Btw everyone the artist interpretation of Smoke wasn’t actually him at all. It’s actually an image called Heavy Metal Hero by Rodney Matthews.

Honestly, this premise could work, if it wasn’t a Thomas movie. If it was done with original train characters, it could work.

We didn't dodged a bullet, we dodged a million nukes.

Besides Smoke, the other new characters seemed so unnecessary considering the large roster of others feeling more as a merch stunt than anything

Guys, the Calling All Engines DVD has me held hostage

I can not tell how many times I wished this movie had been made. Hearing that base plot of it really made it sound incredible. It had a lot of potential to it that could’ve made the film be a real turnaround for the entire franchise. And don’t get me started in the more realistic designs. In fact, I still love the designs at least. But upon getting that new info though, Im quite glad the movie did fail. You put it very well saying this didn’t feel like a Thomas movie. I swear if just some Thomas movies would embrace the realism that made us all originally enjoy it, it could really work wonders for the franchise. And with what they were planning for the faces, I think leaving them with blank smoke boxes would’ve even been a better decision. Trainz series have proven that it can work. (Example: The Mohawk that Wouldn’t Quit by RontheCyborg. No faces, no voices, but the music sets the feel. And it works.) Also, Smoke? That’s the best they could come up with? It sounds like they tried to make the name feel edgy but it just comes across as stupid.

Four words. SO. MUCH. WASTED. POTENTIAL. I think the setting of WW2 is pretty neat as we barely if not ever really got any stories or even know of what happened on Sodor during WW2, a sliver of info in the IOS book at most. The two characters moving to the father’s childhood home and Johnny finding the father’s drawings is such a nice reference to Awdry’s childhood (house near a railway) and his drawings. Edward being the first engine introduced is nice too being the first character created by Awdry I think the realistic portrayals of the engines is one big fat check in our books. We’ve all wanted to see the engines in real life and with these digital models being based on the actual designs of their respective basis, I think the fan base would go crazy over that. I will admit. Seeing Gordon save the day would be absolutely AWESOME. The story begins to derail and fall apart when Edward takes Johnny to Sodor. Just like how the magic railroad is a magical dimension, Sodor is a seperate dimension to real life in this movie too (kind of reminiscent of The Island Song stating something similar, “a land of make believe”). Heck, they may have even taken inspiration from that for all we know… This is my biggest gripe. WHAT THE HECK IS WITH HiT AND THE STEAMY VS DIESEL CONFLICT?!?! And why do they like to do it so often?!?! Like, come on! Ultimately, what I think lets this movie down (the first draft of it at least) is the big factor of what lead to Magic Railroad’s poor reception in the first place. The lack of realism. As Unlucky Tug states, Thomas was held in such a high regard because of how slower and realistic it was compared to all the other fast flashy kids shows of the 80s. And even in the original RWS books, the artists don’t illustrate the engines doing impossible feats and instead illustrate them operating just like how real trains would. “A world of trains without people” literally makes no sense. Trains exist FOR people. People to transport their goods and themselves to other places. Trains by themselves are useless if there’s nothing to transport. Even Chuggington knows that! If you take all that away, engines still need workmen to manufacture and repair them and a crew to drive them. So either way, you can’t have one without the other. There surely has to be SOME sort of real life connection to Sodor than just “otherworldly caves and waterfalls” such as the already established rolling bridge over the Walney channel. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not against Magic Railroad-esque headcannons for Sodor. Like what you like, do whatever. It’s just not for me. I prefer to stick to the universe already established by the Awdrys. Even though this script is flawed as it is, it still stings me to say, I think they made the right call cancelling it. The cancellation robbed us of the chance to see our favorite engines in a realistic form and giving us a look on what happened on Sodor during WW2. “This had the potential to either be the greatest thing ever, or another repeat of Magic Railroad” - Unlucky Tug And, in my opinion, I sadly think the latter is more likely the case here.

