Thomas and the Magic Railroad (2000) (20th Anniversary Edition) - June 9, 2020

[Scottie]

[MifuneFan]

It's disturbing that there's a 20th Anniversary edition for a movie that came out in the year 2000.

[McCrutchy]

What is this from IMDb's Alternate Versions tab for the film?!:

[Show spoiler]These are the changes that were in the directors cut. A major character, 'Pete Tiberius Boomer' (short nickname as P.T. Boomer or Pete Boom), portrayed by Canadian actor Doug Lennox was originally portrayed as the main villain, but Boomer was deemed too frightening for younger children and therefore was entirely cut out from the film before its release. Because of P.T. Boomer's absence from the final film, the plot elements that had been driven by him went unexplained. P.T. Boomer is described in the original cut of the script as being "a drifter through choice" and was intended to be Burnett Stone's adversary, the real culprit responsible for why Lady went too fast and crashed, instead of Diesel 10 as altered in the final theatrical version. Jealous of the relationship that Burnett had with Tasha (Lily's grandmother), Boomer bullied Burnett into allowing him to take Lady for a run and crashing her as a form of revenge. After the accident, Boomer fled Indian Valley and Burnett spent years trying to restore her but,to no success. He returns now a good forty years later a bitter and dark character, hell-bent on completing his revenge by finding and destroying Lady for good.[3] When audiences complained about him being "too scary" (a weird claim when the secondary villain is literally a Diesel with a giant mechanical claw) he was cut out at the last minute, explaining the laziness of the movie's final cut and Diesel 10 was rewritten as the main villain. This cut was so close to the release, that one of the previews even contained Boomer briefly, falling off the viaduct along with Diesel 10. Coloring books contained references to him by name as well. Boomer was seen in the movie in the form of two cameos, part of his confrontation with Burnett is seen by a distance as Stacy and Lily arrive in their car. Audibly the scene is re-dubbed so that Burnett is giving directions to a lost biker. The biker clad in an overcoat presents a dark contrast and appears somewhat menacing. Boomer is also visible on the back of Diesel 10's cab during the chase scene toward the end (the original ending had Boomer land on the back of Diesel 10 through the magic buffers). 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. The movie scenes with these cuts were either edited out or altered. In addition, the test audience made the response that Means' role was hard to understand, Britt Allcroft found this shocking as he hardly was, and he "spoke with the voice of his history".[4] Thomas and the Magic Railroad - Original UK Trailer (1999) Thomas and the Magic Railroad - Original UK Trailer (1999) VHS trailer for the film, containing original voices. Various theatrical and home media trailers of the movie had depicted characters with voices largely differing from their voices in the original cuts. During Production, it was widely publicized online that an Isle of Mann cab driver and Volunteer Firefighter named John Bellis was to be the voice of Thomas. Having only heard him utter a meager few words, Britt knew that John was the right man to voice Thomas himself, turning to tell her colleagues "I have just heard the voice of Thomas. The man is exactly how Thomas would sound!" A few days later, she offered John the role, and he accepted.[5] Despite being flown out to Toronto record all of Thomas' dialogue, American test audiences however thought Bellis' voice made Thomas sound too old and thus John Bellis was canned. Thomas' voice was performed in the final cut by Canadian voice actor Eddie Glenn. Bellis was apparently disappointed by this, and to the point where he refuses to really discuss the matter with fans who have contacted him to ask him about it. The same trailers depicted Diesel 10 with a gruff English upper class accent, as opposed to the New Jersey accent he had in the theatrical release. Sodor Island Forums ended up digging up the information that Diesel 10 was originally voiced by Australian voice actor Keith Scott. But this voice was deemed too frightening by the American test audiences. Canadian actor Neil Crone was then brought in to do the voice of Diesel 10, where he gave him a Russian accent. This too would fall in the hands when the audiences made the wild claim that it would somehow be "offensive" and Crone revised his voice to a New Jersey accent. Britt Allcroft revealed that the original voice intended for James and Percy was Michael Angelis, narrator for the UK series from 1991-2012. English actor Patrick Breen originally also provided the voices for Dodge and Splatter. Both of them were canned by the test audiences, with Angelis replaced for the same reason as Bellis. Susan Roman and Linda Ballantyne replaced Angelis as James and Percy respectively, whilst Neil Crone and Kevin Frank replaced Breen. What was also revealed is that Lily, 20 years later, was originally meant to be the narrator, as opposed to Mr. Conductor (Alec Baldwin) in the final cut. The whole movie was meant to be told by an Adult Lily and Patch (played by Robert Tinkler) to their child, and Baldwin was likely put in as the narrator since he was narrating the US dub of the television series at the time. A scene toward the end shows the family in a panning shot of the Pennsylvania fields. The movie also contained several flashback scenes of Young Burnett (Jared Wall) and Tasha (Laura Bower) which ended up being cut due to some involving P.T. Boomer, such as the dance they have. The scenes are only audibly heard in the movie through Burnett's imagination.

If Shout! can get some sort of alternate cut of this film from Sony, that would be wild to see.

[Dailyan]

Originally Posted by MifuneFan

It's disturbing that there's a 20th Anniversary edition for a movie that came out in the year 2000.

Makes me feel old.

Originally Posted by McCrutchy

If Shout! can get some sort of alternate cut of this film from Sony, that would be wild to see.

