The Brave Locomotive
The Brave Locomotive is a 2023 American independent animated short film by Academy Award-nominated Disney animator Andrew Chesworth.[1]
Summary[edit]
A love letter to the Andrews Sisters and 1940s Disney animation[1] shows the story about Linus, a small 2-4-0 English-American Locomotive with a big heart, and his jovial salt of the earth engineer Henry McCloud, in the Old West in 1895. An eastern railroad baron named Baron Von Kapital buys out Linus' tiny railroad, and Henry receives a lofty promotion to drive Linus’ replacement, Samson the powerful 4-8-4 Locomotive, while Linus ends up working at a mountain forestry railroad with other scrapped engines. There he is forced to haul logs while Samson, with his strength, speed and technological advantages, builds the railroad up into a new humongous railroad. When Samson’s continuous transiting accidentally breaks the supports of the bridge and leaves him on the verge of falling off. Now Samson is in danger, Henry blows the whistle for help. Linus hears Samson's whistle blowing, notices the trouble and escapes by breaking his chains, leaving the log wagons behind for the forestry railroad engineer to land in the funnel of the Angler Engine, who looks up, grins, and takes him away in the pitch dark mine tunnel, presumably planning to murder him. As Linus rushes to the rescue, the forestry railroad owner shoots his steam dome to hurt him which starts leaking water. Reaching the bridge, Linus spins round and couples up to Samson's coaches and pulls, causing Samson's tender to come loose while Linus pulls Samson's coaches and tender free. Turning, Linus spies Samson about to fall with the Baron, his daughter Katrina Von Kapital and Henry, and quickly couples to Samson and pulls as hard as he can. With the Baron, Katrina, and Henry in Linus’ cab, he gives Henry and Katrina shovels to give him coal to pull Samson as the bridge starts breaking apart, and ultimately, even with his own boiler busting, Linus manages to get Samson to safety, but crashes with a large explosion in the process. Everyone sees Linus in a sorry state, and just as Linus sadly floats up to heaven, they repair him and bring him to good working order again. Time passes and the bridge is fixed as Linus, good as new and with his old job back (with a news article having revealed a grateful Samson accepted a new job of hauling lumber), continues working with now elderly Henry and his wife Scarlet operating him.
Production[edit]
Chesworth formerly worked at Disney (being animator on Wreck It Ralph, Frozen, Get a Horse!, Big Hero 6, Feast, Zootopia and Moana)[2][3] and Netflix (on the 2019 Annie Award for Best Animated Feature winner Klaus)[4] while working independently on his passion projects including The Brave Locomotive (first conceived in 2008; he released online in 2015 the opening sequence that was in progress before shelving it after being hired by Disney in 2011).[1]
Release[edit]
It was released to film festivals for Oscar qualification before airing on YouTube.[5][6]
Accolades[edit]
- The Brave Locomotive - LA Shorts Film Festival: Best Animation (won)[7]
See also[edit]
The following Disney animated films featuring the aforementioned Andrews Sisters:
- Make Mine Music (1946)
- Melody Time (1948)
References[edit]
- ^ a b c The Brave Locomotive - Opening Sequence Work In Progress on Andrew Chesworth's official Vimeo channel
- ^ Disney Animator Competes with Studio for Oscar Gold
- ^ Interview on Animation Insider
- ^ How it took almost a decade and Netflix to bring 'Klaus' — one of the year's best animated movies — to life - Insider
- ^ 2024 Oscars Short Film Contenders: ‘The Brave Locomotive’ Director Andrew Chesworth|Cartoon Brew
- ^ Oscar Watch 2024: Your Guide to This Year’s Qualifying Animated Shorts|Animation Magazine
- ^ 27th LA Shorts Film Fest Reaches New Animated Heights|Animation Magazine