Thomas, CGI and Canada

Written by Ryan

A Two-Sided Coin and Divided Opinion

In the last few days, the wider Thomas community has been greeted with some news that HIT Entertainment is due to move Thomas to a Canadian Production facility in order to produce the show in a brand new CGI medium. Sad news indeed, but nothing we can do about that. We in the SiF Staff and ViP group knew about this change through a source close to the set weeks beforehand. Again, the initial reaction was not favourable, and I myself even went as far as to say that it's the final nail in the coffin. We didn't feel it would be worth releasing the information to the general membership this early in the proceedings, but now that it is out there, there's very little we can do other than let things take their course.

It's been a mixed bag with the members of SiF, and largely the feeling is downbeat, but there are views of optimism for the new production. No-one is over the moon about it to say the least, but here, I'd like to express and opinion and give a rather extended monologue on the situation as it stands.

HIT Entertainment's Reasons For Doing So

If you check HIT News Online, you will see the transisition of Angelina Ballerina from cartoon to CGI. The standard of work is absolutely fantastic and I'd even say it was an improvement for them. This isn't going to be your bog-standard, cheapo CGI, it's going to be High-Definition quality CGI, and HIT will probably invest a lot into it to make sure that everything is done well.

However, this is a route they're taking with most of their properties at the minute - and it's largely down to their buyout through Apax Partners in 2005, they need to cut costs and maximise profits again across the entirety of their brands - not just Thomas. Fireman Sam has been shipped out to a Japanese production group specialising in CGI in order to create their 6th series.

And as has been said before - there are opportunities for storylines in CGI that there weren't before in the model animation, and none of us know how good or bad these could turn out to be.

Facing Facts Of Reality Here - 2004 to 2008 Series

To me anyway, the series has declined anyway under HIT's ownership as they are purely interested in exploiting for financial gain, and neglect to remember that David Mitton and his crew cultivated it for years on the model set, and Britt Allcroft hammered away at the business side of things making all the right decisions to steer things in the right direction.

A CGI series won't make much difference - we hated Series 8 when it launched. Granted, they've reintroduced old characters and models over the years, but they never did nearly enough. In the space of nearly five seasons, they have kept the basis of the show contained within eight characters with very little variation or exploration of others. To do this for Series 8 only would have been fine, but to drag it out for five years, they would have killed the series anyway had they carried on with the model unit as they are unwilling to change their objectives in how they organise it's structure. Watching Series 11, I couldn't help thinking - "they've gone too far without changing now." They needed to revert back or ease themselves in to the old episode structure sooner, and Series 10 would have been a great place to start doing it properly with distribution. But the fact is, they wouldn't have done that anyway, for Series 13 and 14, we would have got more of the same from the model unit, and Steve Asquith would have been pulling out whatever hair he's got left with the dull and unoriginal storylines he's being handed down from the HIT Execs.

By no means am I saying this is a positive change to the fullest extent. We're losing the last remnants of something we've grown up with and held throughout our lives, but to be fair, can anyone hold up their hands and tell me that they have enjoyed and appreciated Series 8 to 11 fully? Seriously, come on now, we have all had our fill of the boring storylines, the stupid innacuracies and missing characters. Personally, I love the new cameras and the quality I can get for screen captures, but the content of the series has been VERY poor since HIT took over anyway.

The Bigger Picture

I'll be honest too, when I got the news through I was in a state of disbelief myself and hoped it was nothing more than an eerie nightmare, but really, what are we losing? The crap we've had to put up with since 2004? It's a blessing in itself to know that hasn't outlasted the original and best incarnation of the show from 1984 to 2003. And while I hate CGI myself, the series was never going to last forever. I resigned myself to the fact that we'd see Series 14 out in 2010 and then it was "Goodbye old friend", but this is another means of prolonging it's life, or it's profitability, whatever way you want to look at it. Again, the golden years are gone anyway and have been since 1986, then you get the silver of the 90s and the bronze of the early 00s, and what we all regard as the lesser of bronze of the mid 00s.

Thomas and his friends are more than a television series - you've got to bear that in mind, for a long time beforehand they were nothing more than characters in a series of books. Before that, the first name that sprung to Awdry's mind, and a toy train for his son. It's evolved from something that the people involved with it loved in every aspect from the characters and stories to the presentation of the product and on to something which was more or less viewed as a profitable asset.

You can sit here and argue until you're blue in the face, but at the end of the day, the series in it's current format is NOT perfect. And I'll concede too, it will not be perfect under CGI either. But think about what you're losing realistically - a lacklustre version of a classic programme. It's never going back to the 80s and 90s values, so feel free to give it a view and make up your own mind when it airs.

All my best to you,

Ryan