The Little Engine That Could - in Popular Culture

In Popular Culture

• In the 1941 Disney movie "Dumbo" the work train taking the circus animals to their destination pulls its cargo up a hill repeating the well known saying "I-Think-I-Can-I-Think-I-Can" and rolls down the hill saying "I-Thought-I-Could-I-Thought-I-Could"
• International champion vintage motorcycle racer Todd Henning's motto was "I Think I Can, I Think I Can," and he named his racing team I Think I Can Racing after the book.
• The story was made into a song by Burl Ives, eliminating two of the engines who refuse to help the stuck train and ending with a more optimistic variation of the congratulatory mantra: "I knew I could."
• The story was referenced extensively as a fictionalised or theoretical film pitch to illustrate the Hollywood system of meetings in the William Goldman book Adventures in the Screen Trade.
• The story was read in MTV's Beavis and Butt-head when principal McVicker went into a psychiatric hospital and was reading part of the story.
• The story was made into a skit on The Electric Company, with Hattie Winston narrating, "I think I can!" and portraying the engineer driving a train up a steep hill. The train makes it over and Hattie keeps repeating "I thought I could!" until the train ends up going right into a lake at the bottom of the hill.
• This book was chosen by "Jumpstart Read for the Record" to be read worldwide to tens of thousands of children on August 24, 2006.
• In the Watty Piper retelling, the engine that breaks down and Little Engine That Could are female, while all of the engines that refuse to help are male (this was the same in the 1991 movie).
• The Little Engine is based on the C. P. Huntington locomotive with a 4-2-4T wheel arrangement.
• Shel Silverstein wrote a poem called "The Little Blue Engine" that referenced this story, except in the end the engine almost reached the top of the hill but then very quickly slid back down and crashed on the rocks below. The poem ended with the memorable line "If the track is tough and the hill is rough, THINKING you can just ain't enough!"
• Mickey's Young Readers Library had an adaptation titled Goofy Goes to the Fair, in which Goofy's friends have to ride with him in his car Old Faithful, in the role of the engine, to the fair.
• In The End, by Lemony Snicket, the Little Engine That Could is mentioned, described as "one of the most tedious stories on Earth".
• One comic of The Far Side features a down-on-his-luck Little Engine sitting at the side of a building with a sign that reads "I thought I could, I thought I could."
• The Little Engine that Could was mentioned in the 1993 film adaption of Dennis the Menace.
• The song "C'mon 'n' Ride It (The Train)" by Quad City DJs includes the famous lines "I think I can, I think I can."
• The first episode of the third season of Fox's sit-com Married... With Children, "He Thought He Could", Al Bundy has forgotten to return the book to the library for 21 years.
• In the comedy movie Major Payne, the title character tells an incarnation of what starts out as what seems like a legit version of the story, then into a particularly gory version of one of his war stories, to his youngest cadet.
• In a commercial for Jolly Rancher, the Little Engine That Could is seen in the background climbing the mountain. However, just before he reaches the top, the woman in the foreground eats an apple Jolly Rancher, causing a large apple to appear on top of the mountain, preventing the engine from reaching the top and making it slide back down the track.
• President Clinton mentioned the book at his speech to the Democratic National Committee in 1996.
• In the Hey Arnold! episode "Stoop Kid", the book is used an inspiration for the character Stoop Kid.
• The story was made into a song by John Denver with the title of the same name. It was featured on his final album All Aboard!.
• Captain Kangaroo, played by Bob Keeshan, read this story on his TV show.
• In an episode of The Suite Life of Zack & Cody, a book named "The Little Engineer that Could" is read, a reference to the title of this book.
• In the "Bedtime Stories" episode of season one of the UK TV series The Book Group, the book the group read was The Little Engine that Could.
• In an episode of Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide, Ned finds Gordy reading the book in the school library.
• West End and Broadway musical Starlight Express was loosely based on the book.
• In the seventh episode of the first season of The Big Bang Theory, "The Dumpling Paradox," Christy tells Howard: "There's my little engine that could" to which he replies "Chugga-chugga-chugga..." and Sheldon says: "There's another beloved children's book I can never read again."
• Former Syracuse University football head coach Greg Robinson directly quoted this Wikipedia page in his farewell speech in December 2008.
• The explanation of the internals of regular expressions (regexes) in Perl in The Camel book is titled "The little engine that /Could(n\'t)?/."
• In the Barney & Friends episode "Who's Who On the Choo-Choo?" Stella the Storyteller recites The Little Engine That Could.
• In an episode of Family Ties, two people read The Little Engine That Could.
• In a Hallmark commercial, they read The Little Engine That Could. When they see a Hallmark card, they stop reading the book and mom reads the card.
• In a J. Cole song, Who Dat, rapper J. Cole mentions the book by saying "The little engine that could, this little nigga is good."
• In one commercial, a clip from the 1991 film is shown when a dad tries to find a way to stop his baby crying while looking up on the computer.
• In "No Hands", a 2010 song by rapper Waka Flocka Flame, guest star Wale says at the end of his verse "I put her on the train little engine could, bitch."