorevelations and i completely agree with you. Watership down was not traumatizing to me as a kid because i was already used to violent content and the movie in the end taught me alot growing up.
same! i have this weird subconscious thought about inanimate objects being sentient that definitely stems from this movie lol. Needless to say ive always taken care if my things and many of my things from childhood remain with me today!
"The Animals of Farthing Woods", that series was VERY sad and heavy. As a kid, I loved that show. I would occasionally cry and was always impacted by the scenes, but also always felt like I've learned something about life after watching an episode, you know?Now, I feel almost terrified of the notion of a kid watching it.
I supose we REALLY lose all comprehension of just how much a kid can healthily handle in terms of narrative content as we grow up. Specially concerning dark/sad scenes in animation, it seems.
6:15- I am so glad someone acknowledged this. So many people treat Toaster's arc like it came out of nowhere and that the suicidal flower was literally just there to give us a dark scene. Granted, that's what many detractors of this film often do, write off the dark moments as just 'dark for the sake of dark'.
I saw this when I was around four years old. And no joke, it was years before I could shake the idea that you shouldn't badmouth nearby appliances because you might hurt their feelings.
I’m autistic so I already have an unnatural attachment to inanimate objects, and this added the compounding factor of emotions and feelings. Lmao still won’t get rid of my car because I’m afraid I’ll upset her and hurt her feelingsz.
I apologise to my car if I make a mistake like accidentally over-revving it or something. It was my grandma's car originally so that might have something to do with it.
I have had an emotional connection to an air conditioner. However I live in an area where we have 90 degrees days and 110% humidity. AC is pretty much necessary.
My car broke down earlier this year. It had been the family car for 15 years when my parents gave it to me. It's dead. But all I could think of was the junkyard scene and the "Worthless" song. I still have the car in the garage, both due to procrastination to junk it and nostalgia. - Also, I was already an adult when I watched this movie for the first time and even then I loved it. Better than typical princess and hero crap, and saccharine dumb it down for the kids stuff.
I consider this film to be one of the best animated films of all time, maybe even one of the best films period. It's so heart-crushingly terrifying/depressing/hopeless, more than any other film has ever been to me. I will always remember the junkyard scene, and the feeling of utter despair you feel as the protagonists are fruitlessly fleeing from that terrifying magnet to no avail. Gradually the cars around them come to terms with their state, and as you mentioned, one even willingly gets himself crushed. I can't watch that scene without getting a panic attack, and I think it's insane a children's movie can do that. I hold this film in very high regard.
"I worked on a Reservation. Who would believe They would love me and leave On a bus back to old Santa Fe? Once in the Indian Nation, I took the kids on the skids Where the Hopi was happy 'Til I heard him say.... You're worthless." I have this theory that the lyrics each car sings reflect not only the life of the car, but of its driver. These lines could be the truck's experience, but it could be that of the driver. Was the truck left behind when its owners moved back to Santa Fe? Or was the driver left behind? Perhaps his wife and kids left him, and when he said "You're worthless", he was talking about himself. And like the truck, he took his own life. I can do this for literally all of them. I've thought about it a lot. "Once took a Texan to a wedding. Once took a Texan to a wedding. He kept forgetting His loneliness, letting His thoughts turn to home, and returned. I took a man to a graveyard. I beg your pardon, It's quite hard enough Just living with the stuff I have learned. Assuming the cars' gender follows their occupant, a Texan bride's groom left her on her wedding day, wanting to return home instead. And a man died having learned something he couldn't live with. Perhaps the same man. And perhaps both died on the same day, to have made such an impact on these cars who should realistically have taken more than one Texan to a wedding, and more than one man to a graveyard. Perhaps this couple of lovers who never could be married in life are symbolically brought together in death. And the two cars are stacked, crushed together in their last moment. Want more? I got 'em.
Woah the brave little toaster goes to mars is part of the novel's cannon? Like I seriously thought that was simply a Disney sequel with how outlandish the concept is.... I mean the movie basically is. XD But I'm genuinely curious now how the novel pulls it out with the books being seemingly so down to earth.
phantom130 5 yeah, I’m really curious to know about that, too. I had no idea the sequel was based on anything since it’s got one of the silliest names ever.
@@Sammie1053 true. I got to revisit mars and to the rescue movies. I don't remember them too well even though I liked them almost as much as a kid. Do they hold up at least for nostalgia?
I'll be honest with you, I was born in 97 and I'm fairly sure Mars is the only one I've ever sat through in its entirety (though I have seen both of the others in bits and pieces). For animated children's features, sequels from Disney's cash-in era no less, I'd say they're pretty good. I have a special attachment to To The Rescue because it's all about computers and I'm 99% sure that's what got me interested in them as a kid. They both have a different feel from the original. To The Rescue is less deep, it's mostly just a fun story about 90s computers and some appliances, but I still enjoyed it. Mars is even more surreal than the original but has more of a message behind it. Both of them are less dark.
So, it was based on a book written by a guy who suffered from depression, hmm. That explains a lot. Imagine if one of the toys from Toy Story was dismantled for parts, effectively "killing" them. Nightmare fuel.
In one of the original Railway Series books there's a story about an engine who was so bad that they finally put him in the back of the shed and he "grew smaller and smaller" as the workers used his parts to repair the others. And we know from the story of Duke that engines never actually die no matter how long they go to sleep from being left alone. Yeah.
The vacuum chewing it's own chord in a fit of panic always struck me as some kind of seizure metaphor. As if they're trying to make sure he doesn't swallow his tongue or something. Watching this as a kid was no big deal but I picked it up again when I was about 13 and I had to wonder how I wasn't scarred for life.
The lonely flower scene broke my tiny little child heart into a million pieces, and just from the clip you showed, I can see it still holds up as the most devastating movie scene of all time.
Mind that the flower was a daisy in the novella, but a narcissus in the film; a narcissus hopelessly and unwittingly in love with its own reflection... this species change is not purely coincidental! It's a reference to Greek myth.
I saw this film when I was 7 years old, loved it but also was terrified of the depictions of death. The AC unit and the cars dying, and their salient fear or painful acceptance of death, was a new concept to me. Most movies have characters who die not express their fear of death -- they instantly die, or are old and content.
The way the broken appliances "ascend" at the end of the B-Movie musical sequence scares me more than the clown ever has. What is pulling them up? The broken tape recorder seems to look up to it with religious awe!
Fantastic video! Just wanted to say, there's a slightly weird reference to a Greek myth hiding in the flower scene in the film specifically! Basically, it's not drawn like a daisy, the flower is meant to be a Narcissus, which is named after the greek myth where a vain boy is cursed to fall in love with his own reflection and starves to death because he can't bear to stop looking at himself. After death, his body turns into a yellow Narcissus flower... like the one represented in the movie.
You're right! Mind that the flower was a daisy in the novella, but a narcissus in the film; a narcissus hopelessly and unwittingly in love with its own reflection... this species change is not purely coincidental! It's a Greek myth reference.
We had one growing up and I spent my whole life being absolutely terrified of accidentally running over the cord because I was sure that it would lead to what happened in the movie.
This was a fantastic analysis, thanks for the insight into the novella. I never even knew it existed. I never would have guessed that there was so much history to this. I remember even as a kid I found The Brave Little Toaster to be equal parts distressing and engaging. All that came back to me when I found my VHS copy whilst I was boxing up tapes to get rid of and replace with DVDs. Doubly weird due to the plot point of redundant technology, felt a twinge of guilt but damn, video tapes take up SO much space! Super glad you covered it!
Also, Kirby vacuums were the ones they sold door to door back in the day. A guy would come into your house and throw dirt on your floor with the promise of the vacuum cleaning it or the guy would eat it or give you 100$ or some shit.
Your assessment of how certain ages will feel about this movie is totally accurate. My younger sister loved this movie where I found it horrifying. And she watched it endlessly...
It strikes me that the flower sequence could be interpreted as allegory for a queer person falling for a straight person who doesn't return the affection, maybe not even understanding it. Especially when the book was written, when being uncloseted was even more dangerous than it is today.
I wouldn't have come to that conclusion on my own just from the movie. However, after hearing the book version, learning about the author, and hearing your take, it totally clicks!
Mind that the flower was a daisy in the novella, but a narcissus in the film; a narcissus hopelessly and unwittingly in love with its own reflection... this species change is not purely coincidental! It's a Greek myth reference.
Thank you so much for covering this. TBLT is one of my favorite animated movies of all time, and had a huge influence on me as a kid. I remember before the IMDb boards were removed, the one about the movie had a lot of thread discussions about the movie's thematic elements and the underlying symbolism and metaphors - especially in the song numbers that were laced in religious undertones with "City of Lights" and glimmers of mental health in "Worthless". What I remember most was a thread deconstructing Worthless, and how the most haunting story from the perspective of the cars was that of the green pickup truck, and his story about being on living on a Hopi reservation. Maybe we were putting too much thought into it back then, but his story (on top of him being the only one who drove to his death rather than fight) being contrasted with the suicide rates for indigenous people makes it all the more dark. Overall, it's great to see more people talk about the film. It's criminally underrated, and it always saddens me when people say they don't remember it or they never cared for it.
