Thomas and the Magic Railroad

Thomas and the Magic Railroad
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Britt Allcroft
Produced by	Britt Allcroft Phil Fehrle
Written by	Britt Allcroft
Narrated by	Alec Baldwin as Mr. Conductor
Starring	Alec Baldwin Peter Fonda Mara Wilson Cody McMains Eddie Glen Neil Crone Michael E. Rodgers Didi Conn Russell Means
Music by	Hummie Mann Mike O'Donnell
Cinematography	Paul Ryan
Editing by	Ron Wisman
Studio	Gullane Pictures Isle of Man Film Commission The Britt Allcroft Company
Distributed by	Destination Films (USA) Icon Entertainment International (Warner Bros) (UK)
Release date(s)	July 14, 2000 (UK) July 26, 2000 (USA)
Running time	86 minutes
Language	English
Budget	$19 million
Box office	$19,748,009

Thomas and the Magic Railroad is a 2000 British/American feature film based on the well-known TV series Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends and the United States TV series Shining Time Station. The film was co-produced by Gullane Entertainment and the Isle of Man Film Commission. It was written, produced and directed by Britt Allcroft.

The film received mixed reviews. It was released first in the UK where critics were unfamiliar with the characters from Shining Time Station and accused Thomas of being "Americanised". It received better reviews in the U.S. ("An enchanting ride." AP. "Delight for young moviegoers." Garnett News Service.) and was well liked by the young audiences for whom it was created, albeit a 20% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Since the film's release, various specials based on Thomas and Friends have been released, although they are not directly related to this film.

In 2007, it was revealed that the released film had been drastically cut from the original script written and shot by Britt Allcroft against her will.

The Director's Cut for this movie, shown at the Los Angeles previews, ran about 145 minutes, but was cut down to 86 minutes for the UK and US July, 2000 releases.

Plot

Sir Topham Hatt, normally in charge of the railways on Sodor, is on holiday and has left Mr. Conductor in charge. Meanwhile, Thomas and Gordon encounter an evil diesel locomotive, Diesel 10, stating that he has unfinished business on Sodor. He is planning to get rid of steam engines on Sodor once and for all.

Mr. Conductor has problems of his own. The mysterious gold dust that allows him to magically transport from place to place is running out, and without it there will be no way for anyone to travel from Shining Time to Sodor or back again. There is a lost engine that is able to travel between Sodor and Muffle Mountain using the Magic Railroad, but nobody knows where she is.

Burnett Stone, an elderly man, lives on Muffle Mountain, near Shining Time Station, in which Stacy Jones was the manager. Unknown to everyone, he is the guardian of the lost engine, whose name is Lady. The engine crashed after an earlier encounter with Diesel 10, and ever since then Burnett has been trying to repair Lady. Even though he seems to have gotten the little engine restored mechanically, so far he has been unable to make her steam.

Percy and Thomas find out that there is a secret railway and there are magic buffers that lead to it. However, Diesel 10 overhears them. Toby the Tram Engine follows D-10 and hears him telling his diesel locomotive henchmen Splatter and Dodge of his plans to destroy the steam locomotives. Diesel 10 thinks that this horrid act seems possible mainly because Mr. Conductor's whistle contains gold dust inside which he uses to travel is running out, and he is therefore becoming too weak to stop Diesel 10. Wanting to warn his friends of Diesel's plans, Toby rings his bell, distracting them.

Burnett's granddaughter Lily visits him, and meets C. Junior, Mr. Conductor's good-natured but lazy cousin, who takes her to Sodor and introduces her to the talking engines who live there, including Thomas. Later, Thomas is assigned to transport Lily back to Burnett on Muffle Mountain after inadvertently discovered the entrance of the long-abandoned Magic Railroad by an old grotto. He takes his lost truck of special Island-of-Sodor coal and arrives on the other end of the Magic Railway, located at the edge of a high cliff near the top of Muffle Mountain. Lily goes to her grandfather's house, leaving Thomas stranded on the mountain. However, the ground gives way and Thomas uncouples himself from the coal-truck, falling off the cliff to the bottom of the mountain where he re-enters the Magic Railroad through another portal there.

Lily reunites with Burnett at his workshop, where he shows her Lady and explains his problem getting the engine to steam. Using the Sodor coal truck, the engine eventually comes to life. Lily and Burnett take Lady along the Magic Railroad, regenerating itself in the process. Lady comments that Burnett had never forgotten about Magic. They reunite with Thomas and find their way back to Sodor, where Diesel 10 finds them and goes after them. He is foiled by a damaged viaduct (that was damaged prior to the movie) which collapses beneath him, sending him falling into the ravine below, where he lands in a barge filled with sludge and is carried away.

