The Brave Little Toaster To The Rescue

The 1980s were a time where Disney movies were not making the money or being liked by critics. So many films just did not impress anyone. Regardless of what the story was based on, critics and Disney lovers just didn’t like the films during that decade. Nick the Nitpick Film Critic noted in his review, “That's not the case now however for many of the once unnoticed movies have found a home for those who appreciate the quality they gave. But of those, there were some movies that got recognized for being well done.” Before Disney really started to come back again with “The Little Mermaid,” another animated film was released that so many children who grew up with it still remember it to this day, which was “The Brave Little Toaster.” Seeing the story of the film, Disney fans and critics really liked how adult some of the usual themes and concepts were for the story. Sadly though, Disney started to release straight-to-video sequels to the film a decade after. Despite it being a time when Disney started releasing sequels, it would have been one of the worst, but “The Brave Little Toaster To The Rescue,” released in 1997, actually holds up.

Starting some time after the first movie, we see the appliances once again but here, they’re in the owner’s veterinary clinic. Their owner, Rob, is ready to graduate and has to finish up his 600-page thesis before submitting it. One night when he is about to be done, the electricity goes out and Rob loses all of his work. Now stressed that he won’t graduate, his appliances and some animals join together to help Rob out. Directed by Robert C. Ramirez, who directed “Joseph: King of Dreams,” and written by Willard Carroll, who was the executive producer to the first “The Brave Little Toaster,” they actual made a passable sequel seeing at the time when this came out. As predicted, it’s not as good as the first movie but it’s a sequel that you can see. There are a few things that don’t add up, obviously. Nick noted, “The most typical of reasons being continuity errors; ones that go beyond the physical realm that the first had established. Things don’t just materialize.”

The other ones are the characters. The new animal friends to the original group are fine but they feel like they were just shoehorned in there. You just see that it was needed for one of the main animal’s reasons to change for no reason. Then there’s Rob’s understudy Mack who is basically his assistant. When he is introduced, his personality instantly lets you know what type of person he is. Besides all of those flaws, there isn’t a lot to notice. Despite these being problems that hurt the development with certain characters, the script still has some dark stuff that you really feel scared at. You have to applaud the crew for not having the overall result feel superfluous. I agree with Nick when he said, “Some sequels get completely diluted and end up having no risk involved.” Unless the watcher wanted to know who voiced the characters, a lot would find out that a lot of the original voice actors from the first movie did not reprise the roles.

Nick mentioned, “Since the release of this was a decade later, seeing why some actors who voiced childlike characters is understandable.” However, the question remains with why Jon Lovitz, Timothy E. Day, Wayne Kaatz and Colette Savage did not reprise their roles? Every one of them voiced protagonists. However, the voice actors who replaced them did have the same level in their performance. Jessica Tuck voiced Chris, Chris Young voiced Rob, Eric Lloyd voiced Blanky and Roger Kabler voiced Radio, who all sound just like the original actors, which is acceptable. Reprising their roles is Deanna Oliver as Toaster, Thurl Ravenscroft as Kirby and Timothy Stack as Lampy, which is great to hear. For new cast, Jay Mohr voiced Mack, Andy Milder voiced Ratso, Alfre Woodard voiced Maisie the Cat, Danny Nucci voiced a Hispanic Chihuahua, Andre Daly voiced Murgetroid the snake and Eddie Bracken voiced Sebastian the Monkey. Brian Doyle-Murray voiced a computer.

The animation is really decent for this sequel. This is mostly because the first movie really set itself on a pedestal. If anything, the animation here is on the same level as the first one, which is acceptable. Seeing how this film was animated on a smaller budget, it’s important to see that the quality stays about the same. Sadly, the film score was not done by David Newman, but Alexander Janko replaced him. Nick said, “This was Janko's first film composition and seeing that he frequently orchestrates more than composes, it's interesting that Janko made out rather sufficiently. The score itself consists of organic orchestra and uses those elements to its advantage. By this, the cues that involve the darker themes work properly.” The songs that the protagonists sing are passable. Songs like Remember That Day, Tap to the Super Highway, and Chomp and Munch are catchy and really get you feeling.

This film isn’t memorable to the first one, but it’s not completely useless. There is some adult stuff in here, the music is done nicely and the voice cast does a good job. The extra characters and an unexplained motivation is what makes this film forgettable to an extent.

I don’t understand why this film came out after “The Brave Little Toaster Goes to Mars.” This film is actually the second film, so why they decided to release this last is beyond me. However, I think you should see this one because it actually is a good film to watch. You will like this better than the Mars one, but you will not like it as much as the first one.

Now that we have done this trilogy, stay tuned tomorrow to see what I will review next in “Disney Month 2020.”