Toaster (Deanna
Oliver), Radio (Roger Kabler), Blanky (Eric Lloyd), Lampy (Tim Stack), and
Kirby and vacuum cleaner (Thurl Ravenscroft) make a promise to protect their
owner’s new baby, Robbie (Russ Taylor). However, an old Hearing Aid, voiced by
Fyvush Finkel, which was left in a drawer by the house’s previous owner,
receives messages from outer space and is about to be transported to Mars when
Robbie crawls in the way of the transportations and is accidentally sent to
Mars. Using plans from a Wittgenstein the Supercomputer (Brian Doyle-Murray),
the appliances use a Microwave Oven (Wayne Knight), some microwave popcorn, a
calculator (Stephen Tobolowsky), and Fanny the fan (Carol Channing) to fly to
Mars.
TV Guide mentioned in
their review, “On Mars, the appliances find Robbie but encounter an army of
refrigerators and other militant appliances that rebelled against their
manufacturer and fled to Mars, and have built a missile to destroy Earth.”
Toaster fights the appliances’ Supreme Commander, voiced by Alan King, to an
election and wins, and then deactivates the missile. They all go back to Earth,
along with Tinselina, a Christmas Tree Angel, voiced by Kath Soucie, which
sacrifices its organic hair and dress to use as fuel so they can fly back.
Robbie is put into his crib before his parents wake up, and when he learns how
to walk, he rescues Tinselina from a trash can and his parents put it on top of
their tree.
TV Guide said, “THE BRAVE LITTLE TOASTER was a charmingly old-fashioned and nicely animated fable about growing up and leaving behind childhood possessions and memories, and the visually identical sequel is entertaining enough for kids, but lacks the thematic poignancy that made the original such a pleasant surprise. The additional characters are amusing, particularly the Yiddish-accented hearing aid and the wisecracking microwave, but there are simply too many of them, including a "cameo" by Farrah Fawcett as, yup, a talking faucet. There are a number of clever touches designed to appeal to adults, such as the voyage to Mars where the appliances encounter lost balloons floating in space who sing about their past lives (a hippie balloon from the Woodstock concert, a cowgirl from a Buffalo Bill Wild West shows, etc.), but the silly new songs can't compare to those of Van Dyke Parks's in the original.”
The story, based on a novella by famous sci-fi author Thomas M. Disch, is also very complicated for a kid’s cartoon, showing signs of hidden intellectual elements fighting to break through, like a strange subplot involving Albert Einstein, who is shown to have been Hearing Aid’s former owner, and his Unified Field Theory. TV Guide ended their review by saying, “Additionally, whether Disney realizes it or not, there is an obvious capitalism vs. communism subtext, manifested in the commander's speeches to his "oppressed" workers, whom he tells "you have no master but yourselves."”
Sorry to say, but this one is a serious downgrade from the first movie. I didn’t like it when I saw it and if you liked the first movie, then give this sequel a pass. You won’t like it, but what do you expect when it’s a direct-to-video sequel? A lot of them have spelled disaster, but there have been some exceptions. But this one, do not see because you will hate it, I assure you that.
There’s one more sequel that we need to look at, so stay tuned tomorrow to see how that one turned out in “Disney Month 2020.”
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