David Newman would contribute one of his earliest and most memorable scores. This led to Lasseter’s dismissal from Disney and Wilhite co-created Hyperion to put the film into production. Disney originally bought the rights to the novel in 1982, but passed on a pitch by John Lasseter and producer Thomas Wilhite (both of whom wanted to use new computer generated backgrounds for the film).

Hyperion Pictures, which had produced the film, would later screen the film in art house theaters in the U.S. The film had premiered at the Los Angeles International Animation Celebration in 1987 and was shown at the 1988 Sundance Film Festival, but it failed to find a distributor and Disney (who had the video and TV distribution rights) withdrew its official theatrical distribution, airing the film on the Disney Channel in February 1988. This critically acclaimed film cost $2.3 million to make but didn’t gross much at the box office due to its extremely limited theatrical distribution.

Day, Tim Stack, Jon Lovitz, Thurl Ravenscroft, Wayne Kaatz, Phil Hartman, and Mindy Sterling. Based on the novel by Thomas Disch, this film features the voices of Deanna Oliver, Timothy E. For this latest installment of Animation Corner, I’ll be looking back at The Brave Little Toaster and the Oscar-nominated Toy Story.ĭirected by Jerry Rees, 1987’s The Brave Little Toaster centers on a toaster, a vacuum, a clock radio, an electric blanket, and a lamp as they journey over a great distance to find their original owner. The similar concept I will shine a spotlight on today is an inanimate object (or group of inanimate objects) attempting to reunite with its (or their) master, with a number of challenges standing in the way. Examples of such films include 1998’s Antz and A Bug’s Life, 2010’s Despicable Me and Megamind, 1992’s Ferngully: The Last Rainforest and 2013’s Epic, and 2006’s Happy Feet and 2007’s Surf’s Up. It’s not that often that animated films share some similar concepts (and even rarer when both similar film are released in the same year).

The brave little toaster toys