Whatever Happened to The Adventures of Thomas?

August 28, 2020


Before we get started, we first need to address what The Adventures of Thomas is for those unaware. The Adventures of Thomas was meant to be a theatrical Thomas and Friends movie directed by Shane Acker, who you may know as the director of 9, and written by Will McRobb and Chris Viscardi, the creators of The Adventures of Pete & Pete and writers of Snow Day and the first Alvin and the Chipmunks. Other than that, there wasn’t much information released on the film other than its story: which was meant to take place during WWII as we see a father and his son get seperated from each other. The son then winds up in the Island of Sodor, a place in which his father visited as a kid but forgot entirely. There was also talk of a steam vs. diesel showdown somewhere in the mix. The film was going to be a live action and animation hybrid, with the visual effects done by Weta Digital, who supplied some of the visual effects for films like Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (which Shane Acker also worked on, coincidentally enough), Avengers: Endgame and Aquaman. And yeah, that’s pretty much all we know about it.

So what happened to it? Well, it has been reported that a script for the movie is complete and still in HiT Entertainment’s offices. All we ever saw of the movie was a sizzle reel of the logo and a Rip-O-Matic trailer containing a few clips from films like The Polar Express and Bedtime Stories to display what the movie was supposed to look like. But after all the delays, what caused the film to be canned? Well, there could be two reasons for this: one of which being the constant delays. The film was supposed to be released in late 2010. However, for some unknown reason, it was held back to spring of 2011…but then again to 2012, until finally getting a secure spot in 2014. However, due to the constant delaying, it can be assumed that the crew just got tired of the project and gave up on it entirely. In fact, rumors speculate that Shane Acker himself got tired of the project, so this further helps my case.

The other reason why it was shut down altogether was because of the reworking of the Thomas and Friends brand back in 2013. That was around the time Mattel had just entered the scene, and they had one goal in mind: revamping Thomas and Friends. By that, I don’t mean changing up the entire series, that comes around five years later, I mean fixing up the problems of the previous seasons. This means hiring a new team and throwing out some old ideas that didn’t meet Mattel’s standards, which could also include The Adventures of Thomas.

But one question still remains: should they make another Thomas movie? The brand is popular enough to warrant a theatrically released movie, and adaptations of TV series aimed at a younger demographic can still prove to be major hits both critically and financially. In fact, the movie doesn’t need to be live action like The Adventures of Thomas or even Thomas and the Magic Railroad. As we know, Thomas and Friends is distributed by Universal nowadays in the US, who are the proud owners of two major animation studios: DreamWorks and Illumination. Why not have them handle the movie? The possibilities for a true Thomas and Friends movie feel endless. if we can get film adaptations of Teen Titans Go!, Paw Patrol and My Little Pony, then why not make another Thomas and Friends movie? But alas, that concludes the tale of The Adventures of Thomas. Maybe the film will be picked up again some day. Maybe Thomas and Friends will have another theatrical movie greenlit. Who knows? We’ll just need to wait and see.

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