Similarities to the Toy Story series to The Brave Little Toaster

[Alolan_Apples]

I haven’t done comparison/contrast blogs in a long time, but I have been interesting into talking about how similar Toy Story and its sequels are based on a prototype film that inspired the ideas for Toy Story. That would be The Brave Little Toaster, which is a story about five appliances that went out looking for their master. Before Toy Story, there was this.

Amazingly, the entire Toy Story series (1 to 4) have similarities to The Brave Little Toaster, as well as its direct-to-video sequels. The difference? Toy Story isn’t as dark as Brave Little Toaster as none of the toys sacrificed themselves, yet the villains are a lot worse than in Brave Little Toaster and its sequels.

Without further ado, here are the similarities (in order based on Brave Little Toaster’s plot):

• Just like Woody, Toaster is the organizer of the community of appliances. Personality-wise, Toaster is most like Woody (or Buzz in case of Toy Story 2 and Toy Story 3), Blanky is most like Rex, Lampy is most like Slinky, Radio is most like Hamm, and Kirby (the vacuum cleaner) is most like Mr Potato Head. Both were the main appliances (Brave Little Toaster) or main toys (Toy Story) that went looking for their master.
• The story of The Brave Little Toaster begins when the appliances have been abandoned by the master as they hopelessly waited for him to return. After waiting for too long and failing to accept that he will never come back (combined with the cottage being put up for sale), they decided to leave and go on for an adventure. The theme of abandonment occurred in Toy Story 3, as the toys did the same thing after being thrown away.
• Somewhere towards the beginning, the appliances talked to the air conditioner, an appliance that never got love from the master. A character in Toy Story 2 (the squeaky penguin) had that same feeling.
• Just like in Toy Story 1, the cottage the appliances originally lived in was put up for sale. This was the turning point of the exposition, which lead the appliances to leaving.
• Most of The Brave Little Toaster took place in the country. Toy Story mostly took place in the city until Toy Story 4.
• The use of toys or appliances as transportation occurred in both Toy Story 4 and The Brave Little Toaster.
• During the journey, the appliances have faced distractions irrelevant to their goal and many other interesting stuff. It happened in Toy Story 2 (like Rex’s obsession over a video game) and Toy Story 4 (when Woody focused more on Bo Peep than bringing Forky back).
• In Toy Story 2, Woody had a bad dream about being thrown away. There was a much darker counterpart to that in The Brave Little Toaster.
• After Toaster’s bad dream, the adventure for the appliances got much rougher, with the wind blowing Blanky away, Lampy sacrificing himself to recharge the chair transportation, the appliances falling over the waterfall, and worst of all, sinking into a mud pit. Andy’s toys faced a similar fate in Toy Story 3 when they went to Sunnydale Daycare.
• The entire parts shop scene in The Brave Little Toaster had similarities to the entire Toy Story film series.
  • For Toy Story 1, a fat guy named Elmo St Peters found the appliances by chance and took them to a parts shop. Like Sid, he tortures appliances (including making mutations), tried to do the same to one of the main characters, and was scared by the sentience of the appliances. The difference, both his handling of appliances and his defeat were darker than Sid’s. Also, the appliances were terrified at the atmosphere of the parts shop because of the other appliances living there, and were only able to escape when the owner was defeated.
  • For Toy Story 2, Elmo St Peters was an obese owner of a shop, just like Al. He takes the appliances that are not his, and those that are living there would not let them leave, just like Stinky Pete. Also like Al, his defeat also involved his business to get ruined.
  • For Toy Story 3, the parts shop was just as dangerous as Sunnydale Daycare when Lotso was in charge. Anyone that winds up inside cannot even leave, as long as the boss is there.
  • For Toy Story 4, the parts shop can be a parallel to Second Chance Antiques, the old store in Toy Story 4.
• When the appliances where looking for the master’s apartment, this is similar to when Andy’s toys looked for Al’s apartment in Toy Story 2.
• Somewhere towards the end of The Brave Little Toaster, the master was ready to go off to college. Guess who’s going to college in Toy Story 3?
• The new vs old theme occurred in Toy Story 1. However, the jealous ones have flip-flopped where the older appliances were loved by the master more than the “cutting-edge appliances”. Even the master still doesn’t want the newer appliances when he couldn’t find the older ones.
• Just like in Toy Story 1, the loved ones were tossed out the window by the jealous ones. But this time, they ended up in a dumpster (like Toy Story 3).
• The entire junkyard sequence is like the dump sequence in Toy Story 3. Except that the master came to save them and Toaster sacrificed herself. But there was a near death experience and an antagonist that was trying to kill them.
• And just like Toy Story 1, the appliances were able to reconcile with the master at the end.

The list does not end here. Although The Brave Little Toaster to the Rescue and The Brave Little Toaster goes to Mars are not as popular, they at least have similarities to the Toy Story series in some way.

• In the Rescue sequel, a fat guy named Mack tried to kidnap the animals and sell them to animal testing for profit. This is similar to what Al did in Toy Story 2, but only crueler.
• In both Brave Little Toaster sequels, the appliances meet new friends and foes (and sometimes live with them). This happens in Toy Story 2 and Toy Story 3.
• In the Rescue sequel, the appliances meet a dying supercomputer who needs a rare tube, which was in possession by one of the appliances. Does that remind you of anything in Toy Story 4?
• A major plot point in Toy Story 4 happened in the Mars sequel. Just like Forky, the baby went somewhere the appliances tried to stop him from going to, and they had to go to Mars just like how Woody had to look out for Forky.
• The main antagonist in Toy Story 4 and the Mars sequel of The Brave Little Toaster are both evil as we meet them, but on the inside, they are good as they got what they wanted in the end.

Now an interesting fact is that the Toy Story series rose to fame and still lives up to this day as The Brave Little Toaster has faded to obscurity. In fact, it hasn’t even got a Blu-Ray release. Maybe one day, they’ll eventually get an HD release for digital, but even the studio that owns The Brave Little Toaster has been dormant for over 10 years and we don’t know if they’ll ever be active again.