Thomas the Tank Engine

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Hooray!! ! I never saw the show (it wasn't on when I was little) but he just... he's freaky. He looks evil, scary, that grin on his face. That leer. It's just not natural, the face is too human, and it's axe murderer type human, to boot...

yeah, but the tiny ringo and carlin were great.

My son loved Thomas the Tank Engine and loved trains too. I've been very fond of trains for a long time. I have travelled a lot on them (relatively speaking for an American).

I loved Shining Time Station as a child. I was probably between 7 and 10 when I watched the show regularly. If Thomas was on I would probably still stop and watch it. I still have a small plastic Thomas toy and a stuffed animal type Thomas on display in my bedroom.

I loved Thomas the Tank Engine. I still have a ton of my old toys from it...

I thought this was common knowledge and maybe at least partly the reason for your avatar

My son has a book called "How do you feel, Thomas?" which seems to have been written with advice from the National Autistic Society (UK).
They also sell zip pulls and bookmarks

Isn't it weird that kids that have Aspergers show great enthusiasm for a mechanical system... that has a human face on. Quite symbolic.

I can see how social ability may have been substituted with a superior understanding of systems.

My husband cracks up when he hears George Carlin narrating these stories. I was unaware of just how foul mouthed (and funny) a stand up comic he was in his "adult" life. It is almost like a split personality.

One minute, he is discribing two animals from difference species having "relations" in some rather explicit language.

The next, "now Thomas, only useful engines get to pull the... You have been very naughty indeed!"

He is no Bill Cosby...

Shining Time Station was a good show as well.

I was surprised to learn just what George Carlin was famous for, but I find he's effective whether he's talking about talking machines or the Seven Dirty Words . He's probably been the best American narrator of the show so far. Alec Baldwin had his moments, and Michael Brandon... Well, he was a bit better before HiT Entertainment took over . Michael Angelis did a really good job narrating the British versions since Ringo left (except maybe for the past three years). Of course, Ringo was classic .

Nah, the avatar's just a display of fandom.

Out of them all, I liked Carlin the best!

I wonder though if it is because the first episodes I saw, where Carlin. I think that when the "voice changed" I could not adjust.

What do you mean by "brittish and american?" Do they dub the episodes? are some US based, others Brittish?

I am thinking, "fat controller" is brittish, "sir topham hat" is american? Or Vice Versa?

For the first two seasons, Ringo Starr did a British dub and an American dub.
For the American dub, The Fat Controller became Sir Topham Hatt, Trucks became Freight Cars, Lorries became Trucks, et cetera.
The American dub also toned down some of the harsher lines. For example:

The Sad Story of Henry:
US: "How long do you think it will be before Henry overcomes his fear of the rain and decides to journey out again?"
UK: "But I think he deserved his punishment. Don't you?"

Thomas' Train
US: "And for a long time afterwards the other engines would say 'Look! There's Thomas who wanted to pull a train, but forgot about the coaches!' But Thomas had already learned never to make the same mistake again."
UK: "And for a long time afterwards the other engines would say 'Look! There's Thomas who wanted to pull a train, but forgot about the coaches!'"

Trouble in the Shed:
US: "'We won't shunt like little tank engines!'"
UK: "'We won't shunt like common tank engines!'"

Off the Rails:
US: "'And Gordon? Oh, leave him where he is. We'll get him out later.'"
UK: "'And Gordon? Oh, leave him where he is. We haven't got time to bother with him now."

The list goes on, but after the show stopped using Awdry's stories and became more "child-friendly", these sort of changes have been fewer (although occasionally the narrators take some "artistic license"). From Series 3 on (after Ringo left) Michael Angelis has narrated the UK version. The episodes have been dubbed for the US by George Carlin (Series 3 and 4), Alec Baldwin (Series 5 and 6), and Michael Brandon (Series 7 through now).

Yeah, I'm pretty well-versed. You shouldn't ask me about something I'm obsessed with.

WoW!!

That is very interesting. Thomas has always been a "minor" obsession of mine too. I think from now on, I am going to seek out the British versions. Being in Canada, we we tend get things 1/2 in brittish format, 1/2 in American.

I find the American dumbed down a bit.

Harry potter is the same way. We only get the Brittish version though. It is kind of funny though, because there are some words we don't use that the Brittish do, using the American instead.

Flashlight is one of them. The Brittish use "torch". For the longest time, I could not understand why HP was reading under his covers with a "torch". That sounded Dangerous! It must have been a magical torch that did not catch fire to the sheets!

I loved Thomas the Tank Engine when I was a little kid. I was also very much into trains generally.

I've actually found that the Region 1 Season 1 DVD (The Early Years) uses the British narration and episode titles (Possibly for consistency, as Ringo never narrated the US version of "Whistles and Sneezes").



Aye, I always prefer the original versions of books / movies, as I consider them more "pure", even if I don't know what things mean .

My son just caught me reading this thread and started bouncing and shouting "It's Thomas!" when he saw your avatar

I met the Reverend Awdry who wrote the books and we saw each other and smiled.