The Busy Little Engine

Last updated
The Busy Little Engine
BusyLittleEngineDVD.jpg
DVD cover image
Directed by Desmond Mullen
Written byDesmond Mullen
Produced by
  • Desmond Mullen
  • Helena Mullen
Starring
  • Desmond Mullen
  • Lorrie Guess
Narrated byDesmond Mullen
CinematographyDesmond Mullen
Edited byDesmond Mullen
Music byJimmy Magoo
Distributed bySquirrel Tracks
Release date
  • December 12, 2005 (2005-12-12)
Running time
34 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$52,000 (est.)

The Busy Little Engine is a 2005 direct-to-video children's film written and directed by Desmond Mullen. It was selected for the 2006 San Diego International Children's Film Festival and reviewed in the professional library journals Booklist, [1] School Library Journal, [2] and Video Librarian. [3] The Busy Little Engine was picked Best DVD by Parenting Magazine in July 2006. [4]

Contents

The film takes place in the fictional city of Dinkytown and tells the story of Busy Little Engine, a wooden toy train who pretends to deliver raw materials to a cookie factory. He appears as a wooden toy train in a playroom and as a full-scale CGI train inserted into real-world backgrounds in different parts of the film.

Plot

The film starts off with Busy Little Engine going back and forth through a railroad crossing because he does not know what real trains do. This prompts Pig to ask what trains do, and the narrator explains that trains have a variety of purposes by showcasing different types of railroad cars. In this segment, Pig asks if flatcars carry individual cookies. The narrator explains to Pig that cookies are boxed and carried in boxcars from factories to stores. After explaining to Pig what factories are and how materials from farms go to factories, Pig suggests the idea of going to a farm. This leads the narrator to expand on Pig's idea and suggest that Busy Little Engine pretends to take raw materials from a farm and transport them to a factory. Busy Little Engine obliges. After Busy Little Engine enters a tunnel, the style changes to CGI when he comes out. It can be inferred that this part of the film is in the characters' imaginations.

When Busy Little Engine comes out of the tunnel, he is shown to move through various places, like over a bridge and through a city. When Busy Little Engine arrives at the farm to pick up sugar, Pig and the narrator go to look at farm animals.

After Busy Little Engine is done filling up with sugar, he heads for the flour silo. Instead of showing Busy Little Engine's journey, a montage of American road signs warning of animal crossings plays, with Pig commenting on each one.

When Busy Little Engine arrives at the flour silos, Pig asks why Busy Little Engine doesn't go to a backyard to get flowers. The narrator then explains the difference between flowers and flour to Pig, since they sound alike.

Busy Little Engine leaves the flour silos and goes immediately to the dairy farm to pick up butter. The narrator explains to Pig, after he asks if Busy Little Engine is going to the grocery store, that they are picking up butter in bulk, along with explaining how butter is made. When Busy Little Engine is done loading butter, they head back to the cookie factory in the playroom, transitioning between real-life scenes like in the beginning of the movie.

As Busy Little Engine is heading back, a large train approaches towards him on the same track. The narrator places emphasis on how a railroad switch needs to be flipped in order to let the opposing train pass.

After Busy Little Engine comes out of the tunnel, he pulls into the imaginary cookie factory and pretends to have the ingredients he collected unloaded.

Production

The real-world portions of the film were filmed in Durham and Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

Cast

Reception

The Busy Little Engine was selected for the 2006 San Diego International Children's Film Festival. [5] It was picked Best DVD by Parenting Magazine in July 2006. [4]

Inspired in part by Richard Scarry's book, What do People do All Day? and other children's picture books, the DVD uses static framing to its advantage. DVD Verdict's review [6] said:

Yet the three kids I've shown it to have been rooted to the screen. Creator Desmond Mullen, formerly of Industrial Light and Magic and a current producer for the Morehead Planetarium, makes an interesting observation: Pans, cuts, and other cinematic shorthand are not natural. We have to learn what they mean. Kids don't intuitively understand that a jump cut means something. Pig's straightforward manner and The Busy Little Engine's static framing mimic the way a child interprets the world. The proof is self evident: Kids dig this DVD.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cookie</span> Small, flat and sweetened baked food (biscuit)