Thomas, Lady, Burnett and Lily meet Mr. Conductor and C-Junior. They use the water from a wishing well and shavings from the rails of the Magic Railroad to make more gold dust, and the Island of Sodor and Shining Time Station are saved. C-Junior, encouraged by his success in being able to help out, offers to take a job on Sodor, and Mr. Conductor presents him with his conductor's cap so that C-Junior can now take over Mr. Conductor's role on Sodor, while Mr. Conductor says that he will now travel back to serve at Shining Time Station. In the end Thomas is happily going home to Tidmouth sheds to tell the engines about his encounter with the lost engine Lady.

Cast

Main article: Thomas the Tank Engine film characters

• Edward Glen as Thomas the Tank Engine (voice)
• Alec Baldwin as Mr. Conductor
• Peter Fonda as Burnett Stone
• Mara Wilson as Lily
• Michael E. Rodgers as C. Junior
• Cody McMains as Patch
• Neil Crone as Diesel 10 (voice)
• Kevin Frank and Neil Crone as Splatter and Dodge (voice)
• Britt Allcroft as Lady (voice)

Supporting cast from Thomas and Friends

• Linda Ballantyne voiced Percy the Small Engine
• Kevin Frank voiced Henry the Green Engine, Bertie the Bus and Harold the Helicopter
• Neil Crone voiced Gordon the Big Engine
• Susan Roman voiced James the Red Engine
• Colm Feore voiced Toby the Tram Engine
• Shelley Elizabeth Skinner voiced Annie and Clarabel
• Offscreen, Sir Topham Hatt audibly (but unintelligibly, over the telephone and shown on a poster) instructs Mr. Conductor.
• Troublesome Trucks (do not speak)
• Henrietta the coach (cameo)
• Butch Breakdown (cameo)
• Cranky the crane (cameo, but was supposed to have a bigger role)
• George the Steamroller (deleted from script)
• Lady Hatt (mentioned and shown in a picture)

Supporting cast from Shining Time Station

• Didi Conn as Stacy Jones
• Russell Means (previously Tom Jackson) as Billy Twofeathers

Cut cast

• Doug Lennox as P.T. Boomer: An unfriendly motorcyclist who was the original main antagonist. He was jealous of the relationship that Burnett had with his late wife, Tasha. He does not believe in magic and returns to Shining Time hoping to find and destroy Lady. The character was cut due to being too frightening for the younger audience, and Diesel 10 was rewritten as the main villain of the film.
• John Bellis as Thomas: The original voice of Thomas, was cut due to his Liverpudlian accent supposedly making Thomas sound too old.
• Michael Angelis as James, Percy and (rumored) Gordon; like Bellis, was cut due to supposedly sounding too old.
• Keith Scott as Diesel 10, was cut due to supposedly sounding too frightening for younger audience.
• Patrick Breen as (rumoured) Splatter and Dodge
• Jared Wall as Young Burnett
• Laura Bower as Young Tasha
• Robert Tinkler as Older Patch

There was originally to be a lengthy scene with Young Burnett and Young Tasha dancing with P.T. Boomer sulking in the background. Due to his scene being cut, all that is heard of Burnett and Tasha is their voices in a flashback.

Characters Introduced

• Diesel 10
• Splatter and Dodge
• Lady

Production

Filming

The movie was filmed at the Strasburg Rail Road in Strasburg, Pennsylvania (U.S.), as well as in Ontario and on the Isle of Man. Castletown railway station on the Isle of Man Railway formed part of Shining Time Station and the goods shed at Port St Mary railway station became Burnett Stone's workshop. Running shots of the "Indian Valley" train were filmed at the Strasburg Rail Road location. The large passenger station where Lily boards the train is the Harrisburg Transportation Center. Norfolk & Western 4-8-0 475 was repainted as the Indian Valley motive power.

Sodor was realised using models and chroma key. The models were animated using live action remote control, as on the television series. The model sequences were filmed in Toronto, Canada instead of Shepperton Studios, the "home" of the original TV show; however, several of the show's key staff were flown over to participate.

The Magic Railroad was created using models and CGI and water color painting.

Rewrites

A major character, 'PT Boomer', played by Doug Lennox, was deemed too frightening for the younger audience and therefore was entirely cut out of the film before its release. Because of PT Boomer's absence from the final film, the plot elements that had been driven by him went unexplained. This change was so close to the release, that trailers for the film actually still featured him (such as a clip from the trailer in which he appears falling off the viaduct alongside Diesel 10). Oddly enough, he still appears in the movie during some shots, shown lying on the roof of Diesel 10 as well as a lost motorcyclist being given directions by Burnett (The original scene being dubbed over by Nelson Ferreira from the original confrontation scenes). Boomer also appears in Thomas and the Magic Railroad coloring books by Random House, seen exchanging words with Burnett and setting the explosion off that sent Thomas off the mountain.

