1991 the little engine that could
1991 the little engine that could
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 1930 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.
Contents
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 Farnsworth and Pete returning from their daily runs over the mountain. Farnsworth and Pete rudely 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 politely 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.
When Tillie sees a cave that looks like a monster, she tries to go through it. However, the cave says that she is too little. Unfortunately, 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).
Tower (The Little Engine That Could 1991)
Tower (The Little Engine That Could 1991)
feature Film
Voice
Character information
Affiliations
Enemies
The Eathan is the minor antagonist for the first half of The Little Engine That Could (1991 film). He is the boss of the Roundhouse and is one of Tillie’s obstacles.
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Description [ ]
He is a signal box who has two gates for arms, an alarm on his nose, and a clipboard most of the time. He runs the Roundhouse and the Train Yard and has no soft spots. He is extremely impatient and immature as he is shown ranting and falling asleep very easily to lullabies.
It is unknown what his backstory is or why he is abusive in the first place, but it has been speculated that he is most likely jealous of the fact that he is the only one that cannot leave his foundation and see the world like everyone else, or because he doesn’t have much physical power over everyone so he most likely has to try harder at enforcing his rules.
The Little Engine That Could [ ]
He is the main director of the Roundhouse and is Tillie, Farnsworth, Pete, Georgia, and Jebediah’s boss. He is first seen peacefully waking up until he realizes there is work to be done, and then he sounds his alarm ordering everyone to get to work.
He then is seen rebuking Tillie for getting agitated by Farnsworth’s insults, and then when Tillie was supposed to get Jebediah over to start his work, he sees that she’s pulling it instead (she even imitates Jebediah’s voice in order to trick Eathan when his back was turned) and tells her that she is too little. In which Chip makes him sneeze by dancing on top of him in which he calls him a big blowhard.
Tillie then asks Eathan if she could pull the birthday train over the mountain, whereas he feigns fascination that she would volunteer, and then suddenly from out of nowhere starts yelling at her that she is not allowed.
He then last seen falling asleep thanks to the help of Chip so both he and Tillie could sneak past Tower to pull the birthday train.
He is never seen or heard of again afterwards.
Basis [ ]
Personality [ ]
Although not intentionally evil, he is a grumpy, strict control tower who is very set in his beliefs and heavily underestimates Tillie. He even goes far enough to start ranting at her over her request to pull the birthday train after all the other engines besides Jedediah couldn’t.
Not much is known about his backstory or why he is angry as nothing is ever mentioned.
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, Wild Brain Animation, Mark Bradford Productions, Chris Gifford Films and Walsh Pictures, 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.
Contents
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).
Starring
Uncredited
Video
Animated adaptation
In 2018, an animated adaptation of the film with Tom and Jerry was released. Tom and Jerry & The Little Engine That Could had the original voice actors will reprise their roles.
The Little Engine That Could (2011 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 1930 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 The Little Engine That Could is a 2011 CGI film based on the story by Watty Piper. The film was released direct to DVD in the United States on March 22, 2011.
Contents
Little E. wakes the control tower up, so she can start work. She dreams of being a dream hauler. But the control the tower confirms that she is too small to pull her own train. She gets a little help from Rusty, an old and wise Engine. In the Real World, a boy named Richard shows his friend Marcus, his grandfather’s watch. Two bullies named, Scott and Stretch, throw a snowball at Richard, which makes him slip and hand the watch over to them. He is worried that his dad would be unhappy if he lost the watch. Marcus tries to help him, but Richard does not want help from him. Richard decides to take a walk in the park, but trips over some train tracks he has never noticed before. He boards a train to take shelter from the cold, and suddenly is whisked away to DreamLand. While passing through the tunnel to DreamLand, the tunnel collapses, trapping Richard and the trains in DreamLand. The Tower demotes Rusty to a track-cleaner. Little E. offers to take Richard home on the rumored tracks that lead over the mountain. The Tower, looking for a way to preoccupy Little E. and Richard while the other trains try to do the important work of clearing the tunnel, agrees, sending them both on their way while also promising to give Rusty his job back afterwards and even throw him a Ticker-Tape Parade. Little E. finds the track leading up the mountain. Along the way, they encounter the Nightmare Train, but trick him into speeding down a side-track, and are able to continue on their way. This shows Richard how to stand up to bullies. Little E., with the help of Richard, also deals with a water leak and a derailment, and eventually makes it over the mountain to the Real World. Little E. returns to DreamLand, tells her story about her trip over the mountain, and is promoted to a dream hauler as a reward for her bravery. Once back, Richard has gained the confidence to confront the bullies and get his watch back. During the Credits, the following photos are shown: Richard showing his watch to his class, the Sock Monkey being loved, the Nightmare Train defeated and derailed on a snow bank, Rusty’s Ticker-Tape Parade, and lastly, Little E. taking more trains through the Mountain.
Like the 1991 film this is also Distributed By Universal Pictures.
The designs of the engines are similar to the Loren Long edition of the original story.
Tillie
Tillie the Little Engine
feature Film
Voice
Character information
Affiliations
Allies
Enemies
Contents
She is a 13-14 year old teenage steam locomotive who has a very childlike personality, and works as a switch engine in the Roundhouse and in the Train Yard, which is run by Tower, whom he has a role to a negligent father to her. She has a similar role to a tomboyish little girl and is completely fearless of anything that is in her way.
She is the mother of Chip and Olivia.
1991 film [ ]
Early one morning, Tillie is sleeping in the round-house until she is woken up by Tower, who calls all the engines to work. She then blows her whistle to wake up her friend Chip.
When she helps Farnsworth and Pete set out for their assignments, she attempts to take the milk train for a sleeping Jebediah, but Tower tells her that she’s too little. When Chip tells Tillie that Georgia has breaks down pulling the birthday train, Tillie tells Doc to rescue her and take her back to the round-house.
Tillie tries to tell Tower that she can pull the birthday train, only to have him violently rant at her, denying her request. When Tower is fast asleep, Tillie manages to sneak out after realizing that there’s no other engines left or around to witness the sneak-out. She sets off to collect the Birthday Train, and takes the toys over the mountain, until two Wolves try to convince her that she’s too little and for her to rebuke them. She bravely attempts to cross a bridge during a rainstorm, but is advised by an eagle to turn back. Her courage and independence push her onward, and she ignores the eagle’s words before he is blown by the wind.
Tillie manages to cross the bridge, but loses one of the wagons behind her, and finally comes across a scary-looking tunnel monster. Despite Tillie’s perseverance, she is knocked unconscious by the avalanche. While Eric waits for the Birthday Train to arrive the next morning, Tillie, Chip, and all of the toys regain consciousness and finally manage to make it out of the snow and down the mountain against the sunrise.
Upon finally reaching Eric’s neighborhood for his birthday, Tillie is quite proud of herself as she states it was worth the effort before blowing her whistle loudly in celebration.
Personality [ ]
She is friendly, happy, childlike, positive, rough, hardworking, and very brave and fearless. She is resemblant of a tomboy and a tough little girl despite her age.
She is also somewhat mischievous and likes to sometimes tease her friends when she’s bored playfully. So she’s also easy to get along with.
She is always looking for reasons to expand her horizons and dreams, and always is seen seeing the positive in stuff.
While she does not care what others think of her, she is shown to get very sad and cry when others yell at her or tell her that she can’t do things only for her bird friend Chip, to reassure her which pushes her on.
Basis [ ]
Tillie’s possible basis would be the American T. D. Judah steam locomotive rebuilt as 4-2-2, but with a coal bunker instead of a fowler tender.