Line #36 Fridge/TheBraveLittleToaster


1	Heh, heh, "[[{{Pun}} Fridge]]"
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3	'''As a Fridge subpage, all spoilers are unmarked [[Administrivia/SpoilersOff as per policy.]] Administrivia/YouHaveBeenWarned.'''
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6	[[AC:FridgeBrilliance]]
7	* All of the appliances, new and old, seem to be unnaturally attracted to Rob -- until you realize he's a burgeoning ''repairman''. It's like living with a general practitioner, knowing you have a doctor living with you 24/7. His girlfriend is a WrenchWench as well!
8	* It seemed strange that Lampy (who would naturally be "bright") was such an air-head. But then, he's always curious and interested. He doesn't have ''answers'', he has ''questions''. It's questions, not answers, that make you bright!
9	** Unless he actually is an air-head. What fills most of the space in a lamp-shade?
10	* Toaster throws a box onto the floor and stands on it to give a RousingSpeech. It's a soap box, Toaster literally stood on a soap box!
11	* When the appliances arrive in the city, Toaster has some trouble reading the phone book and asking for directions to Rob's house, so Lampy reads it instead. Perhaps all the time Rob spent reading by lamplight taught Lampy to read.
12	* The now-obsolete '80s appliances mocking the main characters for being "outdated", when actually the heroes are the type of appliances that last for many years, and whose functions would still be useful today. Many people still use 20- (sometimes even ''50''-) year-old toasters, lamps, and vacuums. Compare that to how often you have to update and replace your computer, television, mobile phone, etc...
13	* It may be confusing when the Appliance Shop characters suddenly break into a song about old monster movies. As an adult it's easier to see that they're probably trying to make Toaster and the gang feel better about the situation with black comedy humor.
14	** On another level, it refers to movies such as Literature/{{Frankenstein}}, about a monster created from body parts from different humans (and even some animal parts). Similar to Frankenstein's monster, the shop's appliances are presented as monstrous and subhuman/sub-appliance, while Frankenstein/the shopkeeper is (at least initially) unaware of his folly, blinded by his idealism.
15	* The flower that falls in love with its own reflection in Toaster's chrome plating looks vaguely like a daffodil, which is a member of the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narcissus_%28mythology%29 Narcissus]] family.
16	** Also, Thomas M Disch's poem ''Echo and Narcissus'' was his first published poem, back in TheSixties.
17	** Alternatively, it could be a stylized [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaillardia Gaillardia]], a genus of plants whose common name is the [[RuleOfSymbolism blanket flower]].
18	* Many people were probably annoyed by Blanky's neediness and tendency to cry at the drop of a hat. But he was characterized that way for a reason-- he's an ''electric blanket'', an object whose very reason for existence depends upon cuddling close to someone and keeping them warm.
19	* Similar to above, the reason that Kirby is so grumpy and reluctant is probably based of his relationship to "the master". Vacuuming is a chore, and what do kids hate more than chores? Any interaction was probably very reluctant on the kids part, which rubbed off on Kirby.
20	** Not to mention the fact that while the other appliances could still perform their intended duties (vacuuming, playing music, lighting the room), Blanky had absolutely no way to fulfill his purpose. Which is probably why Toaster became so affectionate towards him later. Blanky had nobody to cuddle with, and Toaster had no bread to toast. Meanwhile, Lampy panicked when his bulb burned out -- but Rob replaced it. Meanwhile, the Air Conditioner is jealous of the others because Rob was too short to reach his knobs.
21	* The characters sure have lazy names, don't they? Lampy? Blanky? It's like a little kid came up with them...which he ''did''. Rob probably gave each appliance a name based on what it was. As for Kirby, well, Kirby is an actual brand of vacuum, so maybe Rob saw the name "Kirby" on it, and assumed it the vacuum's name.
22	* When the Toaster is getting up on his [[VisualPun literal soap box]], he is standing in a beam of sunlight while the others are in the shadows. As he wins them over, they get closer to him, effectively "coming into the light" about it's plan. Kirby, the most curmudgeonly of them all, only gets a tiny corner of himself into the light when he begrudgingly agrees, and before that, he ''retreats'' into the shadows when he calls them insane.
