Thomas And The Magic Railroad Film Review

There are some things that just shouldn't happen when it comes to kids media and one of them is taking the quite essentially British property of Thomas The Tank Engine Friends and making an American film out of it. With the film that i'm going to be talking to you all about today being a good example of what you happens you Americanize this British character and so then join me as I review the film that has one actor overacting and another actor under acting with the film in question being called simply just "Thomas And The Magic Railroad" enjoy.

The plot of this film is when an evil Diesel returns to the Island of Sodor hell bent on destroying a mythical lost engine it's up to Thomas and his friends to stop him before it's far to late. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty not that bad however tho this films plot really isn't all that good as it feels like what an American thinks a Thomas movie should be like instead of what it actually should be as while yes this films plot is suitably epic enough to be the plot of a movie that's also the problem tho as these characters work the best when there telling more simpler stories with that being the kind of approach that should have been taken with this film as then it would allow for the characters to be more true to who they are in the show and not feel oddly toned down due to the fact that the films plot demand that they act a certain way and while this films plot is a pretty strong plot it's also one that isn't focused on all that much with the plot of this film dividing it's time between this plot and two other plots which for a Thomas film does feel over crowded even if two of them are connected and the third one only connects during the films third act where is the film just focused on telling the one story and in making that plot as strong as it possibly could have been then the plot of this film would have ended up being all the more better because of it with the plot of this film also being really rather entertaining and as well as being really rather engaging as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.

Starring in this film is Eddie Glen as Thomas , Linda Ballantyne as Percy , Susan Roman as James and Colm Feore as Toby. Also starring in this film is this films writer , producer and director Britt Allcroft as Lady , Shelley-Elizabeth Skinner as Annie and Clarabel , Kevin Frank as Henry , Dodge , Bertie and Herold , Neil Crone as Gordon , Diesel 10 , Splatter and A tumbleweed , Peter Fonda as Burnett Stone , Mara Wilson as Lily Stone , Michael E. Rodgers as Mr. C. Junior , Cody McMains as Patch , Didi Conn as Stacy Jones , Russell Means as Billy Twofeathers and Alec Baldwin as Mr. Conductor.

Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about thew actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty alot more better then what it really had any right to be. As be all rights this films acting should have been really bad and when it comes to certain members of the live action actors it is but when it comes to this films voice actors they really do a really good job of playing their respective characters even if Susan Roman and Linda Ballantyne are miscast just because of the fact that there characters do sound like women whereas they already had a good choice for both characters in the films original cut in UK narrator Michael Angelis but was replaced as both characters for whatever reason and when the film comes to it's live action actors even tho he does turn in a fairly solid performance in this film Peter Fonda is oddly enough overacting as this is a Thomas The Tank Engine movie and therefor it's not something that requires really dramatic but on the flip side of that is the fact that Alec Baldwin is underacting by barely giving a performance in this film with the films best actor oddly enough being Mara Wilson who treats it seriously enough for a Thomas but also isn't turning a bad performance because of the fact that it's a Thomas movie with the acting that's really in this film not really being helped by the fact that this films script is just so bad as it gives none of this films actors absolutely nothing to work with interms of what it is that there actual characters personalities are even meant to be in the first place which is something that really does harm the overall quality of the acting that's in this very film. 

Much like with a Godzilla movie where you don't go to see the human characters you go to see Godzilla and therefor the human characters are never that interesting the same thing is also true for this film as well. With none of this films human characters being all that interesting which in this case is to be expected as your not going into this movie wanting to see the human characters your going to see the Thomas and characters and that's really it therefor whilst it would have been nice if the human characters were interesting and well written they really didn't need to be as the only characters that the films target audience are not only going to know but also love are the Thomas but here's the thing tho even those characters aren't written all that well with them all being written as being more dumber then what they were in the show and just to be clear the show or at the least the very early seasons of the show actually wrote them more like adults who just so happened to get involved in these childlike situations whereas in the later seasons of the show they did start to become more like kids which s something that didn't even work in the show and here in this movie it feels out of place as these characters wouldn't talk and act kids that's just not who they are but they would instead try and talk like how an adult would talk and that's it and yet the makers of this film dumbed them down for no good reason other then to maybe please the American's which if that is the case that still wouldn't work as the target audience in America would have still seen the shows original episodes and would therefor no when a character isn't acting or talking like themselves in this film.

Speaking of the Americans for some weird reason this films writer , producer and director Brill Allcroft thought that it was a good idea to include characters that the shows main fanbase in the UK wouldn't be aware of. As we never got Shining Time Station here in the UK we just got the original Thomas The Engine And Friends and that's really it and therefor it does seem odd that she would go out of her way to exclude the franchises biggest fanbase all because of the fact that she wanted to include those characters and yet all this does is make us in he UK confused as we have no idea who this Mr. Conductor character is so why should we care about him in this film with the same thing being true for the rest of the Shining Time Station characters as well with this being a case where the makers of this film really should have just tried to appease the UK fanbase alot more then the American one as without us there would be know Thomas The Tank Engine And Friends due to the fact that the whole thing books and all was started over here in the UK with Thomas himself being a kids British icon and yet by having these characters that the British won't be aware of and changing all of the voices because of what parents were saying about them it makes Thomas feel like that he's become Americanized in this film as even the plot of the film whilst it is a solid enough plot for a Thomas film also doesn't like that it works with these characters and with this franchise as the Thomas franchise works best with more simpler storylines and that is something that American audience just can't wrap their heads around as all of there kids films need to have these epic plots when sometimes just being simple is more then enough to get the job done.

