The Little Engine That Could
VHS cover
Directed byDave Edwards
Screenplay byRay Rhamey
Based onThe Little Engine That Could
by Watty Piper
Produced by
Starring
Edited byTerry Brown
Music by
    • Ben Heneghan
    • Ian Lawson
Production
company
Distributed byMCA/Universal Home Video[1]
Release date
  • November 22, 1991 (1991-11-22) (United States)
Running time
30 minutes[2]
Country
    • United States
    • United Kingdom
LanguageEnglish

The Little Engine That Could is a 1991 animated adventure film directed by Dave Edwards[3] and co-produced by Edwards and Mike Young, animated at Kalato Animation in Wales and co-financed by Universal Pictures through their MCA/Universal Home Video arm and S4C, Wales' dedicated Welsh-language channel. It was released on VHS by MCA. The film features the voice talents of Kath Soucie and Frank Welker.[4] It is based on the 1930 book of the same name, by Watty Piper (specifically based on the 1976 illustrations by Ruth Sanderson).[5] The film was also syndicated in the US on broadcast television as an Easter special in March/April 1993.[6]

Plot

Eric, a young boy is excited about his birthday after reading a book and believes that a birthday train will come for him. However his teenage sister Jill calls his claim a fantasy, but Eric keeps his hope up. Opposite from their town on the other side of a treacherous mountain, the engines at a roundhouse wake up and are assigned jobs by the trainyard supervisor, a hot-tempered tower. Farnsworth, a pompous, refined EMD F, is assigned to pull a respective passenger train over the mountain, and Pete, a tough 2-4-2 who coughs up a lot of smoke, is assigned to pull a freight train carrying a printing press to the town. Tillie, a 4-2-2 switcher engine who had been wanting to pull a train of her own, attempts to take a milk train assigned to Jebediah, an old, 4-2-2. However, she is denied by tower due to her small size. Georgia, a southern accented 2-4-2, keeps Tillie's hope up and is assigned to pull the birthday train filled with living toys, which is led by Rollo the Clown, and his monkey sidekick Jeepers.

Georgia breaks down shortly after departing the station and is taken back to the roundhouse by a medical 4-4-4 named "Doc". With the birthday train stranded, Rollo and the toys attempt to flag down a substitute engine; Farnsworth, Pete, and Jebediah each pass by and decline their request for various reasons. Tillie attempts to convince the tower to pull the train, but is harshly denied once more, even though there are no other capable engines. Tillie, with the help of her bird friend Chip, sneak out after tower falls asleep and offers her help to pull the stranded train. Tillie, repeating "I think I can", pulls the birthday train up the mountain and endures ridicule from various animals, which she ignores. A brewing storm begins to cause problems as Tillie narrowly crosses a collapsing bridge loosing the last train car in the process, which snaps off and falls into the flooding river below.

Tillie reaches the summit, but is knocked out after an avalanche buries her and the train. When she regains consciousness, Tillie pulls the train out of the snow using her cowcatcher as a snowplow. The train descends down the mountain and reaches the town in celebration, to Eric's delight and Jill's amazement. Tillie expresses pride for finishing the journey and uses her whistle to summon the town's children to enjoy the birthday train's festivities.

Voice cast

  • Kath Soucie as Tillie, Missy and the Little Wolf
  • Frank Welker as Farnsworth, Jebediah, Rollo, Jeepers, Perky, the Big Wolf and the Eagle
  • B.J. Ward as Grumpella
  • Neil Ross as Doc, Tower and Handy Pandy
  • Bever-Leigh Banfield as Georgia
  • Peter Cullen as Pete and the Cave
  • Scott Menville as Chip and Stretch
  • Billy O'Sullivan as Eric
  • Dina Sherman as Jill

Broadcasting history

Despite being released as a direct to video film, The Little Engine That Could had been broadcast on 56 independent television stations as an Easter special for two weeks two years later.[7]

In the United States, it has never been released on DVD and was only available on VHS and Laserdisc format.[8]

See also

References

  1. ↑ AllMovie
  2. ↑ Animation Anecdotes #387|Cartoon Research
  3. ↑ Trailer courtesy of Video Detective
  4. ↑ "The Little Engine That Could (1991)". Behind The Voice Actors.
  5. ↑ The little engine that could. 1997. ISBN 9780760703748.
  6. ↑ Lenburg, Jeff (1999). The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons. Checkmark Books. p. 289. ISBN 0-8160-3831-7. Retrieved 6 June 2020.
  7. ↑ The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons by Jeff Lenburg - Internet Archive (pg.339)
  8. ↑ LaserDisc Database
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