Interesting cautionary tale about the loss of control of your creations. Now I know why JK Rawlings so jealously guards the rights to Harry Potter.
The article does make an interesting point. I have a grandson who loves Thomas and will bring videos to watch when visiting. The latest one that I’ve seen was a story involving the resurrection of a Japanese D-51 Mikado named Hiro who had been rusting away in the woods for years and the various trials and tribulations involved in that. I was a bit taken aback by the story since the British use the same gauge we do and the Japanese used 3’6" gauge (they started building 4’ 8 1/2" gauge track for their high speed lines in the early 60’s). My grandson thoroughly enjoyed the story, but I was left wondering what the creators were thinking when they introduced a 42 inch gauge engine from the other side of the world to Sodor for no real rhyme or reason.
Thomas is quintessentially English. That’s part of the charm of Awdry’s books and it’s a shame to see that lost. It’s almost as if someone came up with a Winnie the Pooh story that involved Godzilla or Mothra.
Andre
Oh man, THAT i’d pay some serious money to see !!! [swg]
Didja ever see “Bambi Meets Godzilla”?
Apparently, it’s made it to YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAVYYe87b9w
Andre
Hahaha that went exactly as I guessed from the moment it started.
As for the Thomas thing - it’s an absolute disgrace. I will stop there because this kind of thing is polluting every aspect of our lives and talking about it gets me ticked enough to write things that will get me banned.
–Randy
I liked the original Thomas books (and my grandkids love them) but the current turn of events leaves me with bad feelings.
As someone who models 1067mm gauge Japanese prototypes (and has a D51 on the roster) I am very conscious of gauge mismatches. Too bad that somebody didn’t hit the TV writers aside the head with a rolled up copy of The Gauge Sage’s comprehensive list of railroad gauges old and new.
Oh, well, there’s nothing so good that the technologically challenged can’t mess it up…
(Please, folks, don’t tell those yoyos about the C11 that was modified into SL-Man a decade or so ago!)
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
The movie with the Japanese engine didn’t sit well with me because it wasn’t models and the role of humans seemed to be completely removed. It felt really weird. I liked that previous things at least felt connected to the real world, instead of sprawling multi-track lines that would have made the PRR gasp.
Hey if I have to sit there and watch it with the little fellow I might as well at least pay attention.