As someone who was interested in Sci-Fi and Fictional Genres of Movies and TV shows, including Thomas The Tank Engine, I can't deny that this movie would be a really low point for The Show and the franchise as a whole. Derek Smith said in his video about Transformers 2007 being a huge success with audiences and fans who loved the franchise since 1984. Hit Entertainment, along with the team, tried to do it with the same thing for this movie's concept, but it didn't feel like Thomas, and it failed. I have to agree with this video, along with Derek Smith and many other fans who looked at the story and art concepts. It really was going to be disappointing.

2:56 That wouldn't of surprised me considering Shane Acker's other and only Movie 9 had the characters with similar faces

Kinda curious to see how people would rewrite and give this concept a complete overhaul

Fantastic video, sir. I was intrigued about this movie for years, but now that we know what it truly would've been like, it sounds like a nightmare. It once again completely misses the mark of what makes Thomas Thomas. From the creepy facial designs pulled out of 9, to the lack of humans, making the world Thomas not be able to function nearly as coherently or believably as the Cars world (which BTW Cars is also one of my favorite series), to the magic element wrecking any semblance of realism. I sure do hope that we can get a Thomas movie one day that actually understands why Thomas is so special and beloved. You also just earned a subscriber.

We dodged a bullet...

If a full trailer released, people would have DEMANDED a redesign for the characters. This would have been another Sonic Movie situation.

I think we owe Mattel a thank you for canceling this potential Bayverse/Magic Railroad disaster. It feels less like the source material than TATMR and The Angry Birds Movie 2 *COMBINED*

I think the movie would have killed the series if it did come out, thank Mattel for actually buying this series.

Yeah, glad this movie didn’t exist! Makes me sympathize Magic Railroad more! But one thing that surprised me was that Edward was the first character to appear in the movie and as a railway series fan, yeah this would’ve been fantastic! Edward is definitely the easy first choice, but everything after that, really disappointing. Overall just glad it was never greenlit and I’m thankful we have a movie like Calling All Engines which I still find as a decent Thomas special that works to an extent.

1:36 To be honest Smoke looks nothing like a diesel He looks straight out of mad max

Whether The Adventures of Thomas would’ve been good or bad, I can safely say we were all robbed with it getting cancelled.

Awdry's urn would be churning like you wouldn't believe

Now I’m glad Misty Island Rescue exists instead of this being released to the general public…

If they did do this movie they would’ve had Chris Pratt do the voice of Thomas.

When I first saw the art and the idea of this movie I thought It was going to be Sodor during the blitz, maybe the young boy's father works on sodor as a driver and sometimes sneaks his son onto the footplate (Against regulators of course) and then at one point the air raid sirens go off and the driver takes life into his own hands and takes him, his son and Thomas down the main line to somewhere on one of the branch lines out of harms way. I can't think of an ending for the movie but I thought something like that

Derick got my hopes up with the oldest steam engine

The whole cyberpunk/apocalypse, no humans on Sodor storyline they have sounds ambitious, but considering how they, *JUST LIKE THOMAS AND THE MAGIC RAILROAD* ,made the Island a fictional/another dimension world and not part of the *REAL WORLD* which has always been the appeal of Thomas and The Railway Series as a whole, makes this something that could not work 100%, even if the writing and storytelling was actually good. Also the new characters don’t feel like they belong in the Thomas Universe. They literally sound like they were just created purely for toy marketability.

I think the answer to all of the questions about this movies weird and confusing logic/world is probably the same as Magic Railroads. Magic. To quote The Unlucky Tug, "What, it doesn't make sense? That's okay. Just explain it away with magic. Doesn't matter."

Thank god this movie got cancelled. Thanks, Mattel!

I think it's best we keep in mind that the script was a first draft (as stated in Derek Smith's video), which probably explains why Will McRobb & Chris Viscardi were brought onboard the project (do redraft the script)

I honestly like this vastly more lol. Regardless, considering this was never made, we have no idea if this would’ve turned out bad. Also this seems to be the Godzilla 98 “problem” where people say it’s good but not as a Godzilla movie. Don’t really care for how it appeals. I just want it to be good.