23	* Why is Kirby such a grouch? Because a vacuum's job is to ''hold unpleasant things inside!''
24	* The electronics in Rob's apartment, including the TV, are all more advanced counterparts of the main characters. Except for Blanky, who has no counterpart (as electric blankets haven't changed much for many years), they are as follows: The electric mixer, the food processor, and the toaster oven are all more recently invented kitchen appliances than Toaster; the canister vacuum and the sewing machine are both newer maintenance appliances than Kirby; the TV, the computer, and the boom box are all more advanced entertainment devices than Radio; and the desk lamp, colored lights, and ceiling spotlight lamps are all more modern light sources than Lampy. The entertainment center can be one for both Lampy (as it has a projector it sometimes uses just for lighting) and for Radio (as it's also meant for, well, entertainment). Notice that these devices, in "The Cutting Edge," tend to bully around these specific characters.
25	* "The Cutting Edge" appliances are obsolete by today's standards- replaced by the same cycle of progress that had them taunting the older appliances.
26	* Towards the end of the story, Lampy decides college would be a very good experience for them all. This becomes brilliant when one realizes that where they're going, their "master" Robby is going to need a reliable light source for late night studies. In turn, Lampy will get to read Robby's college notes and learn with him.
27	* Why is [[EverythingTryingToKillYou everything trying to kill the protagonists]]? Because they're ''household'' appliances. They literally were not designed for the outside world.
28	* Elmo St. Peters' name is [[MeaningfulName obviously a play on St. Peter, the guy you see before you go to heaven]]. Most of the appliances in his store are broken, but with some care, could still serve their purpose, while the heroes are perfectly functional. From St. Peter's perspective, though, [[DesignatedVillain he's just doing honest, practical, business]], and it's altogether likely that the appliances know this: they're not afraid of him or of being dismantled, it's just "[[StealthPun not their time to meet St. Peters!]]"
29	** It also speaks to the film's internal logic, that appliances are happiest doing what they were built for. An appliance that still works fine being dumped in a parts store just because someone doesn't need it or doesn't want to take care of it is, to them, the equivalent of abandoning a dog for the same reason.
30	* It's worth noting that the electromagnet in the finale doesn't ever speak, so we have no idea what it's motivation is behind killing the main heroes, but we know it must have SOME, since it constantly looks at them with an evil glare and doesn't hesitate to let Rob die if it means crushing some metal junk in the process. It all makes sense when you remember that, like the other characters, the electromagnet isn't really a ''person'', it's a machine designed for a specific purpose. Lampy is a lamp, he's meant to brighten dark places. Toaster is a toaster, who toasts bread. The electromagnet's entire purpose is to pick up junk and put it on the conveyer belt, nothing more. It suddenly makes a lot more sense why he's so gung-ho about killing them... it's literally his sole reason to exist. If he doesn't do it, it'll be ''him'' that's next on the conveyer belt.
31	** The air-conditioner even echoes this earlier in the film, pointing out that if an appliance can't fulfill it's function, it's absolutely worthless and shouldn't even be around.
32	* The main characters each correlate to the five senses. Toaster is taste (he toasts bread), Blanky is touch (he's very soft and cuddly), Lampy is sight (he produces light), Radio is sound (he broadcasts music), and Kirby is smell (vacuums are cleaning products that make rooms smell better when you use them).
33	* Why does the two-faced sewing machine get a scene where their dialogue is the focus and not the other Cutting-Edge Appliances? To make up for Blanky being the only main character who doesn't have an EvilCounterpart. They spend the conversation discussing and berating him.
34	* From the scenes at the workshop onward, Kirby complains a lot less. His attitude has gone from "I say we stay" to "I'm for getting out of here!" Watching what happened to the blender must have had an impact on him; that could one day be him if he didn't take action when he could.
35	* The appearance of the cutting-edge vacuum cleaner is very appropriate. With its flat, broad face, green color, and long, thin neck/body, the vacuum looks like a snake, and SnakesAreSinister. The second head at the end even makes the vacuum resemble an amphisbaena.
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37	[[AC:FridgeHorror]]
38	* During the montage of ways to travel, one of the suggestions is riding in a refrigerator on a skateboard. Cue the scene, and you see them crash said refrigerator. Did they just enlist one of their fellow appliances and kill them?
