The Little Engine That Could (1991 film)
The Little Engine that Could is a 1991 animated direct-to-video 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 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 (specifically based on the 1976 illustrations by Ruth Sanderson). The  film was also syndicated in the US on broadcast television as an Easter special in March/April 1993. Plot. Eric, a young boy, is excited about his birthday after reading a book and believes that a train will come for him, much to 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, he declines Tillie's offer to help with the milk train assigned to Jebediah due to her small stature. Georgia is assigned to pull the birthday train. A clown named Rollo leads the toys and friends 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. However, during her journey, Georgia breaks down and Doc takes her back to the roundhouse. 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 blind eyes to the offer, and Jebediah explains that going over the mountain is too much for him. Meanwhile, despite the tower turning down Tillie's offer to help carry the birthday train, she and Chip sneak past the tower and pulls the birthday train up a mountain. Despite being ridiculed by the animals along the way, Tillie reaches the summit after crossing a bridge that collapses but loses the last train car , which snaps off and falls into the river along the way: Later rescued by a crane car. When Tillie sees the scary cave, she tries to go through the cave. 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 snowplow and down the mountain before they reach the town, much to Eric's delight and Jill's amazement. Although very  tired from her long and adventurous journey over the mountain, Tillie is very proud and happy that she could and tells Chip it was worth it. 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. The movie can currently be viewed on Amazon Prime.