The Brave Locomotive

Just watched this. I have little to say except that this is just beautiful. Every second, from start to finish.

Comments

[FourShadow]

Oh it is. It's just... amazing.

[TheLegendaryBillCipher]

Amazing indeed. 🚂

[ShadowLDrago]

Holy shit. This feels like a cross between Thomas The Tank Engine and an early wacky Disney animation. What a fantastically charming animation.

[Scholarly-Cimmerian]

5754839
You said it. Sure made my evening to watch

[Scholarly-Cimmerian]

5754857
For sure. This was a real pick-me-up and I'm very glad to have been able to share it with others

[Scholarly-Cimmerian]

5755029
"Fantastically charming" sounds like just the right words to use to describe this short, at least in my view. The makers of this really nailed the vibe of an old-school Disney cartoon. I had definite nostalgic thoughts of Melody Time and other collections of classic Disney when watching Henry and Linus in this!

[ShadowLDrago]

5755047

I like that it doesn't bother do any explaining beyond the necessary. It's an animated folk song, not a 6 part epic.

[ShadowLDrago]

Come to think of it, this is a broadly villainy free story. Hell, Samson's near death experience could have been avoided if they had reinforced the tracks to handle Samson's weight, as they did in the end. Of course tracks meant to handle Linus couldn't handle Samson. Samson looked like he was several times his weight and size. To say nothing of him thundering across the tracks at MUCH higher speeds than Linus. There's a reason most structures are stone, not wood.

[Scholarly-Cimmerian]

5757286
Agreed, and that's one thing that I really like about the short. While the Railway Baron has a design that really suggests, "Rich Jerk, Do Not Trust This Guy," he's ultimately more hubristic than truly malicious. (Hell, one could even say him assigning Henry to Samson was, if maybe misguided, a show of trust in his best engineer.)

The "truest" bad guys in the whole cartoon would be the two assholes at the mountain logging rail, and one of them certainly got some karma in the end. (And I can't picture the other one sticking around much longer either. I doubt the Baron and his daughter would take kindly to the guy being responsible for Linus' boiler explosion.)

Another thing I really like about the short is that while Henry and Linus suffer from the progression of technology and the fear of obsolescence, the cartoon doesn't do just condemn new technology or progress. The train trestle gets rebuilt in a stronger, and far safer, design, and at the end of the cartoon we get to see Henry's wife taking part in Linus' travels as well. (To say nothing of the Baron's daughter proving to be a lot more than the rich socialite one might mistake her for at first. "Railroad Princess" indeed!)

[ShadowLDrago]

5757291

Technology is always going to progress. But that doesn't mean ALL old tech has to be thrown away.