Apparently am a total apostate, as I loved the hell out of it as a young kid and have never lost that. I would not describe this movie as "fucked-up" or "a darker, depressing, and scary experience" but as warm and delightful. It never takes the ideas of worth, belonging and destruction out of the realm of what kids can handle or understand; Quite the opposite, it wraps these ideas up in an intelligent, brightly coloured, fun, musical, family-friendly package. It doesn't even have the bittersweet ending of films like Old Yeller but has everyone skip off into the sunset.
I've seen "The Brave Little Toaster goes to Mars" and it was pretty bad. It falls into following the Land Before Time formula. What I found so odd about it is that it keeps making references to a past adventure that is never seen and I kept feeling like I missed something, like if there was some kind of Brave Little Toaster cartoon series. It turns out "To the Rescue" was actually made first but for some reason they released "Goes to Mars" first to fit with the book series. Idk, both movies felt like it was meant to be a pilot to a cartoon series that never took off.
I think Worthless is one of the most powerful songs of any animated movie, as a kid I never watched this movie since it looked too cute...I was a very morbid child...for my liking. However after hearing Worthless recently I have added it to my must watch list, as someone with depression Worthless is a heavy-hitter song that actually made me tear up a little because it's just so damn relatable and powerful. Also I really like the idea of an animated horror movie, I mean if you replace the appliances with people you've got one twisted cartoon and I love it. XD
I knew that Philip K. Dick accused Polish science fiction author, Stanislaw Lem, in his letter to the FBI, but I didn't know he accused Disch. I think Dick was suffering from schizophrenia when he wrote that letter. His life was pretty much turning into A Scanner Darkly at that point. His issue with Lem was over an article Lem wrote about American science fiction being derivative or uninspired, even though Lem was a fan of Dick's books. I don't know what Dick's issue was with Disch. That subplot in The Word of God sounds like something that may have actually happened in Dick's nightmares. Thanks for this incredibly detailed history of Brave Little Toaster, Lady Roses.
Dick was an amazing and prophetic writer but yeah, he for sure suffered from mental illness. Later in life Dick thought he was the reincarnation of Paul or luke from the Bible.
Upon rewatching the flower scene from your review, that flower that fell in love with its reflection looks like a narcissus. I'm betting this was intentional on the film-maker's part since you cover later the book's flower was a daisy and it was the myth of Narcissus who fell in love with his own reflection. Also, I don't remember when I first saw the film, but since it came out in 87, and I know I didn't see it in theaters, that would put me in the mid-to-late teens when I saw it, so I guess I'm a blend of the adolescent and adult perspectives on the movie. Great review, keep being awesome.
Mind that the flower was a daisy in the novella, but a narcissus in the film; a narcissus hopelessly and unwittingly in love with its own reflection... this species change is not purely coincidental! It's a reference to the Greek myth.
The history of the movie itself is just fascinating, especially seeing the people who worked on it. John Lasseter was actually supposed to be the director of this whole movie. It would've been a mix of traditionally animated characters in a CG environment. The Disney execs at the time shut the idea down (ironic since this was not long after Tron came out), and even fired him after the pitch. He didn't really have much to do with the final film, aside from designing the characters, by then he was already at Pixar. Speaking of... This film is notable for having a lot of people working on it that would later become well-known Disney and Pixar alumni. Director and writer Jerry Rees went on to make many Disney Park attractions. Co-writer Joe Ranft became head writer for many of the Pixar films, and also became an essential member of the studio (and according to rumors, he was John Lasseter's right hand). Glen Keane, Kirk Wise and Kevin Lima became prominent figures of the Disney Renaissance as animators and directors. Mark Dindal also directed some notable films later on, like Emperor's New Groove and Cats Don't Dance. Rob Minkoff went on to direct The Lion King and Stuart Little. And this is just a small list of all the animators, who went on to make landmark films at Disney and Pixar. And of course, we know how John Lasseter became the face of Pixar and their storytelling, later also became head of Disney Animation where he also revived the studio and etc. And while it is true that it became a non-Disney film, I think it was almost produced by them, as well. Ron Miller, then president/CEO of Disney, experimented with dark films at the time, such as The Black Hole, Watcher in the Woods and Something Wicked This Way Comes. So this would've aligned perfectly to his repeortire. I'm not sure if this shifted studios after Miller stepped down and got replaced by daddy of daddies Michael Eisner, but all I know is that it got bought by Hyperion Pictures, which was founded by a former Disney studio head.
Don't forget about The Black Cauldron as far as "edgy" Disney goes. Loved the books, the movie (The Black Cauldron) not so much. I wonder if the famous Pixar lamp short/logo was inspired by the book and their work on the movie.
The Pixar lamp was an inspiration of the short Luxo Jr., which itself was an inspiration of the Luxo desk lamp John Lasseter had in his office. So no, it was not inspired by Brave Little Toaster.
I love how DARK a lot of 80s family films were. Sure they ended up terrifying children and some adults, but they’re just so odd and loveable for being so different from what family-oriented media we have today. You could never make a Return to Oz, Dark Crystal, or The Adventures of Mark Twain these days. I’m still amazed movies like them were able to get made back then, and we’re lucky to have them.
I always thought of "Susie, the little blue coupe" Disney short, as a great companionpiece. And it's even more weird, because it's the short that clearly inspired Cars.
This movie had a huge impact on me as a kid, not so much about appliances in general but the themes of memory and especially the past still essentially reflect how I view love and relationships. It was so interesting to hear how the novella's ending differs, and to hear how Rose's perception of them differ from mine - to remember, hold onto something you love and cherish and try to maintain it as long as possible is probably something that would be more impactful/meaningful for me at first glance than the novella's ending, but for her the ability to move on from the past and find a (new) use is indeed an incredible message as well and makes me ponder how I view clinging onto the past versus finding agency within oneself to grow. They're both great endings in different ways and really speaks about the person and the perception of the person taking it all in.
This is one of my favorite videos of yours. I grew up with this movie too. I like a lot of your other videos too. But this one really sticks out to me. :)
The funny thing is a TV is the LAST appliance you would keep for a long time. The least likely to be replaced is the lamp, unless you're an interior decorator lamps last forever and really old lamps can take new LED bulbs just fine. Everything else just wears out, well, all the these appliances.
The film was set during the 1980s, where materialism and credit ran riot, so people would get new small appliances and furnishings every few years, but technologies such as televisions were stagnant. If you already had a colour television then there was zero reason to upgrade to a newer model. Older, large appliances were also built VERY robustly. A colour TV my parents bought on credit somewhere around 1984~1986 worked flawlessly for twenty years. When TV switched from analogue to digital around 2007 was when the TV was finally recycled. It still worked, but we couldn't connect a digital TV aerial to it. I'm convinced it would still be working to this day. A modern LCD would probably last you ten years. An OLED, five.
We kept our Curtis Mathis console TV for at least a decade. I clearly remember playing Q-Bert on that bad boy (via our TI-99/4A; aka "like a Commodore 64 but more esoteric").
@@benanderson89 "Modern LCD's" have lasted me surprisingly long. My 32" is still going strong coming up on a decade. The big issue is resolutions now: big TVs keep getting cheaper. The next issue in my opinion will be all the integrated internet services that your consumer electronics company has no reason to support anymore.
Two years ago or so we finally got rid of the huge-ass CRT monster box of a TV we had for over 10 years. It still worked but it looked shitty, had no HDMI for newer consoles, and the buttons were like, rotting off lmao. It was ready to die, but I was sad to see it go. When dad put it in the junkyard it exploded. A badass death for an old-ass TV
Damn, the themes of self-worth give me some major depression vibes... I've never seen this movie, but I can imagine that some of it can hit close to home if you have depression or anxiety.
oh holy crap when i was a kid worthless ment something totally different to me, i just thought that the cars needed love, i used to tell my moms old honda that i liked it, now that im an adult that song takes on a whooooole different meaning
Yes. I have anxiety and I can say watching this and forgetting about most of the content of the film due to my age made it all come rushing back and feeling those childhood dread and depression. But it can be cathartic to process this moral stories about value, aging and not throwing away relationships and precious symbols.
And there's a lot of REFLECTIONS in the movie: the flower's reflection, the animals' reflections, the master's reflections (as a boy and as a young man), the Parts Guy's reflection, the appliances' reflection in the lake--even the reflection of the smoke-filled sky in the crusher's teeth. Of course, all these physical reflections serve to underscore the mental/emotional reflections going on--i.e. the appliances' memories of their master. 😊
I was so emotional when watching this film as a kid. My parents would actually limit when I could see it because I would cry my ass off every time Lampy gets heroically zapped by lightning..”LAMPY NO!” They hid away the VHS in their bedroom...
I saw this when I was 11, maybe 12, and I loved it. I still do as an adult of 43. I re-listened to “Worthless” less than a month ago. The story is just so good, all of it, it feels like life. I think this movie is why I love the junkyard scene in Toy Story 3. Seeing as a lot of the same people worked on both, it is little surprise. Nice use of the King’s Quest VII soundtrack. The dessert music has always been pretty, but haunting.
