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Thomas and the Magic Railroad
USA/UK 2000
Reviewed by Edward Lawrenson
Synopsis
Our synopses give away the plot in full, including surprise twists.
Thomas and his fellow steam engines live in Sodor, a magical place where locomotives speak to one another. Mr Conductor, whose supply of gold dust allows him to visit the village of Shining Town in the real world, is keeping his eye on Diesel, an evil train who has vowed to destroy a locomotive which went missing some time ago and is said to provide a link between Sodor and Shining Time. Realising his supply of gold dust is running out - and the magic of Sodor fading - Mr Conductor calls on his cousin, Junior, for help.
Lily, a young girl, goes to Muffle Mountain to visit her grandfather Burnett, a morose widower who spends his time trying to repair a locomotive called Lady. Lily befriends Patch, a local boy, who takes her to Shining Time.
Thomas discovers the entrance to a magic railroad which runs from Sodor to Shining Time. Lily encounters Junior, who uses his gold dust to take her to Sodor. Diesel kidnaps Junior; Mr Conductor, meanwhile, realises that Lady is the train which can link Sodor with Shining Time. Carrying Lily, Thomas rides to Shining Time via the newly discovered magic railroad. With the coal Thomas was carrying, Burnett stokes Lady up and rides to Sodor with Lily and Patch. Junior uses the last of his gold dust to escape from Diesel, who subsequently falls down a ravine and is carried away by a passing barge. Mr Conductor makes some gold dust from the embers of Lady's fire. The magic of Sodor is restored.
Review
Originally written for his son Christopher, Rev. W. Awdry's Sodor railway books were disarming tales about talking steam engines. Published just as the age of steam travel was coming to an end, Awdry's stories were imbued with a certain nostalgia: his locomotives had happy, soot-free faces and childlike personalities and were run by kindly railway bosses. Writer-director Britt Allcroft maintains some of this affection for steam trains in her debut film Thomas and the Magic Railroad. The live-action sequences - set in the rural idyll of Shining Time - contain some pretty shots of a restored locomotive, polished, fired up and charging along a stretch of railway as if on its maiden journey. And like the television series Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends, which Allcroft produced, the scenes depicting Thomas and his fellow locomotives are staged with models on what seems to be a vast toy train set. While there's a beguiling naivety to the model trains and surrounding landscape - the engines discharge ice-cream-white wisps of smoke; delicate bonsai-like trees line the diminutive railway - there's crudeness here, too. Given the level of CGI-fuelled sophistication at play in such films as Stuart Little, young audiences might be disappointed: the expressions on the faces of the trains, for instance, change only between cuts and their lips remain closed while delivering their lines. Gone too are the wonderfully onomatopoeic rhythms of Awdry's dialogue ("Pull harder, pull harder," the catty engine Gordon exhorts Thomas in one of Awdry's tales).
But Allcroft's biggest mistake is to portray Sodor as magical and distinct from a world that is recognisably real. In Awdry's stories, the idea the trains talked went unremarked by the passengers who travelled on them (in Thomas's Train, for instance, they even forgive Thomas for being late because he's upset). Here, the steam engines seem to exist in a parallel world. Not only are the connections between Sodor and Shining Time half-hatched - a horribly tortuous plot is a massive flaw in any film intended for easily distracted kids - Allcroft's script is drenched in saccharine sentiment. Hailing from this charmed, unreal place, Thomas is able to bring grieving grandfather Burnett out of his shell and teach everyone that "helping each other brings alive the magic in all of us." Allcroft also relies heavily on other-worldly occurrences to advance her story - a rabbit, for instance, leaves clues for Alec Baldwin's conductor on where to find more gold dust - but these soon feel less like flights of fancy than expedient plot devices. At one point, after being thrown high into the air and landing on conveniently placed bags of flour, Baldwin winks at the audience. "What a perfect landing," he says. This might be a game attempt to acknowledge the inherent nonsense on screen, but if so, it comes too late. Thomas and the Magic Railroad derails soon after the opening credits; the rest is an inglorious wreck of a movie.
