By Nathan Teitelbaum
Thomas and the Magic Railroad is a film, that’s all I can really say about it. The release version is overall hard to follow and plot holes just form themselves. Alec Baldwin, who previously narrated the fifth season of Thomas and Friends, plays Mr. Conductor. The film does not center around Thomas but is instead a journey of Mr. Conductor trying to refuel his Gold Dust as he is running low and if he doesn’t get the Gold Dust back then Shining Time station will be hit by a thousand nukes because it’s lost its magic or something. Meanwhile in shining time Peter Fonda’s character Burnett Stone has an enormous amount of guilt as well as the magic engine (Lady) that can give Mr. Conductor the Gold Dust he needs but Burnett is absolutely clueless and doesn’t want to believe in magic anymore. Mara Wilson's character Lily is from the big city going to visit her grandfather Burnett, she has the express intent to get Burnett to believe in magic again. The stakes are high in this film but the director Britt Alcroft wanted this film to be way darker in tone more in line with engines talking about scrap in the show. So get your train tickets punched because this is a wild ride of cut characters, storylines, and how one flop of a movie would change Thomas & Friends forever.
Part 1: Early Production
Early scripts for this film date back to 1997 and that is when the film was slated for a theatrical release until it got pushed back. In early versions of the script the film opens with a scrapbook and is narrated by an older version of Mara Wilson’s character Lily. Early versions of the script explain that Diesel 10 came back to Sodor to get rid of all the buffers so all the steam engines would crash and that diesels would become the superior form of train. This would all come to a halt when Diesel 10 and his small group of other diesels would learn of “Magic buffers” which would take Diesel 10 to the human world. Meanwhile, in the Human world Burnett Stone is struggling with guilt of losing both his wife and the train in his workshop. Another character named PT Boomer wants to purchase Shining Time Station and really does not like Burnett so he would also plan to demolish his mountain as well as Lady.. Mr. Conductor is still a part of this film and is still losing his Gold Dust and needs it or Shining Time will be bought out by Boomer. In early scripts the island is being renovated but in the release version the island is “losing its magic” as a way to explain why there is scaffolding at the train sheds. Britt Allcroft was given a budget of 19 million to make this script become reality.
Part 2: The Test Screenings
This was a massive turning point from the film becoming watchable to the film becoming what we have today. We don’t know when these screenings took place but we do know how late these changes were made considering that trailers still had clips with PT Boomer. In the original cut, Michael Angelis was supposed to voice act for both Percy and James, but the test audience found them to sound “too old” so they were both voiced by Linda Ballantyne and Susan Roman respectively in the final cut. The same happened to Thomas’ original voice actor John Bellis and Diesel 10’s actor Keith Scott, Eddie Glenn would voice Thomas and Neil Crone would replace Diesel 10. Thomas was changed because test audiences said he sounded “too old” and Diesel 10 because he sounded “too scary”. Because PT Boomer’s character was cut so late, the edits weren't done that well. In the original cut of the film, PT Boomer Bullied Burnett Stone as a kid to let him drive Lady (the magic engine that Mr. Conductor’s family trusted Burnett with (it’s really convoluted)) and Boomer drove her too fast and she crashed. In the final cut Burnett drove Lady too fast while being chased by Diesel 10 and Burnett crashed her. This is a massive plot hole that never explains why Diesel 10 didn't just scrap Lady right then and there. Another scene occurs when Lily is being taken to Burnett. There is a man on a motorcycle apparently talking to Burnett, that was PT Boomer. Fast forwarding a bit, in the climactic chase scene around the end of the film there is a figure on top of Diesel 10 that can be seen in some shots, that was PT Boomer.
Part 3: The Release and Post Filming
Thomas and the Magic Railroad would be released in the year 2000 and would flop. The film had a budget of 19 million but only grossed 19.7 million worldwide. Unfortunately after this Britt Allcroft, who had all the rights to make Thomas media since the eighties, had to sell Thomas rights to HIT entertainment after this film. The main complaint critics had was that this film was very hard to follow and was very confusing. The film has a 4.1/10 on IMDB and a 42% audience score as well as a 21% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes. Before filming, the TV models for Arry and Bert were painted for the characters Splatter and Dodge, after filming they would be repainted back to Arry and Bert. Diesel 10’s model after filming was kept and used for the 2005 special “Calling All Engines” and made a cameo in the 2008 special “The Great Discovery” as an extra. After the show switched from models to CGI in 2009 Diesel 10’s model was used for reference as he was to be a main character in the 2012 special “Day of the Diesels”. Lady’s model was kept and used for the 2005 special “Calling all Engines” but that was her last appearance.
Part 4: Discovery and the Hunt
In my article about alternate movie cuts I got a couple of things wrong. Interest for the alternate cut came when an early script leaked online in the late 2000’s and an interview with Britt Allcroft by a Thomas forum in 2007. On top of that there was an even earlier leak of the final chase scene with PT Boomer in 2009 posted on YouTube with the Dark City score blaring over the footage (the superior way to view the final chase scene). The hunt for the Allcroft cut would make some groundbreaking moves finding clips from the Japanese trailer for the movie, the BBC archive and even film students whose teachers had worked on the film. In December of 2015, the final chase scene would be uploaded to YouTube without the Dark City score. Finally in December of 2019 the Workprint was leaked online causing almost a rift in morality after the director herself said how she did not want the unfinished workprint to be leaked. In 2020 some scenes from the workprint would be put on the 20th anniversary Blu-Ray, but this release is not a director’s cut.
Part 5: Conclusion
In conclusion, this film’s history is way more of a ride than the film itself. I would rather watch a documentary about Thomas and the Magic Railroad than Thomas and the Magic Railroad. There were plans for a sequel to this film that were canceled because this film flopped pretty hard. In a way, this film is one of the biggest examples of why keeping a director’s vision is important. This film wouldn’t be a marvel to the industry but it would’ve been at least watchable. My final words about this film are that the ball and bat scene should be studied in film classes for the foreseeable future.
Comments