Television Reviews : ‘Brave Little Toaster’ Serves Up Family Fun

Hyperion’s bright, appealing animated feature, “The Brave Little Toaster,” airing Saturday at 7 p.m. on the Disney Channel (cable), is a family film in the truest sense of the term: one that adults can enjoy as well as children.

Based on a story by Thomas Disch, “Toaster” centers on an agreeably improbable set of characters--a group of household appliances. After years of waiting in an abandoned vacation cottage, the title character and his friends (a radio, a desk lamp, an electric blanket and a vacuum cleaner) set out to find their Master, the little boy whose love gave purpose to their existence.

A series of misadventures brings them to the city, where they discover the computer revolution has rendered them obsolete. Smart electronic society considers them has-beens. But the Master is now a teen-ager: He just happens to need a lamp, a radio, a blanket, a toaster and a vacuum for his college dorm room, so all ends happily.

Director Jerry Rees makes the limited animation seem fuller than it is by giving the characters signature movements that suggest their personalities. Strong vocal performances (including Jon Lovitz and Phil Hartman of “Saturday Night Live”) also help bring the characters to life. Hartman’s devastating impression of Jack Nicholson (as an insane air conditioner) provides one of the highlights of the film.

“Toaster” has its weak points. A series of just-missed encounters between the appliances and the Master goes on too long and makes the last half-hour feel padded. With the possible exception of a spoof of horror flicks (“It’s Like a ‘B’ Movie”), Van Dyke Parks’ songs are as forgettable as they are unnecessary.

But these are minor flaws in an otherwise engaging work. Made for an amazingly low $2.3 million (about half the cost of a “Care Bears” movie), “The Brave Little Toaster” proves that talented artists can produce solid entertainment, even under dire financial constraints. Disney cable shows it again March 6 and March 9.