The Brave Little Toaster Goes to Mars

The Brave Little Toaster Goes to Mars
DVD cover
Directed by Robert C. Ramirez
Produced by Donald Kushner
John Bush
Tom Wilhite
Kurt Albrecht
Executive:
Peter Locke
Willard Carroll
Written by Willard Carroll
Based on The Brave Little Toaster Goes to Mars
by Thomas M. Disch
Starring Deanna Oliver
Thurl Ravenscroft
Roger Kabler
Timothy Stack
Eric Lloyd
Russi Taylor
Chris Young
Jessica Tuck
Farrah Fawcett
Carol Channing
DeForest Kelley
Alan King
Marc Allen Lewis
Wayne Knight
Kath Soucie
Music by Andrew Belling
Alexander Janko
Edited by Julie Ann Lau
Production
company
Distributed by Walt Disney Home Video
Release date
  • May 19, 1998 (1998-05-19)
Running time
 72 minutes
Country United States
Language English

The Brave Little Toaster Goes to Mars is the name of both a children's book by Thomas M. Disch and a film based on it. Both are sequels to the book, The Brave Little Toaster. The film was produced by Hyperion Animation and distributed by Walt Disney Home Video and released in 1998. It featured the last performances of actors DeForest Kelley and Thurl Ravenscroft before their deaths in 1999 and 2005 respectively.

Although set after the events of The Brave Little Toaster to the Rescue, Goes to Mars was the first of the two sequels to the original film, as both were in production around the same time and the latter was the first to finish production.

Plot

Now being married anew and having moved to 112 Mercer Street, which is a house formerly owned by Albert Einstein, Rob and Chris have an infant son named Robbie. At first the appliances all fear that their masters will pay more attention to him but later grow accustomed to him. One night, Toaster awakes to find the hearing aid in the attic receiving a message which appears to be transmitted from space. The next morning, Toaster informs the other appliances and Ratso, the family's pet rat, of the events occurring the previous night, leading to the appliances and Ratso agreeing to carefully watch the junk drawer in case of Hearing Aid suspiciously escaping again. The following night, Hearing Aid escapes from the drawer and to the attic once more. Robbie, awakened by the sound of the transmission, climbs out of his crib and follows Hearing Aid. The appliances awaken, find Robbie going up the stairs and pursue him, leading them to enter the attic just as a beam of light appears. The shocked appliances pursue Hearing Aid, but in spite of this, Robbie is beamed into space. After grilling Hearing Aid and learning that Robbie has accidentally been transported to Mars in his place, the appliances contact Wittgenstein, an old supercomputer and friend from their days in college, for advice by connecting a computer to a security camera in the museum that acts like a phone. The appliances, as per a plan by Wittgenstein, create a makeshift spacecraft with the ceiling fan, a laundry basket, the microwave, and microwaveable popcorn as fuel (Calculator is also provided with the required data to be their navigator) and launch themselves into space, leaving only Ratso to prevent two baby monitor intercoms from alerting Rob and Chris. During their flight through space, the appliances meet a pack of sentient balloons who have been let go by human hands and now float endlessly through the cosmos.

Eventually, the appliances reach Mars and, upon a rough landing due to Blanky foolishly turning off the microwave, encounter multiple satellites sent from Earth, among them being Viking 1, in addition to a Christmas angel named Tinselina who was sent to Mars with the former. However, soon after their arrival, the appliances and Tinselina are taken hostage by an army of military toasters who escort them to their 'Supreme Commander', a colossal refrigerator. As revealed by Tinselina, the appliances Mars were built on Earth by a corrupted Alpine manufacturer named "Wonderluxe" and designed to fail from the get-go under a scheme of planned obsolescence. Angered with their design flaws, the Wonderluxe appliances escaped, left to Mars, and built a missile rocket set to destroy the Earth. Furthermore, the Wonderluxe appliances, harboring hatred for humans, have since built a weapon of mass destruction with the intention of destroying Earth in retaliation. Intent on averting the earth's destruction, and with an upcoming election, Toaster decides to challenge the Supreme Commander for his seat, appointing Hearing Aid as his running mate. As Toaster and the Supreme Commander engage in a heated debate, Robbie is able to push a hand out of his bubble and touch the Supreme Commander, who is briefly overcome with warmth.

The election ends with Toaster the victor. They then meet with the defeated Supreme Commander, who allows the appliances to discover what is behind his doors. As they venture into the icy interior of the Supreme Commander, they find the true form of Supreme Commander, who Hearing Aid recognizes as his long lost brother, who he has not seen in sixty years. Hearing Aid's brother then reveals that he also originally belonged to Albert Einstein, who left him in the wake of World War II, during which he fell into the hands of a Nazi leader, whose ideals influenced him, leading him to become disillusioned with mankind and to escape to Mars, where he assumed an alternate identity to rule through fear. Only after experiencing "the touch of the small boy's hand", combined with Toaster's convicted campaign, did he realize that not all humans are bad. With the conflict resolved, the appliances and Robbie, now joined by Tinselina and Hearing Aid's reformed brother, are about to return to Earth while the Wonderluxe appliances stay behind to wait for the next generation of humans to arrive in the future. After clearing the ground on their spacecraft, Hearing Aid's brother realizes that he forgot to deactivate the missile. Risking being left behind on Mars, Toaster and the ex-Commander jump out of the spacecraft, race to the missile's control panel and successfully abort its launch. The others turn back to rescue Toaster and the commander, and after the two are back on board, Tinselina gives up her clothes and hair so the spacecraft can be provided with organic fuel necessary to return to Earth. The appliances happily ride back to Earth and manage to return Robbie to his room as well as returning themselves to their original posts by sunrise. Tinselina, now stripped of her beauty and deemed 'worthless' by herself, throws herself into a trash can.

Later, on Christmas morning as Robbie is unwrapping his presents, Rob and Chris hear him speak his (second) first word: "toaster". Then, they watch as Robbie gathers Toaster, Blanky, Lampy, Kirby, and Radio around the Christmas tree. As the gang celebrates, Toaster turns on the lights on the tree, on top of which is Tinselina, who was previously rediscovered and restored by Rob and Chris. Meanwhile, Ratso and the other appliances celebrate Christmas in their own ways.

Voice cast

Music

The film score was composed and conducted by Alexander Janko and performed by the New Japan Philharmonic. The film contains four original songs ("I See a New You", "Floating", "Humans" and "Home Again").

Comparisons to book

In the book, only the fan, the computer, the microwave, the hearing aid, Toaster, Radio and Blanky (after stowing away in the laundry basket) travel to Mars, with Kirby, Lampy and Calculator staying behind, whilst in the film, all the main cast go to Mars, excluding Ratso, who was not included in the book.

Reception

The Brave Little Toaster Goes to Mars was met with mixed to negative reviews from critics and fans of the original film, with criticism concentrated on its contrived plot and its perceived inferiority to its predecessor.

References

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