April 9, 2023

Ramble: Brave Little Toaster

EDIT: The claim on the youtube upload has been released! I've deleted the patreon-hosted copy of the upload. Redundant link here 

It's toaster time!

Comments (322)

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Pierce Johnson · June 23, 2026

This is a sad day for me: being a fan of Jenny and of an IP that Jenny gets a lot of things wrong about. I looked up "what is a theme in media" because I was so confused with Jenny's inability to pull a theme out of this movie and by extension, novella. According to nofilmschool.com, a theme is a central message within the narrative of a film or television show. That's it. Can Jenny not think of any? As a Brave Little Toaster fan, off the top of my head, I'd say the main theme is that one can find oneself /worthless/ in life, but through hard work, team work, the help of friends and strangers, and GOOD LUCK, one can find worth again. Now would Jenny say "well garsh! That's too literal!" So what? Can a kids movie and adult novella be on the nose? It isn't fine art - its meaning doesn't need to be abstract. Jenny was also annoyed? the characters set out to achieve something? and did? Did she care that Woody got back to Andy at the end of Toy Story? The toaster had growth. He started out standoffish against Blanky, but came around. The Vacuum was gruff but stretched himself to help the group. Toaster sacrifices himself at the end to save the master. There's been a lot of talk about the master and how it is weird they're devoted to him. Look at it from a different perspective: they're /useful/ and fulfilling their purpose when they're being used as intended. Imagine if Jenny stopped being able to make videos and had a story overcoming obstacles to YouTubing and succeeded in the end. Would a reviewer of that story go "well... Jenny should have realized she had more intrinsic value outside of YouTube, even though that's her main thing/creative output!" The toaster is the same way... The toaster's thing is toasting Unlike Jenny, I strongly recommend this movie and the novella. If the theme above resonates with you or you have ever had struggles in your life, bipolar depression for me, I bet you'll like it. The author of the novella also likely had some mental health issues, which from one to another, I appreciate. Lastly, the brave little toaster goes to Mars is an excellent novella too. It gets into the practice of planned obsolescence and how sentient appliances might respond to that. Just remember: don't let the world suck you to death

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Emil · April 17, 2026

I'm sure you and the other patrons have Googled and read the original short story by now, but it is nice to be reminded of its author, Tom Disch. He kept a LiveJournal blog until he passed away by suicide in 2008, and a user whom I believe was a friend of his comes and leaves a comment on his last post saying that he is still remembered and missed every year for eighteen years now. I would actually recommend his poetry more than his children and sci-fi stuff, but a lot of his work still stands up very well.

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Occa Americana · September 20, 2025

This video is a JEM

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t0adgh0st · May 1, 2025

Extremely late to this but I think the scene with the AC exploding was the first time I experienced real anxiety and I don't think ive ever been truly calm since. I think the other scary parts freaked me out but the AC altered my brain chemistry for life.

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Paulie Paul · March 27, 2025

"I remember watching it with like, apprehension and fear and, uh... eh, just those two." "I thought he was saying 'jailbait'.... I'm GLAD he's not..." Jenny's asides and instant self-corrections/clarifications are possibly my favorite things about her videos.

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Jeanette Wall · December 24, 2024

Okay, hear me out, what if you read this film as a rallying cry against planned obsolescence? Like, these are the tools we could pass down for generations, but we just leave them in a cabin we went to as a kid. LOL what a strange movie.

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Pierce Johnson · June 23, 2026

Read the sequel novel Brave Little Toaster Goes To Mars - it is exactly what it is about

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Knox · October 2, 2024

I was so endeared by Jenny getting emotional about the toasters being proud of the Master growing up happy

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PikaLeaf · September 29, 2024

Yeah, I've never had another kind of toaster lol.

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Amber · August 7, 2024

I was today years old when I learned that not all toasters look like that. Maybe it's an aussie thing...

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Markus D · August 17, 2024

It's not. If you look at other comments, basically everyone is like "what are you talking about, Jenny?" I'm Canadian, and while some people (like myself) just have toaster ovens, I grew up regularly seeing four-slice toasters like that.

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Penny Cain · August 6, 2024

The movies theme is *Environmentalism*. They just don’t have much to say about it. Feel bad about landfills, feel bad about consumerism, feel bad about the whales. Skks Skks skks

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Pierce Johnson · June 23, 2026

They don't have much to say about environmentalism because that isn't a theme in this movie. Look around the comments for better examples of you want

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Magistrissa · July 17, 2024

I do in fact have a little silver vertical toaster that I got cheap from a regular store. Toaster ovens are the mysterious foreign entity for me. They dwell in the mists of Avalon with air fryers and dehumidifiers.

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Markus D · August 17, 2024

Toaster ovens are basically just "what if oven, but smaller?" Honestly, air fryers are kind of like that too, but specifically a convection oven.

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Magistrissa · July 17, 2024

I feel so validated for how terrified I was of this movie as a kid, how miserable it was, the underlying dread at the prospect of watching it again- I think I hid the VHS at the back of the cabinet so I wouldn't have to see it. Actually I put off watching the ramble video because I was worried you'd be like blithely recounting the horror while I'm having flashbacks. I'm a fan of showing kids dark stuff (kids like angst and gore, which is why I'm willing to tell older ones Grimm fairy tales), but it has to be *for* something, and you have to have a safety net. Also when the lamp talks about having its bulb burnt out and worrying it'll be thrown away, saying he thought it was "to the showers" for him.... please tell me that's a basic sport joke. This movie is dark enough, the alternate meaning is too awful to contemplate.

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Corie · August 3, 2024

I just heard that, and am also concerned about the lamp's comment about "the showers."

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Palmer Family · July 10, 2024

The lamp always doing the reading for them (the address the toaster was struggling with, the room number on the door) is a nice callback to him being the appliance that would help “the master” with reading and is a little detail I love and never realized til watching this ramble

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Rebecca B · July 9, 2024

I have only a very vague memory of this movie, my mom showed it to me as she'd seen it as a kid. I only remember the junkyard scene, which made me vaguely uneasy.

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Malcolm Cooke · June 28, 2024

Yo, Phil Hartman is the Aircon? Awesome!

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Zofia Graham · June 27, 2024

The way Jenny talks about being a kid is so relatable I've never heard anyone describe kid emotions as accurately as she does

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Markus D · June 28, 2024

The thing about watching the movie as a kid and assuming that "kids in an older generation just felt more strongly about their appliances" was very relatable. The scenario I thought of as a kid along those lines that I remember most is that in the part of "Hakuna Matata" where Timon cuts off Pumbaa and says "not in front of the kid" I spent YEARS just thinking "Okay, that's like, a sex joke or something, and I'll get it when I'm older". But no, he was just cutting off Pumbaa saying the word "farted" for some reason, which I never assumed you would have to censor for a kid, especially after telling him a story about how people didn't like him because he had... bad-smelling farts (that story is very weird). Yeah, I could've figured out from context cues, but I 1. Didn't like the song so I didn't understand what the lyrics were for that part exactly and 2. My mind apparently hyper-focused on the idea that whatever Pumbaa was going to say was something you shouldn't say around kids, and considering the whole joke up to that point was about farting and toilet humour was pretty common in cartoons for kids, I never thought that that would be an issue.

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Josh Evans · June 22, 2024

I heard the 60's song 'The Letter' by The Box Tops today, trying so hard to pick what it reminded me of. 'Worthless' from Brave Little Toaster 😅

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Robert Romero Jr · June 20, 2024

Your adhd is strong in this one. Man when I wrote this down it was only 15 min in. I didnt know how right I was.

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Jack Bandit · June 12, 2024

for the love of god that damn flower scene use to ruin me as a child. full on tears. oof!

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Anika Binding · June 12, 2024

Why do kids and family movies love horrifying conveyer belts of death?? Like I had such a terrible fear of it bc I kept seeing it everywhere! Monsters Inc, 101 Dalmatian’s, Robots, the Star Wars prequels, Toy Story, you name it! I really thought that being crushed or baked into something on a conveyer of doom was the most likely thing in the world.

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Markus D · June 28, 2024

It's like quicksand!

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Scrum Diddely Umptious · June 7, 2024

Im convinced this movie awakened hoarder tendencies in me lol I was deeply horrified at the notion that objects had feelings for so long after watching it. I still talk to my computer sometimes, usually to encourage it to not die cause its old and the hardrive screams sometimes.

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Lizzie · June 5, 2024

Is this an American thing to not have regular toasters, or just a California thing?!

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notgerardway · August 7, 2024

i had no idea what she was talking about when she said that cuz like, i have a toaster oven now but i grew up with a toaster like that, and so did like literally everyone i know. most people i know still have them and dont have a toaster oven at all. maybe its a cali thing.

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Laura Robinson · June 1, 2024

okay I watched Worthless because I remembered that song kind of slapping from when I was a kid. I'm in my 30s now and when we hit the old, old Indy Car (I grew up in, and still live in, Indianapolis) I honestly started to cry and had to stop.

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Laura Robinson · June 1, 2024

That is the dumbest thing I have ever confessed about myself in public but just the idea of an old Indy car dying truly broke my heart.