While I honestly do prefer official TV series and Railway Series canon, but I still think this new take on Thomas would’ve been quite interesting. 🧐 In fact, I take this idea for a film over anything made by Mattel nowadays. Though, I’m still hoping the next Thomas movie by Marc Forster will save the freaking franchise. 😕

Magic Railroad seems more tolerant at this point.

*i think we owe magic railroad an apology for not fucking up the show’s image THIS much*

I’m personally glad that the never got around to being finalised. But knowing this is only the first draft that recently got leaked, they might’ve been another draft where the engines would’ve gotten back their original grey faces as well as The Fat Controller and human life being present on Sodor. However, with the upcoming Marc Forster movie still in the works, I still see Mattel recycling elements from the cancelled movie and bringing back plot lines like Thomas having to reunite a father and son and the steam team plus diesel witnessing the rise of electric engines.

Honestly, I'm quite surprised on what the movie was gonna be like and maybe cancelling it might've been a good thing after all. I get the idea that part of it was basically a copy of Thomas and the Magic Railroad, but for me, the best way I can describe on what the movie was suppose to be is that seeing on how Shane Acker was attached to direct this movie, it would've been as I like to describe it as his remake of his animated film, 9, but with talking trains. Hell, one person I know of who I've shared the plot for this movie actually drew comparisons to The Chronicles of Narnia. Let me say that again; The Adventures of Thomas, who I described as a remake of Shane Acker's movie 9, but with talking trains, also would be compared as one person I know of to, THE CHRONICLES...OF NARNIA. But hey, I guess cancelling the movie might've been a good decision after all because I can agree in saying that if it was released, it would've been a massive letdown and be much worse than Magic Railroad. To which, I guess with what we now got, I guess not just Calling All Engines, but also Magic Railroad deserves an apology as well. But hey, maybe with the Marc Forster directed Thomas movie Mattel announced years ago, maybe we might get a Thomas movie on the big screen that critics, audiences and fans would love and be something that resembles Thomas the Tank Engine in the best possible way. But until that happens, looks like we're gonna have to keep on waiting a little while longer.

I would love to see this movie

So basically the premise of this movie is "What if we just did TATMR again.....but somehow even worse?"

I left the following Comment on Derek's channel but I want to leave it here as well because this is something I think HIT was trying to do to make up for that loss (or whoever was in control of the show at the time): This is going to be a massive stretch but to me it sounds like some of these concepts would be used in later films that did come out. 5:23 This journey the boy takes with Edward sounds similar to what happened during the great discovery where thomas falls down that shaft filled with water. 6:12 Squeak sounds like an early version of Skiff or Winston 6:18 Puffin Billy looks similar to Glynn the coffee pot engine as well as Stephen. 6:59 This engine could've been the inspiration for Hero, Merlin as well as conner and caitlin (because of its size) 7:43 Bertha's personality was probably the inspiration for Lexi 7:52 The boats was probably a reference to Tugs. 7:55 The mining cars sounds like the logging loco's from Misty island.

5:05 Mind you that illustration is actually from a cd cover that was designed by British artist Rodney Matthews An artist to usually depicts very sureal and Steampunk designs

It’s basically calling all engines that takes place in ww2

1:36 mordor mogul moment

On a brighter note the pitch reel for the barney movie by hit had a scene where he got hit by an motorboat so that's that

I wouldn't have really had an issue with the new face designs if they looked anything like the fanart at 1:48. Other than that though, yeah: never thought I'd get the chance to say this but I'm glad this movie never came out because I would've kinda hated it. It was basically TATMR: WW2 edition, with a more steam vs. diesel centric plot. And I actually love TATMR. In hindsight I can see its flaws, but as you just said: when the scenes of Thomas, his friends and the Island of Sodor were on, it still felt like the same Thomas I know and love. This on the other hand, while it may have been alright on its own (though even that's still a big stretch; sentient cars without humans is one thing - at least they play the role of humans - but sentient trains without humans is a completely different ballgame), but with Thomas, it just would not have worked, which saddens me to say. At least we were spared what may have been to Thomas what Sonic '06 was to Sonic.

