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Thomas and the Magic Railroad (2000)

 -  Family | Fantasy  -  26 July 2000 (USA)
2.9
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Ratings: 2.9/10 from 2,165 users   Metascore: 19/100
Reviews: 115 user | 46 critic | 23 from Metacritic.com

Mr. Conductor's supply of magic gold dust, which allows him to travel between Shining Time and Thomas's island, is critically low. Unfortunately, he doesn't know how to get more. Meanwhile,... See full summary »

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Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
...
...
Patch
...
...
Grandpa Burnett Stone
Jared Wall ...
Young Burnett
Laura Bower ...
Young Tasha
...
...
Lily
...
Lily's Mother
...
Mr. C. Junior
Edward Glen ...
Thomas (voice) (as Eddie Glen)
Neil Crone ...
Diesel 10 / Splatter / Gordon (voice)
...
Toby (voice)
Linda Ballantyne ...
Percy (voice)
Kevin Frank ...
Dodge / Bertie / Harold / Henry (voice)
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Storyline

Mr. Conductor's supply of magic gold dust, which allows him to travel between Shining Time and Thomas's island, is critically low. Unfortunately, he doesn't know how to get more. Meanwhile, Thomas is fending off attacks by the nasty diesel engines. Getting more gold dust will require help from Mr. C's slacker cousin, his new friend Lilly, and her morose grandfather, plus the secret engine he's hidden all these years and couldn't get running. Written by Jon Reeves <jreeves@imdb.com>

Plot Summary | Add Synopsis

Taglines:

Little Engines CAN Do Big Things... See more »

Genres:

Family | Fantasy

Certificate:

G | See all certifications »

Parents Guide:

 »
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Details

Country:

|

Language:

Release Date:

26 July 2000 (USA)  »

Also Known As:

Thomas, die fantastische Lokomotive  »

Filming Locations:

 »

Box Office

Budget:

$19,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$4,154,932 (USA) (28 July 2000)

Gross:

$15,911,333 (USA) (29 September 2000)
 »

Company Credits

Show detailed on  »

Technical Specs

Runtime:

Sound Mix:

| |

Color:

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1
See  »
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Did You Know?

Trivia

Despite the removal of PT Boomer (played by Doug Lennox), his character does appear during the film. Originally taking part in the final chase sequence, extensive editing had to be done to trim down the shots where he rides on the back of Diesel 10. See more »

Goofs

Near the beginning of the movie, when several of the engines are greeting each, James says, "Hello, Thomas", but Thomas isn't present. Also, Thomas is heard saying, "Hello, James" in the same scene. See more »

Quotes

[first lines]
Mr. Conductor: [narrating] Hello. My name is Mr. Conductor, and I'm going to tell you a story about trains.
See more »

Crazy Credits

Near the end of the closing credits, "Shining Time Station" plays. See more »


Soundtracks

"Summer Sunday"
Written by Ben Wright
Performed by Dominic Gibbeson, Dominic Goundar, Rob Jenkins, Gerard McLachan,
Ben Wright
See more »

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User Reviews

 
Up for the "Worst Screenplay Ever Written" award
1 January 2001 | by (usa) – See all my reviews

Okay, I understand that this is a kid's movie, and that it's intended to simply be fun. However, that's no excuse for the wreck of a screenplay provided by Britt Allcroft. Some day I may be compelled out of sheer obsession to document the many problems with this movie, but the most fundamental flaw is the continued use of the "Shining Time" additions to the Awdry stories. Didi Conn is the only thing shining in Shining Time, created for US TV audiences to stitch together the excellent model railroad Thomas stories. The only thing is, they didn't need to be stitched together, as they stand up just fine on their own in book and video. Worse, the Shining Time portions on TV are excruciating to watch...and now the whole premise is brought to a movie.

Now it seems there's some kind of magic railroad connecting a mythical British island railroad to Shining Time, clearly in the USA. In fact, it must be in Lancaster, PA, USA, because the Strasburg Railroad locomotive #475 makes a few appearances in the movie (in Strasburg and Harrisburg, PA) and I doubt it's ever been across the Atlantic.

Anyway, to make a long and painful story short, there's almost no motivation for any of the characters in this story to do anything at all. Somehow Mr. Conductor (not an Awdry creation) is running out of gold dust, which will somehow make his "universe" fall apart. There's no mention as to why supplies would dwindle to nothing when it's the only thing holding Sodor together - Mr. Conductor is pretty irresponsible if you ask me. He summons his idiot brother who is no help at all, and together they and the rest of the characters stumble on the answer and save the day in a completely underwhelming conclusion.

The gold dust emergency happens to coincide with the apparent return of a diesel engine intent on destroying steam engines. The whole evil-diesel and his predictable sidekick-duo are completely unnecessary and just scare the little kids (like my two-year-old). I assume that the marketing folks needed a few more new characters to work into the merchandising mix because there's no excuse for the plot damage caused by the diesel.

Your kids may enjoy the railroad scenes, but don't watch this movie unless you want your brains to leak out of your head and turn to mush. The models are great, but the acting and writing are ridiculous. Avoid at all costs!!!


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Why is this the worst film I ever saw? dalek-3
peter fonda was the downfall of this movie amy-poirier
may have scarred my kids for life bsl05
I absolutely loved this movie...it's for kids! vznevada
Kids Like It, So Its a Successful Film nyknights45
Was Geaorge Carlin Approached? swoolner-1
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