39	* The MonsterClown in Toaster's dream whispering, in a sinister voice, "Run." You don't normally tell someone you want to kill to run away from you. Considering that he has a massive, evil grin on his fact the whole time, it's clear that he's not just trying to kill Toaster, but takes ''sadistic glee'' in doing so, part of which is watching Toaster try in vain to get away.
40	* "Worthless" is ''loaded'' with it, with some bits more obvious than others.
41	** We get to see the red sports car's steering wheel frantically turning back and forth as he gets fed into the crusher, as if the car's trying to escape.
42	*** Worse, it's possible that that car was "senile" and thought he was driving down the highways he used to again.
43	** The "Zuma to Yuma" car's verse suggested that she "had a hand" in some kind of fatal crackup, maybe due to mechanical failure, since she has bad frontal damage and her owner's surfboard was still attached. Watch the scene again, and you notice that said surfboard has a giant bite mark in it.
44	** The Texan wedding car's driver either got cold feet on the way to his wedding, which is bad, or after the wedding, and after he and his bride returned home, he committed suicide, which is worse. This becomes NightmareFuel when you realize that the car that lands on top of the Texan car is a hearse and they are crushed together.
45	** The final and most unambiguously depressed car, a green pickup truck, ''drives himself onto the crusher's conveyor belt'' and then waits calmly for death. Even the Magnet seems a little taken aback by this. Either the truck was suicidal or he preferred to die in a dignified manner on his own terms, rather than wait to be picked up and tossed in.
46	*** Considering how the blue car and green truck both met their ends--the former with no resistance whatsoever, the latter actively going into the literal jaws of death--it's an unnerving thing to think an almost Disney-esque song began and ended with what was essentially two suicides (and contains a possible reference to another suicide).
47	** More interpretations of the original English lyrics:
48	*** "I can't take this kind of pressure! I must confess one more dusty road would be just a road too long". We begin the song with this blue car--it's pretty basic and straightforward to introduce us to the duties of the magnet and the crusher. He's an old car whose parts are so worn down that he's already on his last legs/wheels by the time he was brought to Ernie's. (Also a VisualPun when he says he can't take the pressure as the magnet lands on him with a lot of downward force.)
49	*** "I just can't--I just can't--I just can't seem to get started. Don't have the heart to live in the fast lane; all that is passed and gone". This is a pink convertible whose ignition has stopped working, or has at least become unreliable, with her first line mimicking a car that won't start, as well as her rumbling and then her wheels collapsing, as if she were trying to get started at that moment. This is a common reason people dispose of their cars. Her second line suggests, though does not imply, that she has gone at high speeds in the past but became incapable of this some time before her ignition went out.
50	*** "I come from K.C., Missouri! And I got my kicks out on Route 66, every truck stop from Butte to MO.! Motown to old Alabama; from Texarkana and east of Savannah; from Tampa to old Kokomo!". These are all locations within the continental United States. Some are cities, some are states, and some are just general areas. This car's owner enjoyed traveling around the country and seeing things, visiting places. This is where the sequence starts getting more hidden meanings. This car is a red Corvette from the mid-60s and is very valuable. It may be that something catastrophic happened to him or to his owner, as these cars would normally be kept even if they stopped working as intended. There may also be some significance to the fact that Butte, Montana is the westernmost destination he lists[[note]]There are also Buttes in North Dakota, Nebraska, Alaska, and formerly California, but the one in Montana has the highest population and is the one a traveler is most likely to deliberately visit. There is also a Kokomo in Hawaii, but this is very unlikely[[/note]]: It is possible that this traveler never actually finished touring the continental United States, with something cutting the journey short, most likely a very bad car accident, considering the mangled condition this car is in.
51	*** "I once ran the Indy 500. I must confess, I'm impressed how I did it; I wonder how close that I came. Now, I get a sinking sensation. I was top of the line--out of sight, out of mind--so much for fortune and fame". This is a turquoise vintage racing car, from the 1930s or 40s, but even then, there were many preliminary races leading up to the Indianapolis 500. His first line tells us he made it all the way there, and his second indicates he was performing quite well. "I wonder how close that I came" implies he didn't finish the race; otherwise, he would have known how close he was to winning. Most likely, he was ahead or in one of the top positions when he was totaled in a crash. He says he was also "top of the line," meaning he was designed with the then-latest technology with no expenses spared, meant to be a winner everyone would talk about, but after this crash, he was soon forgotten (especially because he only experienced one racing season, and an incomplete one at that) and replaced with even more advanced race cars, or perhaps race cars designed so that crashes like his would not happen again.
