The Brave Little Toaster Goes to Mars (1998)

Studio: Buena Vista Home Video Release Date: 03/02/2004 Product Description

Go BLT!!!

Great movie, completely entertaining for kids and parents. Not as good as the first one, but still really cute. Had my 2 year old and my 8 year old spellbound! June 11, 2008

satisfied customer

got our movie as said in time frame is a excellent deal for the money and my 3 yr old couldn't be happier May 12, 2007

I think it's a cute movie

Well my 3yr old loves this movie, I thought it was cute.It may not be the best movie out there but I rather my child watch this then cartoon network, spongebob and alot of other nonsense cartoons. She may not be learning anything from it, but at lease she ot learning the negative stuff from other cartoons out there. thank you October 25, 2006

What *were* they smoking?

This is one really weird movie. I haven't seen the first one, and this doesn't really encourage me. Though it couldn't be much stranger!

Of course, the whole talking appliances thing is weird, but if you get beyond that, the hearing aid trying to be beamed up to Mars by a bunch of appliances is a really strange plot. Some things really had me laughing. The appliances turning to their old college buddy Wittgenstein, an early computer in a museum; a Christmas tree angel arguing with Viking 1 on Mars; discussion of the unified field theory (?!) and planned obsolescence (in a kids' movie?); and lines like: "The miracle part of Woodstock is that peace could happen at all." "It's some sort of trajectory, expressed in binary numbers." and "There's an election every day. The supreme commander likes the positive reinforcement." Ok, so it was good for a laugh. But I can't see kids making heads or tails of this movie. Or if they did, should we be worried? ;) October 2, 2006

The Toaster sequel to AVOID

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!!! September 30, 2003

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