Arkwright is All Right!

North Americans picking up HiT Entertainment's lastest DVD release: Team Up with Thomas will notice a significant change in the disc's content. For the first time since HiT's takeover of the Thomas franchise, we're introduced to a live-action host, Mr. Arkwright - resident of Sodor and one of Sir Topham Hatt's engine drivers.

Driver Arkwright is played by Canadian-born actor Robert G. Slade, who has extensive theatre experience and has dabbled in television, movies and radio. Now a resident of London, England, Robert has recently lent his talents as a host of sorts for two scheduled DVD releases of Thomas & Friends. Robert's 2nd appearance as Mr. Arkwright will be in the upcoming July 14, 2009 DVD release of Percy and the Bandstand (North America).

In his debut, Mr. Arkwright is tasked by Sir Topham Hatt to construct a replica of Thomas made from cardboard boxes for his grandchildren's birthday party. Each stage of the engine's construction is interjected by a Series-12 episode: Heave-Ho Thomas, James Works it Out, Tram Trouble and Push Me-Pull You.

Robert Slade's performance as Driver Arkwright delivers a very charming, warm and quite likeable character to the audience. The episode lead-ins and follow-ups are reminicent of Shining Time Station's Mr. Conductor persona. Slade's comedic moments of struggling with the engine schematics, intense concentration of the task at hand, down to taking a lunch break were a treat to watch.

Robert's British accent also added credibility to the role - let us never forget that the Island of Sodor is indeed part of the United Kingdom. Speaking of which, seeing the framed classic 1992 version of the Isle of Sodor map hanging on the wall was endearing, and that portrait of the Fat Controller in pose is now on my want list :) The Engine Crew lounge set, with its various antiques and railway artefacts also added a degree of authenticity.

If HiT Entertainment considers the introduction of Mr. Arkwright a proof-of-concept experiment, then I'd venture to say that it was a success. I understand that Mr. Arkwright has been initially only introduced to North American audiences. We hope that opportunity will also be given to UK fans. If there's any message that I'd like to convey to HiT, it's that the premise of a live host to introduce and summarize the episode lessons has a lot of potential and should be explored further.

My best as always :)

Jim (TT)

TATMR Director's Cut - Reality Check

We recently came into contact with an anonymous former crewmember who was very intimate with the Director's Cut of Thomas and the Magic Railroad. This person does not wish to contribute anything to the fansite, but was kind enough to provide us with a reality check regarding the prospect of ever seeing a public release of the Director's Cut.

As Britt Allcroft mentioned to Ryan very early on in the DC Release Campaign, the Director's Cut of the movie exists with a temp music track. A temp track - as the name implies is 'temporary' and consists of selected snippets of music added to the footage to aid producers and later the composer, convey the scene's emotion to the audience. It's a real jumble of music and scores from other films and artists. Therein lies the problem and it's the copyright issues associated with what's on the DC's Temp track that complicates things.

I was told that it would be prohibitively expensive to restore the DC and virtually impossible to obtain clearance for all of the music that was used in the temp mix. In other words, there's next to no chance of ever seeing a public DVD release of the Director's Cut.

We know that fans, as do we, will find this news disappointing. But it is an honest assessment shared by an authoritative source which we are glad and fortunate to receive. No fault to anyone, it's just one of those quirks of dealing with copyright law in the film industry.

In our opinion, replacing the existing temp track with the existing theatrical track with suitable 'filler' music would also require a lot of post-production work and be costly. The best we can hope for, if HiT Entertainment and Sony reps are reading this - is to assemble a montage of the deleted scenes with the temp track removed onto the 'Extras' section of a possible 10th anniversary DVD. I believe fans would be happy to see that -- better than nothing at all, we daresay, even if it may be wishful thinking at this stage.

In the end we still have our research with still more to come with articles and interviews, including a fairly detailed exporation of the filming locations on the Isle of Man, Pennsylvania and Toronto. That we can be and are proud of :)

Best as always!

James

SiF YouTube

Normally I take a dim view of YouTube and the reputation that the Thomas Online Community there has, however, more recently I've found my most positive views of YouTube since I joined up in 2006.

The SiF Youtube account - SiForumsandFansite - which is aimed at promoting the Forum and Fansite launched it's first proper video, an advertisement for SiF, which has boosted the profile of the forum and the YouTube Channel itself enormously. We'd like to extend a debt of gratitude to the people who have taken the time to watch and absorb the positive message associated with it - and more importantly, signed up to the forum to become fully-fledged members after seeing what's on offer. As a result we have seen our subscribers and friends on YouTube grow and comments have been very positive. :)

Thank you all for your continuing support and we hope to have more YouTube related work on the Channel soon!

