The Little Engine That Could (1991 film)

The Little Engine That Could is a 1991 animated direct-to-video short film directed by Dave Edwards and co-produced by Edwards and Mike Young, animated at Kalato Animation in Wales and co-financed by Universal Studios through their MCA/Universal Home Video arm and S4C, Wales' dedicated Welsh-language channel. It was produced by CINAR, and released on VHS by MCA. The film features the voice talents of Kath Soucie and Frank Welker. It is based on the book of the same name, by Watty Piper.

In Wales the film was joint-released in both English and Welsh, under the title Yr Injan Fach Fentrus (The Adventurous Little Engine) and was broadcast on television in both languages. As a native production it was widely available on VHS in Wales and thus achieved a degree of cult status during its time, though never touching on the level of other iconic characters such as Fireman Sam and Superted, both of which featured production staff members who worked on The Little Engine That Could.

Plot
Eric, a young boy, is excited about his birthday after reading a book and believes that a train will come for him, despite his sister Jill's disbelief. A few hours later, the train station's control tower wakes up and in the roundhouse, Tillie, a young little blue switcher engine, along with her best bird friend, Chip, wakes up four other trains: Georgia, a kind all-purpose engine, Farnsworth, a stuck-up, shiny, new passenger engine, Jebediah, a worn-out, rusty, old engine, and Pete, a gruff, burly, big, strong freight engine. After the tower assigns Farnsworth and Pete their jobs, Tillie tries to help with the milk train assigned to Jebediah, but is suddenly stopped when the tower insists that she is too small for the job. Georgia is assigned to pull the birthday train. A clown named Rollo leads the toys into the train, including Jeepers, a monkey, Stretch, a basketball player, Missy, a ballerina, Handy Pandy, a panda, Perky, an elephant, and Grumpella, a stuffed bird.

During her journey, Georgia breaks down and is taken back to the roundhouse by Doc. Left behind, Rollo eventually takes Doc's advice of flagging down one of the other engines returning from their daily runs over the mountain. Farnsworth and Pete turn down their offers to pull the train. Meanwhile, Tillie asks the tower to rescue the stranded train, but is very sad when the Tower angrily insists that she will never do the job. Jebediah turns down his offer to pull the train because of his age, and returns to the roundhouse. Chip and Tillie sneak past the sleeping tower and pulls the birthday train up a mountain. Despite being ridiculed by the animals along the way, Tillie manages to reach the summit after crossing a bridge that collapses, losing the last train car along the way.

However, an avalanche knocks Tillie out cold. Eric is woken up by a thunderstorm and is worried about Tillie and the birthday train. After Tillie regains consciousness, she pulls the train out of the snow using her cowcatcher as a snowplough and down the mountain before they reach the town, much to Eric and Jill's happiness. The film ends with Tillie, who although very tired from her long and adventurous journey over the mountain, is very proud and happy and tells her best friend Chip that she did what she could (though what the tower and the other engines will think is unknown).

Cast

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

Uncredited

 * Kath Soucie as The Little Wolf
 * Frank Welker as Jeepers and The Big Wolf
 * Peter Cullen as the Cave