All aboard for fun-fueled adventure in Thomas the Tank Engine's first film ever, starring Peter Fonda, Mara Wilson and Alec Baldwin. For as long as anyone can remember, the Island of Sodar has been the realm of enchantment, innocence, and talking trains. The steam engines suddenly find themselves heading for a heap of trouble at the claw of the evil Diesel #10. This one's a totally terrible trainwith devious plans to dominate the other engines by finding and crushing their dwindling supply of magical gold dust. Lily (Mara Wilson) has a hunch that her grandfather (Peter Fonda) holds the key to rescuing the little trains in his workshop on Muffle Mountain. She meets up with Mr. Conductor (Alec Baldwin) and, along with a caboose of colorful characters, they return the sparkle to their island!
Product Details:
Actors:
Alec Baldwin, Cody McMains, Russell Means, Peter Fonda, Jared Wall
Director:
Britt Allcroft
Format:
Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Full Screen, Live, Subtitled, NTSC
Average Customer Review:
( 202 customer reviews )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
41 of 47 found the following review helpful:
Terrible movieApr 05, 2005
This movie was by far the worst Thomas production ever made. I was horrified when I discovered that Britt Allcroft wrote it; now we know why she always had a co-writer when she was writing episodes for the TV series, and why she was kicked out of Gullane Entertainment afterwards.
The script is so poorly written that I feel sorry for the trees used to make the paper that it was written on. The Island of Sodor, in the TV series an island off the coast of England that was more or less normal, has been turned into a magical ghost town populated by talking trains and literate animals. Why Britt Allcroft chose to make such a rapid departure from the TV series I will never know. She also filled the script with complicated plot devices that few children will be able to understand (you'd need to be Einstein or Stephen Hawking to figure out the answer to the riddle on the windmill wall), and threw her healthy knowledge of the Thomas characters out of the window (Thomas is portrayed as a goody-goody, Bertie as being annoyingly hyperactive, Henry as being a whiny pain in the neck, and James as being so short of brain cells that he doesn't know what the word "shoo" means).
Usually, bad scripts bring in bad acting, and this movie was no exception. Alec Baldwin's character was so annoying (I'm sure I'm not the only person who wishes Diesel 10 had dropped him off the viaduct), and took the limelight that should have been given to Thomas and the other engines. Peter Fonda's character was the most miserable, depressing character in the history of children's movies. Mara Wilson's character was better, but still seemed like a teenage girl younger than her years. And what was the point of having big name actors anyway? It's not as if little children are going to recognise them.
I also find the film to be overly violent. Diesel 10 is so nasty that it's no wonder little children started crying and asking to leave the theater when he made his first appearance. We're never told why he's evil either, he just comes off as a character who wants to destroy steam engines for no reason whatsoever. In the original series, if a character was evil it was usually for a good reason. In a similar fashion, while characters in the TV series might be evil, they never went further than playing tricks on the other engines and trying to get them sent away. Here, Diesel 10 tries to kill Mr Conductor and Junior in scenes that make me amazed the film got a G rating.
Then there's the fact that the steam engines get what can only be described as outstanding cameos. When I went to see this at the theater, I noticed a lot of little children fidgeting and looking bored during the scenes with the human characters. Really I'm not at all surprised that they were; they came to the theater to see their favorite blue engine and his friends, not a Lilliputian railroad conductor who had lost his gold dust.
Last but not least, what can little children learn from this movie? The TV series episodes all have morals in them, like "don't tell lies" and "don't get too full of yourself." Other than a brief line at the end about helping each other, this movie has no moral value in it whatsoever (unless you count teaching children to be senselessly violent a moral).
In September of this year a second Thomas movie is coming out, albeit shorter than this one and being released direct to video, called "Calling All Engines." Cross your fingers and hope it's better than this turkey.
28 of 31 found the following review helpful:
3 year old loves it. Adults disappointed and confused.Nov 26, 2000
Our 3yr old boy loves Thomas. We have all the videos and trains, etc. He wants to watch this thing every day. He repeats lines from the movie and acts them out all day. It was great for him. We took him to the movies to see it together. He loved that, too. For him, we would do it all again in a minute.
As parents, we could have done without the "mean-ness" of Diesel #10 and the fact that he wants to "dominate and destroy". He also uses the word "stupid" several times. Not nice.
As adult movie critics, we saw laughably poor acting (with the exception of "Mr. Conductor" and "Junior". (Notice that even some of the 5-star reviewers agree.) Britt Alcroft directed and wrote it, and it is obvious that she should have asked for help from someone who knew what they were doing. If you pay attention, expect to be confused. We expected more because we actually enjoy watching all of the other videos, and they are really well done.
19 of 21 found the following review helpful:
HorrificApr 28, 2003
By H. Spahr
"Foodie / Wino"
How they got Alec Baldwin to do this movie is beyond me. From the terrible, overly complicated, disjointed script to the high school film class direction to the wooden acting this is a dog from start to finish. That said, my three year old loves it. No accounting for the tastes of a toddler.
Peter Fonda appears heavily sedated throughout the film. The character Junior (who for no apparent reason seems to be an Aussie surfer dude) is energetic but lost to the pathetic script and direction. Alec Baldwin plays the conductor with a wide eyed exuberence that nearly rivals Barney the purple dinosaur for sheer annoyance.
I actually enjoy many of my three year old's favorite films (Monsters, Inc., The Wizard of Oz, Stuart Little) but this film is unbareable from start to finish.
18 of 20 found the following review helpful:
The trains were cute but this movie's awfulFeb 02, 2005
By C. Asher For some reason I can't fathom my daughters love this movie, but sitting through it is painful. The little boy in the movie should consider another career, and Peter Fonda is more wooden than the trains (although if you're in the right mood his performance is almost funny, but mostly it's just painful). Alex Baldwin tried, but the script and the direction kept this movie from being anything more than dismal. The Thomas series is much more entertaining and well-written. Do yourself a favor and don't spend money on this dog.
14 of 15 found the following review helpful:
Where's Thomas In His First Movie?Apr 23, 2005
By Cinthianna
"Cin"
I was so excited to get this movie for my brother who loves Thomas and knows everything a three year old can know about trains. I only wish I had read a couple of reviews first. I almost did not buy it just because Alec Baldwin was in it and after seeing this movie, I'll never waste another dime on anything he is in.
So why is this movie so bad? Let's start with the story. It has more to do with Mr. Conductor (a stupid name) than it has to do with Thomas and his friends. The dialogue is horrible. When it does show an engine from the Island of Sodor, it bears no resemblence to the engines in the beloved books. For instance, James comes across as an idiot. Thomas is nearly absent for most of the movie. The voices of the engines sound like little kids, which is silly. On the other hand the character played by Mara Wilson should have been played by a little kid. She is very unconvincing in this role and the boy, Patch is even worse. Some characters seem to be there for no reason at all, like Mr. Conductor's cousin. But that is the way the entire movie goes, things just happen for no reason, leaving the viewer with a bunch of annoying questions: Why is Diesel 10 so angry and mean? Why does Mr. conductor go from the "real" world to the Island of Sodor? Why would Sir Topham Hatt trust this simpleton to run his railroad? Why was Peter Fonda's character able to get to Sodor in the first place? Why was this movie ever made? Why did nobody check in with the original stories to see if any of this made sense? Why was Britt Allcroft allowed to do this kind of damage to Thomas the Tank Engine? Why am I so angry about this? Did they show this movie to a test audience? If so how did it ever make it to theaters?
In short, this is THE WORST movie I have ever seen from the screenplay to the acting to the editing. It has not one redeeming quality.
based on 202 reviews
( 202 customer reviews )
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