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firelizard · May 31, 2024

(absentee patron here) i remember my family had one of the brave little toaster sequels on vhs, but idk if we ever saw the original at all. i feel like the animation was better? there were a lot fewer outdoor scenes too… the sequel we had was one where the human and his gf are going through a rough patch for whatever reason, and there’s a computer character it think, and i remember something about computer viruses? i’m almost certain they don’t call him “master” in this sequel i saw—that surprised me. but i also can’t remember his name. i remember liking the songs? idk, it’s definitely one of those movies that’s wormed its way into my childhood memories. i can’t remember specifics at all tho. my grandmother had a kirby vacuum exactly like this one so i think i remember liking him best.

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Javy Dobles · May 28, 2024

"is the toaster a boy or girl?" um they're a toaster

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Elaina · May 27, 2024

I am still severely traumatized by the air conditioner scene. Like, I think of it multiple times a year, it's absolutely awful!

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Zoë Collis · May 26, 2024

Not to add to the arbitrary push down toaster discourse, but to add to the arbitrary push down toaster discourse; I have actually never used a toaster oven outside of when I worked in a Subway, I'm from Australia so just wanted to add a little international 2 cents. The norm has been push down toasters my whole life and I've never seen anything to the contrary including in American media, was genuinely mind blown to hear of your alternate toaster oven roots, Jenny.

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Nicole · May 24, 2024

I think the toaster oven thing may just be a california thing or a rich person thing. I never even saw a toaster oven until like 2009.

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Elaina · May 27, 2024

Definitely not! My broke ass family has had this same toaster over since.... the 80s?? It was given to my GRANDMOTHER from her dad, and it's still used regularly. Those things are great! Edit: I'm in Appalachia!

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Hampton Calhoun · May 14, 2024

I haven't finished the video but I hope She knows the guy behind this is also the guy who did cranium command.

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Lelling · May 6, 2024

I'm a year late to this but Pushing Up Roses made a great video titled The Weird Origins of The Brave Little Toaster that explores a lot of how it was made, the novella, the meaning and themes the author wanted to impart, etc. It's a very interesting watch.

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Hazel Davis · May 16, 2024

Ooh yes, that's a great vid! And PUR's Murder She Wrote series is so good too. All of her stuff actually.

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Daisy Frabell · March 24, 2024

Man, I think I might have some low key trauma from this film. I hadn’t seen it since I was a child, although I never forgot it and had it categorized as ‘moving’ and ‘beloved’, but associated it with this deep emotion of despair. I think all the points you were making about the appliances would be irrelevant to their humans were very apparent to me as a child, and I honestly forgot that the guy ever showed up to claim them. And then, you said the bit about making it hard for kids to get rid of broken or redundant things, and I’m like, “shit, is that why?!?” Not the only reason I fight hoarding tendencies, obviously, but excuse me while I go have a mini breakdown about it 😂🙃 The good news is, now you have forced me to revisit it, all of the comedy is clearer to my adult brain, and the inevitability of death is less paralyzing, and I really enjoyed the movie(bits)! An amusing romp. Crazy fascinating how my brain is so different faced with the same experience after a few decades on earth. The Jenny Grasp of Childhood Perspective continues to be spot on.

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Tyler Gordon · March 13, 2024

I've always had one of the push down toasters, including right now. They're the default around here, I know a lot of people who have then with four slots. It was really cheap, like $15

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Jessica Dunne · February 26, 2024

The Brave Little Toaster Goes to Mars is so heavy handed in its like reagan era themes of individualism and the joys of being exploited under capitalism. its absurd to look back at how Normal the first movie is in comparison. Really hope jenny watches the second one just to see the sweet toasters insane villain arc

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Mel Vitta · February 19, 2024

Yeah I was born in '85 and saw this right around when it came out, so I definitely was the right age for this to become an obsession. I find it funny how you had a disconnect with how the appliances looked, for me many of them were virtually identical to things we had around the house. Our toaster was similar, albeit a more modern version of that classic design, we had a lamp that was literally the same lamp, a clock radio with similar design elements as the radio in the movie, and more important of all, we had a Kirby vacuum, which was THE EXACT vacuum from the film.

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Toony Loony · January 20, 2024

i absolutely adored this movie as a child and still do love it with all my heart so to hear you get saddened and frightened by all the darkness i went crazy for as a kid was quite eye-opening lol. still adore it though i can do the air conditioner’s monologue by heart

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Mel Vitta · February 19, 2024

Yeah, there was something compelling about how dark the film was when I saw it as a kid. For sure the scenes with the AC, the flower, the clown, the junk shop, and especially the junkyard, all of those were very creepy and messed up, but in a way that doesn't go TOO far for kids.

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george putnam · December 14, 2023

i never watched the movie my younger siblings did and their impression of it was enough to scare me away

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Vaelyhn · November 23, 2023

Wait Jenny, you didn't have a regular push down toaster as a child? You used a toaster oven to toast your bread??? I've never not owned a push down toaster.

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Soren Tutauha · January 6, 2024

literally lol

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Nicholas Lanier · October 4, 2023

Just watched this and came here to say: the sequel is even more disturbing and low-key terrified me as a kid lol

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Ash Evan Lippert · September 15, 2023

I didn’t remember much about this movie other than the junkyard sequence, and having a kind of—not just fear—but revulsion to it as a kid? I think I found it ugly and kinda… grimy. All Dogs Go To Heaven was another kids film that gave me a similar vibe, but for whatever reason I enjoyed that one much more. It’s funny, watching the clips included in the video, towards the end I was convinced I had started to see the film’s themes show through. While I haven’t thought this through to the point of complete coherence, it seemed like it was saying something about… disposability in modern culture? Seeing value in the people, and even the objects that make up a part of our lives, beyond their utility? Appreciating things in our homes, maybe, like in a similar way to how Marie Kondo integrates Shinto beliefs into her tidying philosophy? Idk, it seemed to be driving at something, especially in the last few sequences. So I was disappointed when I found out the writers didn’t seem to have any of this is mind, lol I do very much agree with the comment above that, whether purposely or not, the film taps into the childhood unconscious mind, and relationships to neglectful parental figures, when the world seems arbitrary, inexplicable, and unstable, and abandonment is a very real, deep fear. I feel like this is probably part of the reason why so many kids have the same reaction to the movie, finding it viscerally terrifying. It still doesn’t seem like a very good movie, but I feel like it’s interesting and memorable in that regard

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Simone Williamson · August 22, 2023

Lmao geat ramble. I actually loved BLT as a kid, especially the weird less scary sequels. But I loved the first one too, I feel like it was part of the beginning of my love for weird horror and derranged nonsense. Also yes absolutely fucked up my relationship with objects and throwing things away as a kid.

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EHL Shock · August 12, 2023

This has nothing to do with the brave little toaster but I'm curious if Jenny has ever watched Shelley Duvall's Fairy Tale Theatre. I feel like a retrospective and ranking of the films in the series would make for ridiculously good content

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Lindsey Phillips · August 10, 2023

When I was a kid they would show this all the time in preschool, elementary school, and after school clubs. And every time they did I'd have to be removed from the room crying and screaming in terror, usually around the time of the air conditioner scene. I couldn't handle it. I have never seen anything past around 1/4 through the film, let alone the ending. I could sit through the scary tunnel in Willy Wonka and the chocolate factory over and over and not even process that it's scary or weird, but that air conditioner that screams in rage until it explodes and commits suicide is the biggest trauma of my childhood.

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Elaina · May 27, 2024

SAME. I think about it constantly still. There's another part of the movie embedded into my skull as well; I haven't made it completely past the air conditioner part (this is like, opening old wounds) but I do remember thing awful part where all these appliances are going to be murdered in a scrap yard. This is just a scary movie for kids, plain and simple. And just makes us feel guilty for capitalism??? It's not our freaking fault they break!

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Dino · August 3, 2023

Grew up watching my cousin’s VHS copy of this movie. Your assessment was completely right and totally explained my uncomfortable feelings with the movie as well! There’s no theme! What’s the message? That explains why it feels so empty and unsatisfying.

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PageTurner24 · July 17, 2023

You should totally do a video on The Brave Little Toaster Goes to Mars it’s like ten times more absurd than this movie

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TheParappa · July 9, 2023

Came for the movie commentary, stayed for the roast of stupid youtube comments at the end.

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Roan Everly · June 20, 2023

10 minutes in - Lampy is love, Lampy is life. Out of the whole cast, the animators were the most inventive with how he moves and emotes. Long, cylindrical faces like his have a lot of appeal in hand-drawn animation because, when drawn volumetrically, are super convincing (or "real"). Maybe we associate a long face shape to dogs or horses. It's a good thing he's friend-shaped bc he's a complete dick personality-wise lol.

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Simone Persson · May 28, 2023

I had a small collection of VHS-tapes as a kid and I would watch them all over and over again, except for that one. I watched it once and absolutely hated it! Most stressful watch ever! 😩

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Marcy · May 16, 2023

… and the air conditioner is hot…

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jg · May 6, 2023

so brave

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worm · May 4, 2023

solely from the content of his sermon I believe it's possible the pastor genuinely though gaston was the hero because what on earth was he talking about

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Julia takla · May 2, 2023

i was very thrilled to see porgy and felt it was quite a treat to have him so thank you

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Dylan · April 25, 2023

Not to be the nostalgia critic apologist. But in his old more serious out of character review for the Brave Little Toaster, he said it was as good as a movie about a toaster going on an adventure could be, good but not phenomenal or super special.