52	*** "Once took a Texan to a wedding. He kept forgetting, his loneliness letting his thoughts turn to home and we turned". This is the most open-ended of the stories the cars speak of in this song (and whose lyrics can be heard many different ways, too). Here's what I think: the Texan remained lonely even after he was married, which to me makes me think that his wife passed away before he did. "He kept forgetting" might refer to memory problems, such as Alzheimer's Disease or short term memory loss, causing him to be either very homesick or making him think he's wherever he grew up. It may also be that the Texan liked this yellow wedding car so much that he kept her; if this was the case, it would be unlikely the Texan would willingly let her get sent to the junkyard, and instead she was brought here after he had forgotten about her.
53	*** "I took a man to a graveyard. I beg your pardon, it's quite hard enough just living with the stuff I had learned". This dark blue car is a hearse; it was thus his job to transport the dead in caskets every day. Clearly, he had heard about how many of these people had died and, being a sentimental fellow, grieved for them. He also likely heard a number of stories of good people killed in unfair ways (accidents, disease, grudges, terrorism, etc.), not to mention the possibility he was used to carry bad people as well, learning about their cruel actions; and this made him quite depressed long before he wound up at Ernie's Disposal. Some say that the fact that he was crushed simultaneously with the wedding car indicates they're talking about the same person; I don't think so, as the hearse would say "Then, I took him to a graveyard" or something similar. Instead, I think they're contrasting marriage and death, or perhaps comparing them. "Til death do us part" is spoken at weddings, after all, and it is somewhat ironic that a car representing death is compacted together with a wedding car (and thus ensuring they will never separate).
54	*** "Once took a surfer to Sunset. There were bikinis and buns, there were weenies Fellini just couldn't forget. Pico, let's go up to Zuma. From Zuma to Yuma, the rumor was I had a hand in the lay of the land". Mention of Fellini, Pico and Zuma strongly suggests this wood-sided yellow station wagon's owner lived or at least worked in Hollywood. Sunset Boulevard is a road that goes through Hollywood, Pico Boulevard is a road in the area (though it does not go through Hollywood but would be familiar to everyone who lives in Los Angeles), Federico Fellini was a big time movie director, and Zuma refers to Zuma Beach in southern California. The owner of this car was a very powerful, influential figure, someone who knew people like Fellini and apparently indulged in hedonism. The last line tells us that people spoke of this car having shaped the local landscape all the way to Yuma, Arizona. Not only was this car famous, but wherever her owner drove, it sounds like roads were built there. Highways getting built through open land will cause towns it passes through to grow and towns it ignores to shrink, as well as new businesses being built along the highways themselves (and sometimes, these businesses become well-known landmarks and towns are built around them, such as Knott's Berry Farm and how Buena Park expanded around it). But the general idea to take from this is that, even though this car was recognized by many and associated with powerful people, in the end, she will wind up in the crusher like all of the others.
55	*** "I worked on a reservation. Who would believe they would love me and leave on a bus back to old Santa Fe? Once in the Indian nation, I took the kids on the skids where the Hopi was happy 'til I heard them say...'You're worthless!'". The Hopi mostly live in New Mexico, suggesting the purpose of this green pickup truck was for a charity organization to take Native American children off of skid row in this reservation and into proper homes nearby. It sounds like the organization grew more successful and needed a vehicle that could hold more passengers than this pickup truck, upgrading to a bus and sending this pickup truck straight to the junkyard, even though he's still in good working order, considering he's able to drive around and escape the magnet. He was also the only one to be flat-out told that he's worthless by the humans, and definitely not coincidentially, he's also the only one to willingly drive onto the conveyor belt to be crushed. He was not only not valued for the humanitarian work he was doing, but was the victim of YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness, and this devastated him enough for him to drive straight to his end.
