Thomas And The Magic Railroad was one of my childhood favorites. I was a huge fan of Thomas The Tank Engine back in the day. I owned a bunch of the videos and toys. I remember one day thirteen years ago my Mom brought home this movie from the library and I was instantly intrigued by real humans on the cover with Thomas. I watched it and I loved it. Later on, I got it for Christmas and I've watched it countless times since. My family may have suffered a bit. Now that I'm older I can understand that it's not a very good movie, but there is definitely some good things about it. The scenes with the engines are magical, the soundtrack is great, the set designs for Sodor are really well done. This movie definitely has flaws though. It's way too Americanized, the acting is not the best, the voice acting is okay but nobody seems to own their role, but the two biggest crimes this movie commits are the film focuses way too much on the humans and not the engines and they left one of the most important characters Edward out of the movie. I want to see humans in this movie, but the amount of screen time given to them and the amount of screen time given to the engines should be reversed. And making a Thomas The Tank Engine movie without Edward is wrong! Edward was an important character and he should have been included in this movie! Not including him is like making an Arthur movie without Buster Baxter, or a Muppet movie without Fozzie Bear, or a Sesame Street movie without Oscar the Grouch. My point is it doesn't work and there's no excuse for not including him. Speaking of not including, this movie only includes the main engines from the show (save for Edward of course) plus Bertie, the four new engines, and two background characters. Come on, this is a Thomas The Tank Engine movie! Throw in, Duck, Oliver, Toad, Donald and Douglas, Diesel, and the Little Engines! Stop focusing so much on the humans and make the engines your main focus! One complaint this movie gets that I don't agree with at all is that the engines mouths don't move. Who cares!? Their mouths didn't move on the tv show! They did eventually but that was when the show became CGI animated and sucked. In regards to the acting performances, Alec Baldwin is over the top as Mr. Conducter. He plays his character like Mr. Rogers, Willy Wonka, and Nicolas Cage all in one person. It's not very good but he's at least entertaining. I do feel like the role could have benefited from being played by Robin Williams, Jim Carrey, or Will Ferrell. Peter Fonda's performance is nothing like Baldwin's. Peter Fonda is playing his role like he's in some sort of depressing Oscar winning drama. It's not bad, but this is Thomas The Tank Engine not Titanic. Mara Wilson is cute in this movie but at this point she wasn't the freaking adorable little girl she was in Mrs. Doubtfire. If this movie could have stayed true to it's British origins and waited several years to be made they could have cast Georgie Henley from Narnia in the role of Lily. That would have been better! People talk about how the movie would have been so much better if they didn't cut out the main villain. Sure it would have been better but I still don't think it would be an acclaimed masterpiece. Despite this movie's flaws I don't hate it. I don't think it's good but I loved it as a child and it still has a special place in my heart. I wouldn't mind collecting it on VHS and watching it occasionally. This movie gets 2.5 stars and a C+. If I wasn't a Thomas The Tank Engine fan it would most likely get a lower rating and if this was 13 years ago I would rank this up there with Forrest Gump.

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

OK, so it's not THAT bad. I mean, young kids seriously DON'T CARE about bland acting, which there is A LOT of. Here are some reasons to ONLY WATCH THIS WITH YOUR CHILD if they FORCE YOU TO STAY AND WATCH IT WITH THEM. 1. So at the beginning it's showing everyone at Shining Time, then the conductor shows up IN A PLANT? Like what the heck? 2. Pinchy. Really. Pinchy. 3. Patch's acting is bad. His words, if you know what I mean, feel really broken up. 4. There are a lot of unnecessary scenes, such as when Stacy finds Burnett's old picture he drew, which has nothing to do with the actual story. 5. Peter Fonda was TERRIBLE in this, I am not kidding. At one point he says," Lily. I'm so glad to see you." He should say," Lily! I'm so glad to see you!" But he says it in a really deep voice, like he's thinking," Ugh, she's here. I'll just be nice anyway and hope she doesn't notice I don't want her here." Trust me, if this were real life, she would have noticed. 6. Oh. My. God. When the conductor is all like," Sparkle, sparkle, sparkle!" It is so annoying! 7. Lily has some kind of obsession with climbing things, and it's kinda creepy. 8. Lily's smile is some kind of fake mouth-hanging-open smile thing. Also, ironically, this was the last thing she ever acted in, so either she decided she didn't like acting, which I'd be surprised about after Matilda, or this movie TOTALLY messed up her WHOLE career. 9. Junior is to dumb to be a human, he's like," OK, I'll just use up my cousin's last possible supply of gold dust he might EVER have for the rest of his life. Whateves." 10. Why does Lily have a stuffed animal bluebird? 11. There are a lot of corny jokes throughout. 12. Who in their right mind would name their dog Mutt? All of that being said, I used to love this when I was 6, and I'm 11 now and was forced to watch this with my younger brother, and he didn't seem to mind ANY of this, so I guess it's OK for the younger kids, therefore I gave it a 4. Hope this helps!

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