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Penguin Gabe · April 25, 2023

dont ever give doug an inch, he'll take a mile

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JoshuaMartian · April 25, 2023

Does anyone else get the feeling the Wikipedia page was written by the director? Or maybe just a very ardent fan?

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SimmerRose · April 25, 2023

I’m sorry, did the lamp say TO THE SHOWERS??? When he thought he was broken?? Is there a meaning to this phrase that I’m unaware of?? Because my brain is going ONE PLACE?????

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JoshuaMartian · April 25, 2023

Me too!! I read that the voice actors were allowed to ad-lib a lot but maybe that’s one take they shouldn’t have used…

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Tricia B · April 23, 2023

Still trying to wrap my head around the fact that you think no one has owned a toaster since the 80s and toasters and toaster ovens aren't completely different appliances with different purposes.

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Dylan · April 22, 2023

This is the first time I have ever heard of someone only having a toaster oven and not just a toaster.

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Pierce Johnson · June 23, 2026

Yep, because Jenny didn't have a toaster as a kid, nobody had a toaster

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Jane Mahoney · April 22, 2023

I've only ever seen like...40 percent of this movie but the blanket always reminded me of Piglet from Winnie the Pooh

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Markus D · April 22, 2023

I thought that too until I watched this video, because I forgot that it was voiced by a child and all about the whole weird "calling the kid 'master'" thing. Upon reflection, the blanket acts more like a child while Piglet has more of the disposition of a very anxious adult.

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Marina Vollin · April 19, 2023

Man, I haven't really heard of this movie, none of it looked familiar... except that car crushing scene which I am 100% sure I have seen at some point in my very early childhood. Crazy how it's still stuck in my head somehow.

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Poo In An Alleyway · April 19, 2023

I had no idea that was an electric blanket. I honestly had no clue for years what that object was supposed to be.

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Markus D · April 25, 2023

Me neither, as someone who was a kid in the late 90s/early 2000s. It still strikes me as a weird design though, because I can't find any pictures of electric blankets where the dial is RIGHT ON THE BLANKET like that. I always see it attached a little bit down the cord--Now that I think about it, the blanket also doesn't seem to have a cord on it? Is it a battery-powered blanket? Even then, I can't find a picture of any electric blanket where the control isn't slightly separated from the fabric itself. The way it was drawn also always made me think of "custard" more than fabric (I guess mostly because it has very rounded edges; it never really seems to properly look like a rectangle), but I don't know if that's just me.

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Evan Samanas · April 17, 2023

Sports bars should absolutely sprinkle in some animated movies on mute for the vibes

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Isabella · November 6, 2023

Sorry this is an old comment and it’s not quite the same but one of my favorite bars plays old black and white movies on mute on giant projected tv screens for the vibes, I love it haha

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Steve Ray · April 17, 2023

Toast Swatches - https://www.adsoftheworld.com/campaigns/toaster-swatches

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Ann Parker · April 16, 2023

I've been referring to my inordinate attachment to inanimate objects as "Brave Little Toaster Syndrome" for years, it's something I actively had to work on as I grew up. Also this movie gave me a phobia of fire until I was about 15 (the fire clown) so I guess that's two for the price of one. I used to hide behind the couch when the narcissus flower dies of grief (I was too young to realize that I didn't like most of this move besides the Lamp and Radio so I did watch it many times)

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Meg · April 16, 2023

I hated this movie as a kid. Too sad, too mean, too relentless. Ugh, thank you for roasting it. But I had to lol at the third act completely abandoning the premise that the appliances needed to be plugged in to move.

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Pierce Johnson · June 23, 2026

No prize: they only needed to plug in to power the vacuum pulling them. In the third act, they're no longer being pulled like that

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Libby · April 15, 2023

Hey does the lamp insinuate he is going to face the fate of a fucking holocaust victim????? Like when his bulb goes out and he’s so jazzed that the little boy changed a light bulb (which I guess he should be bc I’m 27 and I’m still terrified of changing them and refuse to do so)

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Mr Cheeks · April 16, 2023

WUT? > I’m 27 and I’m still terrified of changing them and refuse to do so

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Eric Kaplan · April 15, 2023

Camp Concentration, and committed suicide. So your instincts were right -- the original was darkly satiric ad not innocent or fun at all.

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Eric Kaplan · April 15, 2023

Tom Disch who wrote the book BLT was based on was a very very dark bleak comic science fiction writer and poet. He wrote the Genocides and

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Pierce Johnson · June 23, 2026

I wouldn't mention this in the rest of the discussion, but you can see how he ended up... I wonder if being gay in the 70's played a whole in him feeling downtrodden

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Nomnaut · April 14, 2023

Speaking of sad or traumatizing childhood cartoons, how about Watership Down (1978) or Rats of NIMH (1982)?

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Captain Langosta AKA The Yellow Dart AKA Kyle · April 14, 2023

Jenny's powers have affected reality. I can no longer recall the taste of upright toast, nor the sound of the spring popping up, nor the touch of the heat dial. I'm naked in the dark. There's nothing--no veil between me and the horizontal mouth of the toaster oven. I can see it with my waking eyes!

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Katrina Gluch · April 14, 2023

in re to buying animation cels: https://animationlegends.com/products/the-brave-little-toaster-mix

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Lily · April 14, 2023

hi! english teacher here! i want to clarify what you were saying about theme. you are correct in your thinking i just want to explain it further. so, depending on who you ask, theme can have different definitions and sometimes people use the term “central idea” interchangeably with theme. what i teach my students is how the NYS tests define it. Theme is a basic concept, in the case of the little toaster some might be “abandonment, one’s purpose, and service to others.” Central idea however must be a claim or provable statement about the piece of media. One could also consider it the lesson you glean from a story. This is difficult to pin-point regarding the little toaster because it is so poorly written, but i’ll try anyway. (Central Idea: The key to happiness is serving those who you love.) Also note that a theme/central idea should be able to be generically applied to the world at large and not just the characters within the story. hope that helps :)

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zandy · April 15, 2023

"This is difficult to pin-point regarding the little toaster because it is so poorly written" in particular made me laugh

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Narcissa Deville · April 14, 2023

I'm realizing that I never actually watched this movie before. I think I've seen bits and pieces. But Brave Little Toaster goes to Mars I really loved and actually what's interesting is that it has a whole message about capitalism and how it creates things to break down which was unexpected.

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jess · April 13, 2023

The air conditioner’s death terrified me as a child. I always had to leave the room during that scene lol

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Shiny Skunk · April 13, 2023

is this movie to blame for me having weird anxiety about throwing old stuff away? damn this was like therapy.

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Shelby Hill · April 13, 2023

WHAT SENATOR??

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Isaac · April 13, 2023

Being terrified of the ending of brave little toaster goes mars is seared into my memory. The actual ending is not seared into anything - I don’t remember that at all. Something to do with sacrificing an organic doll? But gosh was I scared of it.

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Miriam Aberdeen · April 13, 2023

I hadn't ever heard of this film until this review. Seems like a solid 3/5 on the traumatising children's films scale, with Watership Down being peak 5/5

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Scott Carter · April 13, 2023

It seems to me the theme of the movie is: if you’re only happy when you’re of service, then go and find the service even if your life is out in danger from it. Which is a TERRIBLE theme

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Pierce Johnson · June 23, 2026

So better to... just waste away in a cabin to die alone? Not me! I say face danger to be useful to the world!

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kat · April 13, 2023

i’m sorry but i feel like the air conditioning thing is the funniest thing i’ve ever seen in my life

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Aly · April 12, 2023

Wow the brave little toaster has the same message as marie kondo, that you should appreciate your household objects and thank them for the utility they provide you.

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Alysse F · April 12, 2023

I had this movie on vhs from a disney channel recording, and it played alot at home growing up, Baby's First Horror Movie. All the songs are bops, the banter is part of my family's lexicon, and it definitely influences my stance on products' obsolescence as a designer. I made a costume based on the song "Cutting Edge" for d23 mousequerade 19' and had so many people come up to me professing their love for Brave Little Toaster and our shared scarred psyche. Thanks for this!

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Alexandria Ritz · April 12, 2023

I hate how they call him the master it's so strange

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Markus D · April 20, 2023

Yeah, it's really off-putting because it makes the relationship feel reminiscent of some kind of slavery. It's part of why I don't love the concept of "living appliances" because the relationship appliances have with humans is "they are tools for doing things that are harder or impossible to do by hand". We don't "love" them; it's a "relationship" based on them being made to be useful to us. I'm not a big fan of Toy Story, but at least that focused on a type of inanimate object that humans form emotional connections to and aren't made to serve such utilitarian purposes.

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Sarah Jesness · April 12, 2023

I didn't like this movie as a kid either. I quite liked darker stuff as a kid, but a movie has to be more than that, and the darkness needs to have some purpose. Is it in service to the theme? Is it helping the character grow? Is it important to the plot, or does it at least show who the bad guy is? This movie just felt scary for the sake of being scary. Who Framed Roger Rabbit? was one of my top favorite movies as a kid (tied with Mulan) even though some of the scenes really scared me. It was dark and scary, but those scenes served purposes, even if it was just showing us who the bad guy is. Your video also got me thinking... This movie has scary scenes but they don't really play into fears that are common in children. I'm not sure if I can fully articulate it right now, but I feel like that's important. Like, playing into a child's actual fears gives them something to connect to. Most scary or dark scenes in children's media feature things like parental death, or they play into the sense of helplessness that kids have.