56	** The translation of Worthless in the Swedish dub manages to be even more horrifying in parts. The wedding car bit goes like this: "Drove a couple to a wedding/Drove a couple to a wedding/But both the bride and groom disappeared/Before anyone could figure out what happened", and the final line of the hearse is (to rhyme in Swedish) changed to "The world is filled with misery". The closing lines of the surfer's car manage to be fairly nihilistic too - starting with "Pico, let's go up to Zuma" it goes something like (some parts are hard to hear) "The whole world will burn/The whole world will burn/Everything's going up in smoke/We've tried to make it stop/But how are we going to make time". The Indy 500 car gets a fairly depressing spin too, where he in the original wonders how well he did, in the dub he seems to heavily be expressing disbelief at the way he was thrown away after winning a lot of races.
57	** The Danish dub also has a few darker moments. The Indy 500 car isn't "impressed how he did" and never mentions his place in the race, meaning he has no idea whether he was even in the running for victory or not. The car that lists a lot of American cities it visited instead sings about how awesome his life was and how loved going fast and is crushed right after such an optimistic statement, almost like he's in denial. And finally, the hearse gets these lines: "I've driven so many people to their graves / Death, to me, is a soothing song for my soul / For my time as a hearse was tough on me".
58	** "Worthless" becomes much more horrifying when you realize that the cars' stories and the overall despondent tone of the song can easily be applied to ''humans'' that are past their prime and no longer have a place in society. The blue car is a simple sedan--the exhausted, depressed employee, whether office or blue-collar. The pink convertible is an aging {{valley girl}}, the red Corvette is a drifter/musician with no place to call home, and the Indy car is an injured athlete who's been dumped by fans and supporters. The wedding 'limo' and hearse seem to be more symbolic than metaphorical, but could relate with bridesmaids and pallbearers--escorts whose importance ultimately pale in comparison to whom they escorted. The wood-sided station wagon represents beach bums who 'never amounted to anything,' and the green pickup is not hard to line up with a reservation elder who has been marginalized and ignored. This gets even worse when one thinks about the non-singing cars like humans as well. They're all old, worn down, and broken, brought to the junkyard to be thrown into a crusher and destroyed. It seems like they have been tossed into a mass grave...
59	** On an even darker note, consider that the junkyard is where old and broken machines go when they have outlived their usefulness or are considered unwanted, waiting to be crushed into cubes. Now consider that for some people, a retirement home or a state hospital could be seen as the same sort of thing: A place where the "worthless” people go to wait for death. It's no wonder so many people dread the thought of being forced to live in such places.
60	* Considering that Blender's motor was very much like his "brains" and that they were scooped out of his case which was (off camera and presumably) transferred to another blender, wouldn't that be like an appliance brain transplant? A horrifying thought indeed! Makes seem a little more horror movie-ish.
61	** A motor is more like the "heart".
62	* Elmo St. Peters' appliance shop. In the scrapyard, the cars are at least 'killed' quickly; in the shop, they're slowly torn apart, built into other things, and sold part-by-part. It's the appliance version of a death camp.
63	** And now you see the horror implications in "It's a 'B' Movie" and see a fun extra layer. The light, the only untouched appliance, is just as scarred as the rest. He didn't just know what happened, didn't just ''see'' what happened, no, he got to forcibly be used to make it happen more easily and was completely incapable of even attempting to escape as it was done '''''daily'''''. At absolute minimum. Being ForcedToWatch could [[DrivenToMadness drive anyone]] to {{laugh\|ingMad}} at it all.
64	--->You can't go out! You are out of your mind!
65	* All of the appliances are sentient. Now just think of how many times you perhaps dropped your portable gaming device, or about appliances that are left in a move, or heck, whenever something runs out of batteries it would mean that it died before being brought back to life multiple times. Then there's all things that are just scrapped for the copper and etc inside of it. How about those appliances you never use and are half broken? And then there are some appliances that wouldn't be able to move, forever pinned down in one spot until they eventually run out of juice and die.
66	** In that case, imagine what must be going through the heads of [[WebVideo/IsItAGoodIdeaToMicrowaveThis Jory Caron's microwaves]] as they're forced to microwave things that should never be microwaved...Including [[ForcedIntoEvil other appliances]] and other electronic devices.

Context Fridge / TheBraveLittleToaster