A cookie, or a biscuit, is a baked or cooked snack or dessert that is typically small, flat and sweet. It usually contains flour, sugar, egg, and some type of oil, fat, or butter. It may include other ingredients such as raisins, oats, chocolate chips, nuts, etc.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fortune cookie</span> Cookie with printed paper fortune inside

A fortune cookie is a crisp and sugary cookie wafer made from flour, sugar, vanilla, and sesame seed oil with a piece of paper inside, a "fortune", an aphorism, or a vague prophecy. The message inside may also include a Chinese phrase with translation and/or a list of lucky numbers used by some as lottery numbers. Fortune cookies are often served as a dessert in Chinese restaurants in the United States, Canada, Australia, and other countries, but they are not Chinese in origin. The exact origin of fortune cookies is unclear, though various immigrant groups in California claim to have popularized them in the early 20th century. They most likely originated from cookies made by Japanese immigrants to the United States in the late 19th or early 20th century. The Japanese version did not have the Chinese lucky numbers and were eaten with tea.

<i>Mister Ed</i> American television series

Mister Ed is an American television sitcom produced by Filmways that aired in syndication from January 5 to July 2, 1961, and then on CBS from October 1, 1961, to February 6, 1966. The show's title character is a talking horse which originally appeared in short stories by Walter R. Brooks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Madeleine (cake)</span> Small sponge cake with a distinctive shell-like shape

The madeleine or petite madeleine is a traditional small cake from Commercy and Liverdun, two communes of the Lorraine region in northeastern France.

<i>The Wind in the Willows</i> (1996 film) 1996 British film by Terry Jones

The Wind in the Willows is a 1996 British adventure comedy film based on Kenneth Grahame's 1908 novel The Wind in the Willows, adapted and directed by Terry Jones, and produced by Jake Eberts and John Goldstone. The film stars Terry Jones, Steve Coogan, Eric Idle and Nicol Williamson. While positively regarded, it was a box office bomb and had distribution problems in the United States.

<i>Chicken Little</i> (1943 film) 1943 American film

Chicken Little is a 1943 short film created by Walt Disney during World War II and directed by Clyde Geronimi. The short was based on the European folk tale "Henny Penny", known in the United States as "Chicken Little". It is an anti-Nazi film showing the evils of mass hysteria.

<i>Spookley the Square Pumpkin</i> 2004 Canadian film

Spookley the Square Pumpkin is a 2004 computer-animated film about a geometric pumpkin based on the book The Legend of Spookley the Square Pumpkin by Joe Troiano. It was made by Holiday Hill Farm and released by Kidtoon Films and Lionsgate. The Honeydoos, three singing honeydews who sing in the style of The Pointer Sisters, are also featured. Bobby Pickett makes a brief cameo near the end of the film; his hit song "Monster Mash" is mentioned in one of the musical numbers "Transylvania Twist". Troiano and Zahn had previously written new music for Pickett's 1995 film adaptation of Monster Mash.

<i>Animal Farm</i> (1999 film) 1999 American film directed by John Stephenson

Animal Farm is a 1999 political comedy-drama television film directed by John Stephenson and written by Alan Janes. Based on the 1945 novel of the same name by George Orwell and serving as an allegory of the Russian Revolution and its aftermath, the film features an ensemble cast including Kelsey Grammer, Ian Holm, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Patrick Stewart, Julia Ormond, Paul Scofield, Charles Dale, Pete Postlethwaite, Alan Stanford and Peter Ustinov. In the film, a group of anthropomorphic animals revolt successfully against their own human owner, only to slide into a more brutal tyranny among themselves.

Desmond Mullen is an American producer, director, actor, and writer. He is best known as the narrator and the voice of the puppet Pig in The Busy Little Engine series of DVDs. His ex-wife, Helena Mullen, is a producer whose credits include "Superstar: The Life and Times of Andy Warhol".