While it would be easy to talk about all of the changes that were made to this film including cutting out a villain called P.T. Boomer and changing alot of the voices several times over. The fact is none of those changes effect the final cut of the film but what does is the fact that in this film Thomas himself oddly feels like he's being forced into scenes just to remind people that he's a main character in the movie as while the film does rightfully start with him alot of the time the scene could be involving different characters and then it would just have Thomas show up for no reason other then to cheer up any engine that wanted it instead of actually trying to run the railway which is another issue with the film as for all the talk that the engines give about being really useful none of them spend alot of time in trying to do their jobs with them being preoccupied with trying to deal with Diesel 10 with the only times that any of them are actually seen doing there jobs it's to make Diesel 10 look foolish and that's really it all of which makes you wonder what The Fat Controller would have thought about them basically slacking off as he did for some reason know that Diesel 10 was back and yet he chose not to do anything other then tell Mr. Conductor to watch out for him and to keep him in line until he got back and that's really it which makes him look like a bad boss in the first place with these issues and more being something that could have been fixed if the makers of this film actually showed the engines doing their jobs instead of just hinting at it as then we would get a sense of what life is like on Sodor and not just have it be told to us through badly done narration.

Out of all changes that the parents forced upon the makers of this film making Diesel 10 a less scary villain is one of the worst ones. Just due to the fact that he's the main villain of the film and he is therefor meant to be scary and while he is still quite threatening in this film as we do get to see him threaten several people with his pincher including grabbing Mr. Conductor and holding him high about the viaduct just to question him about this mythical engine the film does hold him back tho by openly showing the engines during the amin part of the film getting there payback on him by making him look foolish which was no doubt done as a way to make him less scary when the makers of this film should have stuck to there guns with this character as he has all of the potential in the world to be a really good kids villain and yet by making him more of a comic relief type of villain it oddly hurts him as a character as now nobody can take his scheme to find and destroy the mythical lost engine Lady all that seriously due to the fact that we've seen be involved in several comedic moments all throughout the film where as if the makers of this film say gave him this more sarcastic sense of humor and kept the engines getting their revenge on him until the very end of the film and only showing him terrorizing them in his way then it would have made him a more hateable villain and while his scheme of wanting to destroy this mythical lost engine does suit his character it's not something that's that well developed as we don't get to find out why he wants to do it in the first place and he therefor just comes across as being evil and hating all steam engines just for the sake of it.

Now then this film has / had an exact grand total running time of exactly one hour and twenty five minuets and fifty four seconds. Which to be fair to this film is exactly the exact grand total running time that you'd expect this film to have and to be fair to this film this film really does have more then enough plot there to really cover that amount of running time however tho this film really doesn't use it's running time all that wisely as the plot of the film isn't at well developed and really can't be that well developed due to the fact that the film doesn't really focus on it enough as alot of the film is spent with Mr. Conductor looking for some more gold dust and not on the main plot of the film which does have the adverse effect of making Thomas feel more like a side character in not only his own film but also in a film that is quite literally named after him with even all of the films characters both human and not not really getting that much in terms of character development and while it could be argued that the trains don't need there character development due to them being in more episodes of the show which would be a fair point but in saying that that would then make the makers of this film lazy as they couldn't be bothered to give any of the Thomas characters even the smallest amount of character development and yet they somehow managed to give Peter Fonda some character development when his character really didn't need any due to him not playing that big of a role in the films main plot where as characters like Thomas , Lily , Mr. Conductor and Mr. C. Junior for example all really did some character development in order to make there characters work but I really will admit that this film really does have some really good pacing to it tho.

So now then as this is a comedy that really does mean that I have to actually talk about the actual comedy that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual comedy that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty OK at best. As while this film does have alot of really cute jokes in it like the engines getting revenge of Diesel 10 by dumping coal all over him is a really cute jokes and is something that these characters can and have done in various episodes of the show that's really the only decent joke in the film as we do have Mr. Conductor trying to be funny in one scene and his cousin Mr. C Junior trying to be just as funny the issue is tho is that neither character are given funny things to say or do with the only funny things that they get to do are things that only a child would find funny which is something that does make sense as this film is made for little kids but at the same time tho both the shows and The Railway Series books had jokes that were for both adults and kids alike altho skewing a little bit more in the kids favor with it feeling like that the makers of this film where focusing on giving the kid audience more of the jokes then anything for the adults when the split should have been more fifty fifty with the best joke in this film being the one that was already mentioned that being the scene where the engines get there revenge of Diesel 10 by dumping coal on him as that's the only scene where the engines feel like there selves and because of that that jokes does come of as being a really cute joke with the rest of the films jokes being just as cute as what that one was in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. 

Overall while there are other and quite frankly better Thomas movies out there both in the shows model era and not this one is so far the franchises best theatrically released film which really isn't saying all that much as it's the only theatrically released Thomas film it's still a film that's quite frankly not that good as it does Americanize something that should have stayed very firmly British in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now then i've talked about all of the good and as well as all of the bad things that are in this very film in this very review and a such that really does mean that this very film really does earn itself a grand old score of exactly a 5 out of 10 from me.

Now then as for where I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review well then boys and girls and as well as ladies and gentlemen I personally got all of the im ages that I personally used in this very review from the official Thomas The Tank Engine fandom wiki age and Google Images. With my personally preferred website to use to get images really from this very film being the really great Google Images this is really because of the fact that really all of the images that I really indeed got and really used from Google Images are all really high quality really with all of the images that really are all and of course really currently up and on the really great and the really solid Google Images really are all being really fairly high in quality and as well as them all really being fairly high in definition.