I was in my teens when I saw this movie. Jon Lovitz (Radio) and Phil Hartman (Air Conditioner) were still on Saturday Night Live at the time, so when I heard they were doing the voices in a cartoon, I just had to see it. I remember taping it off the Disney Channel back in the VHS days.
As someone who is actually OBSESSED with both the book and the movie, The Brave Little Toaster, I can definitely say that I thoroughly enjoyed this review of both! most reviews I find only talk about the movie and how it was just some movie they watched as a kid and were scared of it. This video has so much more! I got a few giggles out of it and I really enjoyed the comparisons you made between the novella and the film, I even learned some new things! I am looking forwards to more amazing content from you, keep up the amazing work!
I wanted to find the excerpt of the book that has the squirrels. So i searched "brave little toaster gender" and the results were "i never knew if the toaster was a boy or girl" x( the squirrels have internet access
My little brother and I watched this movie a lot growing up. I think it helped us empathize with our Grandpa's PTSD. We both thought it was super cool that he fought nazi's but we didn't understand why he didn't want to tell us about it. This movie really helped us empathize what fear and hopelessness can do to the psyche.
Outstanding video as usual, Roses. I can really feel your efforts shine through as I listen and watch this. One thing's for sure. No obstacle like copyright claims can ever bring you down to despair. You emerge victorious one way or another. This movie really lead me to believe that appliances are alive when US humans are not around. If you were an appliance in this movie, what would you be? Keep up your great work, Roses. You have lots to be proud of, especially yourself. Keep being you. I'll always be one of your fans as well.
I remember when this movie first came out when it premiered on Disney Channel. I was obsessed with it. Looking back on it, the film really feels like an early Pixar film, and as mentioned, there are striking similarities to this and Toy Story, especially how this film shares a lot of the same beats as Toy Story 3 with the ending climax taking place in a junkyard
Bro this has triggered my fight or flight response so hard 🤣 But that flower scene made me burst into tears without hesitation. This film was so disturbing to me as a child. I’m glad you did the breakdown so I could figure out why it was a “horror” film!
Roses, girl, seriously thank you for showing this movie some love. This shit was my jam when I was a wee lad. Watched the tape SO MUCH it broke. And the part where Toaster sacrifices himself...😭. This definitely fits into Disney's dark art period. Still a special place in my heart!
one of my favorite things about having my son was rediscovering and buying all these movies that i loved as a kid. i recently discovered your channel, and I'm a new fan!
Oddly enough, the direct-to-video sequels are actually pretty good! To The Rescue was the third one made, but it actually takes place between the original movie and Goes to Mars; it never gets as dark as the first movie but still has some really heartrending and powerful scenes. Goes to Mars is completely bizarre, light-hearted, and is easily the worst of three, but it is still enjoyable and both it and To The Rescue have some good songs.
I agree, I watched all the films as a kid and enjoyed them all. I can see where a lot of the appeal in the first film was lost in the sequels though. I'm also curious as to how different Goes to Mars is in the book. I loved Wittgenstein so much as a kid, or as I called him then "Big Computer" because I had trouble pronouncing his actual name. I imagine he isn't in the book though, since he was meant to be introduced in To the Rescue and references that in his appearance in Mars (they weren't meant to be released out of order like they were) In fact I've considered in my head at times, what if Jerry Rees had been involved with the sequels and they had the same tone as the original, we could've had a scene of Wittgenstein having a nightmare about his own demise at the junkyard (he was pretty convinced he was headed there at one point). I kind of wish we could see the stories of the sequels in the tone of the first movie, they were great movies but they had more potential if they had the original creators on board and weren't cheaply made.
Yeah the order you should watch the films is: The Brave Little Toaster To the Rescue Goes To Mars ...but there was never a book for to the rescue, only the goes to mars sequel haha
That magnet scared me more than anything. Maybe because he seemed to be in charge of everything and got so pissed off when the toaster and the gang tried to run away from him and get him to go into different directions. He literally just shoves things on the belt from pile after pile.
I loved this movie as a kid and as an adult I still do! I have vivid memories of watching the AC blow himself out and that damn clown (between Firefighter Clown, Pennywise, and Killer Klowns from Outer Space, is it any wonder I fear them now?) and the ghost scene. If I could ever find a Blu-Ray copy (all I can find is DVDs which I already own one), I'd buy it to show my niece and nephew next time I saw them.
I was afraid to watch this video for so long because the Brave Little Toaster terrified me as a small child. But I am glad that I ended up watching this video! There are scenes that gave me happy feelings as a child that I had forgotten. Kind of interesting to revisit it.
I'm not American so I watched this movie dubbed as a kid but they for some reason left songs in English so it wasn't until I grew up and watched this movie with my sister I realized how messed up the songs really were.
when I was very young about 1994, my mom had the VHS copy of the first one and my grandparents bought the second and third later on, but she tells me all the time that i used to pop the first in and watch it while pulling our vacuum cleaner (which despite also being a Kirby never occurred to me I just thought wow our vacuum has the same name as he did) but I used to grab the toaster, vacuum, radio, and the lamp don't know why I didn't bother with the blanket but I would bring the appliances around and watch the movie with them. we even had the window style A/C unit though ours was in the wall and I apparently used to scold it for being mean to the others. IDK guess I was weird as a kid but even to this day I get a pang in my heart when an appliance dies and I can't fix it. thanks for that movie.
Really insightful analysis. You always make great content. Saw this as a kid, around 4-5 found it strange, slightly scary, but enjoyable enough. Rewatching it as an adult was interesting, to say the least. Never knew that Phil Hartman voiced the air conditioner until rewatching. Did anyone ever see the sequel, "Brave Little Toaster Goes To Mars"?.
Had both on VHS, I saw the second one a few times when younger. Didn't know there was a third one until now. I'm tempted to check out the novella of "Goes to Mars". Because the animated film didn't have the same kind of impact or feel the first movie did.
I was reminded of this movie when my 15 year old TV died. It happened out of nowhere and I was upset not just because _" HEY! I WAS WATCHING THAT!"_ but because it had been with me since I was 11 yet it was just gone now. I replaced it but couldn't help remembering this movie I saw when I was little that I didn't get yet the ideas clearly stuck with me.
Like many other who have commented, I was both traumatized by this movie yet loved it at the same time and would watch it pretty frequently. It really was a bizarre movie compared to all the other Disney movies coming out at that time. EVen though it had all these terrifying scenes like the A/C dying and the Clown nightmare scene, something about these inanimate objects coming to life and going on a crazy journey to find their owner was super appealing to me as a kid. I re-watched it as an adult some years back, it still holds up. Might need to watch it again after watching this video!
I loved and was terrified by this movie when I was younger. It honestly still holds up when rewatching it. Catching small things like Phil Hartman’s Jack Nicholson impression... perfect!
I loved this film as a kid so much; it really is a good horror movie at its core. Also, when I was a kid, I thought Kirby was having a seizure during the waterfall scene and was swallowing his cord (like with the false belief that people can swallow their tongue during a grand mal seizure), not having a panic attack. The reason for that was that my dad had epilepsy, so I knew what a seizure looked like but not a panic attack. As a kid I had no idea why Toaster shut the vacuum off and that suddenly stopped the seizure, it made no sense to me! However, as an adult, I can see that it was indeed supposed to be a panic attack and the scene makes way more sense that way. Speaking of panic attacks, that clown always freaked me out as a kid because it was so out of left field. I couldn't watch that scene as a kid and would do exactly what the clown said when it came on. *R U N.*
I actually watched this movie for the first time because of this video. I wanted to see it before you got into the details so I could gather my own thoughts about the themes. I am 23. The movie resonated with me in ways that probably wouldn't have if I watched it as a kid. I really latched on to the theme of self-worth. As a person who suffers from depression, it honestly meant a lot. The journey these five went through was so rough, but in the end, they made it. They achieved their goal, despite all the hardships they faced. I will definitely be remembering this movie the next time I am feeling down about myself. I am really happy that I watched it, as it is still meaningful today was it was back then.
The Brave Little Toaster was also published in a fantasy anthology called Fantasy Annual IV, compiled by Terry Carr. Edit: just checked amazon and it's available in paperback for about $10
I've never saw the movie but your description alone distressed me at points. Actually shed tears at the idea the toaster DIED jumping into the cogs, even though you later said he was fixed. I nearly cried just typing it.
I think I was about 7 or 8 when I first saw this movie. I fell in love with it instantly and it is one of those childhood animated adventures that has stuck with me even into adulthood (along with 1973's Charlotte's Web, 1977's The Hobbit and 1975's Rikki-Tikki-Tavi). In particular, the song "Worthless" is one I never fully understood in youth but, with the benefit of age, now reveals itself for how incredibly powerful and depressing the message is. It is about depression and the march of aging (and, with it, the struggle of self-worth), the inevitable approach of death and how everyone, no matter what their journey in life, will ultimately end up on that road. Whether sedan, sports car, family wagon or pick up truck, all must eventually face the threat of obsolescence. It's pretty powerful stuff for a "kids cartoon" but that, in part, is the kind of thing that makes for truly worthwhile and memorable stories. Thank you for exploring this animated classic and story on which it was based!