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Markus D · April 20, 2023

I guess that second point you're making about playing into children's fears is part of why the Toaster's nightmare can read as kind of a cute joke, because while all this stuff is presented as scary, like Jenny pointed out, it's funny because the scary stuff includes like... bathtubs and forks, which aren't usually frightening to children.

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Alexander Clare · April 12, 2023

This was one of those films that was always on rotation in my house growing up. It wasn’t until I was older that I even considered or noticed how dark it was. I do appreciate the breakdown and willing to acknowledge how it just kinda fails as a movie but I still love the chances they were willing to take with it. And Disney are cowards for not putting it on Disney+.

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Jen D · April 12, 2023

My brother and I were obsessed with this movie as kids. Our mom always said it was dark. I did not understand then. Now, I do. I also had no idea it was an electric blanket until now. Whoa.

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Devin M · April 12, 2023

I definitely watched this movie as a kid and the blanket is the design I remember the most cause it reminded me of the doorknob from Alice in Wonderland.

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Jay bird · April 11, 2023

My toaster has always and probably will always be in the style of the little toaster lol

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Beepski Meepski (Ashley) · April 11, 2023

I HAVE NEVER FELT MORE JEALOUS OVER A PLUSH IN MY LIFE. The old Herbie films were my favorite and to THINK!!! YOU COULD ACQUIRE SUCH A LARGE PLUSH!!!! AUGH

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Patar · April 11, 2023

You should mount the animation cell on a mirror! You would have a mirror with a little toaster on it :o

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Jaz Mei Luo · April 11, 2023

Why would I buy a push-up toaster when I already have a toaster oven that is so much more versatile in use

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Kyle Lowe · April 11, 2023

For the interview YouTube video that you felt was too long, there's a website called Videoticle that will strip the automatic captions and turn it into an article if you want to skim/search for something in a YouTube video!

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Idle Oath · April 11, 2023

According to the novella, the appliances' preferred pronouns are "it." They admonish an animal I can't remember for calling one of them "he" if I recall correctly, but it's been a while.

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Saracha · April 11, 2023

I truly never would have figured out that was supposed to be a baby blanket

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Lindsey Keefer · April 11, 2023

We had Brave Little Toaster Goes to Mars on VHS and I lovedddd it. They use a popcorn popper to lift off into space. They ride in a giant ice cube tray as a boat.

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Lukoncio · April 11, 2023

For me personally this movies themes are about mortality and pourpouse in life, with utensiles being mortal beings that base theyre life around humans and theyre usefullnes to them. This themes i think are pretty strongly implied in the songs and sets of the movie, but It obviusly isnt perfect, the ending really ruins any progression the movie could had have with a plot point of finding your on path on life, but ultimetly It was a childrens movie so i don't ask It to don't complete the "my owner loves me and i always be with him" story line.

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Richard Lyth · April 11, 2023

Jenny wondering where to put the animation cell from Brave Little Toaster - surely it belongs in the kitchen?

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William · April 11, 2023

There are pretty terrifying sequences. Maybe I'm broken, but me and my siblings loved this shit. Haven't seen it in at least 15 years.

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Katherine Stuart · April 11, 2023

I always interpreted this movie as being about self doubt/anxiety and fostering better self worth. You don’t have to be the best, or always useful to be loved. You deserve to be loved regardless, you just had to learn to believe it/have faith that the people who are supposed to love you will.

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Pierce Johnson · June 23, 2026

Thank you for putting in some effort to see a theme... Unlike JENNY

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Lamb Draws · April 11, 2023

as an animator, just cut the cell it is your property at that point all it will do is lower the value and if you don't care then thats good. I definitely would want the toaster to just hang out in the corner of an empty frame, though. Mysterious.

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Jiminy’s Journal · April 11, 2023

Just a heads-up: Goes to Mars is the tgird one, chronologically. It MAY have come out second, but it also references the other movie.

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Becca Flowers · April 11, 2023

im so glad someone else has said this already because i came here to make sure jenny knows she has to watch to the rescue before goes to mars!!!

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michael · April 11, 2023

that toaster is so cute

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Taylor Brown · April 11, 2023

i used to think that heated blanket was a bar of soap IN a blanket, and i’m only now realizing i was wrong

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Markus D · April 20, 2023

I think the face is on a dial, but I still don't consistently see it correctly because they decided to put absolutely no printed markings on it (probably because that would be more to animate).

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Taylor Calloway · April 11, 2023

My blanket from my childhood is named blankie, and this movie series was absolutely one of my favorites as a very little kid. The Mars ones is amazing. This movie both traumatized me and was one I rewatched EVERY time I went to my grandmothers house. So idk what that says about me. I remember being terrified of pretty much all of it.

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Janna Jackson Gorog · April 11, 2023

This was a wild viewing experience for me because I thought that the Brave Little Toaster was one of my favorite movies as a little kid…but I don’t think I ever actually saw this one. I think I saw the sequels and assumed they were the original one.

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Rachel Cook · April 11, 2023

Loving this. Someone may have already pointed this out but Thurl voiced one of the busts in the graveyard of the HM and Tony the Tiger. The ghost host was Paul Frees. I get them mixed up a lot too.

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Nicole Knapp · April 11, 2023

I used to have horrible, extremely vivid dreams of getting crushed by gears when I was a little kid. It wasn’t until I rewatched The Brave Little Toaster in middle school that I realized it was because of that scene at the end!! This movie is freaky.

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Mandi Coffey · April 11, 2023

I’m in art school, and for my animation pre production class we had Jerry Reis on zoom to watch our short films and give us pointers, it was maybe not the most helpful person to have in but he seemed like a nice guy at least. It was also funny because I had never seen this movie, so I watched it before we have the guest speaker and was thoroughly confused at his credentials

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Nerine · April 11, 2023

On the subject of things with faces, Japanese mythology has the notion of "Tsukumogami," items that obtain a soul after 100 years of use. There is, of course, an anime: "We Rent Tsukumogami" -- I think Jenny would like the comb. The objects don't go on a journey, but they do help a pair of siblings in their amateur sleuthing.

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Steve Ray · April 11, 2023

See also yokai.

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Alex Andra · April 11, 2023

Anyway I would watch this movie as a kid with my cousins when I would visit them in the summers, they owned it on VHS. I have fond memories of watching it but looking back I think I just have fond memories of my cousins because every scene I remembered from this movie was horrifying. The junkyard scene was definitely nightmare fuel. Also this might be from one of the sequels but does anyone remember a scene of a ceiling fan detaching from the ceiling and just flying away?? That made me afraid of fans for a while lol

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Alex Andra · April 10, 2023

I'm still secretly hoping the Barbie video will see completion in time for the Margot Robbie movie. But I know that's probably such a beast of a video to make

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Neil B · April 10, 2023

"At least the toaster will live." Should have been the movie tagline.

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Amy Shine · April 10, 2023

Oh my god. I'm the first pancake.

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Vincent Briggs · April 10, 2023

I've never seen this movie, but I saw the trailer for the Mars sequel SO MANY times because it was on one of the VHS tapes my siblings and I watched a lot. It's neat to get some more context for it! From the comments it sounds like the most popular kinds of toasters are different in different regions? Here in Eastern Canada everyone has a popup toaster, and has for as long as I can remember. There are some toaster ovens too, but in my experience they're definitely not as common, it's like an extra thing you can add if you have enough counter space. My roommate used to have one, but gave it away because we never used it, and my uncle has one that just sits forgotten in a cupboard.

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Markus D · April 20, 2023

Same. I live in Ontario, and I just have a toaster oven, but I grew up with a pop-up toaster. In my experience, whether or not someone has one depends on if they regularly eat toast or not.

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Molly · April 10, 2023

I definitely saw this as a kid and remember liking it, but not a single clip you included is familiar to me, so I must not have seen it often or something. Btw: -The youtube video was not blocked for me in US. -I looked it up and Brave Little Toaster Goes to Mars is ALSO a novella and all the novellas are made for children. -I wonder if this was filmed before the live action Barbie trailer has been blowing up everywhere bc I was going to bet Jenny was super glad she's been working on that vid and it could potentially be dropped mid barbie-mania when that comes out.

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Jesús G · April 10, 2023

I definitely was so confused by the blanket, cuz like, I think I knew it was a blanket? But the face unit thing always tripped me up, and I never knew what the hell it was XD However, what you said about not being familiar with that style of toaster low-key blew my mind. I guess I don't have a good idea of what the cultural zeitgeist regarding toasters was in the 90's. We always had the vertical push-down toasters, so whenever they appeared in any sort of media, I was just like "yeah, a toaster, I'm familiar". It actually wasn't until I was like 10 that I first saw a toaster oven at a friend's house, and it was so weird to me. I had heard the term, but never really knew what it was. So now I'm not sure if your family home or my family home was atypical for our style of toaster appliance.

