Never in many a day have I ever seen a film so pitful, so awful, so gut bustingly bad, you would want to smash your TV up in anger and the sight of the dreadful thing.That thing is Thomas & The Ma *Coughcough*, sorry about that, I seem to have drank the wrong bottle of Cola. Ahh yes, Thomas & The Tragic Failroad.This should in no way under any circumstances be considered a film, instead it should be called a 90 minute patience test that would even make an avid fan of the franchise go bananas.Is there anything good though? Well yes there sort of is, Hummie Mann's score was good for the most part and I liked the voice acting. Some were good (like Neil Crone as Thomas), some were painfully miscast (Susan Roman as James).Still at least the voice actors put on better performances than any of the miserable, lifeless, so called human actors this film has to offer.These are not actors, these are dead lifeless vessels we're staring at.The one that really takes the cake is Peter Fonda, who is so awful in this film it's not even fun to watch.He looks and sounds so bored and his line delivery is so stilted, you'll be thinking he got drunk.How he didn't get a Razzie I'll never know? I know mate, those glory days of Easy Rider are way behind ya pal.Alec Baldwin's irritating as Mr Conductor and only Mara Wilson (in her sad final role) seems to be doing better but it's still not saying much.On the other hand, the villain Diesel 10 is crap, not menacing in the slightest, he's about as scary as a cute plush bear at a toy store. He and his useless comedy sidekicks are just here to be your typical clichéd Hollywood villains who laugh... a lot.Newcomer Lady is quite frankly dull as incredibly soggy dishwater, she's hardly in the film and when she does appear she STILL does nowt for most of her screen time! Talk about a useless pile of scrap if I've seen one.Plot's an old of cobbles too and the dialogue is so cringe worthy, it's not even funny. It's just depressing to listen to.It's so awful the train's mouths don't even move. It's like it's god damn ventriloquism! So crappy plot, useless villain, useless new character, lifeless performances all around (except for the voice cast) and ear bleedingly bad dialogue. Yep, another film to add in my bad books.I just love how everyone says that this should have gone straight-to-video.Nah guys, you're putting it way too mildly there. Straight-to-the nearest bin-where-it-should-never be seen again is a far more better option.No wonder Britt Allcroft buggered off after the film died at the box office.Now off to the scrapyard you go so I can never remember this film again.It's certainly caused a lot of *Snigger* confusion and delay.The Fat Controller certainly wouldn't approve. At least he ain't in it though.

Thomas the Tank Engine is a precious memory that many young adults and older parents hold dear to their youthful days. Either if it was narrated by Beatles' drummer, Ringo Starr in the U.K. version, or by comedian, George Carlin in the American version, the show was, and still continues to be a wide success among aging toddlers. So it is of no surprise that at the beginning of the 21rst century that the cheeky steam engine was given a theatrically released film. Sadly, Not many people have found it appealing; however, I am one of those few people who actually did.Shocking to me, I don't understand why so many people hate this movie. Yes there are a couple of areas that were not perfect before the filming began, but don't all great projects have their setbacks. And really, there are only a couple issues. But I'm going to forgive it because this film should not be trashed for such small errors. The movie is also partially narrated Mr. Conductor, Alec Baldwin, the third most recognized conductor to tell of Thomas' adventures from the TV show.The problem is that Mr. Conductor starts losing the magic in his gold dust and he must find it quickly. The gold dust is what keeps him from traveling between his world and the Island of Sodor (Thomas' world). And the only people who can help him uncover this secret is a girl and her grandfather. The little girl, Lily is played by the no more in showbizz actress Mara Wilson. Her grandfather, Burnett is played by veteran actor Peter Fonda. And let's not forget that Mr. Conductor has a relative, Jr. (Michael E. Rogers), who joins the crew as well. Even Didi Conn from the original Shining Time Station (1989) TV show, which aired the Thomas and Friends adventures, reprised her role for this movie.There are other actors like Russell Means who doesn't have a big role but do add to the nostalgia of the film. What ticks people off about this film is the acting and characterization. And that's just the human part of the film. I didn't find it out of place at all. Baldwin is considered to be at his worst but I found him fairly entertaining. Fonda is bashed for being to down in the dumps, but I found his performance quite emotional because some people become depressed when losing a family member; it happens. I sympathized with him.Lily and Jr. were thought to be of no importance to the story at hand either. But to me, I found Lily a character that children could connect to. And Jr. may not have been the most convincing character but he did have a number of funny moments. The other thing viewers and professional critics alike did not enjoy were the trains themselves. Apparently audience wanted to see moving mouths. But why do that? The TV show wasn't like that. Why would you want to change something that's classic to bad? Ever hear of "If it ain't broke don't fix it"? It's good that they kept it that way, otherwise it probably would have done worse. Of course, NOW the new series of Thomas and Friends have moving mouths so I hope all of you mopes are happy.The reason why the mouths did not move was that Britt Allcroft, who also happened to be the director of the popular TV show, also directed this movie. I mean, what more could a fan ask for? I give credit to Allcroft, I believe she put in the most effort into making this film as good as it was. She even provided a voice to one of the trains. Speaking of which, this is the last thing people were not happy with; one of the Thomas' friends does not show in this film because his physical train model was not available and the trains all have different voices instead being narrated by Mr. Conductor. Guess what? Not everything's perfect.Actually, the voice actors do a swell job being the trains. Edward Glen as Thomas was a good match. His voice didn't sound too old or too young. Neil Crone as Diesel 10 was a good match too. In fact, Crone's voice made Diesel a very comical villain. Kudos to them! And the film score by composer Hummie Mann was done brilliantly. Mann is able to combine all the right tones with each scene and it even includes The Shining Time theme song in his tracks as a reoccurring theme. It helps the movie a lot.As the only theatrically released film of Thomas the Tank Engine, it should be respected for its good performances and storyline. The characters a very likable and the music excels it to the max.

this film is now 12 years old and was a excellence to the railway it marked the end of the series as now they are remakes of the old but what i have to say is the violence used in this film such as diesel 10 who has a claw and try's to destroy Thomas and lady voiced by Eddie Glenn and Britt all croft and nil crone my family adores this wonderful film my favourite trains are splatter and dodge for there silliness in this film making your family love it as well i'm sad to say that Alec Baldwin failed in this wonderful film.the most best part of the film is at the end when lady and Thomas are being chased by diesel 10. during this wonderful film funny scenes are involved with spatter and dodge like how to stop being stupid but sadly we probably will never see them again because on Thomas wiki it says no one knows what happened to them this movie is a must see

HiYes most of you are correct, the story is cheesy, without much substance and not much like the English cartoon - However - this is a kids film! My little boy is actually sat there now in awe of it, most of the kids this film is aimed at probably don't really understand the plot anyway all they see are trains, little people and gold dust!So what if a lot of the engines have an American accent, I'm sure children don't really care - I don't!What a great cast, Alec Baldwin, Frenchie from Grease and the girl from Matilda, I'm sure thats enough for the adults and if its not, go on your laptop/do some cleaning while your little one sits down peacefully (which hardly ever happens) and watches this film in wonder.Great film for kids under 8.Tez