<i>The Tale of Pigling Bland</i> 1913 childrens book by Beatrix Potter

The Tale of Pigling Bland is a children's book written and illustrated by Beatrix Potter and first published by Frederick Warne & Co. in 1913. The story describes the adventures of the pig of the title and how his life changes upon meeting a soulmate, in much the same way that Potter's life was changing at the time the book was published.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stonyhurst Saint Mary's Hall</span> Private day and boarding school in Clitheroe, Lancashire, England

Stonyhurst St Mary's Hall is the preparatory school to Stonyhurst College. It is an independent co-educational Catholic school, for ages 3–13, founded by the Society of Jesus (Jesuits). It is primarily a day school but has some boarders. As the lineal descendant of Hodder Place the school lays claim to be the oldest preparatory school in the country.

<i>Abby in Wonderland</i> 2008 American film

Abby in Wonderland is a 2008 American direct-to-DVD children's film that adapts Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland with the Muppets of Sesame Street. Abby Cadabby stars in the "Alice" role. The feature-length adventure was released on DVD by Genius Products on September 30, 2008. In addition to receiving a DVD release, the film received a limited theatrical run in September 2008 through the Kidtoons family matinee series, and was aired on PBS Kids Feast of Favorites during the week of Thanksgiving 2008. It was aired again on December 29, 2008 on local PBS stations.

<i>Busytown Mysteries</i> Canadian animated television series

Busytown Mysteries, also known as Hurray for Huckle!, is a Canadian animated television series created by Cookie Jar Entertainment. Currently, the series airs in Canada as part of the Kids' CBC block and on the Tiny Pop channel in the United Kingdom. In the United States, the show was scheduled to debut on Qubo, but it aired as part of the Cookie Jar TV block on CBS instead, and then returned to the United States on Starz.

<i>Box Car Blues</i> 1930 film by Hugh Harman

Box Car Blues, released in 1930, is the fifth title in the Looney Tunes series. It features Bosko and a pig traveling as hobos in a boxcar.

<i>The Easter Bunny Is Comin to Town</i> American TV series or program

The Easter Bunny Is Comin' to Town is a 1977 musical Easter television special produced by Rankin/Bass Productions, using their "Animagic" stop motion animation. It reunites the writer Romeo Muller, designer Paul Coker Jr., and narrator Fred Astaire from Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town, and stars the voices of Skip Hinnant, Bob McFadden, Meg Sargent, James Spies, and Allen Swift. The special originally premiered on ABC in the United States on April 6, 1977.

<i>The Little Engine That Could</i> (2011 film) 2011 American film directed by Elliot M. Bour

The Little Engine That Could is a 2011 American computer-animated adventure film based on the 1930 story by Watty Piper.

World War II changed the possibilities for animation. Prior to the war, animation was mostly seen as a form of family entertainment. The attack on Pearl Harbor was a turning point in its utility. On December 8, 1941, the United States Army began working with Walt Disney at his studio, stationing Military personnel there for the duration of the war. The Army and Disney set about making various types of films for several different audiences. Most films meant for the public included some type of propaganda, while films for the troops included training and education about a given topic.

<i>Locomotive</i> (book) Verse nonfiction picture book by Brian Floca

Locomotive is a 2013 children's book written and illustrated by Brian Floca. A non-fiction book written primarily in free verse, the book follows a family as they ride a transcontinental steam engine train in summer of 1869. The book details the workers, passengers, landscape, and effects of building and operating the first transcontinental railroad. The book also contains prose about the earlier and later history of locomotives. The book took Floca four years to create, which included a change in perspective from following the crew of the train to following a family. Floca conducted extensive research including his own train ride and consultation with experts to ensure he had the details all correct.

References

  1. Booklist magazine at the American Library Association. Retrieved on 2007-03-16.
  2. Review of The Busy Little Engine at the School Library Journal. Retrieved on 2007-03-16.
  3. Video Librarian magazine. Retrieved on 2007-03-16.
  4. 1 2 Parenting magazine. Retrieved on 2007-03-16.
  5. "The Busy Little Engine Pulls Into the Station this Weekend for the 2006 San Diego International Children's Film Festival". PRWeb. Retrieved 2023-03-27.
  6. Review of The Busy Little Engine Archived 2006-12-12 at the Wayback Machine at DVD Verdict. Retrieved on 2007-03-16.