I've watched this movie countless times but I never really understood the meaning behind that flower scene...Thank you for pointing it out it makes the movie so much better now! It's always been one of my favorite weird ones lol
MEMORIES> THanks roses for reminding me of the strange things we watched not soo long ago. Its insane how much of that movie STILL seems to be imbeded in my brain!
Childhood = This movie is confusing but the music is great. Teenhood = This movie is so edgy & cool, for a cartoon. Adulthood = This movie still holds up. Was it ever for kids?
@@pushinguproses there is horror opposit kind of alternate Alice in Wonderland horror game it make the Disney company look gothic and terrifyingly gruesome in the horror version Alice will kill her way through this world the Shekhar cat guides her in his own way letting her know what is ahead check it out sometime
I remember going in for surgery when I was in kindergarten. When I woke up I watched this movie in my hospital. The Brave Little Toaster trilogy is still one of my favorite Disney film serials.
I absolutely loved this movie. I watched this VHS so often. I never found it to be too scary as a young child. It's odd how different the movie and book are.
When I was a kid I didn't understand anything that was going on, so I had a fun time and wasn't scared by anything. A few months ago I came across a video that just showed the Worthless song, and that's when I saw the whole movie in a new light. One verse in particular got me; I took a man to a graveyard I beg your pardon, it's quite hard enough Just living with the stuff I have learned The ashes of both of my parents have gone through my hands as I bid them farewell. After my dad died I realized I hadn't really gotten over my mom's death almost seventeen years ago. As I look at what I've done in my thirty one years of existence, and ponder what kind of future I'm heading toward, one word keeps coming up in my thoughts; Worthless... This song is entirely too relatable. Uh, anyhow, nice video! I had no idea the movie was based on a book, and despite following the story still managed to have a different tone. Lost it at the PowerPoint XD
I’m glad the flower scene has more recognition. Even as a child, I bawled. The music and that abandonment feeling. Being left away from everyone. It’s how I felt.
What sucks is that the CD release of the soundtrack was censored too. I had no idea but there's actually a really strong sexual reference in the Worthless song.
I also had the version with the woman who only had pasties. I was like 5. That's when I realized I was straight and liked women. Thanks "Brave Little Toaster"!
I just discovered you about a week ago and it’s like you had my exact, to the t, upbringing. Every obscure, forgotten show and movie and game i remember vividly growing up but have never met a friend in my life who also remembers, you go into minute detail about; not only making me feel sane that my memories are real, but giving me insight into stuff i haven’t put the time to dig into myself. You are amazing. You should do a Q&A on your upbringing because i swear we’re the same people.
I saw your Freddy Fish Review in related videos went to your channel and saw this. Combo went straight to my heart and im immediately super emotionally invested in the channel lol. Its cool to see someone nice with varied content. i just got back into the gaming community and after hours of manifestos, its nice to be back in positive fandom
I remember there was a commercial on my Toy Story VHS & the commercial portrayed Brave Little Toaster film more as lighthearted small children film... I was so enticed by this that I BEGGED my mother to buy this movie... Boy was she surprised at the dark, abrasive tone of the film... especially that Nightmare scene!
It was a child film. In those times..not too long ago...movies for kids and books for kids still touched on serious notes. It's a way to get a true message across.
This movie singlehandedly contributed to my mental issues giving me hoarding tendencies. I bought this VHS tape at Sound Warehouse (a music/movie store that got bought out by Blockbuster) as a teenager and my friends and I watched it after taking acid. Often. As a natural-born car person, the most traumatic scene was the car crusher. I'm middle-aged now and it still makes me damned near cry.
Yes, the PowerPoint presentation was really made in PowerPoint, and all of those sound effects are still in modern versions. It's kind of amazing.
Really loved the applause SFX and the paper areoplane transition
I love this whole video. Probably one of my favorite videos that you've done. Just a huge nostalgia trip the whole way through, left me with a big, goofy smile on my face lol
You know what else is kind of amazing you Rosie 😉
Actually, the truck 'committing suicide' is a very common misconception; originally the truck was intended to be trying to get away from the magnet to get the appliances out of the junkyard, but when they try to get him to escape with them he gives up and as a result all of them get caught. Presumably this scene was cut because it didn't flow well with the musical number.
As a kid I always assumed that the truck tried to get away but was caught and just gave up after the fact, given how he's on the conveyor belt backwards
Your videos are the tits!! You're very talented and extremely gorgeous, but you already knew that... Keep 'em coming!! :)
as a disabled person who has been wheelchair bound for most of their life this movie taught me I was not powerless or defenceless
ahh don't worry I'm an adept technopath due to being a wheelchair user since 18 mnths
Just a bit lacking in vocabulary lol
@@fuzzydunlop1753 Maybe he's British.
@@fuzzydunlop1753 seriously. Who cares. I do not understand people like you who feel the need to point out people's spelling errors or grammatical errors. There has to be more important things to do with your life.
@@fuzzydunlop1753 No need to correct anyone, when the spelling is not wrong to begin with.
"This is the first time I've ever felt emotionally attached to an AC unit."
You've never spent a summer in a desert state.
Or Florida
@Come On Fhqwhgads
As a Texan this is hilarious because I can relate. Texas summers can be rough, making the A/C unit a welcomed asset.
Fr
Fun fact: as a child, I did not understand that Blankie was an electric blanket. I thought he was a baby blanket with a bar of soap attached. I was an adult before I realized what he was.
*laughs!*
@@pushinguproses it NEVER crossed my mind that that might be an odd thing to consider an appliance, not to mention making no sense in general!
You're not the only one who thought of that as well. XD
@@PercyandDuckfan94 I had no idea! That makes me feel better!
I am not even sure what I thought it was as a kid, but I definitely didn't know it was the settings control. Bar of soap sounds familiar though; it IS very soap like.
Fun fact: Kirby was voiced by Thurl Ravenscroft, voice of the original Tony the Tiger and singer of "You're A Mean One, Mr. Grinch."
I thought his voice sounded familiar for some reason
Cool
Heeees great!
Also one of the many incredible voices in WDW/DL’s The Haunted Mansion - specifically one of the singing busts
He also owns a vampire insane asylum.
I feel like if you weren't initiated into The Brave Little Toaster at a certain age (let's be generous and say under 7-8 years) you're never going to fully understand its impact. I watched this movie quite a bit when I was 4 or 5 because my daycare center had a collection of what seemed like four videos total.
It's easy as an adult to be like, "Wow, this movie was really fucked-up. How is this for kids?" but that's not how small children think of things.
To this day I think it affected how I treat appliances.
Don bluth once said kids can handle anything as long as there is a happy ending. Which is why his movies are some of the most traumatizing kids films to look at now. Movies are a different experience as a kid, you experience them almost like you are in the journey and in the end you are relieved to see them get through. As an adult we tend to analyze the film and dont quite experience it as an experience but rather as a piece of art.
I would not say that Bluth's films are "traumatizing" in the least. I was, for some idiotic reason, allowed to watch movies like Night of the Creeps and The Thing (and many more) when I was between the ages of 6-10, movies that WERE genuinely traumatizing for me to watch, which left a very negative impression and gave me nightmares, made me more afraid of the dark, etc.
Movies that have some dark or "scary" moments, as part of their overall pastiche, are hardly traumatizing. I think it's good to present kids with darker and scarier moments, to make them understand that the world is not a safe place, and life isn't often very fair. I agree about giving them a happy ending, hell I'm not even a huge fan of bummer endings as an adult. But I think it's beneficial to have some "dark" content or moements in so-called "children's entertainment". Hell, the original 80s Care Bears movie had that, even they knew the value in it.
@@Retrorevelations and i completely agree with you. Watership down was not traumatizing to me as a kid because i was already used to violent content and the movie in the end taught me alot growing up.
same! i have this weird subconscious thought about inanimate objects being sentient that definitely stems from this movie lol. Needless to say ive always taken care if my things and many of my things from childhood remain with me today!
"The Animals of Farthing Woods", that series was VERY sad and heavy. As a kid, I loved that show. I would occasionally cry and was always impacted by the scenes, but also always felt like I've learned something about life after watching an episode, you know?Now, I feel almost terrified of the notion of a kid watching it.
I supose we REALLY lose all comprehension of just how much a kid can healthily handle in terms of narrative content as we grow up. Specially concerning dark/sad scenes in animation, it seems.
I loved this movie growing up! Great vid~
Thanks Austin! 🖤
yaaay! peebuttgaaaaay!
It's pubuhgoo! :D
I haven't seen this movie in decades. I really should rewatch it.
You remember this movie, Austin! Wowie!
6:15- I am so glad someone acknowledged this. So many people treat Toaster's arc like it came out of nowhere and that the suicidal flower was literally just there to give us a dark scene. Granted, that's what many detractors of this film often do, write off the dark moments as just 'dark for the sake of dark'.
I saw this when I was around four years old. And no joke, it was years before I could shake the idea that you shouldn't badmouth nearby appliances because you might hurt their feelings.
I’m autistic so I already have an unnatural attachment to inanimate objects, and this added the compounding factor of emotions and feelings. Lmao still won’t get rid of my car because I’m afraid I’ll upset her and hurt her feelingsz.
I apologise to my car if I make a mistake like accidentally over-revving it or something. It was my grandma's car originally so that might have something to do with it.