Tbh I liked calling all engines anyway (without the baby parts where they pause the movie to teach us random stuff) but the script just sounds very weird, faces looking creepier, the same plot about the two engine types fighting over each other. And why do they keep removing humans, LET THERE BE HUMANS AND ENGINES IN ONE

Well.....at we'll wait for another new movie of Thomas and friends

If it comes out on trailer and on theaters, I will think it's going to be great

Michael Bay's Thomas and Friends

I’m kind of glad this didn’t happen. It would’ve fucked up Thomases reputation even more than magic fail Road.

When I first heard about this movie in the early 2010s, I was very much looking forward to it and was disappointed it was canceled by Mattel but after finding out about the actual plot of this movie I am now glad it was canceled. I thought this movie would be a Railway Series accurate movie and the father and son would be Reverend Wilbert Awdry and Christopher but a lot of that turned out to be not what expected. I mean first the boy is named Johnny and the Island of Sodor is portrayed as a fantasy world in a different realm where magical talking trains are the inhabitants and there aren't any humans, not even Sir Topham Hatt basically like Narnia or Middle Earth from Lord of the Rings but talking trains are the fantasy creatures instead of Hobbits and elves. And another thing is that there would've unnecessarily been characters made up for the movie and not characters from the Railway series or TV series other than the core characters. I don't even like that Emily was gonna be in the movie, I was hoping that Duck, Oliver, Toad, Bear/D7101, Donald and Douglas would be in the movie and the villian diesels would be Diesel, D199/Spamcan and D261. Not some made up diesel villian named smoke let alone a diesel city in Sodor. Mattel is planning a Thomas movie directed and produced by Marc Forster the guy who directed the Winnie the Pooh movie Christopher Robin. Hopefully the Marc Forster film will be the Christopher Robin of Thomas and not Lord of the Rings with trains.

While I’m glad this wasn’t made, I still feel bad that many of Shane Acker’s projects were cancelled.

Serious question. How did we get this info about the cancelled movie? How did we know about it?

If the movie really got Released, neither Thomas franchise and its fanbase Will not survived from this massive nuke attack.

DieselD199 was write the whole time ten years ago, and I have to owe that to him in his Q&A response that he was indifferent about the WWII movie. This cancelled movie is a lot worse than I imagined and now, I'm happy it never came out at all.

I WANT AN ADULT THOMAS LIVE ACTION FILM SO BAD BUT NOT A WW2 FILM PLEASE

Calling all engines I loved that movie.

