Thomas and Friends
steams into cinemas later this month with animated special The Great Race (2016). HiT Entertainment has announced that the
film will feature an array of multicultural new characters as the engines of
the Island of Sodor go global. Indeed, what started in 1984 as a low-key,
budget kids’ show about the misadventures of a cheeky little tank engine on the
Fat Controller’s railway has evolved into something much bigger. But, with
criticisms of a major decline in quality since the show’s heyday, and
accusations of their having pandered to political correctness in this latest
outing, is it time Thomas reached the
end of the line?
Since HiT Entertainment’s acquisition of the programme in
2003, the quality of the show rapidly declined. The first thing I noticed
(besides the dumbed-down abbreviation of the show’s title) was a slower pace,
and Michael Angelis’ narration went from being exciting and imbued with
character to bland, patronising and simplistic. I’ve a sneaky suspicion Angelis
was actually instructed to ‘tone it down’ in order to appeal to a specifically
younger audience. Compare the episodes of the sixth season (2002) to those of
the seventh (2003) and the difference is very noticeable. And the narration
isn’t the only noticeable alteration – the writing, too, is lacking. Early
seasons of Thomas were derived from The Railway Series books, and so were
not so ‘dumbed down’ in order to appeal to the lowest common denominator. Every
now and again, complex terminology was utilised without fear of going over
kids’ heads. And it had a significant effect on me, who, by the age of about
three or four, had incorporated words such as ‘revolutionary’ and ‘sagacious’
into my otherwise rudimentary vocabulary. There’s no such appeal in later
episodes, and the grammar applied is much more basic by comparison.
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| The Classic Series, 1995 |
One clear aspect of the original series is a firm focus on
societal hierarchy, exemplified by the clever use of language and vocal
intonations. The big tender engines regularly taunt and deride the smaller tank
engines, and the diesels pose the threat of an impending obsolescence, accurately
reflecting not only historical context, but also more general prejudices. Such
drive is no longer felt in the new series. The patronisingly labelled ‘Steamies’
and diesels are still occasionally at loggerheads, but are reduced to
exchanging petty insults, not to mention the fact that they are now capable of maintaining
friendships. And that’s a problem: there’s simply no conflict, and the
storylines are therefore less engaging, no matter how old you are. Everything
is formally resolved by the episode’s conclusion - everybody makes up and
morals are learned, only for them to forget them by the next episode.
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| HiT Entertainment, 2009 |
Earlier episodes were also not quite so formulaic. The
narratives were somewhat less conventional, and sometimes incidents occurred
with unbalanced consequence. Take the series three episode ‘Percy, James and
the Fruitful Day’, based on a pre-existing magazine story: The opening sees
James waiting at a junction for Percy to arrive with some trucks. He scolds
Percy, complaining that engines should always run to time. Percy dismisses
James as bossy. After boasting about his reliability, and denouncing Percy,
James’ brakes jam, meaning Percy has to help out. Ordinarily this might serve
as a balanced retribution – but the story takes an unexpected twist as Percy
winds up having an accident and caked in fruit. The link between the two
engine’s stories here is the ambiguity of the word ‘jam’. Rather than resolve
conflict within a preachy, moralistic frame, the episode takes a quirky, more
realistic approach; accidents happen all the time, no matter what your moral
standpoint – an important, original and oft-neglected life lesson. That’s not
to say that morals were not integrated into the show, but they were not nearly
as blatant and repetitious as in later series, nor were they necessarily
integral to the plot.
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| Britt Allcroft, 1995 |
So, what changed exactly? The first series (1984) was based
entirely on Reverend Awdry’s The Railway
Series, while the second (1986) incorporated efforts by his son,
Christopher Awdry. Both of these series were infamously narrated by Ringo
Starr. The third series (1991-1992) was narrated by Michael Angelis, and for
the first time incorporated episodes based on magazine stories and original
episodes by the television production crew. Despite complaints by Awdry
concerning realism, these episodes, by comparison to today’s fare, are golden,
to the point at which the casual viewer would barely be able to distinguish the
original stories from the book stories. The fourth and arguably the best series
(1994-1995) returned to form with the vast majority of episodes being based on The Railway Series. The fifth series
(1998), meanwhile, took an entirely different direction, as for the first time
none of the episodes in the series were based on preconceived stories. The
episodes were instead conceived and written by David Mitton and Britt Allcroft,
in conjunction with a railway consultant, and were, for the most part, based
loosely on actual events. This series was focussed on dramatic storylines,
rather than on remaining truthful to the original stories, but, despite some melodramatic
episodes and ridiculous incidents, series five was nonetheless fairly consistent.
By series six (2002), the show now had its own writing staff, making the
consistency a little muddled. While there were some decent plots, it was clear
the writers knew next to nothing about trains, opting for a more comical
approach to life on the rails, as opposed to the realism that had been conveyed
previously. In addition, characters such as Percy and especially Edward
underwent a complete character alteration. Percy was severely dumbed down,
while Edward was no longer the old, wise engine he used to be. By series seven,
the show had become watered down and repetitive, and became even worse as HiT
Entertainment’s takeover meant a complete overhaul of the show. David Mitton,
Britt Allcroft, and the rest of the original crew departed, not to mention the
loss of the show’s former composers Mike O’Donnell and Junior Campbell, whose
absence has never been redeemed.
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| HiT Entertainment, 2009 |
My main issue with HiT’s version of Thomas and Friends is that it’s a cheap carbon copy of every other
animated kids’ show on television. And, as much as I normally love animation,
the animation itself is detrimental to the programme too. Since 2008, animation
production by Nitrogen Studios, and then by Arc Productions from 2013 onwards,
has replaced the familiar utilisation of model O Gauge trains. It’s not as
though the quality of the animation is especially *bad*, but its slickness
detracts from the show’s industrial, smog-enveloped setting, which is ironic
for a medium usually employed to convey realism. Now, some of you might be
thinking “So what? Big deal. It’s a kids’ show”, but a television programme
does not need to be demeaning in order to appeal to kids. In fact, the opposite
is true. Since Andrew Brenner’s takeover as head writer in 2013, the show has
improved somewhat, with the reintroduction of some long-dormant characters, and
even some characters previously only seen in Railway Series stories. But the fact remains that the programme
pales in comparison to its former glory. The pretentious, moralistic undertones
of the programme as it is currently are frankly mind-numbing, and its continual
success both confuses and frustrates me. Say what you will about the original
Britt Allcroft series (1984-2003) but HiT have drastically altered the show, so
much so that it’s barely recognisable. Inarguably, the Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends programme I know and love has
disappeared in a cloud of steam.
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