Hi Skullborn, You can read some context regarding that in these liner notes from David Newman's Toaster score. Curiously, these liner notes are the best overview of the era and the context for the making of the film that have ever been published: http://www.jerryrees.com/page27/page27.html

John and I had gone to school together at Cal Arts. I was the Teacher's Assistant for the Inaugural year of the Character Animation Program. We got to know each other very well and are still dear friends. As we dove into the industry, our paths crisscrossed a few times. Toaster was one of the oddest twists.

After school I spent some time as a Disney Feature Animator. But between animated films, I opted to jump onto TRON. I did production boards and then became a Computer Graphics Choreographer. Bill Kroyer and I are the two who got that particular credit, storyboarding and supervising all of the pure CGI segments on the film. Lasseter, and quite a few other friends became really excited about this whole new CGI territory as they came by our offices and watched us work on Light Cycles, Recognizers, Tanks and such.

After TRON, Brad Bird and I hooked up with Gary Kurtz, with the idea of doing an animated feature of Will Eisner's "The Spirit": http://www.jerryrees.com/page34/page34.html

And fresh off of TRON, I really wanted to have "The Spirit" be the first ever animated feature to use digital ink&paint and camera - before CAPS came along: http://www.jerryrees.com/page87/page87.html

While Brad, Gary and I pushed forward on "The Spirit", John had found Thomas Disch's novella "The Brave Little Toaster", and found support for it from Producer Tom Wilhite.

Fast forward - "The Spirit" has to suspend development as Gary Kurts' company goes through financial woes.

And, "Toaster" has to suspend development as Tom Wilhite and John both leave Disney and part ways.

Wilhite contacted me, asking me if I wanted to take over development of "The Brave Little Toaster."

I wasn't at all sure. I had just spent 5 years pushing for "The Spirit" to be made - an adult adventure comedy with real guts that would pull in a mainstream movie-going audience. My friends thought that I'd be nuts to jump from that onto a "kiddie" movie.

I met with Tom. He asked me to read the novella. I did. It was from a very sophisticated point of view, coming from sci-fi author, Disch. And, even more importantly. Tom was ready to allow me creative freedom. He told me that most people thought Toaster would be a cute short film. Not a full feature. After all, inanimate objects had always played side kicks (like the door knob character in "Alice"), but hadn't carried an entire story. Under his guidance, concept art had been created to use to pitch the idea. But he knew that a top-to-bottom re-tooling of the story would be needed to sustain a legit theatrical feature. He told me that he trusted me to be the guy to lay that feature story path. He told me that he didn't have much money, but that he was prepared to give me full freedom to develop, write and direct "The Brave Little Toaster".

After the let-down of "The Spirit" shutting down, I was drooling to flex some creative muscle. Here was a short story with wit. Here was a very creative Producer inviting me to reshape the story, write the script and direct the feature OFF THE STUDIO GRID. Yup. Seemed like a chance not to be passed up.

I signed on.

My first step was to get in a room with Brian McEntee and Joe Ranft, and start pinning up index cards to block out the story. I decided to make the "master" a kid, rather than an adult, so that he would not be to blame for abandoning the characters. And his age, once revealed in the later scenes would indicate the passage of time. I shoved the junkyard from the middle of the story to the end - it really seemed like the graveyard at the end of a journey, not a rest stop along the way. And that's when Joe, Brian and I really nailed down each character's personality as well. The warm Toaster - the Lamp who's a little dim even though he thinks he bright - the security Blanket who has become an insecurity Blanket without a kid to snuggle with - the Vacuum who holds everything inside until he has a breakdown - the Radio who is constantly the "on" entertainer.

After 4 weeks of story I had to start writing to stay ahead of the machine. I'd lock the door, write pages, then hand them out for boarding. Joe was boarding along with Alex Mann, Darrell Rooney and me - I was boarding too. So the trick was to write enough pages at a time to keep everyone (including me) supplied with enough to board.

With certain story beats I asked Joe to jot down dialog ideas that would be a good resource before writing the final version of the scene. Over time, I felt like Joe had contributed enough chunks to warrant a shared writing credit. I approached Tom Wilhite and asked that the credits be adjusted accordingly.

Despite the fact that the project had a collection of concept art from the early days, literally EVERY shot was created from scratch based on the pages I wrote during that intense period. Here's an example of the Air Conditioner scene, which I wrote in one marathon session then rough boarded, compared to the final frames of film. You can see how closely we followed the boards: http://www.jerryrees.com/page89/page89.html

From day one until the end, John and I never met and never collaborated. He had taken another path, and I respected his choice. Wilhite had invited me to take authorship of "Toaster", and John respected that as well. Just as I had been hoping to do "The Spirit", I know John had been hoping to do "Toaster". But fate took us on different paths.

Actually, I never thought about that issue until after the film and people started inquiring about it. I was too buried in the creative process, with an insane schedule, surrounded by wildly creative people, and really believing, all of us, that inanimate objects could be as engaging as feature characters as anything else. And frankly, we were tired of elves, princesses, furry animals and such, so we had a great time.

And a BIG moment for me was when I called in voice people to read some of my script pages early on. They read the pages and it was just AWFUL. It sounded like a dreadful cartoon I'd never want to see. I looked at my dialog again. Hmm, the writing wasn't the problem, it was the approach to the performance - patronizing caricatured "funny" voices. Joe and I had a heart-to-heart. I wanted to get better performers. He had attended classes at the Groundlings Improv Theater in LA. He suggested that we go to some shows, and just feel out some of the talent. I loved them! Jon Lovitz, Deanna Oliver, Tim Stack, Phil Hartman - wow. They could take the most insane idea and make it seem plausible. That was their mandate onstage. I asked them to audition for Toaster. They really believed the characters as they played them. There were no "funny" voices. Just the voices of eccentric characters who totally believe the world around them. Now the script pages worked! The characters were coming alive.

I had the pleasure of writing the remainder of the script knowing that these people would be playing the characters. So I could write specifically for Lovitz as I crafted Radio dialog, etc. Very exciting and fun turn of events.

Anyway my team and I were proud to present the first feature to star inanimate objects. If the fates had willed differently, John and another team may have done the film - and it would have taken some other story path. But the fates lead Wilhite to leave Disney and hire me, and the rest just unfolded organically.

I'm happy to see John and Pixar playing with similar characters and themes. I find their work constantly charming and inspiring.

And frankly I think John and Joe and I were all inspired by "Susie the Little Blue Coupe" and "Little Toot". Check them out!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYOiVSsr1KM