The Brave Little Toaster Goes to Mars

The Brave Little Toaster Goes to Mars is the name of both a children's book by Thomas M. Disch, as well as the film made from same. Both are sequels to the book and film versions of 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 performance of actor DeForest Kelley before his death in 1999.

The plot takes place after The Brave Little Toaster to the Rescue, as the group already knows Ratso the rat, and Wittgenstein the supercomputer, having met him in To the Rescue. Ratso also refers to him as "the Old College Buddy"; Rob is in college in the other film. Both films were in production at the same time and this was the first one to be released.

Plot

Rob and Chris have a son named Robbie. At first the appliances all think that they will pay more attention to him but later get used to him ("I See A New You"). Later, the Hearing Aid, who was left in a drawer in their new house from the previous owner gets out of the drawer and passes everyone who is asleep. Toaster then sees him and follows him up to the attic. Toaster gets very suspicious about him when he was talking to someone in space.

The next morning, Toaster tells what happened last night then they all agree to stay on watch of the drawer till he comes out. Later, when it is midnight, everyone falls asleep just when Hearing Aid escapes from the drawer. Suddenly, Robbie, as they call him "the Little Master", awakes to the sound and gets out of his crib and follows Hearing Aid. The appliances awake and find Robbie going up the stairs. Lampy tries to get him down, but is dragged up the stairs and his plug slips out and falls down the stairs. The appliances enter the room just as a big beam of light appears. The appliances chase after Hearing Aid, but then Robbie disappears in a bubble through space. And after that, the readout from Hearing Aid's information on the Calculator shows that he was sent to Mars.

They contact Wittgenstein, the old supercomputer, by connecting a computer to a security camera in the museum that acts like a phone, to help them and gives them advice. They get the microwave and cheddar cheese popcorn to help them fly, as it is organic, a laundry basket, a ceiling fan, and they had Calculator be the navigator after Wittgenstein gives him power. They set off in space to go to Mars and find Robbie. During their flight, a pack of balloons appear who fly endlessly in space from hands who let them go ("Floating"). The appliances crash land on Mars and find the baby. They meet a Christmas angel named Tinselina who was sent to Mars with Viking 1. The appliances follow a group of appliances who had just arrived with their leader, the Supreme Commander, who is a huge refrigerator. These appliances were made deliberately shoddy by a corrupt manufacturer, designed to fail from the get-go under a scheme of planned obsolescence. When the company inevitably failed, the useless appliances were used as extra weight by the military in rocket launches, being abandoned afterwards on Mars. The Earthling appliances learn that the angry, rejected appliances are going to blow the Earth up because their old owners threw them out when they failed, and Toaster tries to talk them out of it. In between the fight, Robbie is able to push a hand out of his bubble. His hand touches Supreme Commander, and the refrigerator inexplicably begins to turn pink. He smiles at the child, before returning his original color.

Toaster ends up running against the refrigerator in an election for the title of Supreme Commander ("Humans"). After a while, Toaster wins the election and is the new Supreme Commander. The appliances go into the freezer of Supreme Commander and find that the Supereme Commander's true form is the brother of Hearing Aid, who he has not seen in sixty years. When asked by Toaster why he changed his mind about blowing up Earth, he says "the touch of the small boy's hand" reminded him that not all humans are bad. They are all about to return to Earth when suddenly Hearing Aid's brother realizes he forgot to deactivate the rocket. The missile counts down. Toaster jumps off with Hearing Aid's brother and destroys the rocket. Toaster is almost left on Mars, but the others come back for him. After Toaster is on board, Tinselina gives up her clothes and hair so they can have something organic to get back to earth.

The appliances happily ride back to Earth ("Home Again"). The appliances return to Earth just in time as the baby monitor that Ratso, their pet rat, had been restraining all night, finally wakes Rob and Christine up. One day when they are taping Robbie, Rob finds Tinselina in a garbage can and fixes her up. It is a happy ending with Robbie saying "Toaster!" as Tinselina spends her first time on a Christmas tree. It is a happy ending with the appliances having a merry Christmas with their Master and his family as well as the other appliances and Ratso, who are having their own fun such as playing tic-tac-toe and playing cards.

Voice cast

• Deanna Oliver as Toaster
• Thurl Ravenscroft as Kirby
• Roger Kabler as Radio
• Timothy Stack as Lampy
• Eric Lloyd as Blanky
• Russi Taylor as Baby Robbie
• Chris Young as Rob
• Jessica Tuck as Chris
• Carol Channing as Fanny
• Farrah Fawcett as Faucet
• DeForest Kelley as Viking I
• Alan King as Supreme Commander
• Jim Cummings provided the singing voice of Supreme Commander
• Andy Milder as Ratso
• Kath Soucie as Tinselina
• Wayne Knight as Microwave
• Fyvush Finkel as Hearing Aid
• Stephen Tobolowsky as Calculator
• Redmond O'Neal as Squirt
• Brian Doyle-Murray as Wittgenstein

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") that were written by Van Dyke Parks.

Comparisons to book

In the book, only the fan, the computer, the microwave, the hearing aid, the toaster, the radio and the blanket (after sneaking on the laundry basket) went to Mars. The calculator, the lamp and the hoover stayed behind. In the film, the characters all go to Mars together, except the computer.

References

External links

• The Brave Little Toaster Goes to Mars at the Internet Movie Database
• The Brave Little Toaster Goes to Mars at AllMovie
• The Brave Little Toaster Goes to Mars at Rotten Tomatoes