I do not remember the first time I saw The Brave Little Toaster. I’m sure I was young. I’m sure I was too young. Because The Brave Little Toaster, for all its appearances, is actually a fairly bleak horror film for the majority of its run. The cute animation is a thin façade over an otherwise terrifying experience.
The main conceit of the film is that appliances, all appliances, are sentient. They are also, it seems, aware of their “master” and devoted to them. The film opens with a collection of abandoned appliances (our protagonists) in a cabin, making the best of their situation and awaiting the Master’s return.
As they go about their lives an argument breaks out between the air conditioner and the rest of the group. He tells them to give up on Master returning, and they reply that he is only so negative because he’s stuck in the wall and the master never played with him. And here the film takes its first turn.
The AC unit begins to rant and rave about his lot in life, feigns contentedness, yells at the others, overheats, and explodes.
The others stick their heads out from their hiding spaces to view his smoking form in the windowsill. “I didn’t know he’d take it so hard” the toaster remarks.
After the seeming death of the AC unit the group decides to seek out the Master as he doesn’t seem to be coming back for them. From here it’s a strange mixture of survival horror with undertones of abandonment and loss of purpose.
The appliances venture the wilderness, ponder if they’ll resort to cannibalism, and have nightmares about failing the Master and subsequently being killed by being thrown in a bathtub while plugged in.
While still lost in the woods, the group is picked up by a human. A strange man loads them into his truck and takes them to his appliance repair store. This is the hardest horror turn of the film.
While in the shop the group meets an enthusiastic set of appliances who seem to love their Master, knowing full well that he is unpredictable and often disassembles them for parts to be sold. At this point the appliances watch the man put a blender in a mounted vise grip, cut its cords, and remove its motor.
The film cuts to a horrified crowd gazing on a vise dripping with fresh oil.
Finally, the Master takes center stage and we see that he did intend to pick up the appliances. This renders their hardship needless but no less real.
The stories converge in a junkyard. The Master and his appliances. But first audiences are treated to a series of old cars on their way to a compactor taking turns to lament who they were and the fate they’ve come to. The lyrics are well worth reading to full understand the dark tone of the song.
Things ultimately end happy. It is a Disney film after all. The AC unit, somehow, didn’t die. The appliances are saved by Master (who is taking them to college). No one is forgotten. But that doesn’t negate the persistent tone of the film, one of confusion, loss, a sense of purposelessness and desperation.
The Brave Little Toaster was meant for kids. And maybe it is, maybe it’s a horror movie aimed at children. It’s got just enough cute to lure you in, and the darker themes are just abstract enough that a child might not be certain why they’re uncomfortable (except for the grinning clown’s ominous whisper of “run”—you know exactly why that’s awful). At any rate, it’s an unexpectedly gut-wrenching time, even as an adult.