You were able to shake that idea?? God I wish that were me
After watching this I keep trying to think of snappy names for the group. The Appliance Alliance. The Fellowship of the Thing. The Household Homies.
The Housewares Heroes.
The Junk Bunch, The Priceless Devices
I have had an emotional connection to an air conditioner. However I live in an area where we have 90 degrees days and 110% humidity. AC is pretty much necessary.
Arkansas? Yeah, It's like that here too
I was about to comment something similar
Same here, bro, same here.
She. I was there it was so cold that I slipped and fell on the stairs
But do you love your AC??
It's all the toy story movies in one movie
...Holy shit your right
A lot of the staff who worked on Toy Story worked on this so I guess so?
Even the fourth one, if you take into account the "moving forward" idea of the Little Toaster original book.
N CG I KNEW IT!!!
I came straight to the comment section to see if anyone else noticed... LOL
My car broke down earlier this year. It had been the family car for 15 years when my parents gave it to me. It's dead. But all I could think of was the junkyard scene and the "Worthless" song. I still have the car in the garage, both due to procrastination to junk it and nostalgia. - Also, I was already an adult when I watched this movie for the first time and even then I loved it. Better than typical princess and hero crap, and saccharine dumb it down for the kids stuff.
1: Not "it".
2: Machines need never die. Restore the car.
Show that car that you won't give up on it. A dead car can be restored, but regret cannot.
Go to your car. It needs you now more than ever.
Goggles Tigerkhan get me $3 grand and let’s talk. But, it’s not all lost. I will be donating it. They can restore it and give it to a family in need.
Legit we were only able to sell my wife's old car because we thought of it as "She's dead and now we're gonna make her an organ donor" lol
OMG, I had to junk my first Audi and my mind jumped to the scene immediately.
I consider this film to be one of the best animated films of all time, maybe even one of the best films period. It's so heart-crushingly terrifying/depressing/hopeless, more than any other film has ever been to me.
I will always remember the junkyard scene, and the feeling of utter despair you feel as the protagonists are fruitlessly fleeing from that terrifying magnet to no avail. Gradually the cars around them come to terms with their state, and as you mentioned, one even willingly gets himself crushed. I can't watch that scene without getting a panic attack, and I think it's insane a children's movie can do that. I hold this film in very high regard.
That fucking magnet low key still gives me panic attacks.
"I worked on a Reservation.
Who would believe
They would love me and leave
On a bus back to old Santa Fe?
Once in the Indian Nation,
I took the kids on the skids
Where the Hopi was happy
'Til I heard him say....
You're worthless."
I have this theory that the lyrics each car sings reflect not only the life of the car, but of its driver. These lines could be the truck's experience, but it could be that of the driver. Was the truck left behind when its owners moved back to Santa Fe? Or was the driver left behind? Perhaps his wife and kids left him, and when he said "You're worthless", he was talking about himself. And like the truck, he took his own life.
I can do this for literally all of them. I've thought about it a lot.
"Once took a Texan to a wedding.
Once took a Texan to a wedding.
He kept forgetting
His loneliness, letting
His thoughts turn to home, and returned.
I took a man to a graveyard.
I beg your pardon,
It's quite hard enough
Just living with the stuff I have learned.
Assuming the cars' gender follows their occupant, a Texan bride's groom left her on her wedding day, wanting to return home instead. And a man died having learned something he couldn't live with. Perhaps the same man. And perhaps both died on the same day, to have made such an impact on these cars who should realistically have taken more than one Texan to a wedding, and more than one man to a graveyard. Perhaps this couple of lovers who never could be married in life are symbolically brought together in death. And the two cars are stacked, crushed together in their last moment.
Want more? I got 'em.
Woah the brave little toaster goes to mars is part of the novel's cannon? Like I seriously thought that was simply a Disney sequel with how outlandish the concept is.... I mean the movie basically is. XD
But I'm genuinely curious now how the novel pulls it out with the books being seemingly so down to earth.
phantom130 5 yeah, I’m really curious to know about that, too. I had no idea the sequel was based on anything since it’s got one of the silliest names ever.
M I L I T A R Y T O A S T E R S
Especially if "To The Rescue" is _not_ canon. That means no Wittgenstein, or if he does exist, they don't have a pre-established relationship.
@@Sammie1053 true. I got to revisit mars and to the rescue movies. I don't remember them too well even though I liked them almost as much as a kid. Do they hold up at least for nostalgia?
I'll be honest with you, I was born in 97 and I'm fairly sure Mars is the only one I've ever sat through in its entirety (though I have seen both of the others in bits and pieces). For animated children's features, sequels from Disney's cash-in era no less, I'd say they're pretty good. I have a special attachment to To The Rescue because it's all about computers and I'm 99% sure that's what got me interested in them as a kid. They both have a different feel from the original. To The Rescue is less deep, it's mostly just a fun story about 90s computers and some appliances, but I still enjoyed it. Mars is even more surreal than the original but has more of a message behind it. Both of them are less dark.
I did a double take at "The brave little toaster goes to Mars". That sentence caught me completely unprepared.
kain5056 it’s just like the show “8 out of 10 cats does countdown”. It sounds like a string of fever words lol
That movie is a fucking acid trip.
I actually recall seeing the movie several years ago when I was a kid. But it's been so long that I can hardly remember anything from it.
It's about planned obsolescence they go to mats because they were built to break so people would buy new ones
That's the only movie in the whole franchise I've seen, and I remember loving it at as a 10-11 year old.
So, it was based on a book written by a guy who suffered from depression, hmm. That explains a lot. Imagine if one of the toys from Toy Story was dismantled for parts, effectively "killing" them. Nightmare fuel.
Well, there was Sid...
In one of the original Railway Series books there's a story about an engine who was so bad that they finally put him in the back of the shed and he "grew smaller and smaller" as the workers used his parts to repair the others.
And we know from the story of Duke that engines never actually die no matter how long they go to sleep from being left alone. Yeah.
Well Sid from toy story kinda did that.
The vacuum chewing it's own chord in a fit of panic always struck me as some kind of seizure metaphor. As if they're trying to make sure he doesn't swallow his tongue or something. Watching this as a kid was no big deal but I picked it up again when I was about 13 and I had to wonder how I wasn't scarred for life.
The lonely flower scene broke my tiny little child heart into a million pieces, and just from the clip you showed, I can see it still holds up as the most devastating movie scene of all time.
Mind that the flower was a daisy in the novella, but a narcissus in the film; a narcissus hopelessly and unwittingly in love with its own reflection... this species change is not purely coincidental! It's a reference to Greek myth.
I saw this film when I was 7 years old, loved it but also was terrified of the depictions of death. The AC unit and the cars dying, and their salient fear or painful acceptance of death, was a new concept to me. Most movies have characters who die not express their fear of death -- they instantly die, or are old and content.
Good god this movie is very underrated.
Jw Nj the brace little toaster rated R
Directed by Quentin Tarantino.
@@makiroll218 no it's not
The way the broken appliances "ascend" at the end of the B-Movie musical sequence scares me more than the clown ever has. What is pulling them up? The broken tape recorder seems to look up to it with religious awe!
I'm glad I'm not the only one.
Fantastic video! Just wanted to say, there's a slightly weird reference to a Greek myth hiding in the flower scene in the film specifically! Basically, it's not drawn like a daisy, the flower is meant to be a Narcissus, which is named after the greek myth where a vain boy is cursed to fall in love with his own reflection and starves to death because he can't bear to stop looking at himself. After death, his body turns into a yellow Narcissus flower... like the one represented in the movie.
I haven't seen this much love in a room since Narcissus discovered himself.
You're right! Mind that the flower was a daisy in the novella, but a narcissus in the film; a narcissus hopelessly and unwittingly in love with its own reflection... this species change is not purely coincidental! It's a Greek myth reference.
Fun fact: Kirby is a brand of vacuum cleaner as well. My grandmother had one when I was growing up, so it made the movie extra weird. lol
I own a Kirby.
We had one growing up and I spent my whole life being absolutely terrified of accidentally running over the cord because I was sure that it would lead to what happened in the movie.
it was then thays the point..
I just thought that they did kirby because the both probably suck up everything
My mother had one for a time. Thing weighed a tonne, but had a headlight and worked brilliantly.
This was a fantastic analysis, thanks for the insight into the novella. I never even knew it existed. I never would have guessed that there was so much history to this. I remember even as a kid I found The Brave Little Toaster to be equal parts distressing and engaging. All that came back to me when I found my VHS copy whilst I was boxing up tapes to get rid of and replace with DVDs. Doubly weird due to the plot point of redundant technology, felt a twinge of guilt but damn, video tapes take up SO much space! Super glad you covered it!
Also, Kirby vacuums were the ones they sold door to door back in the day. A guy would come into your house and throw dirt on your floor with the promise of the vacuum cleaning it or the guy would eat it or give you 100$ or some shit.
Your assessment of how certain ages will feel about this movie is totally accurate. My younger sister loved this movie where I found it horrifying. And she watched it endlessly...
It strikes me that the flower sequence could be interpreted as allegory for a queer person falling for a straight person who doesn't return the affection, maybe not even understanding it.
