I have always admired Thomas the Tank Engine since I was a toddler, for my parents would buy me countless Thomas toys (specifically, the Wooden Railway trains and the plastic battery-powered Tomy trains), and I would play with them all day long. I also read many Thomas picture books and The Railway Series written by the Reverand Wilbert Awdry, the popular book series where Thomas and his friends originated. However, I did not watch the namesake television series until I was about nine or ten because growing up, I was not particularly eager to watch many television or movies save for a few educational shows like Blue's Clues and Veggietales. When I finally saw some episodes from the original series on YouTube, I was instantly hooked and could not wait to see more, which led me to Thomas and the Magic Railroad (2000). At the time of the film's theatrical release, my parents bought me much themed merchandise, such as an exclusive Wooden Railway set, the picture books, and the original soundtrack on CD. They also showed me the official website and a short clip from the movie. Yet I never saw the film until I owned the movie on home video in 2006 or 2007, when I became interested in the show.
Now, where to begin with one of my favorite childhood movies (besides Cars (2006))? This film was written, produced, and directed by Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends and Shining Time Station show creator Britt Allcroft, who intended to introduce both the British Isles-inspired Island of Sodor and the American railroad town of Shining Time to the big screen. In a way, this movie succeeded as I immediately found myself immersed in the worlds Allcroft had brought to small screens everywhere in 1984 and 1989, respectively. Despite my lack of prior knowledge for the latter, I would subsequently dream of visiting quaint railroad towns and stations across the country like Strasburg, Pennsylvania (one of the movie's filming locations). As a result, I would frequently rewatch this film while playing with my Tomy Thomas & Friends trains set up in front of the television. However, as I grew older, the movie's numerous flaws became more apparent to me, namely the muddled and discombobulated narrative that failed to balance Thomas' storyline with that of the human characters'. Despite its shortcomings, it provides some entertaining tidbits for me to discuss. That being said, on with my spoiler-filled review of Thomas and the Magic Railroad.
The film centers on Lily Stone (played by Mara Wilson), a young girl living in the big city about to visit her unhappy grandfather Burnett Stone (played by the late Peter Fonda) living on Muffle Mountain when she takes the wrong train and ends up in Shining Time. From there, she eventually travels to the Island of Sodor via the Magic Railroad, where she meets Thomas the Tank Engine (voiced by Edward Glen) and the magical Mr. Conductor (played by Alec Baldwin), both of whom have an evil diesel engine named Diesel 10 (voiced by Neil Crone) on their tails (in Thomas' case, buffers) out to destroy Lady (voiced by Allcroft, herself), a steam engine crucial in keeping the Magic Railroad alive, now under the protection of Burnett in his workshop. Together, they have to team up to stop Diesel 10 from destroying both Lady and the Magic Railroad.
To clarify, I wasn't reading the synopsis from another children's movie. The biggest mistake this movie along with its marketing department made back in 2000 was misleading the audience into believing they were about to watch a Thomas the Tank Engine-centric story for an hour-and-a-half before pulling the rug from under their feet and revealing to them that it was a Shining Time Station movie guest-starring Thomas the Tank Engine. I am sure that most parents who had never seen Shining Time with their kids failed to get the references to the show and its characters (i.e., Mr. Conductor; an eighteen-inch railroad conductor who appears and disappears in clouds of magical gold dust, Stacy Jones (played by Didi Conn); Shining Time's kind and bubbly station master, and Billy Twofeathers (played by the late Russell Means); a local railroad engineer). That said, I didn't take issue with the Shining Time setting nor its characters, for they were and still are, charming in their own right, and it is entertaining to see them represented on the big screen. This makes me think that had this film been written and directed by more experienced people than Allcroft, the audience would have received a more streamlined movie with an easier-to-follow narrative that would have fared a little better.
Some of the movie's greatest strengths come from the production and set design, namely the live-action model trains for Thomas and his friends and their respective sets. They all have more vibrant colors and a higher level of detail than their television series counterparts, yet they maintain their distinctive visual charm from the series. The same applies to the sequences involving the real-life actors, which have all the vividness of a Norman Rockwell painting come to life with its warm and inviting colors and nostalgic images of Americana like children waving to passing steam trains.