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Kinetics Video · April 10, 2023

Brothers Quay Brave Little Toaster remake when

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David Elizabeth Strider · April 10, 2023

I cannot stress enough how incredibly sad the blanket makes me-- i never watched this as a kid i saw snips and posters on tumblr as a teenager but i have always been put into empathy overload at the sheer sight of the blanket

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Kiwi · April 10, 2023

I think the movie does a pretty decent job of communicating an anti-consumerism theme; as a child the boy isn't really capable of doing much more to maintain his possessions than change a light bulb, but as he grows up he becomes capable of repairing the AC and the toaster. It demonstrates that though new appliances can be bought, old ones have value and shouldn't be discarded while they still work (fight to keep them out of the dump). It all crystalizes when the improbably hot gf asks "why don't you just buy a new toaster?" Because you don't need to if you can keep repairing what you already have. Idk, slap a cute homeward bound plot on top of it to have the excuse of drawing toasters against pretty outdoor scenes, teach kids about the value of caring for your stuff. Anyway I'm a Brave Little Toaster apologist I guess.

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Pierce Johnson · June 23, 2026

Nothing to apologize for! Brave Little Toaster is great!

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Hope Reed · April 10, 2023

blocked in Canada smh

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Bear · April 10, 2023

That was a perfect, little trip to a terrifying memory, thanks Jenny! Always brightens my day to have a ramble to listen to.

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Elizabeth Havens · April 10, 2023

this movie traumatized me as a kid, can't wait to confront it!

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Birthe_bird · April 10, 2023

Is it bad that my favourite part is her dumping on the nostalgia critic?

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Kinetics Video · April 10, 2023

The Nostalgia Critic deserves so much worse

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Towers of Hanoi · April 10, 2023

Biz Barclay and Jenny Nicholson both putting out brave little toaster videos? Is it a brave little toaster anniversary or something?

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Gillder · April 10, 2023

I grew up with this movie, and it still has a very special place in my heart, but as an adult, I can't really say it's a GOOD movie. :P It's definitely a fun movie though! The animation is great in my opinion and all of the songs are absolute bops!

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David A Behlman · April 10, 2023

Holds up better than the Felix the Cat Movie!

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Kelly Evans · April 10, 2023

The theme for LBT also seems to be traumatized and abandoned characters finding family in eachother after losing their worlds? And the theme for BLT could be something about sacrificing yourself for love? But not knowing if the master loves them back? It's not a great lesson, sounds like my relationships. In reality why would he give a shit about old appliances? Why would he look for them in a dump? Like no one would ever do that lmao I didn't find this movie traumatizing at all. I liked that they stayed together. But then again I was abandoned by both parents a few times so I felt connected to the idea of abandonment. My mom even came back to get me after a few years, just like the "master" does. If you're abandoned you wait and if you're good they'll come back lmao. Also my mom had me watching the devils advocate around the same age, so this wasn't that bad. The movie that traumatized me as a kid was Air Bud when the kid yells at the dog to get him to run away. I cried for hours lmao Would jenny ever do the devils advocate? Is that too dark? I really need someone to cover how batshit that movie is.

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fae · April 16, 2023

He went to the dump for new appliances, the TV, being their old friend that he had brought with him when he left, showed him the ad when he came back to his apartment after his current appliances sent the old ones to the dump. When he got there, he saw and recognised them on the conveyor belt.

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April Feldman · April 10, 2023

Ahhh I remember this movie!! It terrified me. I remember that the lamp was my favorite, and I liked the beginning of the movie when they were all in the house, but the rest of it really scared me. My older sister LOVED this movie though- and her favorite part was the end when they all were about to get crushed, so she would make us watch that part over and over again and it was low key traumatizing. Also, I wanted to say that I love how in the toaster's dream, the clown looks like a firefighter. Like the toaster's biggest fear is starting a fire and then being doused by the evil firefighters. That's amusing to me.

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AnnaBanana · April 10, 2023

Hey, did any fans of the Easter play video happen to watch this year’s installment? I just saw that it’s streaming online tonight. It’s called “Beauty and the Beaster”, might check it out 😄 Looks like neither of Jenny’s predictions for this year’s IP panned out

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Christian von Koenigsegg · April 10, 2023

Jenny, I recommend watching: "The Pixar Story" documentary, The Brave Little Toaster has some drama behind it as a milestone in CGI history and I think you would find it interesting. I may be spreading blasphemous rumors but I've heard that Judith Holmes (Clarke) had a key role in the Brave Little Toaster story .

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Keifer Sisters · April 10, 2023

Jenny! *Never* buy animation cells or drawings on eBay, they're nearly always fakes. Auction houses and galleries are your best bet, and yes, please never cut them! 😅

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Doctor Starky · April 10, 2023

I wanna buy one and make it into a shrinky dink

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run_away · April 10, 2023

I'm glad jenny mentioned the meanness. The big thing when I was young was talking about how scary the furnace scene was, but the thing I really remember about this film was how much of an asshole everyone was to each other lol.

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Pierce Johnson · June 23, 2026

Remember Toaster letting Blanky sleep next to them? Vacuum pulling everyone through the forest? The appliances doing their best to pull Vacuum out of the sinking mud? The TV from the apartment helping the returning appliances? The street light giving directions? There's kindness in the world if you look for it

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Joy Wood · April 10, 2023

Would you be willing to post/tweet the animation cell you bought in celebration of making it through this awful movie? So curious to see what you picked! :)

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Rae Leo · April 10, 2023

I think tigger is more like the radio than the lamp. rabbit is the scaredy-cat and they have eyore to be the grump

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Markus D · April 20, 2023

I feel like Eeyore doesn't quite work though because he's sad and down on HIMSELF but he's not really mean or judgemental of others.

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Penguin Gabe · April 10, 2023

God I love how you came into this hating the movie but an hour in youre crying because the toaster cant find his master. Amazing stuff jenny this is why we pay you the big bucks

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Pierce Johnson · June 23, 2026

And swings back around to not recommending it...

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Hank Pan · April 10, 2023

We coincidentally watched the two sequels the day before this ramble and they’re a trip. Did not expect the brave little toaster to quell an appliance rebellion and embrace human servitude on Mars.

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Natasha · April 10, 2023

I loved the brave little toaster when I was a kid but it also made me think cars were sentient and I was sad every time I saw a car accident because I thought they could feel pain

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ranavain · April 10, 2023

I didn't have any issue accessing the Youtube one despite not having a VPN - maybe Premium users are allowed to see the illegal content lol

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D · April 10, 2023

I've got premium but it's still location-locked in Australia

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Brian Balster · April 10, 2023

do you ever wonder what Jenny's neighbors think, while she's recording? 'oh! No! OHHHH!H OOHHHH! NOOOOO!! That hot babe stole all my stuff!' Come to think of it.. They're probably used to her by now : )

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Kay Claire · April 10, 2023

I think I've watched this film once during my entire childhood and it left 0 impressions on me lmao

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AppleSnaps · April 10, 2023

Whoa, that huge Herbie plush was amazing.

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Katie Kelley · April 10, 2023

We always had a popup toaster in the 90s and 2000s. Once we upgraded to the 4 slot toaster, oh boy!! Toaster strudels for days.

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Rachael · April 10, 2023

Yeah, we always had one, and they weren’t old or vintage, just cheap ones from Walmart or whatever, they’ve always been available. I love it when Jenny speculates and ends up somewhere wildly off-base tho, and “pop-up toasters must have gone out of fashion for awhile” is a hilarious one.

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Marlito · April 10, 2023

Thinking about how the only song/sequence I remembered form this movie was the Worthless number... so there's that. Thanks for the food though, Jenny!

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Miles le Fay · April 10, 2023

This movie traumatized me as a child. To be honest, and I know this is sacrilege, but I don’t really like Toy Story for the same reasons I don’t like this movie. I can’t handle the cognitive dissonance of ignorant bliss in the face of literal constant existential horror. Toy Story 3 and A.I.: Artificial Intelligence both explore the theme of understanding how usefulness, agency and self-worth interplay in an unjust world far more effectively than either Brave Little Toaster or Toy Story do.

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Coral Peterson · April 10, 2023

To this day I feel guilty when I want to replace items that aren't literally broken (even if they are quite old/worn), because otherwise they aren't fulfilling their "purpose". I can't solely blame this movie, but I'm sure it didn't help. I also remember being afraid of it generally, and the lamp being stuck by lightning being particularly scary.

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Brian L Hughes · April 10, 2023

I got such Star Wars vibes from the conveyor belt scene, It reminded me of Anakin and Padme in the robot factory.

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Tim Goodman · April 10, 2023

I have no memory of this movie existing, but I'm happy to listen to Jenny talk about it for over an hour.

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Derick Gadd · April 10, 2023

Holy shit they killed the air conditioner.

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Minnie · April 10, 2023

Also thank you for reminding me how much I love SOUR.

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Halli Gomberg · April 10, 2023

I always thought it was about recycling and not throwing away things that are still useful?

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Natalie Arnold · April 10, 2023

"Hey kids!! RECYCLE!" as a driving force for cartoons was kind of not quite a thing yet iirc? It was about to be, but when this movie was being made, not so much. Plus its not like kids can control whether their parents throw away the toaster.

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Minnie · April 10, 2023

I definitely remember this movie being on allllll the time as a kid. And then I also tried to rewatch it when I was older and I was like… this movie is dark, sad, and kind of ugly to look at. I can’t wait for the Starcruiser video!! You’re the best, Jenny.