Especially when the book was written, when being uncloseted was even more dangerous than it is today.
i ALREADY thought the flower thing was the saddest thing ive seen in a kids movie that wasnt dumbo but now its even worse :(
I wouldn't have come to that conclusion on my own just from the movie. However, after hearing the book version, learning about the author, and hearing your take, it totally clicks!
Huh wow thats a clever way to see it
Mind that the flower was a daisy in the novella, but a narcissus in the film; a narcissus hopelessly and unwittingly in love with its own reflection... this species change is not purely coincidental! It's a Greek myth reference.
And the tragedy of the fact that there are a field full of flowers, just out of view... Yeah. That hits a bit harder knowing the author was gay.
Thank you so much for covering this. TBLT is one of my favorite animated movies of all time, and had a huge influence on me as a kid.
I remember before the IMDb boards were removed, the one about the movie had a lot of thread discussions about the movie's thematic elements and the underlying symbolism and metaphors - especially in the song numbers that were laced in religious undertones with "City of Lights" and glimmers of mental health in "Worthless". What I remember most was a thread deconstructing Worthless, and how the most haunting story from the perspective of the cars was that of the green pickup truck, and his story about being on living on a Hopi reservation. Maybe we were putting too much thought into it back then, but his story (on top of him being the only one who drove to his death rather than fight) being contrasted with the suicide rates for indigenous people makes it all the more dark.
Overall, it's great to see more people talk about the film. It's criminally underrated, and it always saddens me when people say they don't remember it or they never cared for it.
This movie was such a vivid experience for me as a child. My dad would take me to see all the cartoon movies. I miss my magical dad.
I guess you could say that in the novel, the flower spoke in _flowery_ language
Also: daisy in the novel but narcissus in the film. A narcissus unwittingly in love with its own reflection...
Wow.
The a/c being happy about getting fixed hit some DEEP emotional nostalgia sore spots gd.
Apparently am a total apostate, as I loved the hell out of it as a young kid and have never lost that. I would not describe this movie as "fucked-up" or "a darker, depressing, and scary experience" but as warm and delightful. It never takes the ideas of worth, belonging and destruction out of the realm of what kids can handle or understand; Quite the opposite, it wraps these ideas up in an intelligent, brightly coloured, fun, musical, family-friendly package. It doesn't even have the bittersweet ending of films like Old Yeller but has everyone skip off into the sunset.
Everyone except that truck that committed suicide 🧐
I've seen "The Brave Little Toaster goes to Mars" and it was pretty bad. It falls into following the Land Before Time formula. What I found so odd about it is that it keeps making references to a past adventure that is never seen and I kept feeling like I missed something, like if there was some kind of Brave Little Toaster cartoon series. It turns out "To the Rescue" was actually made first but for some reason they released "Goes to Mars" first to fit with the book series. Idk, both movies felt like it was meant to be a pilot to a cartoon series that never took off.
I think I was 7 or so the first time I watched it. The Junkyard scene made me cry. It probably still will, should I rewatch it.
Did you???
@@LizLuvsCupcakes Verily.
Same here. Now the lonely flower makes me cry.
I think Worthless is one of the most powerful songs of any animated movie, as a kid I never watched this movie since it looked too cute...I was a very morbid child...for my liking. However after hearing Worthless recently I have added it to my must watch list, as someone with depression Worthless is a heavy-hitter song that actually made me tear up a little because it's just so damn relatable and powerful. Also I really like the idea of an animated horror movie, I mean if you replace the appliances with people you've got one twisted cartoon and I love it. XD
I knew that Philip K. Dick accused Polish science fiction author, Stanislaw Lem, in his letter to the FBI, but I didn't know he accused Disch. I think Dick was suffering from schizophrenia when he wrote that letter. His life was pretty much turning into A Scanner Darkly at that point. His issue with Lem was over an article Lem wrote about American science fiction being derivative or uninspired, even though Lem was a fan of Dick's books. I don't know what Dick's issue was with Disch. That subplot in The Word of God sounds like something that may have actually happened in Dick's nightmares. Thanks for this incredibly detailed history of Brave Little Toaster, Lady Roses.
Speed is a powerful drug
Dick was an amazing and prophetic writer but yeah, he for sure suffered from mental illness. Later in life Dick thought he was the reincarnation of Paul or luke from the Bible.
That PowerPoint presentation was AMAZING! I think you found your true calling in life if this whole RUclips fad doesn't work out.
"A bedtime story for small appliances"
I'M *DEAD*
Upon rewatching the flower scene from your review, that flower that fell in love with its reflection looks like a narcissus. I'm betting this was intentional on the film-maker's part since you cover later the book's flower was a daisy and it was the myth of Narcissus who fell in love with his own reflection.
Also, I don't remember when I first saw the film, but since it came out in 87, and I know I didn't see it in theaters, that would put me in the mid-to-late teens when I saw it, so I guess I'm a blend of the adolescent and adult perspectives on the movie. Great review, keep being awesome.
Also a greek myth!
Mind that the flower was a daisy in the novella, but a narcissus in the film; a narcissus hopelessly and unwittingly in love with its own reflection... this species change is not purely coincidental! It's a reference to the Greek myth.
The history of the movie itself is just fascinating, especially seeing the people who worked on it.
John Lasseter was actually supposed to be the director of this whole movie. It would've been a mix of traditionally animated characters in a CG environment. The Disney execs at the time shut the idea down (ironic since this was not long after Tron came out), and even fired him after the pitch. He didn't really have much to do with the final film, aside from designing the characters, by then he was already at Pixar. Speaking of...
This film is notable for having a lot of people working on it that would later become well-known Disney and Pixar alumni. Director and writer Jerry Rees went on to make many Disney Park attractions. Co-writer Joe Ranft became head writer for many of the Pixar films, and also became an essential member of the studio (and according to rumors, he was John Lasseter's right hand). Glen Keane, Kirk Wise and Kevin Lima became prominent figures of the Disney Renaissance as animators and directors. Mark Dindal also directed some notable films later on, like Emperor's New Groove and Cats Don't Dance. Rob Minkoff went on to direct The Lion King and Stuart Little. And this is just a small list of all the animators, who went on to make landmark films at Disney and Pixar. And of course, we know how John Lasseter became the face of Pixar and their storytelling, later also became head of Disney Animation where he also revived the studio and etc.
And while it is true that it became a non-Disney film, I think it was almost produced by them, as well. Ron Miller, then president/CEO of Disney, experimented with dark films at the time, such as The Black Hole, Watcher in the Woods and Something Wicked This Way Comes. So this would've aligned perfectly to his repeortire. I'm not sure if this shifted studios after Miller stepped down and got replaced by daddy of daddies Michael Eisner, but all I know is that it got bought by Hyperion Pictures, which was founded by a former Disney studio head.
Yeah this is more the type of history I was expecting from this essay.
Eisner being the daddy of daddies sent a chill up my spine
Don't forget about The Black Cauldron as far as "edgy" Disney goes. Loved the books, the movie (The Black Cauldron) not so much. I wonder if the famous Pixar lamp short/logo was inspired by the book and their work on the movie.
The Pixar lamp was an inspiration of the short Luxo Jr., which itself was an inspiration of the Luxo desk lamp John Lasseter had in his office. So no, it was not inspired by Brave Little Toaster.
Blame Lindsay Ellis :P
I love how DARK a lot of 80s family films were. Sure they ended up terrifying children and some adults, but they’re just so odd and loveable for being so different from what family-oriented media we have today. You could never make a Return to Oz, Dark Crystal, or The Adventures of Mark Twain these days. I’m still amazed movies like them were able to get made back then, and we’re lucky to have them.
Pinocchio and the emperor of the night, the Unico films, pretty much anything Don Blueth did...truly it was a golden age
I’ve never heard of Pinocchio and the Emperor of the Night, time to do some research...
Did you ever see _Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'hoole_ ? I thought that movie was pretty great, and definitely goes to dark places.
Goo Lagoon the adventures of mark twain was awesome! I had to get it on dvd, it left such an impression on me
Laughs in the dark crystal prequel that got canceled
I always thought of "Susie, the little blue coupe" Disney short, as a great companionpiece. And it's even more weird, because it's the short that clearly inspired Cars.
This movie had a huge impact on me as a kid, not so much about appliances in general but the themes of memory and especially the past still essentially reflect how I view love and relationships. It was so interesting to hear how the novella's ending differs, and to hear how Rose's perception of them differ from mine - to remember, hold onto something you love and cherish and try to maintain it as long as possible is probably something that would be more impactful/meaningful for me at first glance than the novella's ending, but for her the ability to move on from the past and find a (new) use is indeed an incredible message as well and makes me ponder how I view clinging onto the past versus finding agency within oneself to grow. They're both great endings in different ways and really speaks about the person and the perception of the person taking it all in.
9:20 Subliminal? He all but flat-out screamed, "Your appliances are at the junkyard! Don't ask how I know, just save them before they're crushed!"
“Are you female or male?”
“Im a brave little toaster”
Ah yes the meme made real lo.!
That Air Conditioner freakout scared me as a kid, every time, without fail.
Also that toaster went to Mars!
