General Thomas and Friends thread

yamatadragon

Thought I'd throw this out there for any other adult Thomas and Friends fans on the forums here. So with Thomas and Friends under a new writing team and a new Animation Studio (Arc Productions), Season 17 of the Series is off to a great start. I can certainly say that it's better than the past few Seasons. Andrew Brenner and the new writing team are doing great at the newer episodes. They even brought back Duck, Bill & Ben.

Plus the new movie, King of the Railway, was excellent. Loved this line the most:

! Toby: Henry's broken down!
! Gordon: Don't tell me he needs Special Coal again.
! Toby: No Gordon. That was fixed years ago.

Cyborg009

i loved that show. i collected both the trains and the vhs' when i was a kid. classic

Pochipochi

mahi

This post is deleted!

Cyborg009

This post is deleted!

Sorikai33

I heard they had gotten a new writing team. I already know that Brenner will be a better head writer than Sharon Miller was, since he wrote some of the stories for the Thomas magazines back in the 80s and 90s (Allcroft and Mitton actually used one of them, Henry's Forest, back in the 3rd series). This writing team has much stronger ties to the Awdry era, and that will do wonders for the series moving forward.

yamatadragon

I will give Sharon Miller props for Blue Mountain Mystery, but Misty Island Rescue was a terrible movie. It seems that the tunnel to Misty Island has been boarded up if you look closely in the episode "The Thomas Way".

Sorikai33

I agree, Blue Mountain Mystery was very good, even if the bar was set pretty low by the previous offerings.

Anyway, I just got around to watching some of the recent episodes, and I must say the way they handled Duck's reintroduction was fantastic. Calling him Montague, showing that model photo of him, getting his original personality down (which I hope the new writing team will slowly bring back to all the characters). I really couldn't ask for more. Bill and Ben's return was pretty good too. It's really great to see these old characters returning to the fold, and I hope it continues in the coming seasons.

yamatadragon

Just picked up the newest DVD and I was blown away by a few things. First was the main menu using the tune that plays at the end of the episode Thomas and Percy's Mountain Adventure (or Thomas and Percy's Christmas Adventure). Secondly, in one of the learning segments, Sir Topham Hatt said that Thomas has a "short, stumpy funnel", and Third, Mr. Perkin's reading "The Flying Kipper " with some illustrations from The Railway Series on screen. Also, it appears that Diesel is slowly getting back to his old self, James pulling The Flying Kipper and introducing Porter.

Sorikai33

Nice throwback to season 6 with Salty at the quarry. Also glad to see the troublesome trucks (or foolish freight cars as I fondly remember them) gaining prominence again.

Gotta say though, one of the things I was really hopeful for with the writing team change was the doing away with catchphrases. As such, Sir Topham Hatt really needs to stop saying "confusion and delay" so much. It's a good line, sure, but when he says it every episode, it's gonna get old and grating quickly.

yamatadragon

Yeah it seems that in the later episodes of the season they started using C&D like crazy. Just glad they toned down with the "Special Special" crap. I hated it everytime it was said. Everything was a special. Why can't a regular job just be that? A regular job? I also miss the "violent" crashes with the trucks as well. I hope that next Season will tone down with the C&D and other lines that are overused. I'm also curious about that "World War II" Thomas movie that supposed to be by Shane Acker and the next film/special "Tale of the Brave".

Also for Lulz:

yamatadragon

Trailer for the next movie Tale of the Brave:

Few things to take away from this:

Oliver and Toad are BACK!! Hell Yeah!
New characters: Gator, Reg, Marion and Timothy
Looks like the China Clay Works are back
Looks like the Scrap Yard is coming back
Porter said "Runaway Cars!" so hopefully, maybe, the runaway cars/trucks will start to slowly come back

Not really much else going on but man I am so hyped for this. Hopefully with Oliver and Toad returning, we might see Duck's Branch Line make a comeback as well. I'm also curious as to why Cranky latched onto the ship. Season 18 is starting in April with the US Wal-Mart exclusive DVD Trouble on the Tracks:

!

Coming out April 8th.

No Maam

Insert mention of train being walled in for not wanting to run, and Ringo saying he well and truly deserved it, cause someone has to.

Never had much exposure to the show beyond that.

MetaMario

Ugh I'll never get used to the CGI.

@No:

Insert mention of train being walled in for not wanting to run, and Ringo saying he well and truly deserved it, cause someone has to.

Never had much exposure to the show beyond that.

Really? Never heard the awesome narration of George Carlin?

yamatadragon

@MetaMario:

Ugh I'll never get used to the CGI.

Really? Never heard the awesome narration of George Carlin?

I was a bit skeptical of the CGI animation at first but it does allow for a variety of things that the model-era just couldn't pull off. I've grown to enjoy it more now since Andrew Brenner took over as head writer.

George Carlin was a great narrator. Always liked how he could do all those different voices.