Thomas & the Magic Railroad Review EARLY ACCESS OPEN NOW

love this so much i think this is a very good opinon

I love magic railroad for the nostalgia of it, but it’s not better than the bwba film. Although I think I liked that way more than the average Thomas fan

Complete with slide whistles.

Spoiled Fire

I would say the word "cartoonish" instead of "babyish" applies to Seasons 6 and 7 more. "Babyish" for Season 8 or so onwards, absolutely. Just an example from Season 6, we saw two of the most ridiculous crashes in the show: Percy crashing into a Chocolate factory, and Gordon having a drawn out and unrealistic 30+ second derailment into a farm.

Re-watching this movie was definitely, something else... In my opinion, Thomas was only a general audience show until 1998. You can tell the tone, the set design, and just the overall quality of the show were beginning to become more babyish, and it got worse and worse by every generation. Even with Salty being introduced the next season, he felt very (gimmickie?) like "oOh PiRaTe TrAiN". It kind of makes me feel like seasons 1-5, like Tugs, were "products of the times" in a lot of ways. You'd never see a Brenner era episode where an engine fatally crashes and returns as a ghost. And let's not forget that cast being mostly male coming off as "sexist" to someone. Thomas' legacy definitely ended after season 5 finished airing. Had the show just ended there, us fans, and the general public, and even those otherwise rabid anti Thomas railfans could have been able to enjoy this silly talking train show and understand why it's so beloved. Thomas could have existed as art, rather than just another generic brainless baby show, like Barney or Blue's Clues. There was once a time, before the clickbait videos saying Henry died in the tunnel, and the downgraded merch, and the formulaic writing, and the reboot, that Thomas, his friends, and the world they lived in, were all beloved by all. Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends, and the Railway Series books that spawned the show, could have only been made by adults with adults in mind. TATMR has no thematic elements for adults, and dare I say it, (and I have said this numerous times before so bear with me) TATMR essentially did the same things to the Thomas franchise as Cars 2 did to that franchise. Both movies, in my opinion are souless. All of the sad scenes in Magic Railroad are flat out corny for lack of a better term, and because these humans are so bland and unlikeable, you don't feel much sympathy for them really at all. Having an " Adventure Begins" type movie as the finale to the show would have been fantastic. Way better than the pandering baby crap that we got instead. Magic Railroad is a movie with an almost endless list of problems from the production history to the original cut of the film to the final cut of the film. And while the personalities of the TTTE characters were present, they for some odd reason made Henry need special coal again. So even the Thomas stuff is inconsistent. This movie also made people question how the Thomas universe works, like "How are they alive?" or "Do they have internal organs?" Why doesn't the Rainbow Sun locomotive have a face? Does Lady's magic only apply to engines on Sodor?" Stuff like that. Overall, I kind of which the movie was cancelled, but part of me is kind of glad it exists. I do love the score, the cinematography, and some of the Thomas things (although I also don't like the matte liveries on the engines as it makes them look very toy like). Magic Railroad, is a guilty pleasure for me. Lots of good elements and TONS of bad. It's awful for a Thomas movie, and easily the biggest misstep the franchise ever made.

Spoiled Fire

This was much better than the Nostalgia Critic’s lousy review of the movie. I ain’t too crazy about this movie either, but like you said, it does have some redeeming qualities. Even though it’s flawed, it’s still loads better than MIR, DOTD, and BWBA. Once again, you’ve proved yourself worthy of being the king of the Thomas fandom. The vast amount of time, effort, research, video scripting, narrating, editing, passion, dedication, and high quality put into your content really says it all.

oh ya also fun fact: i’m pretty sure clarabel was facing backwards the entire movie

i’m a kid of the 2010s and i was basically tug when i saw a teaser trailer for the theater rerun for TATMR when watching a theater rerun for the lego movie in like 2020

Good review chap, especially in what this damn movie did to Thomas as a brand overall, but I think there's one more damaging effect it did, how it affected the show's overall TONE. One thing S1-5 excelled at was playing with TONE, episodes that were sad were genuinely saddening, attacks that were happy were heartfelt, and those that were serious were handled very seriously. Like you could argue Rusty and the Boulder or Toby and the Flood are unrealistic but they handled these situations with such a serious overall TONE such that they are fan favourites. Yes, Thomas was always a kid show but the TONE was never one that talked down to kids or was never blatant in what it stated. Magic Railroad seemingly messed up the tone for the remainder of the series, the overall tone was really tamed down, with rules always being forced down the kid's throats. That subtlety and maturity that classic Thomas excelled at disappeared. Sure S6&7 were good and the Brenner era was descent but you get the sense rewatching them that no matter what their strong points you get the sense that they have to add these silly childish moments in them because “Thomas is a kid's show” says the officials. No matter what we say about BWBA or Miller or all the crap that’s come in recent years, none of it would’ve even been a thing if this movie hadn’t existed. I think if I ever met Britt Allcroft the one question I would ask her is "why?"

RTron

I admit, the first time the film came round - I was in my year 12 (junior year of high school) and had just lost me dad the year prior. Before he passed, I watched Thomas as I was getting ready for school, because I liked trains n mr conductor was cute. He was happy his daughter loved trains like he had when he was younger - although I was Beatles obsessed, so it was more ringo (n ok even tho George Carlin wasn’t a beatle, he was gold!) I was watching things for. In fact I didn’t realise there were other Engine’s till last year (gahhh shock!) when i rewatched everything n caught up. After dad died, I’d forgotten about Thomas for decades, as me mind was in a different place at that point. I had to finish school n care for 2 grandparents n my mum. I finally watched this last year, during a bedrest binge (had a swollen/blocked kidney, n it was snowy February dreariness out there). I still loved the models, n the acting cast was pretty incredible. The writing and plot were really what sunk it. That n yes, the fact that most of the film was focused on people instead if Engine’s. Even at 40, I prefer to see the Engine’s most. If there’s anything truly great I can say about the film, it’s b that Gordon looks insanely good here. I know some folks will nitpick his model. Lol u called them ‘other trains’. Oi! Yea thomas gets 11:49 minutes, n that’s more than gordon, James, Henry, or percy! I love Thomas, but cmon I want all me lads, especially Gordon. You were spot on with this review!

Nirmal Singh ❤️ Gordon Big Blue Express Engine

Great way to start the year, I feel as though this video would do pretty well indeed :)

Very good job reviewing this movie I couldn’t have done better also my treatment on the movie is no magic but still have family matters in it but focus it on Sir Topham hatt and his family like with his grandchildren like in the series but who knows how that would work

Jonathan Thompson

I enjoyed it. It was probably the fairest review of the movie I've ever seen. Most of the time, when other people do, its just a Britt Allcroft hate train. 🤣