), which I sincerely believe may be Pixar's best feature to date. (I'd put it in a dead heat with WALL-E [IMDB, Amazon
].) The plot of Toy Story 3 got me thinking about The Brave Little Toaster (IMDB, Amazon
).I watched The Brave Little Toaster again today and realized that it must have been more than 15 years since I last watched it. (I noted that the master's name is "Rob" and that the last time I watched this film was years before I started calling myself Rob; I used to call myself Bobby.) The Brave Little Toaster is worth watching again and I highly recommend it.
What I remembered most about the movie from my youth was that it was scary. In fact, the only scene I could remember was the repair shop scene where the Frankenstein-esque mismash of broken, quasi-repaired appliances sing to the protagonists (Kirby the vacuum, Lampy, Blanky, the Radio, and the Brave Little Toaster) about the desperate state of broken appliances at the repair shop. (The shop owner disassembles them and uses them for spare parts.)
***Toy Story 3 spoilers alert***
The similarities between Brave Little Toaster and Toy Story 3 are remarkable. (I believe I heard that Pixar/Disney's John Lasseter had worked on Brave Little Toaster, although I couldn't find his name in the credits at IMDB.) Both stories center around a group of living inanimate objects; paradoxically, humans believe that these objects are lifeless but secretly they live. The toys of Toy Story 3 and the appliances of The Brave Little Toaster live to please their "owner" ("master" in the vernacular of The Brave Little Toaster). Thirdly, both sets of protagonists mistakenly believe that they have outlived their usefulness and are destined for the trash heap, which they nearly are. The protagonists in both films are miraculously saved from certain destruction by the Brave Little Toaster (demonstrating its bravery) and by the deus ex machina of the Pizza Planet aliens operating "the claw" in The Brave Little Toaster and Toy Story 3, respectively. In both films the protagonists finding that they aren't worthless after all. The Brave Little Toaster, et al, join their master, Rob and his shapely female companion (presumably his girlfriend) on his journey off to college. In Toy Story 3, the toys' owner, Andy introduces his toys to a new owner upon whom they can refocus their adoration.
The films excel at conveying the story of these supposedly inanimate objects and convey the emotion of being an unused appliance/toy. The Brave Little Toaster, unlike Toy Story 3, makes extensive use of song; the characters themselves often sing. Toy Story 3 is a more humorous take on the same basic story without sacrificing the sincerity of its more dramatic and emotional moments.
As I mentioned above, Toy Story 3 is probably Pixar's best. However, The Brave Little Toaster is certainly worth watching and re-watching. It also serves as a reminder that Disney/Pixar is not the only studio that can succeed in feature-length animation. It has inspired me to make a point of watching some other non-Disney animation that I recall watching as a youth: An American Tail (IMDB, Amazon
), Fern Gully (IMDB, Amazon
), All Dogs Go to Heaven (IMDB, Amazon
), and The Secret of Nimh (IMDB, Amazon
). (The last of which, The Secret of Nimh, I haven't actually seen, but it has been recommended to me. Additionally, I've been told that it's available on Hulu.)
I was just thinking this, with respect to the two scenes using a large mechanical device to save the friends from the pit (magnet in the toaster, claw in Toy Story).
ReplyDeleteI watched a documentary about pixar and I think they made an application to do Brave Lil Toaster in 3d which was denied. So pixar would be familiar with the story.
Josh
I Googled both films and ended up here today :)
ReplyDeleteUnlike you, I felt so disappointed when I watched TS3. I felt robbed. The fact that both films are nearly identical took it away from the movie experience (well, lots of chick flicks are alike, but some of Pixar folks had been involved in Toaster). I think TS3 is a good movie, and it may be technically Pixar's best. I was able to watch it again a couple of times and it's slowly growing on me (still nowhere near my favorite Nemo - closely followed by TS2 & Wall-E.
I'm not sure Lasseter was involved in TBLT, but I'm pretty sure Joe Ranft was. He tragically passed a few years ago.
Thanks for the comment, @Liesl. Although I haven't checked, I believe you are correct regarding Joe Ranft. Not sure if Ranft worked on TS3, though.
ReplyDeleteWhat's your take on Cars 2? I haven't seen it, but was disappointed that they wanted to make another Cars, since that is among my least favorite Pixar films. Definately won't see it in theaters.
Personally, I found TS3 to be the weakest of the trilogy. TS was groundbreaking with a great story, TS2 took it to the next level as a rescue story, but TS3 was redundant other than to introduce a new set of (inferior designed and charactorized) toys for merchandizing purposes.
ReplyDeleteFirst off, the conceit that Andy would still have these toys in his room and was even going to take Woody to college is ludicrous. Any real person pretty much discards his childhood toys as he goes along or passes them on to younger siblings, my own kids do this regularly. No kid wants to be seen as playing with "baby toys" and a couple of the ones that hang on in the toybox, like Hamm, aren't really toys at all. Woody, as a collector's item or Buzz as kitsch value ok, but Potato head, of which millions upon millions have been made continuously, or a generic dinosaur? What kid just out of highschool still has this crap sitting around? I just don't buy that, to begin with.
Secondly, I'd be vaguely creeped out if some college kid brought a box of his old toys to give to my daughter, the played with her and them for a while to introduce her to his version of their personalities.
TS3 was the first Pixar film I found to rely on generic movie tropes and screenwriting cliches, an unoriginal story and unappealing new characters. Absolutely made only for financial reasons, disappointing since Pixar, who produced uncommercial and un-toymaker-friendly fare like Up because they believed more in story-telling than merchandizing really sold out on this one.
It's also telling, to me personally, at least, that kids (currently 2, 4 and 8) don't care for only 2 Pixar movies: TS3 and Cars2, both arguably cash-in movies that didn't get the long-term development and honing the others did.
Although they don't think much of Brave, either, to be honest. Maybe Pixar's quality is just falling. They didn't know what to make of Inside Out, although it upset my 4 year old a bit in the middle
I should have said "MY kids, currently 2, 4 and 8)
ReplyDelete