Thomas & Friends: The Movie (DJverse)

Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends: The Movie (later known as Thomas & Friends: The Movie on home media) is a 2000 British children's adventure film written and directed by David Mitton and produced by Britt Allcroft and Phil Fehrle. The film features voices and narration by Michael Angelis in the United Kingdom version Alec Baldwin in the United States version. It is based on the British children's book series The Railway Series by the Reverend W. Awdry and it's televised adaptation Thomas & Friends by Allcroft. The film tells the story of Thomas, Percy and Mr. Guard/Mr. Conductor searching for the caretaker of an enchanted steam engine whilst The Fat Controller and the other engines on Sodor confront the ruthless Diesel 10 and P.T. Boomer.

Plans for a theatrical Thomas & Friends film started at Paramount Pictures, but ultimately never went through. Shortly afterward, Destination Films began funding the project and production started in 1998. Filming took place at Shepperton Studios in Shepperton, Surrey, England. In early stages, it originally started out as a combination of Thomas & Friends and Shining Time Station; a live-action American series also created by Allcroft that featured redubbed episodes from the former series spliced with original live-action segments, but later turned into a more straightforward feature-length Thomas & Friends film.

Thomas & Friends: The Movie premiered at the Odeon Leicester Square in the United Kingdom on July 9, 2000. It received generally positive reviews from critics upon release, mainly from the UK, with praise to it's story, intense action and faithfulness to its source material. However, the film was a box office bomb, grossing $19.7 million worldwide against a production budget of $19 million; Allcroft resigned from her company in September 2000 due to the film's poor box office results. HiT Entertainment acquired the company two years later, including the television rights. In October 2020, it was announced that a live-action/computer-animated Thomas & Friends film is in development at Mattel, with Marc Forster directing.

Plot
TBA

Development
In the early 1990s, the character of Thomas the Tank Engine; adapted from the Rev. W. Awdry's Railway Series into the TV series Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends, created by Britt Allcroft; was at the height of his popularity following three successful seasons. At the same time, Shining Time Station; an American series that combined episodes from the previous series with original live-action characters and scenarios, also created by Allcroft along with Rick Siggelkow; was made, and also successful. As early as 1994, prior to the launch of Thomas's fourth series, Britt Allcroft had plans to make a feature film based on both of these series, and would make use of the model trains from Thomas and the live-action aesthetic of Shining Time Station. She later decided against it in order to stay consistent with the TV series (Thomas & Friends).

In February 1996, Britt Allcroft was approached by Barry London, then vice-chairman of Paramount Pictures, with an idea for the Thomas film. Britt signed a contract to write the script for the film with the working title Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends: The Movie. London's interest is thought to have stemmed from his three-year-old daughter, who was enthralled by Thomas. According to a press release, filming was to take place at Shepperton Studios with the theatrical release date set for 1997. However, later that year, after London left the company, Paramount shelved the plans for the film. This left Allcroft to seek other sources of funding. Discussions with PolyGram about the film were held, but not for long, because of the company being in the middle of a corporate restructuring and sale.

In the Summer of 1998, during Series 5 of Thomas's production, Barry London became Chairman of the newly founded Destination Films (owned by Sony Pictures). He renewed his interest in the project, and Destination Films became the main financial backer and studio for the film.

Extended Cut
After the MPAA and BBFC both gave the film a PG-Rating and test audiences deemed some scenes too scary, Britt had eleven minutes and 24 seconds of footage removed to secure a U-Rating in the UK and a G-Rating in the US. The original 105-minute cut; which had several deleted, alternate, or longer scenes wasn't released publicly until the 2020 Blu-Ray release.

Release
Thomas & Friends: The Movie was released theatrically on July 14, 2000, in the UK and Ireland, and on July 26, 2000, in the US and Canada. The film was released later in Australia on December 14, 2000, and in New Zealand on April 7, 2001. Before that, the film premiered at the Odeon Leicester Square; for the purpose, a steam locomotive, no. 47298 painted to resemble Thomas, was brought to the cinema by low loader on July 9, 2000. National press coverage was low, as many journalists were instead focusing on the launch of the book, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, for which a special train called "Hogwarts Express" would run from July 8 to 11. In September 2020, it was announced that the film would be re-released in cinemas on October 24, 2020, for the film's 20th anniversary.

Home media
Thomas & Friends: The Movie was originally released onto VHS and DVD in the UK by Icon Home Entertainment on October 19, 2000, and in the US by Columbia TriStar Home Video on October 31, 2000. In 2007, the film was released as part of a double feature with The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland. It was also released as part of a triple feature with The Adventures of Milo and Otis and The Bear.

A re-release of the film on DVD and Blu-ray as a 20th anniversary edition from Shout! Factory and under license by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment was released on September 29, 2020. The 20th anniversary edition includes the 105-minute extended cut of the film.

Box office
The film grossed $19.7 million worldwide against a production budget of $19 million. During its second weekend of screening in Britain, it took in £170,000.

Critical response
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 75% based on 68 reviews. The site's critical consensus reads, "Thomas' first feature-length journey will definitely satisfy fans of the British Tank Engine." On Metacritic, the film has a 60 out of 100 based on 23 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A-" on an A+ to F scale. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film two and-a-half star out of four, and wrote "(the fact) That Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends: The Movie made it into theaters at all is something of a mystery. This is a production with 'straight to video' written all over it. Otherwise, it's still harmless fun. Kids who like the Thomas books will definitely like it though." While he admired the models, art direction and story, he criticized how the engines' mouths did not move when they spoke. Nell Minow of Common Sense Media gave the film four out of five stars and writing that it "will please Thomas fans and children of all ages".

Video game
A video game based on the film, titled Thomas & Friends: Print Studio, was released in the UK. Published by Hasbro Interactive, it was released for PC on August 25, 2000.

Sequels
On July 1, 2000, it was reported that Destination Films began development on a sequel, but it was quietly cancelled. However, HiT Entertainment would later release a direct-to-video film titled Thomas & Friends: Calling All Engines!, released on 6 September, 2005 in the US and October 3, 2005 in the UK. Starting from 2008 and ending in 2018, more feature-length movies; The Great Discovery, Hero of the Rails, Misty Island Rescue, Day of the Diesels, Blue Mountain Mystery, King of the Railway, Tale of the Brave, The Adventure Begins, Sodor's Legend of the Lost Treasure, The Great Race, Journey Beyond Sodor and ''Big World! Big Adventures! were all released direct-to-video, but also got limited theatrical releases (with the exception of The Adventure Begins'').

Upcoming live-action/computer-animated film
HiT said that its theatrical division would be piloted by a Thomas film. It was originally slated for a late 2010 release, but in September 2009, it got pushed to Spring 2011. As of January 2011, the release date had been pushed back further, to 2012. The initial draft of the script was written by Josh Klausner, who has also said that the film would be set around the times of World War II; Will McRobb and Chris Viscardi also contributed to writing the script. On June 8, 2011, it was then announced that Shane Acker; who directed 9, would direct the live-action adaptation entitled The Adventures of Thomas, with Weta Digital working on the film's visual effects. However, the film was never released. On October 6, 2020, it was announced that World War Z director Marc Forster would be directing a new live-action/animated Thomas & Friends movie.