Quick TV History

In the 1980’s a “Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends” series began. In the UK the show was narrated by Ringo Starr and the US version was narrated by George Carlin (Alec Baldwin also narrates later as well). Over the years Thomas and Friends have gone through lots of changes and has hundreds of episodes and a seemingly endless assortment of toys and books. For the TV shows there are essentially 3 generations of the shows and my son refers to them as:

• Story Thomas
• Talking Thomas
• All Engines Go

Wanted to go ahead and break those down so you know what to expect as well as what to try and avoid. I’ll keep the terminology my son uses as it does kind of highlight the differences.

Story Thomas

This is really the Thomas & Friends Classic and makes up the first 12 seasons of the series. The series uses model trains and the stories are all told and acted by the Narrator. In the earlier days my son loved this as the show was slower in pace so it was easy to follow and was fairly calming.

Positives:

• Amazing Narrators
• Slower Pace of the show
• Short Episodes

Negatives:

• The models and pace make it seem outdated compared to the other shows your kid is watching
• The characters don’t have much personality and the character set isn’t super diverse in terms of perspectives
• Very in to be useful engines, so it can seem slightly harsh by todays standards

Talking Thomas

This is still part of the Thomas & Friends Classic and then goes on to encompass Thomas Big World Big Adventures as well as tons of little movies. This all starts in season 12 when the show switches to computer animation and moves away from the models. It keeps a narrated base but there are now voice actors for each train so they all have a little more personality. For the movies there is also lots of music and my son loves the songs (we even have a Spotify playlist for them).

Positives:

• Still has great narration to set-up the stories
• Diversity of characters
• There is a companion podcast
• Adds some updated and original music to the franchise
• Short Episodes

Negatives:

• A little crazy with Thomas Traveling around the world (like who brings a train to another country)
• Huge roster of trains, so it’s hard for a parent to keep up since you aren’t really sitting watching the show

All Engines Go

All Engines Go is kind of like a re-imaging of the series. It strips down the cast to some basic characters, makes them kids with Gordon as their Mentor and then kind of whitewashes everything. It’s a super basic show that’s pretty easy for kids to grow out of. Essentially it seems to be written by the same people that wrote SpaceBalls 2 The Quest for More Money.

Positives:

• The Show has Thomas and if you’re reading this your kid likes Thomas…
• There are some new songs your kids might enjoy

Negatives:

• Disregards the appeals of the original Thomas series and makes it just like any other show out there
• Super Whitewashed (like no accents on characters that are foreign etc)
• Super basic characters so not a lot to be learned from any of the lessons
• A complete money grab to get kids to want to buy things

Verdict

Stick with the Thomas and Friends Classic series. All Engines go is just another show out there built on the root of trying to move merchandise. The characters and story aren’t compelling there and it doesn’t really spark your Childs imagination like the Classic Series does.

If you’re looking for some preschooler TV shows I do like check out my other post here! Also let me know your Favorite Thomas TV memories.