Credits
- Director
- Britt Allcroft
- Producers
- Britt Allcroft
- Phil Fehrle
- Screenplay
- Britt Allcroft
- Created by
- Britt Allcroft
- Based on the Railway Series by
- The Rev. W. Awdry
- Director of Photography
- Paul Ryan
- Editor
- Ron Wisman
- Production Designer
- Oleg M. Savytski
- Music/Songs/Score Coinductor
- Hummie Mann
- Lyrics
- Don Black
- Sue Ennis
- Original 'Thomas' Music/Songs
- JNR Campbell
- Mike O'Donnell
- ©The Magic Railroad Company Limited
- Production Companies
- Destination Films and Gullane Pictures
- Barry London/Brent Baum present a Britt Allcroft film
- Presented in association with The Isle of Man Film Commission
- Executive Producers
- Steve Stabler
- Charles Falzon
- Nancy Chapelle
- Barry London
- Brent Baum
- John Bertoli
- Co-producer
- Mark Jacobson
- Associate Producer
- Shelley Elizabeth Skinner
- Production Co-ordinators
- Isle of Man:
- Lucy Ainsworth-Taylor
- Toronto Crew:
- Eric Beldowski
- Studio Manager
- Toronto Crew:
- Thomas 'Human' Street
- Production Manager
- Noella Nesdoly
- Unit Production Manager
- Pennsylvania Unit:
- Keith W. Strandberg
- Location Managers
- Isle of Man:
- James Cleary
- Toronto Crew:
- Ron Gwynne
- Post-production Supervisor
- Mary Ann Grainger
- Assistant Directors
- David Coombs
- Isle of Man:
- Sara MacDonald
- Thomas J.C. Pakenham
- Ben Wright
- Toronto Model Unit:
- Eric Banz
- Toronto GreenScreen/ 2nd Unit:
- Craig S. Wallace
- Toyah Zalik-Wallace
- Patrick Hagarty
- Pennsylvania:
- Ron Succarotte
- Shawn Flanagan
- Script Supervisors
- Isle of Man:
- Donna Croce
- Toronto Crew:
- Susan Walker
- Danielle Depeyre
- Pennsylvania Unit:
- Claire Cowperthwaite
- Casting
- Karen Margiotta
- Mary Margiotta
- Canada:
- Ross Clydesdale
- Juli-Ann Kay
- Loop Group Talent:
- Caldwell & Company
- Additional Photography
- Robbi Hinds
- Camera Operators
- Isle of Man:
- Andy Chmura
- Toronto GreenScreen/ 2nd Unit:
- Andy Chmura
- Perry Hoffmann
- Pennsylvania Unit:
- Martin Schaer
- George Winchell
- Steadicam Operator
- Pennsylvania Unit:
- Jim McConkey
- Special Visual Effects
- Bill Neil
- Visual Effects Director of Photography
- Robbi Hinds
- Visual Effects Producer
- Mike Chambers
- Digital Visual Effects
- Visual Effects Editor:
- Ron Wisman Jr
- Digital Matte Artist:
- Richard Kriegler
- Storyboard Artists:
- Greg Chown
- Ronald Hobb
- Ed Lee
- Bruce Simpson
- Visual Effects Drafting:
- Robert Hackborn
- Visual Effects
- C.O.R.E Digital Pictures
- Gajdecki Visual Effects
- Command Post/Toybox
- Topix Computer Graphics and Animation
- Digital Film Scanning/ Recording
- Cine-BYTE Imaging Inc
- Special Effects
- Isle of Man, Supervisor:
- Peter Hutchinson
- Toronto Crew:
- Laird FX
- Model Supervisor
- Steven Asquith
- Model Special Effects Supervisor
- David Eves
- Model Shop
- Toronto Model Unit:
- Gajdecki Visual Effects
- Model Unit Creative Consultant
- David Mitton
- Model Unit Director of Photography
- Terry Permane
- Mural Designer
- Isle of Man:
- Timothy Murton
- Isle of Man Sign Writer
- Eric Quirk
- Isle of Man Art Director
- Lucinda Zak
- Set Designer
- Toronto Crew:
- Gordon White
- Set Decorator
- Isle of Man:
- Cheryl Dorsey
