--- title: "The Brave Little Toaster" year: 1987 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/the-brave-little-toaster" fi1m_id: "the-brave-little-toaster" imdb_id: "tt0092695" tmdb_id: 19933 wikidata_id: "Q1199692" fi1m_score: 77 critics_reviews: 3 published: "2026-10-02T22:00:52.296568+00:00" updated: "2026-10-02T22:00:53.321169+00:00" region: "EC" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # The Brave Little Toaster (1987) Directed by Jerry Rees · 1h 30m · Animation, Adventure, Fantasy, Family ## Identity The Brave Little Toaster - **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/the-brave-little-toaster - **Type:** Film - **Fi1m ID:** the-brave-little-toaster - **IMDb ID:** tt0092695 - **TMDB ID:** 19933 - **Wikidata ID:** Q1199692 - **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092695/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/19933, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1199692 **Fi1m score: 77** · Critics: 3 of 6 reviews so far *In a sentence:* An air conditioner has a breakdown in the first ten minutes and the film only gets darker from there > Jerry Rees’s cartoon about five appliances walking to the city is cheaply drawn, oddly paced and braver about fear and loss than most children’s films before or since. The songs are uneven. The feeling in it is not. ## Synopsis A cottage in the woods, closed up for years. Five electrical appliances still wait there for the boy they call the Master: a chrome Toaster (Deanna Oliver), a cheerful desk lamp named Lampy (Timothy Stack), a Radio (Jon Lovitz) who speaks in old news bulletins and sports commentary, a childlike electric Blanky (Timothy E. Day) and a grumbling vacuum cleaner, Kirby (Thurl Ravenscroft). Every car that passes gets them hoping. When an estate agent arrives and puts up a For Sale sign, the Toaster decides they will not wait to be sold with the house. The five bolt an office chair to a car battery, harness it to Kirby and set off through the forest for the city to find their boy themselves, over the loud objections of the Air Conditioner (Phil Hartman), who is screwed into the window and cannot come. ## Review Jerry Rees’s film, written with Joe Ranft from a novel by Thomas M. Disch, takes a premise that sounds like a toy advert and plays it straight. Five appliances have been left in a summer cottage. The boy who used them has not come back. They set off to find him. That is the whole plot, it runs 90 minutes, and it carries a U certificate that feels, by the end, like a clerical error. The five are well chosen and well voiced. Deanna Oliver gives the Toaster a plain, practical kindness; she is the one who makes decisions, and she pays for them. Jon Lovitz’s Radio never speaks in his own voice, only in borrowed ones, ball games and bulletins and old radio drama, and the gag holds for the length of the film. Timothy Stack’s Lampy is eager and not bright. Timothy E. Day’s Blanky is a small child who happens to be an electric blanket, and the film treats his fear as real fear. Thurl Ravenscroft’s Kirby, the vacuum cleaner, is the deep-voiced grump who does the hauling and resents it, and his voice carries more weight than the drawing of him does. The drawing is where the money ran out. Backgrounds are flat, the forest is a few shades of green, and the movement sometimes stutters. What saves it is the faces. The Toaster has no mouth, only the shadow in her slots, and the animators get worry and resolve out of that. Lampy’s neck bends like an anxious person leaning in. The Air Conditioner, bolted into the window, has a grille for teeth, and Phil Hartman gives him Jack Nicholson’s drawl and Jack Nicholson’s contempt. His scene comes in the first ten minutes: he is mocked, he cannot follow, and he heats until he blows. We were frightened by that as children and we were unsettled by it this time, as adults who knew it was coming. The film has shown, before the journey has started, that it is willing to let things break. It keeps showing it. The Toaster’s nightmare in the woods, a clown in a fireman’s helmet, is the kind of image most children’s films would have cut in the first screening. A repair shop run by Elmo St. Peters, voiced by Ranft himself, is staged as a horror film and knows it; the song in it, performed by parts of appliances that have been taken to bits, is funny and horrible at once. The music is credited to Van Dyke Parks and David Newman, and it is uneven. The opening number is forgettable. The repair shop song is not. And a late song, sung by cars, which we will not place for you, moved us more than we expected a cartoon about appliances could. It is about machines remembering the people they carried, and it does not pretend that anybody is coming back for them. The flaws are real. Rees and the editor Donald W. Ernst let the middle sag: a stretch in the forest with a pond and a storm goes on well past the point where it has told us anything, and the film stops for flashbacks to the boy as a child that say the same thing each time. A number performed by modern appliances in the city is one joke stretched to a song. Lovitz’s Radio is used more for noise than for character once the travelling starts, and we missed him. Against the children’s cartoons of its decade, this is the odd one. Most softened everything they touched. This one lets its characters be jealous, cruel and afraid, and it lets a few of them lose. The Toaster’s leadership gets people hurt and the film does not let her off for it. That is a harder thing to put in front of a seven-year-old than any monster, and Rees puts it there calmly. Watch it with the children rather than leaving them to it. Not because it is unsuitable, but because somebody on the sofa will want to talk about the air conditioner afterwards, and it may not be the child. *Fi1m score 77, published 2 October 2026.