THE BRAVE LITTLE TOASTER GOES TO MARS A film review by Steve Rhodes Copyright 1999 Steve Rhodes RATING (0 TO ****): **
With the advent of the Web and the explosion of movie information available on the Internet, there are few hidden movie gems left, but one of these is Disney's THE BRAVE LITTLE TOASTER. A **** movie classic from 1987, it was released theatrically by Disney but was basically ignored. Featuring a cast of mainly unknown voices in a low-budget production, it is worth renting again and again. Sadly, the same cannot be said of its recent direct-to-video sequel, THE BRAVE LITTLE TOASTER GOES TO MARS. One viewing is more than sufficient. One hopes the second, and purportedly the last, sequel will prove more imaginative.
The series's appliances are among the most lovable animated characters in modern motion pictures. Back from the original are Deanna Oliver as the sweet and spunky hero, the Toaster; Thurl Ravenscroft as the wise old vacuum cleaner, Kirby; and Tim Stack as the desk lamp, Lampy. New voices include those of Eric Lloyd as the precious, little Blanky and Roger Kabler as the boisterous Radio. There are also a whole host of unnecessary new characters to clutter up what should be a simple story and cast.
The sequel has a different writer (Willard Carroll) and director (Robert C. Ramirez) than the original. Carroll, whose most recent movie, PLAYING BY HEART, suffered from stiff dialog with excessive cleverness, comes up with a script this time that is almost terminally bland. The basic setup for the plot holds little promise, and Carroll finds little interesting to do with it.
The humans, who are the unimportant bit players in the BRAVE LITTLE TOASTER series, have a new addition to their family, a goo-gooing baby. The story concerns the baby's abduction to and rescue from the planet Mars. Or as our hero, the Toaster, puts it better, "The little master has been spacenapped!"
The original movie had a cornucopia of sweetly hilarious lines that were full of poignancy and pathos. The deeply empathetic, little appliances were absolutely lovable. They still are, but this time they are being held hostage in a lackluster movie that isn't worthy of them. Still they try valiantly to save the baby and the movie, but they only succeed at one of these.
In order to pad the time to get the movie past the minimum time necessary to be considered a full-length feature, they inject a half-dozen, imminently forgettable songs. A helium, hippie balloon that's been floating in space since Woodstock, sings one especially dull one. Since his only purpose is to sing his insipid music, one would wish that he had burst long ago.
Once the appliances get to Mars, any hope for them to encounter some well-drawn villains, who could add some much-needed tension to the movie, vanishes. They meet some Wonderlux appliances who are indeed on a power trip -- "Power to the appliances!" they shout, but they are far from threatening. Their leader does have one interesting political strategy. He likes his ego boosted, so he has an election every single day to remind himself of his support. No silly polls for him; he wants people to tell him daily that they still want him in office.
The only truly funny part of the movie comes in the casting of a cameo. For the part of the faucet, they chose -- who else? -- Farrah Fawcett.
THE BRAVE LITTLE TOASTER GOES TO MARS runs just 1:13. It is not rated but would certainly be a G, as it is appropriate for all ages.
My son Jeffrey, age 9, kind of liked the movie, especially the character of Blanky, and gave it **. He complained that the sequel was a little stupid and the songs were not memorable. A big fan of the original, he thought this one wasn't near as good.
Email: Steve.Rhodes@InternetReviews.com Web: www.InternetReviews.com
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