- Associate Designer
- Toronto Crew:
- Charles Dunlop
- Set Decorator
- Toronto Crew:
- Caroline Gee
- Drafting
- Toronto Crew:
- Geraldine Gonis
- Mario Vecchi
- Scenic Artists
- Isle of Man:
- Timothy Murton
- Humphrey Bangham
- Key Scenic Artist
- Toronto Crew:
- Karin Bechtel-Staley
- Isle of Man Location Storyboard Artist
- Ray Consing
- Costume Designer
- Luis M. Sequeira
- Key Wardrobe
- Isle of Man:
- Janet Cavanagh
- Toronto GreenScreen/ 2nd Unit:
- Lisa Younger
- Key Make-up
- Isle of Man:
- Kathleen Graham
- Toronto GreenScreen/ 2nd Unit:
- Mary Sue Heron
- Make-up/Hair
- Pennsylvania Unit:
- Pamela Cozen
- Key Hairdressers
- Isle of Man:
- G.E. 'Freddie' Godden
- Toronto GreenScreen/ 2nd Unit:
- Susan Exton-Stranks
- Title Design
- Johanna Weinstein
- Main Title Animation
- Film Effects Inc
- Titles Digital Artist
- Bob Yoshioka
- Orchestrations
- Brad Dechter
- Frank Bennett
- Don Nemitz
- Ira Hearshen
- Music Editor
- Yuri Gorbachow
- Score Recordist/Mixer
- David Greene
- Music Consultant
- Jacquie Perryman
- Soundtrack
- "Really Useful Engine" - Steven Page; "Shining Time"- Neil Donnel, Maren Ord; "Some Things Never Leave You" - Joe Henry; "I Know How the Moon Must Feel" - Dayna Manning; "Summer Sunday" - Dominic Gibbeson, Dominic Goundar, Rob Jenkins, Gerard McLachan, Ben Wright; "Locomotion" - Atomic Kitten; "Working on the Railroad" & "Old MacDonald" - Neil Crone; "Thomas Theme Song"
- Choreographer
- Isle of Man:
- Christine Wild
- Sound Supervisor
- Nelson Ferreira
- Production Sound Mixers
- Isle of Man:
- Malcolm Davies
- Toronto GreenScreen/ 2nd Unit:
- Chaim Gilad
- Pennsylvania Unit:
- Chris Young
- Re-recording Engineers
- James Porteous
- Cory Mandel
- Andrew Roberts
- Animation Recordists
- Richard Calistan
- Paul Shubat
- Dialogue Editor
- Joe Bracciale
- Sound Effects Editors
- Andrew Bray
- Stephen Roque
- ADR
- Recordists:
- Bruce Fleming
- Bob Lacivita
- Tom Avitabile
- Jesse Hammer
- Foley
- Artist:
- John Sievert
- Engineer:
- Steven Copley
- Creative Consultants
- Neil Crone
- Kevin Frank
- Steam Railroad Consultant
- Pennsylvania Unit:
- Linn Moedinger
- Child Psychology Consultant
- Dr Ron Slaby
- Stunt Coordinators
- Toronto GreenScreen/ 2nd Unit:
- Dave van Zeyl
- Chris Lamon
- Isle of Man Dog Trainer
- Julie Tottman
- Isle of Man Horse Trainer
- Tony Smart
- Animal Trainrs
- Toronto GreenScreen/ 2nd Unit:
- Stacy Basil
- Dawn Barkan
- Brian Gibbs
- Birds and Animals Unlimited
- Cast
- Peter Fonda
- Grandpa Burnett Stone
- Mara Wilson
- Lily
- Alec Baldwin
- Mr Conductor
- Didi Conn
- Stacy
- Michael E. Rodgers
- Mr C. Junior
- Cody McMains
- Patch
- Russell Means
- Billy Twofeathers
- Jared Wall
- young Burnett Stone
- Laura Bower
- young Tasha
- Voice Cast
- Eddie Glen
- Thomas
- Neil Crone
- Diesel 10
- Colm Feore
- Toby
- Linda Ballantyne
- Percy
- Neil Crone
- Splatter
- Kevin Frank
- Dodge
- Susan Roman
- James
- Kevin Frank
- Henry
- Neil Crone
- Gordon
- Kevin Frank
- Bertie/Harold
- Shelley Elizabeth Skinner
- Annie/Clarabels
- Britt Allcroft
- Lady
- Certificate
- U
- Distributor
- Icon Film Distribution
- 7,717 feet
- 85 minutes 45 seconds
- Dolby Digital/DTS/SDDS
- Colour by
- DeLuxe