Plot summary

Rob McGoarty, the owner of the appliances and whom they refer to as "The Master", is in his last days of college and is working at a veterinary clinic. One night, while finishing on a thesis, his computer accidentally crashes due to a terrible computer virus. The appliances along with a rat named Ratso seek to help Rob by finding and reversing the effects of his computer virus, hence recovering the master's thesis. Meanwhile, Mack, Rob's lab assistant, plots to sell the injured animals Rob had been tending to as part of his courses, to a place called "Tartaras Laboratories," the same facility that Sebastian, an old monkey, was sent to when he was just a baby. When the appliances discover an old TLW-728 prototype supercomputer named Wittgenstein abandoned, all alone, and run-down in the basement when transistor was invented. Due to being infected by a computer virus, the same one that affected Rob's dorm room computer and the one in the vet's clinic lab when Wittgenstein tried to contact them earlier, the miserable supercomputer reveals that he is living on one rare vacuum tube, the "WFC 11-12-55" (A reference to the producer and screenwriter, Willard F. Carroll, and his birth-date, November 12, 1955). The appliances learn that unless they find a replacement quickly, Wittgenstein's tube will blow and lead to his apparent death.In an attempt to revive Wittgenstein to his superior state, Radio and Ratso go to the college's storage building to find the hard-to-find WFC 11-12-55 tube. When they come back with the last apparent tube for miles, however, Radio and Ratso (after an argument with the tube) accidentally break it, and it seems that all hope is lost. Wittgenstein does his best with all his might, but the virus causes him to blow his remaining tube with an explosion and apparently "is a goner." Ratso then blames Radio, and guilt-ridden over condemning the animals to their doom at Tartarus Laboratories, Radio gives up his own tube which turns out to be the very rare tube they had been looking for, thus killing himself. Knowing that they were given a final chance to save the animals, the appliances replace the tube. With the boosted power of the new tube, Wittgenstein miraculously wakes up, regenerating all of his other tubes and destroying the viruses within him, allowing him to be completely revived as good as new. With the appliances and Wittgenstein's help, they alert Rob, his girlfriend Chris (later referred to as "The Mistress"), the guard dogs, and they work together to stop Mack from selling the injured animals and have him arrested. After discovering the appliances in the truck, Rob and Chris assume that Mack had also planned to sell Rob's stuff as well. Later, they discover Wittgenstein in the basement along with Radio. Chris later replaces Radio's tube with a new one she found in Nome, Alaska (hence his revival). Wittgenstein is sold to a museum to be modernized with current technology. Wittgenstein has also restored Rob's thesis, to his delight. In the end all the animals are adopted to new owners except Ratso who Rob and Chris decide to keep as their pet, Rob proposes to Chris to which she accepts and they leave college with the appliances and Ratso hoping to start a new happy life.