* ## Straight answers **Is The Brave Little Toaster worth watching?** *The Brave Little Toaster* is worth watching for families who can take a children's cartoon that lets its characters be cruel, frightened and sometimes lost, and we scored it 77. The drawing is cheap and the middle sags, but the faces, the voices and a late song sung by cars carry more feeling than most animated films manage. Watch it with the children rather than leaving them to it. **How long is The Brave Little Toaster, and what is it rated?** *The Brave Little Toaster* runs 1h 30m. It is an animation and adventure film. **Where can I watch The Brave Little Toaster in Ecuador?** *The Brave Little Toaster* is not on any streaming or rental service in Ecuador at the moment. It is available in 2 other countries; change your country at the top of the page to see where. Availability is checked daily. **How does The Brave Little Toaster compare to Toy Story?** *The Brave Little Toaster* and [*Toy Story*](https://film.one/film/toy-story) tell much the same story, owned things who love their owner and fear the day he outgrows them, but the earlier film is darker and the later one is better made. *Toy Story* is funnier, tighter and far more handsomely animated. *The Brave Little Toaster* is braver about fear and loss, and it lets a few of its characters lose. **Is The Brave Little Toaster based on a true story or a book?** *The Brave Little Toaster* is based on a novel by Thomas M. Disch, adapted by Jerry Rees and Joe Ranft; it is not a true story. You do not need to have read the book to follow a plot this plain: five appliances left in a cottage set off to find the boy who used them. The film plays that premise straight rather than as a toy advert. **What should I watch after The Brave Little Toaster?** After *The Brave Little Toaster*, try [*Toy Story*](https://film.one/film/toy-story) (1995, Fi1m 92): Owned things who love their owner and fear the day he outgrows them, done with more money. Then [*The Iron Giant*](https://film.one/film/the-iron-giant) (1999, Fi1m 88): A machine learns what it is for, and the film trusts children with the answer; and [*Watership Down*](https://film.one/film/watership-down) (1978, Fi1m 81): The British children’s cartoon that also refused to pretend nothing bad happens. ### Reviews we read (3) - **Los Angeles Times**, CHARLES SOLOMON (75/100, inferred): Solomon finds the film engaging family entertainment, despite some padded pacing and forgettable songs. He singles out the characters’ expressive animation and the strong vocal performances, especially Phil Hartman’s Jack Nicholson impression. [Read](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1988-02-26-ca-30437-story.html) - **Time Out**, DA (70/100, inferred): The available description presents the film as a charming adventure. It singles out the novelty of following five animated electrical appliances. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/the-brave-little-toaster) - **The New York Times** (64/100, inferred): The URL identifies this as a film review, but the article text is inaccessible. Its verdict and any specific praise or complaint cannot be determined. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/1989/05/31/movies/review-film-the-odyssey-of-a-band-of-lonely-gadgets.html) ## Details - **Director:** Jerry Rees - **Director:** Jerry Rees - **Screenplay:** Jerry Rees, Joe Ranft - **Novel:** Thomas M. Disch - **Editor:** Donald W. Ernst - **Music:** David Newman, Van Dyke Parks - **Producer:** Tom Wilhite, Donald Kushner - **Cast:** Deanna Oliver as Toaster (voice); Jon Lovitz as The Radio (voice); Timothy Stack as Lampy / Zeke (voice); Phil Hartman as Air Conditioner / Hanging Lamp (voice); Timothy E. Day as Blanky / Young Rob (The Master) (voice); Thurl Ravenscroft as Kirby (voice); Joe Ranft as Elmo St. Peters (voice); Judy Toll as Mish-Mash / Two-Face Sewing Machine (voice) - **Runtime:** 1h 30m - **First release (Brazil):** 9 July 1987 - **Genres:** Animation, Adventure, Fantasy, Family - **Budget:** $2 million - **Box office:** $2 million ## Where to watch in Ecuador Not streaming, renting or buying in Ecuador at the last check. Also available in: CA, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## If you liked this - *Toy Story* (1995), Fi1m 92: Owned things who love their owner and fear the day he outgrows them, done with more money. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/toy-story.md) - *The Iron Giant* (1999), Fi1m 88: A machine learns what it is for, and the film trusts children with the answer. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-iron-giant.md) - *Watership Down* (1978), Fi1m 81: The British children’s cartoon that also refused to pretend nothing bad happens. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/watership-down.md) - *My Neighbour Totoro* (1988), Fi1m 89: Two sisters, a sick mother and a forest; patient, kind and quietly frightened. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/my-neighbor-totoro.md) - *Ernest & Celestine* (2012), Fi1m 84: A bear and a mouse against the rules; soft watercolours, hard feelings underneath. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/ernest-and-celestine.md) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/the-brave-little-toaster