Apparently, some fan(s) managed to obtain a workprint (sourced from tape) and I believe they inquired about working with Shout to do an official release years ago.

[akaun6899]

I thought this was an okay movie, but knowing the changes made to the final cut, if the original villain were reinstated as a bonus feature, I might pick this up to check it out. Also gives me hope for Elmo in Grouchland; Frankly, I expected a Mill Creek double feature of both.

[Monterey Jack]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqshPFQex_A

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0M6WUeUWAEc

[WaltWiz1901]

Well, well, well! This was quite a surprise.

Bring on more "model series era" Thomas the Tank Engine on Blu-ray! (I'm not sure if series/seasons 1-11 can be properly converted to studio standard progressive HD since they were shot in 25p/i (UK TV/PAL standard), but it'd be interesting to see if complete series/season US Blu-rays of those series/seasons are feasible)

Originally Posted by Dailyan

Apparently, some fan(s) managed to obtain a workprint (sourced from tape) and I believe they inquired about working with Shout to do an official release years ago.

Hmm...how is Shout! going to handle the workprint source (if it was indeed sourced from videotape)?

[GenPion]

I grew up on Thomas but for some reason I never saw the film.

[MisterSheep]

Originally Posted by WaltWiz1901

Well, well, well! This was quite a surprise.

Bring on more "model series era" Thomas the Tank Engine on Blu-ray! (I'm not sure if series/seasons 1-11 can be properly converted to studio standard progressive HD since they were shot in 25p/i (UK TV/PAL standard), but it'd be interesting to see if complete series/season US Blu-rays of those series/seasons are feasible)

Hmm...how is Shout! going to handle the workprint source (if it was indeed sourced from videotape)?

We don't know for sure if Shout is going to source stuff from the workprint, but we can only hope. They have sourced deleted scenes from a MST3K: The Movie workprint previously, and that was on videotape. Although, it didn't turn out in very good quality. Plus, we don't know for sure if Sony or Mattel even gave them a workprint to use, so this is just wishful thinking until its release.

I'm not going to lie here, even though this movie isn't great, it's still a guilty pleasure of mine since it was a big part of my childhood. I'm getting this on day 1!

Also, unless they can find the original 35mm negatives, I wouldn't count on the Thomas series being released on Blu-ray. There's just not much point of releasing something to Blu-ray that was primarily mastered on tape.

[GeoffOliver]

Might get this for my nephew.

[PegasusKenshiro]

Only in on it if it has the extended cut.
LETS DO THIS SHOUT.

[Dailyan]

Originally Posted by WaltWiz1901

Hmm...how is Shout! going to handle the workprint source (if it was indeed sourced from videotape)?

The biggest issue is that the workprint is filled with temp tracks from other films. Though, supposedly, fans had contact with a sound person, that worked on the film, who had access to raw elements. This was years ago.

Originally Posted by MisterSheep

Also, unless they can find the original 35mm negatives, I wouldn't count on the Thomas series being released on Blu-ray. There's just not much point of releasing something to Blu-ray that was primarily mastered on tape.

The shot-on-film seasons were remastered from original film elements years ago (though, unfortunately, episodes can use alternate takes for certain shots).

[starman15317]

Originally Posted by MifuneFan

It's disturbing that there's a 20th Anniversary edition for a movie that came out in the year 2000.

Even more disturbing is knowing that I saw this in theaters as a kid and now I'm almost 25.

[GeoffOliver]

They should totally get Mara Wilson for a new interview. This was her last film before retiring, so I’m sure it would be interesting.

[Mikezilla3k]

Originally Posted by WaltWiz1901

Bring on more "model series era" Thomas the Tank Engine on Blu-ray! (I'm not sure if series/seasons 1-11 can be properly converted to studio standard progressive HD since they were shot in 25p/i (UK TV/PAL standard), but it'd be interesting to see if complete series/season US Blu-rays of those series/seasons are feasible)

Or at least SD on BD releases with all the different narrations.

[rdodolak]

[Nailwraps]

This is such FANTASTIC news!!!

If they manage to include both cute I'll buy it!


Incidentally we also need new releases of the classic series on home video (with all narration options).

[SpaceBlackKnight]

This was quite the left field announcement. I assumed it would've ended up with Mill Creek given their Sony deal.

I doubt Sony would allow them to use the recently discovered workprint, since they won't allow outside entities to perform new transfers of their catalog titles. Stranger things have happened, but don't be surprised if the final specs end only being a new interview and a trailer.

[Ryan Salter]

As a huge Thomas the Tank Engine fan as a little kid, seeing this movie in theaters 20 years ago was a huge event for me. Despite it not doing well, I still enjoyed it and look back at that time with fondness.
If this Blu-ray release includes Britt Allcroft's original version, I would definitely check it out.

[MisterSheep]

I've been told by someone on Twitter that this disc contains "very special stuff." He's a very reputable figure so I'm gonna take his word for it. What exactly that implies I'm not sure of. The original Britt Allcroft version would be amazing to have, but I'm not sure if they're willing to put that much effort into this release. They might do a "Deleted Scenes" thing, but the original version was more than just scenes cut out, bc it had cast changes and scene differences, etc. I wouldn't count on them putting the full version of the Director's Cut on the Blu tbh. If they even get it at all, I think it'll just be limited to a deleted scenes bit. But even then, that may be wishful thinking considering how cagey Mattel has been with the model series over the last five or so years.