Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

In the mid to late 1980s, Disney was shopping around for a new life for their animated output. Their own animation product had been at low ebb for years, and although they kept up an in-house department, there only now did the company concentrate on reviving its live-action division.

This is when 'outside' firms had a chance with the Mouse, and when the company that became Pixar first got its foot in the door. The Brave Little Toaster, actually produced by an independent animation company called Kushner-Locke, has a lot more in common with 90s Pixar product than it does older Disney models, right down to the choice of a desk lamp as a main character.

The main difference with The Brave Little Toaster is of course the fact that instead of being about cute little animals, the writers have invented a world where appliances have voices and come to life when humans leave the room. Like the dinosaurs of The Land Before Time, a group of assorted gizmos in a country cabin (toaster, vaccum cleaner, electric blanket) undertake a quest: find the master who abandoned them long ago, in this case a little boy.

Everything about The Brave Little Toaster is more restrained and probably less funny than later Pixar shows, but that's not necessarily a bad thing as the feature is aimed at the younger end of the kid spectrum. There are nice characters to be found here, ones that don't rely on sit-com insult jokes to be funny. They face an unknown situation, and the optimism of the unofficial leader, the Toaster, has to go up against the cynicism of the air conditioner (voiced by Phil Hartman, in imitation of Jack Nicholson), and rooms full of more malevolent appliances. A desk lamp at a repair shop is made to imitate Peter Lorre, for example.

Animation directors Randy Cartwright, Rebecca Rees and Joe Ranft give their animated cast lively expressions, although there's nothing really progressive about their design. The Toaster hero is little more than a happy face on a chrome box. But his voice (by Deanna Oliver) gives him ample personality. The same goes for the faceless old-time radio that provides a running commentary in 1930s -speak. Jon Lovitz does the radio with charming restraint.

Van Dyke Park's songs are pleasant, if not particularly memorable, a post-Disney Disney problem that didn't improve until the advent of The Little Mermaid and the in-house animation explosion that began the next year. The Brave Little Toaster isn't a poor man's Broadway musical in disguise, as many 90s Disney successes seem to be, and that's to its credit. When Disney and its competitors started trying to make animated musicals from subjects like The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Anastasia, they really lost their way.

Overall, the art direction is pleasing, and all of a piece. The cross country journey ends with a slightly forced climax in a junkyard, but there's a useful kid lesson when the appliances discover that their master, whom they remember as a little kid, is now a college-age adult. They haven't found the comfortable old world they sought, but something different, and it's okay. Life doesn't stand still.

Disney's DVD of The Brave Little Toaster is an okay transfer of a good element. The flat presentation never looks cropped left and right, but the first few minutes are unstable, with the image riding in the gate. It's also dirtier than one would expect; this title apparently didn't merit the attention given Disney A product.

The one extra is enticingly titled The Making of The Brave Little Toaster, but it turns out to be a flat-out deception. It's not even about this film, and instead turns out to be a fatuous 1998 promo-featurette about its two made-for-video sequels, naturally released concurrently. Naturally, we learn nothing about the making of anything, except that actors consider the opportunity to voice an appliance the highlight of their careers. In another symptomatic trend of 90s Disney animation, the straight-to-video sequels are packed with name talent doing the voices, a frill mostly irrelevant to the story being told.

The disc is loaded with promos for upcoming Disney product, but they've allowed for skipping the ads with the menu button, so I suppose fair is fair.