In My Opinion, I Dont Really like The Leaked Script & Here Is Why: The Overused Trope The Main Trope and Theme of the Film were the "Steam Vs Diesel" Trope In Which Smoke (The New Antagonist Of The Film who is just Diesel 10 2.0) Along with several Other Diesel Engines want to take over Sodor and have all steam engines scrapped. This is one of the film's main themes and I wouldn't say I like it one bit, I hate It. The steam vs diesel trope has ALREADY been used throughout the Thomas & Freinds Franchise numerous times. It has been used in the RWS, the model series, TATMR, CAE, DOTD, & a Couple of other times. The trope has been done numerous times and HIT was beating a dead horse and was gonna use it again because they couldn't come up with any original ideas other Then "OhH, sTeAmIeS gOoD & DiEsEls eViL" 2. The Usage Of WW2 Another reason I don't like the script of the film is how WW2 is portrayed and used. Now when it was first revealed that the film was going to take place during WW2, many people (including myself) thought that the film was going show what life was like during the war and how it affected people, and also how steam locomotives were used during the war. But when the script was shown, it turns out that WW2 wasn't the main part of the film and was just an allegory for a trope. The idea of having WW2 being an allegory for an overused trope is just stupid & the film missed an opportunity. Had this film included WW2 being the main situation, then the film could not only show people what life during the war was like but also show how terrible the war was and how it should never happen again. It would have been great if HIT kept the idea of having WW2 being the main situation and showing not just kids but teens and adults how terrible it was and giving them a social commentary & message about how wars and conflicts could lead to awful outcomes would not only make this film memorable solely cause the action and moments but also for the message of how wars would often lead to terrible events happening 3. Design & Characters Another reason why I don't like the film and it has to do with the introduction of characters and the designs of the engines. Now don't get me wrong, introducing and adding new characters isn't a bad thing at all but the problem was that HIT added new characters with the sole intention of making money off of toys based on them. Like the characters of Bertha, Puffing Billy, squeak, and Smoke were created with no idea or thought put into their personality, to be fair Bertha does have a personality and I do kinda approve of it but most if not all rest were created with no personality other then being good or bad or nice or evil. Another thing I also don't like about the film has to do with the designs of the faces. Now, even though we are never shown the designs of all the engines, It was said that the engine's faces would be changed to be more mechanical and morph into the engine's smokebox doors or grilles to "appeal to teen & adult audiences" which I find completely not needed. What was wrong with the gray faces? they were already perfect as is and yet HIT wanted to redesign to be more different and to make them look Cool & Edgy. They were trying to rip off Transformers by having the engines have the same face designs as the characters from the Transformers franchise. 4. (And The Final One) No Life / Humans Lastly, another reason why I don't like this film and it has to do with there being NO humans. Apparently According to the plot of the film, when Johnny (who is the main protagonist of the film) helps Edward with removing a sign from his wheels, "Edward takes Johnny on a ride through "other-worldly caves and waterfalls" to the Island of Sodor, a fantasy realm run entirely by trains, with no people." which basically implies that just like in TATMR, Sodor is a magical place with no people on the island, not even sir topham is mentioned or talked about(and ik sir topham hatt is in TATMR, it was just there was no life other than the engines and the real humans). This is also one of the main negative factors of this film, like if there are no humans on Sodor...How do the engines get built or repaired or hell? HOW DO THEY START UP WITHOUT HUMANS?!?! Like...do the engines themselves move on their own, can they fix each other or do they have flexible parts to move things by themselves without coupling up to them?....it just doesn't make any sense..... Overall, The Script For TAOT was not great at all. Now, the idea of a steampunk fantasy movie does sound interesting & could have potential if its own original thing. but since it was gonna be a Thomas production, yeah....we dodged a whole nuclear bomb with this one. This film would have copied the same problems TATMR had and would ruin the franchise as a whole again.

Theres a alternate universe where the movie would have been finished and people could've liked it Press X to doubt

This literally would’ve been Magic Railroad if it was edgy and had ZERO of the franchise essentials

It sounds like a bad movie, but at the same time I kind of want to see it if it was made.

The Puffing Billy and Smoke diesel villain characters really seem like the only interesting newbies made for this, don’t care much for the concepts of the others. Maybe they’d be interesting or maybe they’d just exist and be forgotten about later (the fact Misty Island Rescue is more realistic than this). I also don’t think this would’ve been remotely seen as canon to the actual show where even TATMR being canon would be more believable and likely.

It’s totally not trying to be like chugginton 🤓☝️

Funny enough, the concept was actually brought into light in the 2011 Film - The Little Engine That Could, and the back of the DVD cover mentions Thomas, do you think that there's a connection?

I said this before and I'll say it again, this seems like they're trying to capitalize on Transformers's success with the realistic approach to the characters, to the rivalry, and even to the edgy plot. This sounds way out of place for a Thomas film, almost like they're trying to reboot it of some sorts. Though it's safe to say we dodged a bullet on this one.