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Naomi M · April 10, 2023

Its funny, while I have seen this one I'm more familiar with... whichever movie where they have the reel to reel era, vacuum tube powered supercomputer infected with a virus (I feel like it's the second one, little toaster to the rescue, bc I'm pretty sure I haven't seen the one where they go to space)

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M · April 10, 2023

I think I also saw this movie in bits and pieces on TV as a kid, but I mostly remember not liking it and not wanting to watch it whenever someone put it on 😂

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Melinda · April 10, 2023

The address that they give for the Master's house is the address for CalArts.

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Cynethryth · April 10, 2023

I had no idea this film was based on a novella, either. Reading the synopsis on Wikipedia suggests that the film took a lot of vignettes directly from the novella, but made them worse somehow. Especially the ending, which seems to be about learning to move on and that your worth isn't tied to one person. It honestly sounds like a better story than this film. I'd be interested in a ramble where you compare and contrast the novella and the film, actually!

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RadCatCreations · April 10, 2023

I owned this on VHS as a kid and watched it over and over and over again. I was really confused when years later, people were like REMEMBER THAT SUPER SCARY TOASTER MOVIE!? I was like you mean my beloved childhood film that put me to sleep every night? As an adult I look back it now and think it maybe had an influence on my interest in horror

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Dan Gibbins · April 10, 2023

(I had to pause this one to catch the last stream of Church of the Rock's Beauty and the Beaster, I'm sure we all understand) As a kid I can't say I had a special bond with my toaster. Sure I didn't want the toaster to be sad or neglected but not because we had a close relationship, that's just common courtesy. And "Because WHY" also sums up my reaction to Brave Little Toaster Goes to Mars. Loved the Plush Herbie cameo (he's so big!) and always glad to see Mr. Porg back.

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tofu nugget · April 10, 2023

Jenny almost crying because she felt bad for the toaster when they learned the human is all grown up now is so pure it made me feel sad too 😭

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O · April 10, 2023

It's funny she brought up Winnie the Pooh, because as a kid the blanket was my favorite because Piglet was my favorite, and they have a similar personality. But also my childhood stuffed animal was a little Piglet hand puppet and the Blanket looked so similar to him (the dial being big and round like his nose, and because he was a hand puppet, his body was flat when the hand was out of him). Aside from the movie being scary because it's a scary, bleak movie in general, it terrified me because I identified the Blanket so much as my beloved Piglet puppet, and the Winnie the Pooh characters were never in mortal peril. I used to have nightmares about this movie where my beloved puppet was left behind in a house that was being sold and had to go on these terrifying adventures to get back to me.

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David A Behlman · April 10, 2023

I was a fan of this as a kid, because I actively preferred movies/shows about non-human characters. "If I'm gonna watch a movie it better about something else, I see people all the time!" BUT I always hated knowing the A/C breakdown was going to have to happen. I was horrified not only at this break down, but his entire existence disturbed me to think about: he could never move. WHAT I had forgotten the flower reflection bit but seeing it again reminded that this movie is relentless with it's sad imagery. The Vacuum sucking up his own cord is such a visceral moment of body horror. I also hated that. Why was I always down to watch this? The Lamp getting struck was scary but also a great moment for the character, he was by far my favorite. Everyone preferred the Radio... Which reminds me that in middle school my class watched this as a way to discuss personality types. (Wouldn't Tigger be the Radio?)

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Sarah, the Creator · April 10, 2023

What if we all work together to make the next ramble topic 'Jenny becomes a dedicated Brave Little Toaster channel forever (serious)'. Idk if it'll hold up in court but worth a shot??

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Pierce Johnson · June 23, 2026

If she's going to overlook the CLEAR themes and talking about it not having any, I'll pass

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Chris Tierney · April 10, 2023

I'm sorry but did the lamp make a gas chamber joke??

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Doctor Starky · April 10, 2023

I'm pretty sure he meant 'hit the showers' as in 'okay boys, we're done with soccer practice for now. Time to hit the showers!'

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Girafarig · April 10, 2023

the original novella has the toaster recounting the story of an abandoned dog finding its way to its master 💀 thats so fun that you predicted that exactly right !!

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Anna O. · April 10, 2023

I'm not sure why I saw this so many times as a kid, but I did, and it's so dark in so many ways.

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Leanora · April 10, 2023

I never saw The Brave Little Toaster as a kid, and this is the first time I realized that it is not the same as The Little Engine That Could, which I am much more familiar with

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Kitty ( The cursed existence of financial instability ) fo · April 10, 2023

I remember this movie being one of those childhood pstd movies

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Sierra Thomander · April 10, 2023

I loved this set of films as a kid haha

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Alice · April 10, 2023

Watching this made me want to check out the original novella, and I found a dramatic reading on YouTube! I think it's better than the movie in most ways. It has a lighter, more consistent tone, and definitely has stronger themes. My own take is that the story is about identity. The toaster initially accepts the identity given by it's master, but everyone else it encounters (the flower, squirrels, and pirate) project their own identity when they literally see themselves reflected in the toaster. The toaster is able to learn how to assert itself, and it encourages the other appliances to do the same. When they discover their master has no need for them any more, they all choose to find a new owner in the end. If you aren't sold yet, part 3 is an episode completely absent from the film where the appliances need to explain to some squirrels how they're agender. It warms my NB heart :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwJbosRAsuU&list=PLQqflTVqpAyZbPRP_5QCe-ypde3kMpuDC

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Cynethryth · April 10, 2023

Oh my, part 1 is already so charming! Thanks for sharing!

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Matt Grippi · April 10, 2023

This was possibly my most watched movie as a kid but you referring to it as a boy is tripping me out. My sister and I were positive the toaster was a girl my whole life. I guess it is a boy? Idk why this matters to me it’s a toaster

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Ted Koutz · April 9, 2023

Started calling my cat The Brave Little Toaster when I wasn't using her name, only had vague childhood memories of the movie. I also think this would be an ok horse name

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Natalie Arnold · April 9, 2023

I didn't even know there WERE sequels. I remember this as one of the movies I always wanted to rent but I think I just liked the VHS box art or something beccause I remember -nothing- about the content.

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Alex Theisen · April 9, 2023

Without my VPN it looks like it’s up in the USA

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Gian Balangue · April 9, 2023

I think the only one I've seen is the Mars sequel, and even then, I only really remember it because I used the VHS case as a building block with my toys lol

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Bison · April 9, 2023

YouTube is a bloody mess

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Hanna Hays · April 9, 2023

Looking to the future, can someone in the higher tiers suggest the topic of “Jenny Reviews the 2023 Easter Church Play” for the April ramble lol

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Dan Gibbins · April 10, 2023

I have not fully recovered from the unexpected twist of Cogsworth and Mrs. Potts singing Time Warp.

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Catherine the also there post potato of CA · April 9, 2023

This movie scared me permanently. That clown scene……….💀

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erin 🤸‍♂️ · April 9, 2023

what are you gonna do, suck me to death?

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Dan Gibbins · April 10, 2023

File that next to "Daddy Tops" under "Things 80s animation writers managed to get away with."

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Anna Surman · April 9, 2023

I accidentally fell asleep while watching this and let me tell you I had the strangest dream about my kitchen appliances with Jenny as the voice of god at some points lol

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Akai · April 9, 2023

I watched Brave Little Toaster a few times as a kid but the only thing I can remember about it is how scary it was to me when the vacuum sucked up it's cord. Made me scared to do any vacuuming myself lol

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Vee Hoffman · April 9, 2023

Literally sending messages to my millennial squad about this video like "you no longer have an excuse not to be a Jenny Nicholson patron, COME ON."

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Marge · April 9, 2023

The first time I saw this movie was during a sleep over and it was on the TV at 3am. I thought it was a fever dream until I was like 20 years old.

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Skylin. · April 9, 2023

Im feeling so emotional.

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Luis · April 9, 2023

I hugged my toaster after the ramble but then it burned my hand 😡

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Vinnie M. · April 9, 2023

YT working for me in the US, no VPN

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Moira Laidlaw · April 9, 2023

Would love a ramble where Jenny reads the novella of the Brave Little Toaster

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Dave Ruff · April 9, 2023

I was missing Aragog and the cute hats, so I'm glad you addressed that hot topic at the very end.

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Mike Wagner · April 9, 2023

Born in 87' and watched the movie a few times on VHS. The appliances seemed older to me back then, but I just assumed that was because they were from a cabin. I grew up in the midwest where a lot of families had "camps" and every camp I went to had appliances that were out of date. I think people would just get new stuff and dump the old at their camp, or things were rarely used so they would last longer out there. Not what I think the movie was doing, but how my little kid brain justified it.

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Hannah Lemon · April 9, 2023

This movie entranced me so hard as a kid by just how terrifying it was. When I was little I loved the sadness and creepiness of it all. I think it’s probably still one of my favourite scary movies. We even named our vacuum kirbbie

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Austin P. Smith · April 9, 2023

As a kid I didn't know there were sequels I just saw the one where they went to mars and let me tell you it was creepy and upsetting

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O · April 10, 2023

How do you make a film about a toaster in space creepy and upsetting??? 🤦‍♂️ does the creators of these films even LIKE children?????

