benaboo Thomas And The Magic Railroad was one of my childhood favorites. I was a huge fan of Thomas The Tank Engine back in the day. I owned a bunch of the videos and toys. I remember one day thirteen years ago my Mom brought home this movie from the library and I was instantly intrigued by real humans on the cover with Thomas. I watched it and I loved it. Later on, I got it for Christmas and I've watched it countless times since. My family may have suffered a bit. Now that I'm older I can understand that it's not a very good movie, but there is definitely some good things about it. The scenes with the engines are magical, the soundtrack is great, the set designs for Sodor are really well done. This movie definitely has flaws though. It's way too Americanized, the acting is not the best, the voice acting is okay but nobody seems to own their role, but the two biggest crimes this movie commits are the film focuses way too much on the humans and not the engines and they left one of the most important characters Edward out of the movie. I want to see humans in this movie, but the amount of screen time given to them and the amount of screen time given to the engines should be reversed. And making a Thomas The Tank Engine movie without Edward is wrong! Edward was an important character and he should have been included in this movie! Not including him is like making an Arthur movie without Buster Baxter, or a Muppet movie without Fozzie Bear, or a Sesame Street movie without Oscar the Grouch. My point is it doesn't work and there's no excuse for not including him. Speaking of not including, this movie only includes the main engines from the show (save for Edward of course) plus Bertie, the four new engines, and two background characters. Come on, this is a Thomas The Tank Engine movie! Throw in, Duck, Oliver, Toad, Donald and Douglas, Diesel, and the Little Engines! Stop focusing so much on the humans and make the engines your main focus! One complaint this movie gets that I don't agree with at all is that the engines mouths don't move. Who cares!? Their mouths didn't move on the tv show! They did eventually but that was when the show became CGI animated and sucked. In regards to the acting performances, Alec Baldwin is over the top as Mr. Conducter. He plays his character like Mr. Rogers, Willy Wonka, and Nicolas Cage all in one person. It's not very good but he's at least entertaining. I do feel like the role could have benefited from being played by Robin Williams, Jim Carrey, or Will Ferrell. Peter Fonda's performance is nothing like Baldwin's. Peter Fonda is playing his role like he's in some sort of depressing Oscar winning drama. It's not bad, but this is Thomas The Tank Engine not Titanic. Mara Wilson is cute in this movie but at this point she wasn't the freaking adorable little girl she was in Mrs. Doubtfire. If this movie could have stayed true to it's British origins and waited several years to be made they could have cast Georgie Henley from Narnia in the role of Lily. That would have been better! People talk about how the movie would have been so much better if they didn't cut out the main villain. Sure it would have been better but I still don't think it would be an acclaimed masterpiece. Despite this movie's flaws I don't hate it. I don't think it's good but I loved it as a child and it still has a special place in my heart. I wouldn't mind collecting it on VHS and watching it occasionally. This movie gets 2.5 stars and a C+. If I wasn't a Thomas The Tank Engine fan it would most likely get a lower rating and if this was 13 years ago I would rank this up there with Forrest Gump.

