the brave little toaster air conditioner scene

That, in turn, led to it enjoying a warped, weird tone and perspective that, even a quarter of a century later, doesn't quite resemble anything else.

Yet it was made for an astonishingly small budget through Hyperion Animation (and I am sorry to say that with grown-up eyes, that low budget manifests itself in the animation), completely free of any influence from Disney. The project was initiated by Walt Disney Feature Animation – future Pixar guru John Lasseter had it in mind as a project while he was with Disney – and much of its financing came from Disney's coffers, and its talent Disney's staff, which would seem to be enough to disqualify it from 'independent' status. The film is a curious beast in every way possible. It was well-received, however: the film received a special citation from the jury at the festival's awards ceremony, and director Jerry Rees has maintained in later years that he was told that it was only a concern that awarding a cartoon would dilute the festival's prestige kept it from serious consideration for the grand prize.

Such an aberration, in fact, that it would be 13 years before another animated feature would show up at the festival. So when The Brave Little Toaster screened at Sundance in 1988, it was quite the aberration. The Sundance Film Festival isn't necessarily what you think of as a hotbed of animation: even a simple animated feature takes a large budget and hundreds of hours to produce, and these are resources that indie movies are particularly noted for lacking. Here's Tim on an animated indie honored early on.

Team Experience is looking back on past Sundance winners since we aren't attending this year.

The brave little toaster air conditioner scene