The May Blog

SiF Blog For May

SiF YouTube Advertisement
Given the fact that we're constantly on the look out for new members - we're going to be promoting the Forum and Fansite a lot more than we have been in order to reach out to those not currently affiliated with the existing Thomas Online Community. Our first proper advert launched on 12/05/09. We're hoping to bolster our SiF YouTube Channel more effectively in the coming months with exclusive content, which includes Kate669's narrative of Christopher Awdry's Whistle Trouble adaptation set to pictures done by Christopher Signore.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1-CLOlfYv8&feature=channel_page

Two New Moderators
Jaquin has left the forum and the online world for four months to carry out work in Iceland. Therefore, two moderators are being trialled in his place - Chris the Xelent and Jimbobdunnie - in order to give them both moderating experience on SiF. It's currently being reviewed whether or not one of them will take over from Jaquin on a permenant basis.

ERS Overhaul Progressing Well
The ERS Overhaul is currently in the throes of completing alterations to the first eighteen volumes of the series. These will include rewrites of the original work in the library and some brand new volumes too, this phase will include the introduction of a Miniature Railway, the reinstatement of part of the Mid Sodor Railway as a Heritage Railway, and Peter Sam's 10 year residency at the Talyllyn Railway.

We're also hoping to have some of them narrated by members of the forum and uploaded to the Fansite as part of a 'Best of the Extended Railway Stories' feature.

There will be an accompanying 'ERS Database' Website launched by the autumn. So far, we're drawing up new history to make our own 'Island of Sodor-style guide' for the Extended Railway Series. Loey Machan and Simierski have both given invaluable input and ideas toward the development of Sodor in the post-Privitisation era, which has been sorely missed by Christopher Awdry, given the tangles with Egmont. However, what's coming soon will make the ERS more exciting than ever. :)

Sign-Ups Have Resumed

Sign-Ups to Sodor Island Forums have once again resumed as of 27/03/2009.

On behalf of the staff team, we truly appreciate the patience and courtesy of non-members who want to become part of our fantastic community, and hope that the forum will live up to expectations when you do sign up over the next few days or weeks.

The SiF Blog will hopefully begin more regular and chatty blogs again in due course, we apologise for the lack of updates here and on Sodor Island Fansite, but this has been due to other priorities taking precedence. 'Work Before Pleasure' as one might term it.

Admin On Leave

G'Day all,

Just a quick note for those of you who aren't aware of what's happening to our Fearless Leader Ryan. For the moment, actual real life is taking precedence over administrating a forum and fansite, so he is taking a sabbatical for a short while. He will of couse be back in due course, but for the time being Ciremi and myself are de facto admins. I don't think we'll change anything too much - the ship has been sailing quite nicely, why spin the wheel into an iceberg?

So that's the story in case you were wondering. Mind, that's the abridged version - the long version has heroic battles, beautiful maidens and the occasional robot... no, wait, that's Star Wars. Never mind.

If anything new and exciting comes up, we will be sure to let you know. :)

Take care of yourselves, and have good ones one and all,
Clay :)

Momentous Magic Railroad Moment

A Truly Great Discovery
First off, I'd like to thank Jord87 of YouTube for providing the world with the opportunity that we have sought for two solid years to see Doug Lennox perform (albeit without sound) as P.T. Boomer throughout the chase scenes of Thomas and the Magic Railroad. I'm sure that Doug himself would have relished the chance to see snippets of what he regards as some of his finest acting work done until that point.

For the likes of Troublesome Truck and myself, this has been an opportunity we have dreamt of since February 2007 since we began our research, and have been very grateful for the opportunity to see any of the deleted scenes, with hopes of getting the Magic Railroad project back on track again as this is proof that the footage still DOES exist, and could possibly aid Britt's hopes of letting people see the film she envisioned all along.

Magic Railroad De-railment Moment...
However, childish pester-power has put paid to this opportunity, and the user has withdrawn the video from YouTube with a plethora of rude and greedy demands pouring in for the video footage to be uploaded for download. While we do appreciate the euphoria and excitement that can surround something like this, it can be damaging to persons like ourselves who are actively trying to make a difference here and participate in the revival. What I and others observed from the comments posted to Jord87's account was downright sickening, and the ones who continually badgered and annoyed the guy to upload more footage should be ashamed of themselves.

Loey Machan has asked Jord87 to disclose what he can on the video, but given the way in which members of the YouTube Thomas Community has behaved, I would not be surprised if he kept his current stance and ignored our pleas in spite of the evidence of dedicated research work we've done throughout the last two years. However, hopefully, what we have should speak for itself and we ought to prevail regardless... but only time will tell.