This is one of my favorite videos of yours. I grew up with this movie too. I like a lot of your other videos too. But this one really sticks out to me. :)
The funny thing is a TV is the LAST appliance you would keep for a long time. The least likely to be replaced is the lamp, unless you're an interior decorator lamps last forever and really old lamps can take new LED bulbs just fine. Everything else just wears out, well, all the these appliances.
The film was set during the 1980s, where materialism and credit ran riot, so people would get new small appliances and furnishings every few years, but technologies such as televisions were stagnant. If you already had a colour television then there was zero reason to upgrade to a newer model. Older, large appliances were also built VERY robustly. A colour TV my parents bought on credit somewhere around 1984~1986 worked flawlessly for twenty years. When TV switched from analogue to digital around 2007 was when the TV was finally recycled. It still worked, but we couldn't connect a digital TV aerial to it. I'm convinced it would still be working to this day.
A modern LCD would probably last you ten years. An OLED, five.
We kept our Curtis Mathis console TV for at least a decade. I clearly remember playing Q-Bert on that bad boy (via our TI-99/4A; aka "like a Commodore 64 but more esoteric").
@@benanderson89 "Modern LCD's" have lasted me surprisingly long. My 32" is still going strong coming up on a decade. The big issue is resolutions now: big TVs keep getting cheaper. The next issue in my opinion will be all the integrated internet services that your consumer electronics company has no reason to support anymore.
Two years ago or so we finally got rid of the huge-ass CRT monster box of a TV we had for over 10 years. It still worked but it looked shitty, had no HDMI for newer consoles, and the buttons were like, rotting off lmao.
It was ready to die, but I was sad to see it go. When dad put it in the junkyard it exploded. A badass death for an old-ass TV
I still have my parent's 15+ year old CRT TV. I keep it for retro game consoles. There is a niche market for them now.
Damn, the themes of self-worth give me some major depression vibes... I've never seen this movie, but I can imagine that some of it can hit close to home if you have depression or anxiety.
It made me really sad as a kid! Cars singing about how eventually we all become unloved and eventually die.
oh holy crap when i was a kid worthless ment something totally different to me, i just thought that the cars needed love, i used to tell my moms old honda that i liked it, now that im an adult that song takes on a whooooole different meaning
Yes. I have anxiety and I can say watching this and forgetting about most of the content of the film due to my age made it all come rushing back and feeling those childhood dread and depression. But it can be cathartic to process this moral stories about value, aging and not throwing away relationships and precious symbols.
I wonder though, would I have the anxiety if all these movies and shows hadn't told me I did?
That flower scene still hits me right in the feels.
The Brave Little Toaster deserves so much more recognition. If Disney still has the rights, they should really do something with them.
Let's not have a live action remake though
Yeah, nah. They'd do a ruinous live actions remake
1: I don't think they care.
2: if they did, that'd just ruin it.
And there's a lot of REFLECTIONS in the movie: the flower's reflection, the animals' reflections, the master's reflections (as a boy and as a young man), the Parts Guy's reflection, the appliances' reflection in the lake--even the reflection of the smoke-filled sky in the crusher's teeth. Of course, all these physical reflections serve to underscore the mental/emotional reflections going on--i.e. the appliances' memories of their master. 😊
I was so emotional when watching this film as a kid. My parents would actually limit when I could see it because I would cry my ass off every time Lampy gets heroically zapped by lightning..”LAMPY NO!”
They hid away the VHS in their bedroom...
I saw this when I was 11, maybe 12, and I loved it. I still do as an adult of 43. I re-listened to “Worthless” less than a month ago. The story is just so good, all of it, it feels like life.
I think this movie is why I love the junkyard scene in Toy Story 3. Seeing as a lot of the same people worked on both, it is little surprise.
Nice use of the King’s Quest VII soundtrack. The dessert music has always been pretty, but haunting.
I was in my teens when I saw this movie. Jon Lovitz (Radio) and Phil Hartman (Air Conditioner) were still on Saturday Night Live at the time, so when I heard they were doing the voices in a cartoon, I just had to see it. I remember taping it off the Disney Channel back in the VHS days.
As someone who is actually OBSESSED with both the book and the movie, The Brave Little Toaster, I can definitely say that I thoroughly enjoyed this review of both! most reviews I find only talk about the movie and how it was just some movie they watched as a kid and were scared of it. This video has so much more! I got a few giggles out of it and I really enjoyed the comparisons you made between the novella and the film, I even learned some new things! I am looking forwards to more amazing content from you, keep up the amazing work!
I wanted to find the excerpt of the book that has the squirrels. So i searched "brave little toaster gender" and the results were "i never knew if the toaster was a boy or girl" x( the squirrels have internet access
My little brother and I watched this movie a lot growing up. I think it helped us empathize with our Grandpa's PTSD. We both thought it was super cool that he fought nazi's but we didn't understand why he didn't want to tell us about it. This movie really helped us empathize what fear and hopelessness can do to the psyche.
Outstanding video as usual, Roses. I can really feel your efforts shine through as I listen and watch this. One thing's for sure. No obstacle like copyright claims can ever bring you down to despair. You emerge victorious one way or another. This movie really lead me to believe that appliances are alive when US humans are not around. If you were an appliance in this movie, what would you be?
Keep up your great work, Roses. You have lots to be proud of, especially yourself. Keep being you. I'll always be one of your fans as well.
Thank you for putting so much work into your videos. I always learn a lot and appreciate your research and style of presentation.
I remember when this movie first came out when it premiered on Disney Channel. I was obsessed with it. Looking back on it, the film really feels like an early Pixar film, and as mentioned, there are striking similarities to this and Toy Story, especially how this film shares a lot of the same beats as Toy Story 3 with the ending climax taking place in a junkyard
Bro this has triggered my fight or flight response so hard 🤣
But that flower scene made me burst into tears without hesitation. This film was so disturbing to me as a child. I’m glad you did the breakdown so I could figure out why it was a “horror” film!
Roses, girl, seriously thank you for showing this movie some love. This shit was my jam when I was a wee lad. Watched the tape SO MUCH it broke. And the part where Toaster sacrifices himself...😭. This definitely fits into Disney's dark art period. Still a special place in my heart!
one of my favorite things about having my son was rediscovering and buying all these movies that i loved as a kid. i recently discovered your channel, and I'm a new fan!
Oddly enough, the direct-to-video sequels are actually pretty good! To The Rescue was the third one made, but it actually takes place between the original movie and Goes to Mars; it never gets as dark as the first movie but still has some really heartrending and powerful scenes. Goes to Mars is completely bizarre, light-hearted, and is easily the worst of three, but it is still enjoyable and both it and To The Rescue have some good songs.
I agree, I watched all the films as a kid and enjoyed them all. I can see where a lot of the appeal in the first film was lost in the sequels though. I'm also curious as to how different Goes to Mars is in the book. I loved Wittgenstein so much as a kid, or as I called him then "Big Computer" because I had trouble pronouncing his actual name. I imagine he isn't in the book though, since he was meant to be introduced in To the Rescue and references that in his appearance in Mars (they weren't meant to be released out of order like they were)
In fact I've considered in my head at times, what if Jerry Rees had been involved with the sequels and they had the same tone as the original, we could've had a scene of Wittgenstein having a nightmare about his own demise at the junkyard (he was pretty convinced he was headed there at one point). I kind of wish we could see the stories of the sequels in the tone of the first movie, they were great movies but they had more potential if they had the original creators on board and weren't cheaply made.
I still remember the goddamned internet song.
Yeah the order you should watch the films is:
The Brave Little Toaster
To the Rescue
Goes To Mars
...but there was never a book for to the rescue, only the goes to mars sequel haha
That magnet scared me more than anything. Maybe because he seemed to be in charge of everything and got so pissed off when the toaster and the gang tried to run away from him and get him to go into different directions. He literally just shoves things on the belt from pile after pile.
I loved this movie as a kid and as an adult I still do! I have vivid memories of watching the AC blow himself out and that damn clown (between Firefighter Clown, Pennywise, and Killer Klowns from Outer Space, is it any wonder I fear them now?) and the ghost scene. If I could ever find a Blu-Ray copy (all I can find is DVDs which I already own one), I'd buy it to show my niece and nephew next time I saw them.
TOILET CLOWN from KILLER CLOWNS FROM OUTER SPACE SHUDDERS
I was afraid to watch this video for so long because the Brave Little Toaster terrified me as a small child. But I am glad that I ended up watching this video! There are scenes that gave me happy feelings as a child that I had forgotten. Kind of interesting to revisit it.
I'm not American so I watched this movie dubbed as a kid but they for some reason left songs in English so it wasn't until I grew up and watched this movie with my sister I realized how messed up the songs really were.
Same for me, in the 90s songs in movies were left in English so I enjoyed them quite a lot :D
when I was very young about 1994, my mom had the VHS copy of the first one and my grandparents bought the second and third later on, but she tells me all the time that i used to pop the first in and watch it while pulling our vacuum cleaner (which despite also being a Kirby never occurred to me I just thought wow our vacuum has the same name as he did) but I used to grab the toaster, vacuum, radio, and the lamp don't know why I didn't bother with the blanket but I would bring the appliances around and watch the movie with them. we even had the window style A/C unit though ours was in the wall and I apparently used to scold it for being mean to the others. IDK guess I was weird as a kid but even to this day I get a pang in my heart when an appliance dies and I can't fix it. thanks for that movie.