"GIVE THE OLD VIST

I can’t believe I’m paying this… But I’m glad this movie didn’t get released anytime soon, it would have killed the general perception and core appeal of Thomas the Tank Engine. If they did release I would lash out at fit for one and one reason only, the stupid and boring “Steamie vs Diesel” conflict. Seriously do the writers need to pull out our hair strings every time this shit happens. We’ve had this trope done hundreds of times with both sides being equal… (cough cough, CAE!, cough cough) Besides the point, steam engines and diesel engines don’t need another race war allegory when they’ve already settled that. Plus if this were to happen, diesels weren’t even built during the WW2 period and the whole “Steam engines are Gods and Diesels are Devils” is just cringey and so obnoxious.

Marc Forster's movie can't come soon enough...

So Mattel was right to cancel the movie

Tbh i think people are just over reacting over a movie, i mean, every Thomas models, proportions are always changing and the movie us very good in my opinion, but everyone hates the movie and when it comes to s12, it's a hate aswell..why can't people be chill over movies or seasons..

this movie is literally tatmr but directed by michael bay no really, the adventures of thomas was meant to cash in on bayverse transformers' success. that should explain a whole lot, doesn't it

Also it was leaked they’re was going to be an adult merch line for the film

am i the only one that likes the idea of the faces, like just for the movie ofc like a one time different change? and i do enjoy the idea of the movie and the character, but i wish the plot had the engines in the real world apart of the war some how, instead of them being in a magical island, i hope someone does create this movie with a different plot eventually

I see potential in that movie, but fails in every way possible, and I am planning to rewrite this cancelled movie soon

Meh still better than all engines go, surely if Mattel make a Thomas movie like the barbie movie, it won't be this plot.

Yeah it would of been Magic Railroad all over again, but I will admit that it would of been nice to see it complete in at least a clip or two.

My versions of The Adventures of Thomas are far more grounded than this.

They Should of made A duck & the Deisel engine movie Instead of this But The engine’s Look like The Body Designs As this Movie With The normal Faces Instead Of These Monstrosity Of Faces in this Movie with People And the Normal railway In the Books Instead Of Through waterfalls And over mountains. but I love the fact How Edward Just Kidnaps A kid

PSA I MADE A REWRITE OF THIS WHOLE THING!

8:44 I have that DVD.

I kinda wish squeak was a character I’m shocked there was never a handcar character in the show imagine the interaction between him and Winston

well atleast Victor Tanzig's Stories of War exists 🤷

Mattel, Thank you so much for pulling the plug on this garbage!

there's something else i don't like about movie: it's the font. doesn't it look ALOT like the font for how to train your dragon?

I thought they were going to do something good. But yet after looking at the script and plot of this movie, yea it's another magic railroad wannabe. Me personally I would think that Mattel could end up doing something for good. and I'm not a hater on Mattel for ruining the show. I just think they could've done better. But frequently yea that movie would've done what magic railroad did and flop.

Smoke's basis was probably unknown but I believe he could have been the EMD DDa40x diesel locomotive it was known to be one of the largest diesel locomotives in the world

This makes BWABA look like an academy award winning masterpiece.

When Calling all Engines did the concept better

It's a good concept in my opinion, just not for Thomas

Why does? Smoke look like a steam engine. If he's meant to be a diesel, why does he look more like a steam engine? Why does he have sirens and a funnel and he want more like a steam engine and have a mad Max train

3:09 Did they, really?

Well unlucky tug was right this was almost a repeat of TATMR but far worst

I'm sorry man, but I stopped watching after the part where they got to Sodor through caves and waterfalls.

I’m so glad that this was never released. TAOT misses the whole point of what made Thomas Unique, as a separate movie I think I’d enjoyed it more but it just isn’t a “Thomas” movie. But out of the new characters for the movie I would’ve liked to see Squeak since he would be the first character in Thomas to be a sentient handcar which could be very interesting, imagine a conversation with him and someone like Winston or Rusty

Noted: never make a thomas the tank engine cinematic movie

Marc forster is making Thomas and friends movie Mattel is maintenance what's going to have a release date 📅