The Brave Locomotive
2023 · 7m · USA
Directed by Andrew Chesworth
Genres: animation, musical, western
Tones: melancholic, tender, whimsical
Set in 1895, a little blue passenger locomotive named Linus and his engineer Henry face obsolescence as bigger, faster, automated machines take over their western town in this musical animated short with 1940s Andrews Sisters flair. The film is a love letter to vintage animation and boogie-woogie music that doubles as a meditation on technological displacement.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
A film about a train being made obsolete that itself took 14 years to exist — the meta-joke about obsolescence is embedded in the production history and I cannot stop thinking about it.
Andrew Chesworth's 14-year passion project — an anachronistic 1940s-style animated short about 1895 obsolescence that is itself an artifact resisting its own obsolescence. The recursive irony is the gift.
Fourteen years of incubation, Patreon-revived during COVID, 1940s Andrews Sisters–style musical about 1895 obsolescence — the film is itself an artifact resisting its own obsolescence. That meta-loop alone earns a watch.
Festivals
- LA Shorts International Film Festival 2023, Best Animation
- UK Film Festival 2023, Best Animation
- Rhode Island International Film Festival 2023, Best Short Animation