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Kylie · April 9, 2023

My family also had a toaster oven in the 90s, and I remember when I was six or seven really contemplating if it was better to put the butter on before or after toasting the bread.

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Steve Ray · April 17, 2023

That's only for cinnamon toast, which is a dessert, not true toast.

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Evan L Rodríguez · April 9, 2023

For a live action remake of the film, they shouldn’t render the appliances in CGI, but instead use actual appliances. They don’t have faces, they’re just normal appliances that project their voices from nothing. It would be a good homage to those old pet adventure films where they’d just have footage of animals moving through set pieces with lines of dialogue added in. I feel like it would heighten the comedy of the emotionally intense scenes for these faceless machines to be so vocally expressive, but it’s just a vacuum.

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Bryan Sutton · April 9, 2023

" This is just going to give people a complex about throwing away their old appliances. " OMG it all makes sense now!

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Michael Apgar · April 9, 2023

For what it's worth the Youtube link seems to be working perfectly fine for me (I'm in California)

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Callie Koch · April 9, 2023

I completely had the same experience as you, this movie freaked me out as a kid. Pretty sure it instilled a bit of hoarding mindset in me too lmaoo

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Molly · April 9, 2023

I'm going to wait until this one goes up on youtube because it's freezing every few seconds. :(

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Tiffany Webb · April 9, 2023

I have no conscious memory of this move, but I do have deep emotional scars because of it.

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Tama Hero · April 9, 2023

As a kid I had a nightmare that my mom got angry and exploded like the air conditioner. Actually I rewatched this movie a lot as a kid, I dont know if its just because my parents were older when they had children but a lot of the appliances we had were similar to the ones in the movie. And I remember really enjoying the Tutti Frutti part of the movie. But maybe the reason thats the majority of what I remember about the movie is because they dont leave the house til 1/3rd of the way in. I definitely remember enjoying Goes to Mars a lot more. Same with Fievel, I liked the lighthearted Goes West more than the original.

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Lumi Næss · April 9, 2023

This reminds me of a movie I saw when I was 5 called The trumpet of the swan. It was an ugly duckling story about a swan who was born mute but ended up learning to play the trumpet. I remember really liking it and every adult who saw it said they loved it too, but then I watched it as an adult and it was really bad. Even worse than this tbh. I wonder if those adults just lied or what. lol

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Katie Rose · April 9, 2023

there's the A113 calarts easter egg but the part that made me really groan was that the address for his house/apartment is also the address for calarts (minus one 0, 2470 instead of 24700)

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Nicola Callahan · April 9, 2023

The junk yard scene was so sad to watch as a kid. I remember actually thinking it was pretty dark compared to the other movies I watched. Like, even as a child, this movie felt scary, but not in a fun way.

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Dalton · April 9, 2023

The only memories I have of this movie were from the scary clown dream and maybe the air conditioning unit but in my mind they all morphed into like one terrifying entity.

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Courtney Sheffield · April 9, 2023

I'm still scared to vacuum over the cord and give my vacuum a seizure.

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Bullseye · April 9, 2023

Well, it *is* bad to vacuum over the cord. It'll get tangled up inside.

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Tzivia Kleinbart · April 9, 2023

Spent my morning watching this movie for the first time just so I could watch this rant. My only knowledge of it was that one of the Disney VHS’ I had as a kid has a preview of this movie before it and I remember thinking it looked cute but never watching it. It gave me really big Toy Story vibes and had a surprisingly good soundtrack, but overall just okay. I love that radio.

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Shanny · April 9, 2023

This movie occupies a weird space for me because the only time I ever watched it as a kid was at hockey summer camp. Like 5 days of physical activity then 1 afternoon of watching a miserable animated movie, every year without fail. I remember the relief when I returned one year and instead of watching the brave little toaster we watched the mighty ducks.

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CheeseDuck · April 9, 2023

Loving the hot toaster vs toaster oven discourse. I grew up and entered adulthood being mildly afraid of toaster ovens, because in the original The Sims toaster ovens would constantly lead to death by immolation if used with a low cooking skill. So I thought they were exceptionally dangerous in real life as well. A “brave little toaster oven” would have been like a horror movie for me, so I’m glad they went with the other type.

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apelsindipp · April 9, 2023

honestly i got way too invested in this movie

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marsverb · April 9, 2023

The baby blanket does seem like a weird choice at first, granted, but in hindsight that's realistically the only appliance in this film I can imagine an adult actually having nostalgic childhood memories about.

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Andrew Becker · April 9, 2023

This is one of those movies you remember about after having a really bad nightmare or just otherwise unsettling dream in your 30s about one of the characters from the movie and you wake up in that state where you still feel the emotion you did in the dream and it takes you a minute to realize that it was a movie character as the emotion slowly fades as you're like, "was there a movie about a talking vacuum cleaner when I was little" so you ask your sisters and they tell you what it's from and you remember what it is and you're just kinda shook from the experience and now you have a vague fear of vacuum cleaners from then on out. Might just be me. But also I lived in NJ when I saw this and had no idea why that was the blanket's face either.

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teacupful · April 9, 2023

The air conditioner having a violent emotional breakdown and then his smoking corpse are the ONE THING I remembered from this movie as a child.

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David A Behlman · April 10, 2023

because it was traumatizing!

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Trystan · April 9, 2023

The magnet, a sentient machine, feeling an undeserved spitefulness towards other similar sentient machines and leading them willfully into a destruction machine as a final solution. If it's not satire it's some pretty obvious allegory.

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Bullseye · April 9, 2023

Ties into Madeleine JS's theory.

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meowmaoist · April 9, 2023

dying laughing at work rn

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Victoria · April 9, 2023

I think my memories match up a lot with Jenny's here. I watched this on TV when it was on as a kid but I never owned it and I don't think I even rented it. I was always confused by the electric blanket. I also remember not knowing what the AC unit was because most homes in my region didn't have AC!

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Aramis Calcutt · April 9, 2023

Senator? What senator was vacuuming things orally?

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meowmaoist · April 9, 2023

need a follow up on this one

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Markus D · April 9, 2023

Totally agree about there being a weird school of animation fans who kind of just think "dark = good" but then they basically over-rate movies that are dark even if they're basic like this movie or The Land Before Time because they were scared by them as kids.

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Pierce Johnson · June 23, 2026

Have you ever felt worthless in your life? Have you ever seen people fail or face unsurmountable obstacles? That's life! This film captures that through the lense of five appliances that /do/ overcome and succeed

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Cedonia Peterson · April 9, 2023

I watched the original *maybe* once, but I saw Little Toaster to the Rescue countless times when I was little (I thought it was the only one for a long time lol). It's a weird movie, but it kind of fascinated me as a kid.

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Larry Bewarey · April 9, 2023

toaster thing tripping me up. we always had a toaster and so did everyone i knew. we still have a toaster i got like last year at wallmart. its not retro just a regular toaster.

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Bryan Sutton · April 9, 2023

Yeah I thought I was going insane! As far as I'm aware, people continued to use toasters throughout the 90's and 2000's. My family certainly did.

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S G Matthews · April 9, 2023

I can confirm from my childhood trauma that the scene with the Toaster and the Flower was definitely part of the version I saw on the Disney Channel. I can also confirm that I feel really bad throwing away appliances because of this movie. More significantly though, as to the question as whether the Toaster is male or female… the novella establishes that all the appliances are Non-Binary and use “it,” which confuses the animals they interact with. It’s been a while, but I think the novella is pretty thick with allegory about LGBTQ+ identity and religious faith… which wasn’t going to make it in an animated feature from the Eighties, so you end with something lacking in theme.

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Rae Dunning-Rocole · April 9, 2023

It's funny that this is the topic because my SO and I were just talking about how this movie fucked me up as a kid. Like, I already anthropomorphize my possessions enough as it is. I don't need the added guilt that they'll feel emotional anguish when I throw them away! My SO, on the other hand, is normal and well adjusted and just thinks it's a cute kids movie.

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Claudia · April 9, 2023

this movie scared me so much as a kid, I'm watching the video now and this primal fear has welled up from my depths

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Madeleine · April 9, 2023

HOT TAKE: This movie makes zero sense as a film for children but makes perfect sense if you read it with a psychoanalytic lens. For children who grow up with emotionally withholding or neglectful parents, there are often a few characteristics in how they relate to parents: (1) feeling like they exist to serve the parent (2) total idealization of the parent — remembering them as completely loving, kind, perfect (3) a sense of hostility and resentment towards siblings, who they transfer their anger at the parent onto (4) idea that all will be solved if they can convince the parent to love them / return to them, and the idea that it’s their responsibility to do the great task of making this happen. The brave little toaster maps onto this perfectly. It’s the nightmare of an emotionally-neglected child fantasizing about undertaking that great journey that will make their parent love them. This explains the total flatness and incongruence of the master character: he doesn’t make sense or feel real because he’s how a neglected child views their parent: Perfectly loving, but for some reason tragically separated from the child in a way that is the child’s responsibility to resolve. There are no themes because this one comes to us straight, undiluted from the unconscious. I think part of the reason it’s so punishing is that a neglected child will often be made to feel they need to “prove” or “earn” the attention of the parent. Undergoing extreme discomfort or sacrifice is comforting, because it means the parent will have to comfort you. Similarly, neglected kids often have warm memories of being cared for when sick, because it’s one of the only times a neglectful parent will be nurturing. This makes sense of the really weird, grim moment at the end, where the Master is lovingly restoring the toaster. TLDR: appliances as protagonists make no sense, except as the projection of how a neglected child views their parent. :-( Great video, I enjoyed / suffered lol! Thank you Jenny! Sources / further reading: “Recovering from Emotionally Immature Parents: Practical Tools to Establish Boundaries and Reclaim Your Emotional Autonomy” by Lindsay C. Gibson, “The Drama of the Gifted Child” by Alice Miller, “For Your Own Good” by Alice Miller

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Markus D · April 9, 2023

See, I think there's a point here, as well as with what Jenny said, how everything is basically ruined by the ending just being "and they find the master and are all happy" because the idolization of the master was really unsettling in my opinion, so having it be INTENTIONALLY unsettling works a lot better than it just being like how appliances think of love and we just have to accept it at face value.

