The Brave Little Toaster Goes to Mars

This movie opens with the same underlying conflict in the heart of every appliance; the fear of not being useful. The bickering of our main characters with the microwave (similar to the high-tech appliances in the original) reminds us of this. Then, when Little Master is born, he forges a bond with the appliances. A hearing aid in the junk drawer, once belonging to Albert Einstein, plans to be beamed up to the moon by a colony of rebel 'built-to-break-down' appliances, led by a giant refrigerator "Supreme Commander" who is in actuality the brother hearing aid. Unfortunately, Little Master is beamed up instead. Ratzo the rat is forced to tussle with the Monitor in the baby's crib while the five main characters, a Carol Channing ceiling fan, a hyper calculator, and the hotshot microwave are forced to fly out to Mars in an oversized laundry basket. With the aid of popcorn and their old pal Wittgenschtein, of course.

On Mars, they encounter Viking I the satellite, and a Christmas angel who's never seen a tree. Also, the colony of rebel Wunderluxe appliances have a serious vendetta against man, and plan to destroy earth with a missile launch; they might remind one of the pokemon Mewtwo, created by humans but resentful of them and with a free will, wishing freedom, and to rebel against their former 'Masters' and creators.

This movie raises the dubious question of what's alive and what's not, as has been rightly pointed out. I don't want to say this a goof that wrecks an otherwise satisfying film, however, it's worth considering. The Christmas ornament, clearly not an electrical appliance, but rather a little doll with organic hair and robes, is alive. But the garbage can she's placed in at the end is not. Okay, chalk it up to enchantment. Christmas is supposed to be magical. The kitchen faucet can also speak, but that's even acceptable. It's those balloons in space that make one wonder; a balloon is also, in this film and clearly not the other two, is to be extended the privilege of possessing a soul? In the other two this was reserved for all humans, all animals, and all electrical devices alone. What separates a balloon from a sofa? Sure, it was the obvious object that would be living out in space due to the unsteady grip of a child. Yet still...

If one simply listens to their song and appreciates it for what it is, and doesn't analyze it, it's easier. In the end, peace comes to the reconciled appliances, the baby returns home, and essentially everyone is content, perhaps except Viking I...but even he will remain in contact with Angelina, the ornament. The songs are weakest in this film. The plot is utterly weird. But the song Chris sings to Little Master, "I see a new you," is actually very pretty when you hear it multiple times. And overall the movie is not a huge disappointment.

It pains me to have to think about this movie again, but I thought I'd write a review to warn people away, if I could. Some of the other reviewers don't sound too fond of the Brave Little Toaster movies, period, but that's not the case with me! I loved the original movie, and the other sequel (part two in the Disney-adapted storyline) "The Brave Little Toaster to the Rescue," is an enjoyable extension of the Toaster series, if not quite up to the original. This dreck, just forget it. I don't care how nuts you and/or your kids are about the Brave Little Toaster, if you're over 3 years old this monsterpiece will give you brain cramps. (And why would you want to traumatize a 3 year old with this!?) I watched this film with a 7 year old and a 9 year old, and we all agreed about how awful it is.

When I first watched this very convoluted movie, it brought every "what were they smoking" cliche to mind about the screenwriters and director. Seriously, it was hard to imagine that people whose brains weren't chemically fried could POSSIBLY think that some of the nonsense and downright creepiness in this flick was a good idea. Then I finally read the Brave Little Toaster books by Thomas M. Disch (which are excellent, by the way, and I highly recommend them.) A large part of the awfulness of the "Mars" movie sequel seems to result from the unfortunate collision of the Disney- and Disch-authored plots. Disney pretty much took Disch's concept of anthropomorphic appliances and ran with it, adding their own human characters and greatly altering the plot. The "master" of the appliances Rob McGroarty, his girlfriend/wife Chris, the veterinary school thing --all 100% Disney.

Not that I have a problem with Disney re-writing the storyline; as I've said I enjoy both the movies and the books which inspired them. But in the "Mars" movie, Disney seems to have decided to include every bizarre element of the Disch book (appliances travelling to Mars under their own power, gigantic talking refrigerators, talking toy balloons surrounding the Earth, "Christmas Angels" on Mars etc.), failed to integrate said bizarre elements into the Disney storyline or explain them, and then they added MORE convoluted nonsense of their own. The Disch story is a lighthearted fantasy with a sci-fi edge; the Disney adaptation never gets off the ground.

Anyway, enough about how the plot of this mess is, well, a mess, and onto to the creepiness! One of the constants of the first two Toaster movies, and a feature of most "inanimate objects coming to life" movies (think Toy Story), is that the talking appliance characters only come to life when people are NOT around. But in "Mars" we watch a truly terrifying musical number with the McGroarty's new baby and the appliances... something about how Rob's appliances are watching out for the kid while they dance around and cuddle. And for the rest of the film, appliances can "come to life" around the baby. (That kid is REALLY going to need some therapy when he grows up.)

Perhaps the creepiest aspect of "Mars" is the fuzzy boundary about what can and cannot "come to life" with human speech and sentience. Usually in Disney films, this includes people and non-human animals. The Toaster films extended this to electrical devices, which was charming and unique since we tend to think of our favorite and least favorite appliances and electronics as having personalities anyway. In "Mars," not only do animals and appliances talk to one another, the kitchen sink talks! And toy balloons can talk! Christmas ornaments can talk! It's a regular talking extravaganza, and it raises eerie metaphysical questions about what ISN'T alive in this whacko movie.

As other reviewers have noted, "The Brave Little Toaster Goes to Mars" has some serious plausibility problems as well. That may sound like a funny complaint about a film whose title character is a talking toaster, but believe me, you'll be scratching your head too. The plot (such that it has one) revolves around the McGroarty's infant son being kidnapped by a rebellious band of appliances who have somehow relocated themselves to Mars. It's not too well explained how the baby is transported to Mars, but once he's there, he floats around in some kind of impervious air bubble (which can survive re-entry into Earth's atmosphere, of course.) Thomas M. Disch may have written some far-out stuff, but at least in the book he made a point of explaining how ONLY machines could survive the extreme temperatures of Mars and the vacuum of space. (I mean the absence of air, not Kirby:))

I could cite many comparable examples about how this movie was very poorly adapted and put together, but already my brain is cramping up from too much thinking about it. Bottom line: Watch the OTHER Toaster movies and read the books, just avoid this one!!!

The Brave Little Toaster goes to Mars is on my list of my top five least favorite animated kids movies (Number one is Tarzan and Jane, number two is Cinderella 2 dreams come true and number three is the movie you're reading the review of)! The hair-brained idea (for starters) is terrbile. What are the chances of a Martian taking the baby that happens to be in the same house that has the talking accessories? Probably a 21% chance because we don't even know if Martians exist! Anyway, the plot is so gooney, and the movie is so slow, and animation is so corny, you'll be sorry if you watch this! I can't think of enough bad things to say about it! And the rat can talk to the toaster! Who ever heard of a rat talking to a toaster??? It's so bad, it makes you wish you would have watched the first one! And if you think THAT you KNOW it's a bad movie (By the way, the first Brave Little Toaster is number 4 on my list, I haven't seen the other Brave Little Toaster movie and I hope I NEVER do!) Look, if you want satisfaction in a video, either buy: Uncensored Bosko Volumes 1 and 2 (That's a DVD), Out of the Inkwell Vol. 3 The Birth of Ko-Ko, The Bugs Bunny/ Road Runner Movie, or Betty Boop the definitive collection (all of these are available at Amazon). If you don't want to be bored out of your skull, do NOT watch this movie. Over and out...