Thomas & Friends

Thomas & Friends is a British children's television series developed for television by Britt Allcroft. Based on The Railway Series children's books by Wilbert and Christopher Awdry, it centers on Thomas the Tank Engine, as well as various anthropomorphic steam locomotives and other vehicles living on the fictional Island of Sodor.

Allcroft discovered The Railway Series in 1978 and quickly became interested in adapting it to television. It was initially filmed in live action on model sets from the mid 1980s to the late 2000s, before later utilising computer animation. Over 500 episodes were produced over the course of 24 series. It featured narration from multiple celebrities and actors, beginning with Ringo Starr.

Thomas & Friends premiered on ITV on 9 October 1984 and was broadcast on several other television networks until 20January 2021. It received mixed critical reception and spawned a franchise of the same name. A film adaptation written and directed by Allcroft, Thomas and the Magic Railroad, was released in theatres in 2000, but underperformed at the box office. A second film is in development and will be directed by Marc Forster. Thomas & Friends was followed by two reboots; the first was Thomas & Friends: All Engines Go, which premiered in 2021 and ended in 2025, and the second is scheduled for late 2026.

Voice cast

Thomas & Friends initially relied on various narrators, including Ringo Starr, Michael Angelis, George Carlin, Alec Baldwin, Michael Brandon, Pierce Brosnan, Mark Moraghan, John Hasler, and Joseph May. The characters were later given their own voices in the 2009 film Thomas & Friends: Hero of the Rails, with Thomas the Tank Engine being voiced by Ben Small.

Characters

List of productions

Television series

Films

The first film adaptation of Thomas & Friends, Thomas and the Magic Railroad, released in 2000 and grossed almost million against a cost of USD$19million to produce. It was broadcast on BBC1 on 1 January 2004 and again on 29 December 2008.

A second Thomas & Friends film was first attempted in March 2009, when previous Thomas brand owner HIT Entertainment announced that a live-action Thomas & Friends film would pilot its theatrical division. It was originally targeted for a late 2010 release, but this was later revised to early 2011. The last update was that Shane Acker would direct, with Wētā Workshop and Mattel joining the creative team, Cinetic Media and UTA Independent Film Group financing and distributing, and Will McRobb and Chris Viscardi writing the script.

A live-action animated Thomas & Friends film was announced by Mattel Films in October 2020. Marc Forster will direct, and the script is written by Alyssa Hill and Jesse Wigutow. It is in active development alongside 13 other film adaptations of Mattel's intellectual properties. In June 2025, Mattel Films merged with the Mattel Television division to become Mattel Studios, with development on Forster's Thomas & Friends film and other Mattel features uninterrupted.

Production

thumb|270px|A surviving photograph of [[James the Red Engine from the 1953 BBC production]]

Thomas & Friends is adapted from The Railway Series, a series of children's books created by Wilbert Awdry. The BBC attempted to adapt the books to television in 1953, utilising model trains by Hornby Railways. The broadcast went live that June, and the Daily Mail featured the failed broadcast on their front page. Andrew Lloyd Webber wrote a Railway Series television adaptation in 1977, which was cancelled following concerns that it would be altered upon being released worldwide. Webber's cancelled adaptation would later serve as inspiration for Starlight Express, a 1984 broadway musical about trains. A pilot episode titled "Down the Mine" was produced in 1983.

Starr departed from the series in 1990 in favour of returning to his music career; he was replaced by George Carlin in the American dub. In 2017, Mattel begun planning a rebrand of the series, titled Thomas & Friends: Big World! Big Adventures!, which saw Thomas travelling to other countries and breaking the fourth wall to speak directly to the audience. Meanwhile, two female characters—Rebecca and Nia—were added to the main cast; the latter is the series' first African locomotive. A film of the same name released in 2018, with Jam Filled Entertainment producing the new series, which featured a new theme song. Mattel collaborated with the United Nations to design Nia and incorporate their Sustainable Development Goals into both the new episodes and the film.

Animation

The original series was filmed in live action and utilised radio-controlled models and static figures, with stop motion being used for certain characters. allowing the characters' face to move.

Release

Thomas & Friends premiered on ITV on 9 October 1984 under the title Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends. thus ending a period of almost 30 years of programming related to Thomas & Friends on American public television. From 2018 to 2019, Nickelodeon held exclusive rights to the series in the United States. In 2020, the streaming rights were sold to Netflix, with traditional television rights left unresolved. It also airs on Kabillion. In spring 2024, classic episodes of the series became available on the free streaming channel PBS Retro. Early episodes from series 1 through 7 are available on Amazon Prime Video.

Mobile apps

Mattel partnered with several companies, including Budge Studios and Animoca Brands, to create mobile apps based on Thomas & Friends. In 2010, Callaway Digital Arts created apps based on the brand. By mid-2011, thirteen Thomas apps were available. HiT Entertainment and Mattel both released apps under their own names. During the 75th anniversary press release in 2020, Mattel mentioned an intent for more apps.

Reception

Critical response

Common Sense Media rated the show a four out of five stars, writing, "Parents can be assured that this series has educational aspects as well as behavioural modelling. The Thomas the Tank Engine stories were conceived by a young British boy early in the 20th century, who would listen to the trains as they chuffed through the countryside. The stories he told his son – who has consequently passed them on to his own son – have been documented in books and toy train models. Since the series was introduced to television viewers in the 1980s, Thomas & Friends has seen a healthy fan base sprout worldwide."

Jia Tolentino in The New Yorker acknowledged that as a girl she did not "take in anything that was actually happening", but after reviewing the show and internet posts about it as an adult, criticised what she saw as the "show's repressive, authoritarian soul."

University of Alberta professor Shauna Wilton wrote "A Very Useful Engine: The Politics of Thomas and Friends". Wilton, who justified her study by arguing that socialisation of children is an important aspect, wrote that she received "a combination of outrage, disbelief, and condescending dismissal" when she announced she was going to study the politicisation of the series, although some people gave her thanks. She stated that despite the inclusion of female characters by the 2000s, in the era after major social revolutions in real life the series was "largely unchanged" from when it was "created in a context of rigid social hierarchies, male dominance in the public sphere, and a strong social culture of good behavior, respecting authority, and following the rules."

In 2011, a contributor for Slate analyzed the "hidden subtexts" of British imperialism in the series, while in 2013 Alex Knapp wrote for Forbes about the "baffling economics" of the Island of Sodor.

Reboots

On 12 October 2020, Mattel announced the series would be rebooted with Thomas & Friends: All Engines Go, co-produced and animated by Nelvana. The deal stipulated that 104 eleven-minute episodes and two 60-minute specials would be produced, and that the animation would transition from computer animation to 2D animation, with new redesigns for the characters. On 5 February 2021, it was announced that Cartoon Network and Netflix had jointly picked up the broadcast and streaming rights to the series in the United States, respectively. On 11 October 2022, Mattel announced that the series was renewed for a third and fourth season, each consisting of 26 episodes and a special.

A second reboot, first announced in May 2025, is currently set for a release in 2026. Thomas' new design was revealed in January 2026.

Notes

References

External links

Awdry Family Site
Thomas & Friends on the Internet Archive