USA. 1997.
Crew
Director – Robert C. Ramirez, Screenplay – Willard Carroll, Producers – John Bush, Donald Kushner & Tom Wilhite, Music – Alexander Janko, Song Music – William Finn, Lyrics – Ellen Fitzhugh, Art Direction – Dave Dunnet. Production Company – Hyperion Pictures/Kushner-Locke.
Voices
Deanna Oliver (Toaster), Roger Kabler (Radio), Eric Lloyd (Blanky), Tim Stack (Lampy), Thurl Ravenscroft (Kirby), Fyvush Finkel (Hearing Aid), Alan King (Supreme Commander), Marc Allen Lewis (Freezer), Stephen Tobolowsky (Calculator), Wayne Knight (Microwave), Russi Taylor (Robbie), DeForest Kelley (Viking1), Kath Soucie (Tinselina), Carol Channing (Fanny), Farrah Fawcett (Faucet), Brian Doyle-Murray (Wittgenstein), Chris Young (Rob McGroaty)
Plot
The master and his wife have a new baby son. Toaster and the other appliances find that the old hearing aid in the master’s new house is in fact an operative for the Martians. The Martians then abduct the baby. And so Toaster and the appliances build a ship to travel to Mars and rescue the young master. On Mars, they find a renegade brand of appliances, led by a dictatorial giant refrigerator, who have revolted against obsolescence on Earth and come to Mars so they can live in freedom. Toaster must challenge the Supreme Commander in an election in order to rescue the young master.
The Brave Little Toaster (1987) was an appealing animated film, although one that enjoyed little success when it originally came out. In the 1990s though, it became one of a host of other animated films that were spun out into lucrative video-released sequel franchises, following the lead of Disney who churned out numerous cheap sequels to their classic animated films.
This was the second of the Brave Little Toaster sequels made by Kushner-Locke, the first being The Brave Little Toaster to the Rescue (1997). The Brave Little Toaster Goes to Mars was made back-to-back and employs identical production credits to The Brave Little Toaster to the Rescue, with the exception of some extra voice talents brought in to play the new appliances. Unlike The Brave Little Toaster to the Rescue, this returns to the original source material, Thomas M. Disch’s story, and is based on his 1988 children’s book follow-up of the same title, although that is not noted in the credits.
The Brave Little Toaster to the Rescue was a much blander effort than The Brave Little Toaster. On the other hand, The Brave Little Toaster Goes to Mars settles in with an appealingly zany sense of humour. When the journey to Mars involves a voyage on a laundry basket mounted on a ceiling fan and using a microwave popping popcorn as an energy source to power the contraption, you can clearly see we are no longer in science-fiction territory any longer but that this is an interplanetary journey that takes place entirely within the realm of fantasy. (The end of the film has the delightfully surreal image of the contraption flying through space back to Earth towing the baby behind it in a bubble).
The rest of the film is filled with all manner of wacky images such as a talking Mars lander and a planet of kitchen appliances that have revolted against obsolescence and fled Earth for Mars. The supreme commander is a giant refrigerator and the journey to meet him travels across the ocean-like interior of the fridge aboard an ice tray to finally arrive at his lair inside the icebox.
The film also has a quite intriguing voice cast, including the unmistakable voice of Fyvush Finkel as the hearing aid, Wayne Knight as a microwave, Star Trek (1966-9)’s DeForest Kelley (in his last screen appearance) as the Viking lander and, in an appealingly punning piece of casting, Farrah Fawcett in a brief part as a kitchen faucet.
Trailer here
Full film available online here:-