Updated: 6 days ago
Blanky from The Brave Little Toaster hears a car approaching outside and thinks the Master has finally come home.
He imagines the Master coming through the door and jumping towards him in slow motion, while Blanky flies through the air towards him.
They just keep calling “Blanky!” and “Master!” to each other.
Then it cuts back to the present. It was just another car.
I first saw the film as a child. At some point, I came across that scene again on YouTube. Since then, I’ve occasionally shown it to friends and family because of how absurd it looks.
I thought it was time to refresh my memory and watch it again from beginning to end, but this time with my family.
Early in the film, the Air Conditioner loses his temper and eventually blows himself apart. I remember thinking, ‘I guess that’s it for Air Con’.
As Toaster and his mates travel to find their Master, they arrive at a lake, and everything turns into musical chaos, with singing fish, frogs and a worm trying not to get eaten. I was watching my daughter’s reaction to all of it, and she looked at me with a mixture of amusement and confusion.
Near the end of the film, there’s a song called “Worthless.” Old cars are piled on top of each other in a junkyard. One by one, they sing about where they’ve been and what they used to do before being sent to the crusher. The voices and music work so well together that they make you believe these cars are real.
I spent some time looking into it and found an interview with director and co-writer Jerry Rees. He said the junkyard gave them a way to deal with mortality that made sense in this world, because old cars really do eventually get crushed. I think people often feel that way as well.
I also found him talking about seeing an old television dumped in an alley and wondering how many years it had spent in someone’s home before ending up unwanted.
The repair shop scene reminded me of Toy Story, when Buzz finds himself surrounded by Sid’s broken toys. There’s something unsettling about both scenes.
I found out that Joe Ranft, who co-wrote The Brave Little Toaster, went on to join Pixar and became story supervisor on Toy Story.
So maybe there is some connection there.
My daughter said some parts were scary, especially the scene with the clown and the one in the shop with the other appliances.
She is nearly five, so that’s around the age I was when I first saw The Brave Little Toaster. I can’t remember if I found any of it scary at that age. I wonder if she’ll remember any of it years from now. I hope she will.
I don’t really know why that one scene with Blanky stayed with me for so long. I guess it will always stay there somewhere.
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