[5] The film stars Deanna Oliver, Timothy E. Day, Jon Lovitz, Tim Stack, and Thurl Ravenscroft, with Wayne Kaatz, Colette Savage, Phil Hartman, Joe Ranft, and Jim Jackman in supporting roles.

The story focuses on five anthropomorphic household appliances—a toaster, gooseneck lamp, electric blanket, tube radio and Kirby-brand upright vacuum cleaner—who go on a quest to search for their owner.

They turn Kirby into a makeshift vehicle by attaching a rolling office chair, a power strip and a car battery to him, and set out towards the city.

They are picked up by a large scowling electromagnet, and are about to be destroyed by a crusher, but after seeing Rob arrive at the junkyard, they regain hope and attempt to rejoin him.

The film rights to The Brave Little Toaster, the original novella by Thomas M. Disch, were purchased by the Walt Disney Studios in 1982, two years after its appearance in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction.

Jerry Rees, a crew member on two previous Disney films, The Fox and the Hound and Tron, and co-writer of the screenplay along with Joe Ranft, was chosen to direct the project.

[17] After cutting together the storyboards and scene-planning in Taipei, production manager Chuck Richardson explained the logistics issues—the film would be 110 minutes long.

[17] As a result, he sought out voice talent from The Groundlings improvisational group upon recommendation by Ranft,[11] and he appreciated the honesty and naturalism they gave to their performances.

[17] Many of their members, including Jon Lovitz (Radio), Phil Hartman (Air Conditioner/Hanging Lamp), Tim Stack (Lampy), Judy Toll (Mishmash), and Mindy Sterling (Rob's mother) voiced characters in the film.

[17] Rees, who had conceived Toaster as a female character, later recalled an anecdote where a crew member "slammed the door and walked out" because he had hired a woman to play the lead role.

[17] When recording, Rees first had each scene delivered as written, and then allowed the voice actors to play around with the dialogue and ended up using many of the improvised lines in the final film.

Day was nicknamed "one-take Timmy" due to nailing the emotional truth of the text so quickly, such as crying loudly or delivering a line with a quiver in his voice.

For example, during the nightmare sequence at the beginning of the film, Toaster burns toast and emits smoke, which symbolizes guilt and fear of being responsible.

For example, Kirby is a grumpy and old vacuum cleaner, and so Newman provides a theme consisting of low chords, whereas Radio was given a brassy fanfare to reflect his self-important personality.

[1] When they explore the outside world for the first time, the music fills with a "pastoral grandeur", and when they enter the woods, strings, flutes, bells and brass are used to convey the simultaneous magic and danger of the outdoors.

Rees "felt uncomfortable with the full Broadway book musical approach", and his philosophy was that the songs should be part of the action and plot without stopping for a big production number.

The poignant number "Worthless" is a track filled with piano, strings, guitar, and vocals which are abruptly cut off when the singing cars are crushed.

[1] Newman wrote and orchestrated the score over a 50-hour period, which included embarking on a 12-hour flight to Japan to record with the orchestra in Maeda Hall.

[17][1] David Newman's score for The Brave Little Toaster was his first for an animated work;[20] Van Dyke Parks wrote the songs' music and lyrics.

In most of the songs, Beth Anderson, Janice Liebhart, and Darryl Phinnessee perform the singing voices of various background characters, while also doubling as the chorus.

The best of a very good batch is 'Cutting Edge', a Talking Heads-for-kids-style ditty in which a gang of high-tech gadgets amazes and frightens Toaster's band with some electronic prowess".

He also explained that the film's themes included a "fear of being abandoned and wanting to be reunited with somebody that you love..."—the opposing forces of feeling like you're worthless and the joy of redemption".

Blanky is an electric security blanket but is insecure without its owner, the bright Lampy is mentally dim, Kirby is supposed to hold everything inside but has a nervous breakdown, Toaster is warm and reflective so can easily empathize, and Radio is constantly switched on and entertaining.

[17] As opposed to other films of the time, The Brave Little Toaster was able to include dark, scary, edgy, or risqué content due to being an independent feature.

In September 2003, Prism Leisure, under license from Carlton Communications (the then-owners of ITC Entertainment's library), released the film on DVD in the UK to tie in with its 15th anniversary.

[4] Mary Houlihan-Skilton of Chicago Sun-Times gave a positive review, but found a problem with the storytellers using caricatures of Bette Davis, Peter Lorre, Jack Nicholson, Mae West, Joan Rivers and others to portray them, feeling that became "so old that it has been used forever and should be given a rest".

[32] Time Out said the film had "a winning combination of inventive characters, amusing dialogue, excellent voice-overs, likeable tune and first-rate animation".

[33] Deseret News wrote it is "a wonder of the movie industry...a funny, occasionally thrilling animated feature aimed at kids, but with a sophisticated sensibility intended to reach their parents as well".

Effects animator Mark Dindal directed Disney's The Emperor's New Groove and Chicken Little, as well as Warner Bros.' Cats Don't Dance and Sony Pictures' The Garfield Movie.

Rees recalled a situation where a person he was doing an online project with messaged him on IMDb, discovering his work on TBLT, and explained how deeply the film affected him due to teaching life lessons.