THE BRAVE LITTLE TOASTER IS AN ANTI-CAPTITALIST MOVIE
I CAN EXPLAIN PLEAS-
For those of you who have never heard of this movie before, ‘The Brave Little Toaster’ is an animated movie from 1987 (adapted from a novella published in 1982), and independently made by Hyperion Pictures. The movie is about 5 household appliances living in an abandoned cabin, who long to reunite with their “master” (a young kid who’s family used the cabin for summer vacations). After they find out the cabin is being put up for sale, the appliances set off on a harrowing trek through the wilderness, surviving as best they can despite limited sources of electricity, all while hoping their “master” still needs them and will love them.
This film was originally a Disney project given to John Lasseter as the first animated movie with CGI backgrounds, but the higher ups were really only giving Lasseter busy work while his contract ran out, and as soon as that happened they fired him immediately. Lasseter ended up producing the movie with other CalArts graduates (including Joe Ranft, who later wrote for The Lion King, Finding Nemo, & Toy Story) as an independent film. It had a slashed budget of only $2 million, but the movie did really well at the Sundance Film Festival. However, Disney still owned the distribution rights during the production, so they let the film languish in non-mass-theatrical-release-hell and ended up only marketing it for home video. Because of this, the movie did not get NEARLY the amount of attention it deserved imo. It might be easy to brush off as a low budget “kid’s movie” about talking appliances, but it has really good themes and I don’t think enough people give this movie enough credit for what it tries to say. I’m going to sound like this gif the entire time BUT BARE WITH ME because I fucking love this movie and I want more people to see and appreciate it. Also there are some spoilers ahead so if you haven't seen this move yet pleassssseeee do so!
Here is an upload of literally the entire movie directly on Youtube.
The film deals with themes such as sacrifice, obsolescence, fear of abandonment, & worth. The director Jerry Rees said in an interview that one of the main themes of the movie is “—the opposing forces of feeling like you're worthless and the joy of redemption.” Lampy's sacrifice during the lightning storm, the "outdated" appliances in the spare parts store accepting junk fate, Kirby jumping off the cliff to the rescue after everyone else falls into a waterfall, etc, are all points of the movie where these themes are reinforced.
One of the scenes that I think best supports the theme of what makes something valuable is the “Cutting Edge” musical number, where the new appliances that live in the master’s apartment sing about how much better they are than our main characters, because they’re newer and can be more productive. The newer appliances actually start this whole scene because they overhear the master saying how he wants to bring the older appliances to college, and they get super jealous as a result. After all, why would the master care about older stuff when he has newer (and therefore better) stuff? A lot of people will make jokes about this scene because all the “new” appliances are now obsolete today just like our main cast. But that is the point. This whole musical number was made to show how ironic the illusion of "productivity" is, because it doesn't matter how well you do your job. The instant something/someone new comes along, the previous item/person will be thrown out just like the rest. A product's "newness" is all that matters in a capitalist society. Hyperconsumerism was especially prominent in the 80s, so a song like this in a movie from 1987 was definitely a critique of the times. We see during the movie that Toaster can still toast bread, Radio still works as a radio, etc. But that doesn’t matter. They’re considered outdated technology. Capitalism demands newer commodities and faster output all in the same of “innovation” and “productivity”. The demand for more, faster newer and cheaper, is a constant. A capitalistic and hyperconsumerist society will always demand “More, More, More!”.
Think about some of the technology today (2025) that is considered "obsolete", like CDs. Sure, streaming music platforms exist today, and for the first few years those services were available to the public, it did seem like CDs were antiquated. CD sales plummeted as a result of the general public switching over to streaming. Why buy the whole CD when you can play a flat fee to listen to your entire music library, hosted on someone else's server so that you don't even have to worry about clogging up your own shelf space & hard drive? However, there are numerous problems with music streaming platforms that have recently been brought to the forefront. Problems such as musisians being paid less, AI slop, services selling your mood to ad agencies, and worst of all, losing your music library because of copyright disputes/missed payments/service shutdowns.CD, vinyl, and even cassette sales are actually making a comeback because people are getting sick of having their access to music being taken away on a whim. Buying a CD might be more expensive, but once you buy it, you own that physical item. The only way for a company to get rid of it is if they barge down your door and physically take it from you. "New" does not always mean "better". But this mindset doesn't only apply to goods and technology.
Another scene that I also thinks delves into this topic is the junkyard musical number, ‘Worthless’. Even if you’ve never seen the movie, you might have seen clips from this scene. It happens toward the end of the movie, when the modern appliances chuck our main cast into the trash, and they all end up at a disposal site mostly populated by junked cars being turned into scrap metal. If you go to the Youtube comments of any video upload of ‘Worthless’ you see a lot of people saying ‘this is why I always try to repair my car instead of junking it!’. But I think these people are missing the forest for the trees. Yes, one of the more blatant themes of the movie is that you should make an effort to repair rather than replace, but I think there’s a much deeper meaning especially in this scene.
The cars in the junkyard sing about how they were valuable and appreciated by their families. How they did their duty and remained helpful their entire lives. But as soon as they became old or disabled, they were considered "worthless" by not only society, but the very family they were a part of for so long. I don't think it's farfetched to say the theme of this song applies not just to cars, but to people. You can break your back working your whole life, thinking your hard work will allow you to climb up the ladder and be appreciated. But as soon as you become disabled or too old to do so, you're thrown out and replaced. And not just replaced, but looked down upon.
Of course, with this being a kid's movie, the film does have a happy ending. The master finds all the old appliances, fixes them up (including Toaster who THROWS HIMSELF INTO A HYDRUALIC PISTON MACHINE to stop it from crushing the master), and takes them to college. The gang gets validated and knows they're still useful. There are actually two sequels to this movie ("The Brave Little Toaster To The Rescue" and "The Brave Little Toaster Goes To Mars"), and some of the music in the sequels slaps but overall they're not as good. I think the reason this movie still holds up so well after all these years is because it isn't afraid to dumb itself down just because it's a kid's movie. The characters are great, the danger is real, and the themes are conveyed to both children and adults. Definitely one of my favorite movies that I still rewatch to this day. 10/10 *dunkey voice* Masta-PIECE