Moving on to the film's best performance (aside from Thomas'), Baldwin gives his best shot as the cheerful Mr. Conductor. He gives his all to the role previously portrayed on the small screen by former Thomas narrators Ringo Starr and George Carlin. His experience as a dramatic actor pays off, especially during some of the film's more heartfelt scenes. One of my favorite moments of his acting involves Mr. Conductor and Lily sitting around a campfire conversing about her grandfather and the mystery at hand.
Hummie Mann's score is whimsical and sentimental as it calls back to some of my earliest childhood memories of innocence and friendship while never being too menacing. For instance, Shining Time's theme is sweet and gentle, while Diesel 10's musical cue is comically devious. One of my favorite pieces of Mann's score from the soundtrack is the track "Through the Magic Buffers", which perfectly conveys Thomas and Lily's sense of wonder as they travel through the Magic Railroad. However, not all that glitters is gold (literally).
While the Thomas scenes have a special place in my heart, they are almost always brief as the film cuts away to scenes involving the human characters, which themselves would have worked better as individual moments from several different movies. For instance, the scenes involving Lily and her Burnett bonding over his late wife through trains make for a somewhat bittersweet film in and of itself but result in an odd mix when paired with the Thomas scenes.
Also, one issue that I cannot overlook as a fan of the television series is the overall lack of human characters on Sodor (save for a picture of Lady Hatt inside Sir Topham Hatt's office, and Bertie the Bus' driver). This inconsistency is most apparent when looking at Sodor's mysteriously barren station platforms and lack of engine drivers propelling the engines around. All of this contradicts the Reverend W. Awdry's established lore on Sodor's grounded railway operations and procedures involving human beings in favor of gold dust and self-driving trains.
Nevertheless, this film looks good enough for a Thomas the Tank Engine film made at the time. The green screen effects incorporating the live-action actors into the Island of Sodor are somewhat convincing as they fare much better than the Shining Time Station show's visuals. However, several shots, specifically the CGI used to create the Magic Railroad, stick out like a sore thumb. Even if George Lucas directed this film's visual effects shots, they would still look as dated as his CGI upgrades to the Star Wars Original Trilogy.
Fonda's performance as Burnett, while wholehearted in its delivery, is so unrelentingly grim throughout the film save for the third act, that it would make one wonder if he had wandered onto the wrong set. However, he was enthusiastic about joining a children's movie and the role he was offered, so the effort is worth commending. Wilson's character of Lily is compelling on paper, but her performance comes across as bland and uninterested. Had this role been played by another actress with another director at the helm, this film would have had a more compelling protagonist.
On a side note, some people unfamiliar with Thomas have complained in the past that the Sudrian characters' mouths should have moved through animation. However, as a fan of the original series, this technical aspect is not only consistent with the show, but I find this to be forgivable and rather charming, for that is the least of my concerns. Yet this single aspect from the series is not enough for me to give this film's other issues a pass.
One partial reason behind this film's narrative flaws can be attributed to the following. According to several reports, this movie suffered at the hands of a poorly received test audience screening. It underwent significant re-edits, including the last-minute replacement of original voice actors and the removal of key characters such as the intended antagonist, P.T. Boomer (played by the late Doug Lennox). Thus, these changes created the somewhat confusing mix of a theatrical film in the process.
In 2007, Allcroft confirmed these rumors. Along with Means and Lennox, petitioned to have the film's rights holders, Sony Pictures Entertainment and HiT Entertainment (now owned by Mattel), to release the director's cut of the movie on home video. Thirteen years after the original petition, Shout! Factory has re-released the film on Blu-ray and DVD. While it does not contain the long-requested director's cut, much of P.T. Boomer's scenes were included in the bonus features. Upon viewing the deleted footage, I can attest that had the film kept said scenes in, they would have dragged out the runtime but fleshed out the world of Shining Time and its characters a little more. Also, discovering and hearing the tracks of the original voice actors online (John Bellis as Thomas, the late Michael Angelis as James and Percy, and Keith Scott as Diesel 10) was a treat in and of itself. Despite its narrative flaws, I still hold Thomas and the Magic Railroad in high regard as an essential part of my childhood and a guilty pleasure in hindsight.
Final Score: 5 out of 10
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