‘The Brave Little Toaster’ Getting Remade Into a Live-Action Film

It looks like that courageous household appliance 'The Brave Little Toaster' is getting a modern day make-over. The character -- first introduced in a 1980s children's book and subsequently adapted into an animated film distributed by Disney -- will star in a brand new CG/Live-Action hybrid film, courtesy of  Waterman Entertainment (which knows its way around this sort of thing, having produced the 'Alvin and the Chipmunks' and 'Stuart Little' movies).

“The company has the opportunity to update the classic property, utilizing CG animation beyond what was technologically possible when Lasseter pitched the project,” a Waterman Entertainment representative told The Wrap.

Naturally, the new version will feature technology that wasn't available in the '80s (i.e. iPhones). The lead character will presumably still be a toaster, but his friends could very well include a wise-cracking iPad and a noble flat-screen TV.

If you'll recall, the 1987 animated film (which featured the vocal stylings of Jon Lovitz and Phil Hartman, among others), 'The Brave Little Toaster' saw the title character, along with his pals Lampy, Radio, Blanky and Kirby, embark on a mission to find their "master," whom they assume abandoned them in their countryside cabin. This adventure leads them into the big city, where they're verbally abused by hobos, mugged by gang members and thrown in jail by power-crazy police. (It's quite possible we could be remembering it incorrectly.)

Intriguingly, the original toon was worked on by a number of eventual Pixar bigshots, including John Lasseter. The screenplay was co-written by Joe Ranft, who went on to work for Pixar as a writer and voice actor. No writers or director on the new incarnation have yet been announced, though.

Waterman Entertainment has raised funds to acquire and develop properties such as this one; it is also currently working on 'Born Free - The Story of Elsa the Lion,' and plans to tell the story from the animal’s perspective.