Studio: Hyperion Pictures, The Kushner-Locke Company
Produced by: Donald Kushner, Thomas L. Wilhite
Short Synopsis
In a summer cabin in the woods, five household appliances wait year after year for their young owner, "the Master", to come back: Toaster, the sarcastic Radio, Lampy the desk lamp, Blanky the electric blanket and Kirby the grumpy vacuum cleaner. When a real-estate agent arrives to sell the cabin, they decide to travel to the city to find the Master themselves. Rigging a battery and an office chair as transport, they set off across the countryside. They survive a thunderstorm, a waterfall and a swamp, where Lampy sacrifices his bulb to recharge the battery, and are caught by a parts dealer who strips appliances for spares. They reach the Master's city apartment, where the trendy modern appliances mock them as junk and throw them out, and they end up at the junkyard. Meanwhile the Master, Rob, now grown up and about to leave for college, goes to the cabin to fetch his old things and finds them gone. He follows them to the junkyard, where the crushing magnet catches him, and Toaster throws itself into the crusher's gears to stop the machine and save him. Rob repairs Toaster and takes all five appliances with him to college.
Why It Matters
- The film's mood is surprisingly dark and moving for a children's film: the junkyard scene, where old cars sing "Worthless" about their lives before being crushed, and the appliances' loyalty to an owner who has outgrown them give it real emotional weight, alongside the sharp comic voices of Jon Lovitz's Radio and Phil Hartman's characters.
- It was made by a group of former Disney artists, including several who went on to found Pixar's story and animation culture: Joe Ranft co-wrote it, and John Lasseter had pitched an early computer-animated version. It is often seen as a bridge between Disney's 1980s slump and the Pixar era.
Notes and Trivia
- The Disney Channel bought the television rights before a planned theatrical release, which ended the theatrical deal; it reached most viewers through television and home video.
- Thomas M. Disch's 1980 novella first appeared in a science-fiction magazine.
- See also: Toy Story (1995), The Rescuers Down Under (1990).