TheVAFan Never in many a day have I ever seen a film so pitful, so awful, so gut bustingly bad, you would want to smash your TV up in anger and the sight of the dreadful thing.That thing is Thomas & The Ma *Coughcough*, sorry about that, I seem to have drank the wrong bottle of Cola. Ahh yes, Thomas & The Tragic Failroad.This should in no way under any circumstances be considered a film, instead it should be called a 90 minute patience test that would even make an avid fan of the franchise go bananas.Is there anything good though? Well yes there sort of is, Hummie Mann's score was good for the most part and I liked the voice acting. Some were good (like Neil Crone as Thomas), some were painfully miscast (Susan Roman as James).Still at least the voice actors put on better performances than any of the miserable, lifeless, so called human actors this film has to offer.These are not actors, these are dead lifeless vessels we're staring at.The one that really takes the cake is Peter Fonda, who is so awful in this film it's not even fun to watch.He looks and sounds so bored and his line delivery is so stilted, you'll be thinking he got drunk.How he didn't get a Razzie I'll never know? I know mate, those glory days of Easy Rider are way behind ya pal.Alec Baldwin's irritating as Mr Conductor and only Mara Wilson (in her sad final role) seems to be doing better but it's still not saying much.On the other hand, the villain Diesel 10 is crap, not menacing in the slightest, he's about as scary as a cute plush bear at a toy store. He and his useless comedy sidekicks are just here to be your typical clichéd Hollywood villains who laugh... a lot.Newcomer Lady is quite frankly dull as incredibly soggy dishwater, she's hardly in the film and when she does appear she STILL does nowt for most of her screen time! Talk about a useless pile of scrap if I've seen one.Plot's an old of cobbles too and the dialogue is so cringe worthy, it's not even funny. It's just depressing to listen to.It's so awful the train's mouths don't even move. It's like it's god damn ventriloquism! So crappy plot, useless villain, useless new character, lifeless performances all around (except for the voice cast) and ear bleedingly bad dialogue. Yep, another film to add in my bad books.I just love how everyone says that this should have gone straight-to-video.Nah guys, you're putting it way too mildly there. Straight-to-the nearest bin-where-it-should-never be seen again is a far more better option.No wonder Britt Allcroft buggered off after the film died at the box office.Now off to the scrapyard you go so I can never remember this film again.It's certainly caused a lot of *Snigger* confusion and delay.The Fat Controller certainly wouldn't approve. At least he ain't in it though.

devinemandate If you would like your brain to seize from a combination of nonsense, saccharine, and pity for the relatively famous actors phoning their way through one of the worst films you've ever seen, please watch Thomas and the Magic Railroad, a movie I'm ashamed I have the authority to dub easily the worst of the Thomas universe movies. One reels imagining the piles of drugs and vats of alcohol that Alec Baldwin and Peter Fonda (whose outstanding performance as a chronically depressed man who only wants to love the female train whom he failed to protect decades ago will leave you saying "...what?") consumed to get through this ordeal. Hopefully, the same was not necessary for Mara Wilson, slumming it up with her B+list brethren. Unwatchable for the intelligent youth (upon hearing of the cinematic horror I encountered, a work colleague said that his 4/5 year old son summed it up, "Dad, the story didn't even make any sense!"), but good enough for my kid, apparently. Blondie McMagicNephewOrWhateverOfAlecBaldwin is actually kinda trying, and Didi Conn does not shame herself. But these efforts cannot make a dent...Alec Baldwin talking like an insane person to a non-sentient bat and ball is a low point in a movie made entirely of nadirs.

Python Hyena Thomas and the Magic Railroad (2000): Dir: Britt Allcroft / Cast: Mara Wilson, Alec Baldwin, Didi Conn, Peter Fonda, Russell Means: Pathetic family film about adventure where Alec Baldwin states, "Now I've completely lost my sense of direction." That can explain this career move. He plays an idiot named Mr. Conductor who talks to a baseball bat. One wonders why that bat wasn't put to good inflicting a serious beating on Mr. Conductor. He blows a whistle and gold dust transports him to any destination. I could have used some during the screening. He enlists the help of Thomas the tank engine in locating the lost railroad. Peter Fonda plays a fellow who reads a book called The Romance of Railroads, which proves that he needs laid by anything other than an object. Director Britt Allcroft is given fifty cents for a budget that will result in the stupidest family film since Barney's Great Adventure. Mara Wilson was appealing in Matilda but she isn't doing herself any favors here. Didi Conn has a reputation for family fare but seeing her reduced to this sort of garbage is just shameful. These trains speak by moving their eyes and not their mouths. Perhaps the train was too embarrassed to have an actor like Fonda reduced to this garbage. Such dreadful production values should never be approved to anyone with an intelligence. This film is a totally contrived train wreck. Score: 1 / 10