Thomas the Tank Engine has a Japanese friend

[bikkuri bahn]

It's a straight to video film feature of the famous children's series, though unfortunately for some(especially perhaps for boardies for obvious reasons), now done in CGI rather than with models.  Anyway, notably a new character, Hiro, is introduced as a main character along with the regular crew.  Hiro is based on the JNR D51 type, though standard gauged and equipped with buffers and screw couplings to enable operation in the land of Sodor:

 

 

addt'l info:

 

http://ttte.wikia.com/wiki/Hero_of_the_Rails

[to2leo]

A pretty good story.  Now about CGI, so everything I see (rails, trains, sky, people) are all computer graphics?

[bikkuri bahn]

A pretty good story.  Now about CGI, so everything I see (rails, trains, sky, people) are all computer graphics?

 

 

I'm not 100% sure, but it may be partial CGI, with the faces being CG as well as the non-train characters and animals, to "better capture expressions" and have better lip-sync.  Otherwise the sets may be real.  It seems future episodes will be fully CGI, to reduce costs and such.

[David]

Watching the trailer it looks to be 100% CGI, and not particularly good CGI either - low detail scenary with repeating textures, and all the objects seem to be made from shiny rubber - neither looking or moving realisticly. The choice to use CGI seems to have been mainly to animate the faces and to make all the characters movement slapslick.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWX3CNgvMwQ

[Claude_Dreyfus]

Hmmm...

 

Now don't get me wrong, I am very fond of Japanese engines, but really I don't think this fits in with Thomas and his Friends. I am aware that Thomas the Tank Engine is hugely popular in Japan, so the provision of a Japanese friend is not too suprising; but the original stories have become so far diluted in the rights owners to pursue the mighty dollar that much of the charm has been irretrevably lost 

 

For those that don't know, Thomas follows that glorious tradition shared with Winnie the Pooh and Wind in the Willows (amongst others) that started life as a series of stories created by a father for his son. The creator, Rev Awdrey, tried to base these stories as much as possible on prototype practice. Even the engines have links to the slightly more unfashionable - Thomas was most likely based on a LBSCR E2 shunter, Gordon being an LNER A3 was probably the most high profile. Later stories have all but given up on this...

 

Along with the books, the original television series  - which used real models (gauge 1 I think) - also had a charm of its own. Narrated by Ringo Starr, to a whole generation his voice will be to Thomas as Alan Bennett is to Winnie the Pooh, Arthur Lowe was to the Mr Men and Kenneth Williams to Wind in the Willows (apologies to those on here that are unfamiliar with these names). A personal feeling I know, but the CGI adds nothing to it - neither to the expanded charactors (that said there were always cameo appearences in the originals, Flying Scotsman; Stepney).

 

I posted a piece on another forum along similar lines (which if anyone is interested is here http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php/topic/1116-should-asterix-hang-up-his-sword/), so I'm probably on one at the moment about this... 

[bikkuri bahn]

Yes, it's typical for these "new and improved" productions to lose much of the charm and freshness (and handmade quality) of the originals in the quest for profits.  But I suppose the main target audience won't notice the difference very much.  Thank goodness there are creative craftsmen still around that refuse to compromise in order to maximize returns (for example, Hayao Miyazaki).

[Martijn Meerts]

Miyazaki doesn't have to compromise.. Although, Ghibli should really get rid of Disney and that annoying Lasseter fella who seems to think he's gods gift to 3d animation =)

[westfalen]

They've been scraping the bottom of the plot barrel for the last few episodes now, they'd have been better off calling it quits when they ran out of the original stories, at least they were based on things that could have happened on the real railway. It's probably just as well the good Reverend Awdry can't see what's going on on the Island of Sodor these days. How many forgotten branchlines and abandoned engines can this place have?

[bc6]

That dvd looks 100% cgi which is a shame, it may as well be a railsim.

[grumbeast]

I couldn't agree more.  It's lost it's charm although I still enjoy it with my daughter.

 

I grew up reading the original books, I borrowed them so frequently from my little local library that the retired th and presented them to me

 

luckily I do have a compilation of the original books to read to Miranda

 

g

[ToniBabelony]

I've watched these series synchronised in Dutch by the (nationally)famous radio DJ 'Erik de Zwart', also a huge and notorious train fan. He even bought his own train set, the Hondekop (Mat' 54) 766: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erik_de_Zwart

 

It's most unfortunate that Thomas the Tank Engine is CG'ed, but it still is a good way for children to get to know railways and appreciate model railroading as a hobby and trains in general as a great machines to appreciate. It's a new era with new techniques, sometimes for the good, sometimes for the bad. I'm already happy these series aren't discontinued :) *probably the pressure of fans*

[westfalen]

I used to use the, "Yeah, it's a kid's show, but there's some good modelling work in it." excuse for watching Thomas, now what am I going to do.