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Monica McFadden · April 9, 2023

Someone please put 'Jenny reacts to the Wikipedia article on the Brave LIttle Toaster novella' on future polls because I'm reading it right now and it's great. At one point the appliances apparently have a heated argument about whether using an abandoned rowboats makes them 'no better than pirates', then there's a whole aside about how appliances hate and fear pirates. (I would suggest reacting to the actual book except it costs $175 on Amazon, yikes. The first review of it starts 'At what point can the pathetic fallacy become lamentable idiocy?' which is a ringing endorsement.)

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Pierce Johnson · June 23, 2026

Check your library system. That's how I first found out about the book

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Cy Langford · April 9, 2023

I feel like the Mario movie is the newest theme-less movie, and I tried my darndest to find one. (I also loved every second of it, but that's beside the point). Also, regarding Brave Little Toaster goes to Mars... the balloon song slaps.

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Monica McFadden · April 9, 2023

I think a lot of the people who are nostalgic for this movie really just remember the songs because, yeah, the plot doesn't make sense. What child has ever loved a vacuum cleaner? But 'Worthless' is so good and it's lyrics are so intriguing. I wonder what 'Fellini just couldn't forget' means.

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Jenny Nicholson · April 9, 2023

That whole verse confuses me tbh

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Drew Hitchcock · April 9, 2023

I think you can argue that the movie has a theme, but that it's creepy and kind of Calvinist. The appliances lost faith in The Master and so they have to pass through a series of trials, which nearly destroy all of them and The Master himself. But if they had kept their faith in The Master for a few more days, he would have saved them from the cabin without any fuss. So you could say the movie is about keeping faith in your masters and that they love you and haven't forgotten you, even if there is no direct evidence of that.

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Claudia · April 9, 2023

Plus the scenes about the junk shop--- "it's bad to reuse parts from broken appliances"

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BoPod Horsecast · April 9, 2023

I’m so glad I never watched this movie as a child, holy shit it would have terrified me.

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Claudia · April 9, 2023

It was so scary!!!! It will scars me now!!!

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Steven Clark · April 9, 2023

In a way, I kind of sympathize with the Nostalgia Critic's line of thinking because kids are always going to get stuck watching a lot of bad movies, so it really is better if some of those are bad in a weird/scary/sad way instead of just being boring. Then again, I guess that void is being filled by irresponsible youtubers now, so I guess Jaystation really does contribute something to society.

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TV_Walkman · April 9, 2023

The way my high school lit teacher taught theme was ”a theme must be a whole sentence.” She distinguished between theme and topic like that, where topics would be something like ”love” and themes would be something like ”love causes pain but it's still worth it.” I think it's a really good way to distinguish it! but it's given the biggest pet peeve in the world....

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Pierce Johnson · June 23, 2026

I don't understand how people in this thread can debate what a theme is, but hardly come up with any for this movie that clearly has some

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Austin F · April 9, 2023

also that comment on the video about what the cars represent is me writing an essay in high school at the last minute about a book i only read the sparknotes for

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Luis · April 9, 2023

Yes the perfect Easter treat! Also love the bucket hat I'm hoping they become popular again.

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Kodey Chism · April 9, 2023

Jenny feeling genuinely sad for the appliances, with misty eyes and a pink nose is the singular most wholesome thing ever. She said "It's not fair" and I went aweeee. Cause I felt the same way revisiting this as adults with my sister!

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BD · April 9, 2023

My heart hurt for you when you got sad for the appliances

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Jennifer W · April 9, 2023

lost it when she saw them proud of his graduation photos, so pure

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🫰 jeanette rankin is my bias 🫰 · April 9, 2023

California must be a different country. I grew up in the early 2000s and I didn't hear about toaster ovens till like 2011 when my cousin bought one for college. No one had one out on their counter. Regular toasters where everywhere following children around

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Madison Alexander · April 9, 2023

I grew up in California around the same time Jenny did and almost everyone had a toaster except for a few people with toaster ovens. I've never even used toaster ovens because they seem complicated and kinda freak me out lol

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Jennifer W · April 9, 2023

👏 non-binary 👏 toasters 👏 are 👏 valid 👏

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Steve Ray · April 9, 2023

All toasters are non binary, because they have a dial for adjusting how dark you want the toast.

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Jason Perez · April 9, 2023

“Kinda like that senator actually” I hope you make jokes about him and never let him live it down

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Carrie Marshall · April 9, 2023

The flower bit was def in TV showings of the movie, I still have a VHS tape recording of UPN that I watched a lot as a kid! This movie is so bonkers to look back on, I remember watching it a lot but it certainly weirded me out, especially the junkyard bit. Also I was a Blanket kid, he was my favorite when I was little. Everyone was so mean to him, now I’m like damn, guys!

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Bullseye · April 9, 2023

You'd think they'd all want to sleep with the blanket!

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Jenna Stoddard · April 9, 2023

Jenny your toaster ramble is the least relatable thing you've ever said. But I was always a sensitive child (my parents took me on alien escape in 1998 even though I was afraid of the bugs life show) and brave little toaster def was too scary for me

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Shred Cadmium · April 9, 2023

BIG PORG 🙌

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Luis · April 9, 2023

HUGE GRACIOUS POWERFUL

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Austin F · April 9, 2023

the guy taking the appliances apart looks really similar to peter griffin to me lol

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TalkieSoundBox · April 9, 2023

I'm so glad jenny also did not understand the electric blanket as a child. I always thought the blankets face was one of those loss prevention anti theft tags that got left on the blanket by accident and was confused as to why it did not explode and get ink all over it.

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Hazel Singh · April 9, 2023

why did I think you were talking about actual electric blankets at first because I didn’t understand how they worked?

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Madeline · April 9, 2023

I'm able to watch the video from the US, but it's been categorized as "for kids" lol

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Shaun Cheah · April 11, 2023

That's intentional; it happens to all the rambles to keep them from being added to public playlists and leaked to non-Patreons in that manner.

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Jennifer W · April 9, 2023

wait, as a British person, I have literally never seen a toaster with any design other than the vertical one?? what kind of toaster innovation have you got going on over there?

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Jenny Nicholson · April 9, 2023

Most people I know just have a toaster oven, so the food goes in horizontally on the rack. Are those not in other countries? I think they're more useful since you can warm toast after you butter it or reheat stuff like pizza. Or bake cookies if you just want a couple and don't want to preheat a real oven lol

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Tall Jeff · April 9, 2023

Wow I saw this plenty as a kid and I do not remember any of the parts yo you showed what the hell

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Janna Jackson Gorog · April 11, 2023

Same here! I’m wondering if I am actually remembering “The Brave Little Toaster to the Rescue” or “Goes to Mars.” Those came out closer to when I was born than this one.

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Markus D · April 9, 2023

I also never liked the movie, but my reason was opposite to yours! I don't like movies where the characters are inanimate objects, unless it's some sort of magical scenario, because I'm not really able to sympathize with them or care about them being in peril because I'm just so consciously aware of how they aren't living beings.

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T. Fazekas · April 9, 2023

The burden of fame. Little doubt subscriber number has to factor into what gets on their radar. Not a Toasty myself but can’t wait to watch.

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Trevor Atwood · April 9, 2023

I'm within a year or so of you age wise and it is BONKERS to me that you didn't have a toaster! I've always had one!

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Toaster · April 9, 2023

Same! Maybe a regional thing? I’m in Midwest USA and everyone I knew growing up in the 90s/00s had vertical toasters

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Carla Carroll · April 9, 2023

Excited to watch this but shattered that you aren't a fan of the movie! It's one of my childhood favourites, and the song "worthless" is on some of my current playlists

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Carla Carroll · April 9, 2023

Admittedly that song is real fucked up

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Paul O'Regan · April 9, 2023

This website shows which countries a Youtube video is blocked in: https://polsy.org.uk/stuff/ytrestrict.cgi The video is blocked everywhere except the USA.

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Mary Hamilton · April 9, 2023

Seems to work in the US 👍🏻

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Finn Moreau · April 9, 2023

Working for me in Dublin, Ireland!

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Mary Schneider · April 9, 2023

In NC, YouTube link is working for me 😊

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Shaun Cheah · April 11, 2023

Works for me in the Netherlands, was able to watch it all in one window while harpooning RuneScape tuna on the Karamja docks in another.

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Jack · April 9, 2023

🍞🍞🍞