Search - The Brave Little Toaster Goes to Mars on DVD

The Toaster sequel to AVOID

Sandra Mandelis | 09/30/2003

(1 out of 5 stars)

"It pains me to have to think about this movie again, but I thought I'd write a review to warn people away, if I could. Some of the other reviewers don't sound too fond of the Brave Little Toaster movies, period, but that's not the case with me! I loved the original movie, and the other sequel (part two in the Disney-adapted storyline) "The Brave Little Toaster to the Rescue," is an enjoyable extension of the Toaster series, if not quite up to the original. This dreck, just forget it. I don't care how nuts you and/or your kids are about the Brave Little Toaster, if you're over 3 years old this monsterpiece will give you brain cramps. (And why would you want to traumatize a 3 year old with this!?) I watched this film with a 7 year old and a 9 year old, and we all agreed about how awful it is.When I first watched this very convoluted movie, it brought every "what were they smoking" cliche to mind about the screenwriters and director. Seriously, it was hard to imagine that people whose brains weren't chemically fried could POSSIBLY think that some of the nonsense and downright creepiness in this flick was a good idea. Then I finally read the Brave Little Toaster books by Thomas M. Disch (which are excellent, by the way, and I highly recommend them.) A large part of the awfulness of the "Mars" movie sequel seems to result from the unfortunate collision of the Disney- and Disch-authored plots. Disney pretty much took Disch's concept of anthropomorphic appliances and ran with it, adding their own human characters and greatly altering the plot. The "master" of the appliances Rob McGroarty, his girlfriend/wife Chris, the veterinary school thing --all 100% Disney. Not that I have a problem with Disney re-writing the storyline; as I've said I enjoy both the movies and the books which inspired them. But in the "Mars" movie, Disney seems to have decided to include every bizarre element of the Disch book (appliances travelling to Mars under their own power, gigantic talking refrigerators, talking toy balloons surrounding the Earth, "Christmas Angels" on Mars etc.), failed to integrate said bizarre elements into the Disney storyline or explain them, and then they added MORE convoluted nonsense of their own. The Disch story is a lighthearted fantasy with a sci-fi edge; the Disney adaptation never gets off the ground.Anyway, enough about how the plot of this mess is, well, a mess, and onto to the creepiness! One of the constants of the first two Toaster movies, and a feature of most "inanimate objects coming to life" movies (think Toy Story), is that the talking appliance characters only come to life when people are NOT around. But in "Mars" we watch a truly terrifying musical number with the McGroarty's new baby and the appliances... something about how Rob's appliances are watching out for the kid while they dance around and cuddle. And for the rest of the film, appliances can "come to life" around the baby. (That kid is REALLY going to need some therapy when he grows up.)Perhaps the creepiest aspect of "Mars" is the fuzzy boundary about what can and cannot "come to life" with human speech and sentience. Usually in Disney films, this includes people and non-human animals. The Toaster films extended this to electrical devices, which was charming and unique since we tend to think of our favorite and least favorite appliances and electronics as having personalities anyway. In "Mars," not only do animals and appliances talk to one another, the kitchen sink talks! And toy balloons can talk! Christmas ornaments can talk! It's a regular talking extravaganza, and it raises eerie metaphysical questions about what ISN'T alive in this whacko movie.As other reviewers have noted, "The Brave Little Toaster Goes to Mars" has some serious plausibility problems as well. That may sound like a funny complaint about a film whose title character is a talking toaster, but believe me, you'll be scratching your head too. The plot (such that it has one) revolves around the McGroarty's infant son being kidnapped by a rebellious band of appliances who have somehow relocated themselves to Mars. It's not too well explained how the baby is transported to Mars, but once he's there, he floats around in some kind of impervious air bubble (which can survive re-entry into Earth's atmosphere, of course.) Thomas M. Disch may have written some far-out stuff, but at least in the book he made a point of explaining how ONLY machines could survive the extreme temperatures of Mars and the vacuum of space. (I mean the absence of air, not Kirby:)) I could cite many comparable examples about how this movie was very poorly adapted and put together, but already my brain is cramping up from too much thinking about it. Bottom line: Watch the OTHER Toaster movies and read the books, just avoid this one!!!"

Great for preschoolers

Sandra Mandelis | 07/01/1999

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This is a great little movie that my 3 year-old son loves. It is definitely the best of the three toaster movies. I really like the soundtrack (so does he)."

Best along with Disch's book

Sandra Mandelis | 03/02/2003

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I'm a Grade 12 student who recently got back into watching the Toaster movies because I remember the "Brave Little Toaster" from when I was little. I noticed on the back of the video box, the credits said "Based on the novella by Thomas M. Disch".So what did this Grade 12 student do? I went to the library and signed out the two books that correspond to the first two movies (there is no third book for "Toaster to the Rescue").The books are very different from the movies, and in watching "Goes to Mars" I realized that a lot of aspects would be hard to understand if you haven't read the book, which is quite supplementary to the plot in the movie. There is no baby in the book (the appliances, in the first book, end up with a retired ballerina instead of the Master they had been looking for) and Einstein's hearing aid actually helps Radio to pick up signals from the Wonderluxe appliances on Mars which tell them that they plan to destroy Earth. The reason for going to Mars is essentially the same as in the movie. And the Christmas angel was really sent to Mars with the Wonderluxe appls. (NOT the Viking 1) as a free gift for buying them (when they were on Earth). Her role stays the same in the movie.As for the quality of this movie, I was expecting it to be really bad, but I loved it. The weakest point was the soundtrack ...the words (apart from the campaigning song between Toaster and the Supreme Commander) were inane and the music was rather uninspired (again, except for the campainging song). I was happy that the characters themselves were almost unchanged (despite obvious casting changes to the voices of Blanky and Radio) but this time, they had an annoying tendancy to all speak at once, which they would have never done in the first movie.I give it 4 stars for the animation (which could have been a disaster considering it was straight to video), the message (basically the "brave" thing we got the first time around with Toaster) and how well it stuck to the plot of Disch's novella. Most of all, I loved seeing Toaster and his friends in another adventure after having seen the first movie so many times in my life."

Solid and entertaining sequel almost up to original film

Wayne Klein | My Little Blue Window, USA | 03/30/2003

(3 out of 5 stars)

"I've never seen so many applicances get around so often. Perhaps NASA should hire the Toaster and his pals to get them to Mars! This is an entertaining installment but the plot is a bit confusing for some small children. There are very few little ones who know who Albert Einstein is, much less the theory of relativity (or the unified theory). There's also few children who know what hearing aids are for. I'd suggest watching this movie with your kids to explain (to their comprehension)the confusing bits of the story.The second film to be produced in this trilogy (although the last in it), Mars is the second best. The colorful backgrounds, songs and adventure will capture your child's attention. It also provides a great dialog about values, misunderstandings and prejudice. It's also a entertaining movie. It's a pity that Disney didn't invest a bit more money in this sequel (it was actually done outside of Disney if I'm not mistaken and picked up by the company). The animation could have been a bit smoother but your kids probably won't notice.The songs are enjoyable and the difficulties the characters have provide excellent examples of conflict resolution for kids. The plot is less dark than the first film but, again, may require a bit of explaining."