Really insightful analysis. You always make great content. Saw this as a kid, around 4-5 found it strange, slightly scary, but enjoyable enough. Rewatching it as an adult was interesting, to say the least. Never knew that Phil Hartman voiced the air conditioner until rewatching. Did anyone ever see the sequel, "Brave Little Toaster Goes To Mars"?.
I watched it once as a kid. The only thing I remember about it is the swarm of singing balloons flying through space.
That and "to the Rescue" are on US netflix right now. Neither are particularly good, but Mars is the better of the two.
I owned that movie as a kid. Also saw the third sequel (or mid-quel, I guess) too.
Had both on VHS, I saw the second one a few times when younger. Didn't know there was a third one until now. I'm tempted to check out the novella of "Goes to Mars". Because the animated film didn't have the same kind of impact or feel the first movie did.
I was reminded of this movie when my 15 year old TV died. It happened out of nowhere and I was upset not just because _" HEY! I WAS WATCHING THAT!"_ but because it had been with me since I was 11 yet it was just gone now.
I replaced it but couldn't help remembering this movie I saw when I was little that I didn't get yet the ideas clearly stuck with me.
Like many other who have commented, I was both traumatized by this movie yet loved it at the same time and would watch it pretty frequently. It really was a bizarre movie compared to all the other Disney movies coming out at that time. EVen though it had all these terrifying scenes like the A/C dying and the Clown nightmare scene, something about these inanimate objects coming to life and going on a crazy journey to find their owner was super appealing to me as a kid. I re-watched it as an adult some years back, it still holds up. Might need to watch it again after watching this video!
I loved and was terrified by this movie when I was younger. It honestly still holds up when rewatching it. Catching small things like Phil Hartman’s Jack Nicholson impression... perfect!
The Brave Little Toaster, the Watership Down of the 80's and 90's
I loved this film as a kid so much; it really is a good horror movie at its core. Also, when I was a kid, I thought Kirby was having a seizure during the waterfall scene and was swallowing his cord (like with the false belief that people can swallow their tongue during a grand mal seizure), not having a panic attack. The reason for that was that my dad had epilepsy, so I knew what a seizure looked like but not a panic attack. As a kid I had no idea why Toaster shut the vacuum off and that suddenly stopped the seizure, it made no sense to me! However, as an adult, I can see that it was indeed supposed to be a panic attack and the scene makes way more sense that way.
Speaking of panic attacks, that clown always freaked me out as a kid because it was so out of left field. I couldn't watch that scene as a kid and would do exactly what the clown said when it came on. *R U N.*
That toaster has seen some things!
I actually watched this movie for the first time because of this video. I wanted to see it before you got into the details so I could gather my own thoughts about the themes. I am 23. The movie resonated with me in ways that probably wouldn't have if I watched it as a kid. I really latched on to the theme of self-worth. As a person who suffers from depression, it honestly meant a lot. The journey these five went through was so rough, but in the end, they made it. They achieved their goal, despite all the hardships they faced.
I will definitely be remembering this movie the next time I am feeling down about myself.
I am really happy that I watched it, as it is still meaningful today was it was back then.
The Brave Little Toaster was also published in a fantasy anthology called Fantasy Annual IV, compiled by Terry Carr.
Edit: just checked amazon and it's available in paperback for about $10
I've never saw the movie but your description alone distressed me at points. Actually shed tears at the idea the toaster DIED jumping into the cogs, even though you later said he was fixed. I nearly cried just typing it.
Favourite movie of my childhood
I think I was about 7 or 8 when I first saw this movie. I fell in love with it instantly and it is one of those childhood animated adventures that has stuck with me even into adulthood (along with 1973's Charlotte's Web, 1977's The Hobbit and 1975's Rikki-Tikki-Tavi).
In particular, the song "Worthless" is one I never fully understood in youth but, with the benefit of age, now reveals itself for how incredibly powerful and depressing the message is. It is about depression and the march of aging (and, with it, the struggle of self-worth), the inevitable approach of death and how everyone, no matter what their journey in life, will ultimately end up on that road. Whether sedan, sports car, family wagon or pick up truck, all must eventually face the threat of obsolescence. It's pretty powerful stuff for a "kids cartoon" but that, in part, is the kind of thing that makes for truly worthwhile and memorable stories.
Thank you for exploring this animated classic and story on which it was based!
Someone: are you a man or a woman?
Me: I am neither. I am an appliance.
Isn't it funny when your mind tank forgets things over the years but as soon as you see one frame from a film, it all comes flooding back
Never found the clown scary personally...but the moment I ranked up in empathy the flower scene always breaks me.
Yeah; I think the flower is definitely the scene with the most impact.
I've watched this movie countless times but I never really understood the meaning behind that flower scene...Thank you for pointing it out it makes the movie so much better now! It's always been one of my favorite weird ones lol
MEMORIES> THanks roses for reminding me of the strange things we watched not soo long ago. Its insane how much of that movie STILL seems to be imbeded in my brain!
"That's the first time I've felt emotionally attached to an air conditioner" gurl, you've never lived in LA then. Haha
Also, love the bit about gender. Super fucking interesting
Childhood = This movie is confusing but the music is great.
Teenhood = This movie is so edgy & cool, for a cartoon.
Adulthood = This movie still holds up. Was it ever for kids?
2:43
Is that... Dog Song? Really faintly in the background?
Thank you, Roses. It's surprisingly fitting.
Yes.
@@pushinguproses
Wonderful. Just absolutely Wonderful.
Great video!
Literally came here to find if anyone else noticed this. Lol.
@@pushinguproses there is horror opposit kind of alternate Alice in Wonderland horror game it make the Disney company look gothic and terrifyingly gruesome in the horror version Alice will kill her way through this world the Shekhar cat guides her in his own way letting her know what is ahead check it out sometime
I remember going in for surgery when I was in kindergarten. When I woke up I watched this movie in my hospital. The Brave Little Toaster trilogy is still one of my favorite Disney film serials.
I absolutely loved this movie. I watched this VHS so often. I never found it to be too scary as a young child.
It's odd how different the movie and book are.
When I was a kid I didn't understand anything that was going on, so I had a fun time and wasn't scared by anything. A few months ago I came across a video that just showed the Worthless song, and that's when I saw the whole movie in a new light. One verse in particular got me;
I took a man to a graveyard
I beg your pardon, it's quite hard enough
Just living with the stuff I have learned
The ashes of both of my parents have gone through my hands as I bid them farewell. After my dad died I realized I hadn't really gotten over my mom's death almost seventeen years ago. As I look at what I've done in my thirty one years of existence, and ponder what kind of future I'm heading toward, one word keeps coming up in my thoughts;
Worthless...
This song is entirely too relatable.
Uh, anyhow, nice video! I had no idea the movie was based on a book, and despite following the story still managed to have a different tone. Lost it at the PowerPoint XD
I never knew I needed this 'till I saw it.
I’m glad the flower scene has more recognition. Even as a child, I bawled. The music and that abandonment feeling. Being left away from everyone. It’s how I felt.
9:38 The women in that photograph orginaly had star pasties. Disney then added a bra years later.
What sucks is that the CD release of the soundtrack was censored too. I had no idea but there's actually a really strong sexual reference in the Worthless song.
Yep, I remember the stars and being a little shocked and confused.
I also had the version with the woman who only had pasties. I was like 5. That's when I realized I was straight and liked women. Thanks "Brave Little Toaster"!
I just discovered you about a week ago and it’s like you had my exact, to the t, upbringing. Every obscure, forgotten show and movie and game i remember vividly growing up but have never met a friend in my life who also remembers, you go into minute detail about; not only making me feel sane that my memories are real, but giving me insight into stuff i haven’t put the time to dig into myself.
You are amazing. You should do a Q&A on your upbringing because i swear we’re the same people.
Some of you were never left with deep emotional scars caused by repeated viewings of “The Brave Little Toaster” and it shows.
I saw your Freddy Fish Review in related videos went to your channel and saw this. Combo went straight to my heart and im immediately super emotionally invested in the channel lol. Its cool to see someone nice with varied content. i just got back into the gaming community and after hours of manifestos, its nice to be back in positive fandom
I remember there was a commercial on my Toy Story VHS & the commercial portrayed Brave Little Toaster film more as lighthearted small children film... I was so enticed by this that I BEGGED my mother to buy this movie... Boy was she surprised at the dark, abrasive tone of the film... especially that Nightmare scene!
It was a child film. In those times..not too long ago...movies for kids and books for kids still touched on serious notes. It's a way to get a true message across.
Agon Leed It was very effective indeed
This movie singlehandedly contributed to my mental issues giving me hoarding tendencies. I bought this VHS tape at Sound Warehouse (a music/movie store that got bought out by Blockbuster) as a teenager and my friends and I watched it after taking acid. Often. As a natural-born car person, the most traumatic scene was the car crusher. I'm middle-aged now and it still makes me damned near cry.
I can relate to the acid-associated movie/TV issues. I am still terrified of Captain Planet and Jonny Quest.