The same trailers also depicted Diesel 10 with a deep, upper-class English voice rather than the American accent of the release. This was provided by Australian voice actor Keith Scott, who was removed because the test audiences feared it would frighten the youngest viewers. His replacement, Canadian actor and comedian Neil Crone, stated that he originally did a voice for Diesel 10 with a Russian accent. However, that voice suffered at the hands of the test audience too, as they believed it could cause offence; as such, Crone had to re-record all of his lines. At Allcroft's behest, Crone and his comedy partner Kevin Frank did a dialogue polish on the engine scenes to add more comedy; among other things, it was their idea to have Diesel 10 refer to his claw as 'Pinchy.'

Prior to filming, it had been revealed that Thomas' voice would be provided by John Bellis, a fireman and part-time taxi driver who worked on the film as the Isle of Man transportation co-ordinator and facilities manager. Bellis received the role when he happened to pick up Britt Allcroft and her crew from the airport. According to Allcroft, after hearing him speak for the first time, she told her colleagues, "I have just heard the voice of Thomas. That man is exactly how Thomas would sound!". Bellis accepted the role. However, during a test screening in Los Angeles, the test audiences disliked Bellis' voice for Thomas due to his Liverpudlian accent, claiming that he made Thomas sound too old. Subsequently, Bellis was dropped from his role. In a statement following the decision in April 2000, Bellis said he was "gutted", but wished the film-makers well. "It was supposed to be my big break," he said. "But it hasn't put me off and I am hoping something else will come along." His replacement was Edward Glen, who gave Thomas a more youthful-sounding voice. Bellis did receive a credit for his work on the Isle of Man, and his voice can be heard extensively in one of the trailers.

It has also been revealed that Michael Angelis, the narrator for the UK version of the TV Series since 1991, would have been the voice for James and Percy (and possibly other characters too). However, like Bellis, Angelis suffered at the hands of the American test audiences, who claimed that he made James and Percy sound too old. Eventually, James and Percy were voiced by Canadian actresses Susan Roman and Linda Ballantyne.

In the original script, George the Steamroller played a significant role in the story. Also, Cranky the Crane was to make some appearances, although as a generic crane rather than a character. (His model can be spotted briefly in the final film.)

Because of the cuts, many key scenes that gave Britt Allcroft's original story substance and were filmed with Peter Fonda as Burnett Stone and Russell Means as Billy Twofeathers plus Cody McMains as Patch, were not in the released version because of the references to P.T. Boomer. These scenes were either cut or altered.

The credits for the film says that an older Patch (who would have appeared in the original script as Lily's husband years later) is played by Robert Tinkler. While this is not confirmed, it is believed that a shot of a family riding horses at the end of the film is the older Lily and Patch.

Only one scene from the original cut made it to the DVD as a bonus feature: a very short scene called "Sundae Surprise", featuring C. Junior at the beach.

Workprint

In February 2009, a YouTube user uploaded the original chase scene with PT Boomer as what had been a dubbing project for the user's film class. While the original audio level was toned down considerably as so the original soundtrack would not conflict with the overture from Dark City that played throughout the duration of the video, the finding sparked renewed interest in the Director's Cut project.

As of early 2007, there has been a petition to release a Director's Cut revision of the film; however, it was explained that the odds of the Director's Cut being released were very long due to it having a temp track instead of a completed soundtrack.

Reception

The film was premièred at the Odeon Leicester Square; for the purpose, a steam locomotive, no. 47298 painted to resemble Thomas, was brought to the cinema by low loader on 9 July 2000. National press coverage was low, because many journalists were concentrating on the launch of the book Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, for which a special train named Hogwarts Express was run on 8–11 July.

The film currently has a score of 19% on Rotten Tomatoes with the consensus: "Kids these days demand cutting edge special effects or at least a clever plot with cute charectors [sic]. This movie has neither, having lost in its Americanization what the British original did so right" However, it did receive positive reviews from Associated Press and Gannett newspapers. Roger Ebert gave the film one star out of four, with the consensus, "(the fact)That 'Thomas and the Magic Railroad' made it into theaters at all is something of a mystery. This is a production with 'straight to video' written all over it. Kids who like the Thomas books might might kinda like it. Especially younger kids. Real younger kids. Otherwise, no." While he admired the models and art direction, he criticized how the engines' mouths didn't move when they spoke, the overly depressed performance of Peter Fonda, as well as the overall lack of consistency in the plot.

Awards

The released film received two award nominations by YoungStar Awards and Young Artist Awards.

Video game

A video game was released based on the film. Thomas & the Magic Railroad: Print Studio was published by Hasbro Interactive and released for PC on August 25, 2000.

Soundtrack

A soundtrack was released by Unforscene Music.

External links

• Thomas and the Magic Railroad at the Internet Movie Database
• Thomas and the Magic Railroad at Rotten Tomatoes
• Cinema.com: Thomas and the Magic Railroad
• Britt Allcroft Engineers Magic - Frazier Moore, AP
• Sodor Island's Magic Railroad Mini-Site