The Rochester Museum of Fine Arts is pleased to announce a mini-exhibition featuring original, hand-painted animation cels from the classic feature film, The Brave Little Toaster.

According to RMFA co-founder, Matt Wyatt, an animation cel, short for animation celluloid, is a transparent sheet on which objects are drawn or painted for traditional, hand-drawn animated films.

“Your favorite cartoon films are made up of thousands of individual cels that contain characters and other elements from each scene,” said Wyatt. “It’s a lot of work to complete an animated feature film and we’re proud to have a few framed cels for people to see in person.”

The Brave Little Toaster is an animated musical released in 1987. Originally produced by Hyperion Animation, the rights were later acquired by Disney leading to the sequel releases of The Brave Little Toaster Goes to Mars and The Brave Little Toaster to the Rescue.

“These are iconic pieces of animation history,” said Wyatt. “I grew up watching The Brave Little Toaster and we’re thrilled to exhibit these pieces in Rochester.”

Wyatt explains that the museum only has a few of the cels from the film and “the selection is completely random.”

The series will be exhibited in the first-floor hall of the James W. Foley Memorial Community Center for the month of May, starting May 9. Later, they will be absorbed into the museum’s permanent collection.

There will be an informal reception held on Thursday, May 12 from 6-8pm. The public is encouraged to attend. Light refreshments will be available. Visit www.rochestermfa.org to learn more.

The James W. Foley Memorial Community Center is located at 150 Wakefield Street, Rochester, NH, behind Spaulding High School. The museum is sponsored by the City of Rochester, Rochester Main Street, Waterstone Properties Group, Bernier Insurance, Meredeth Village Savings Bank, MacEdge, Lenharth Systems, and Greater Rochester Chamber of Commerce.