Thomas & the Magic Railroad

Thomas and the Magic Railroad is a 2000 children's film, directed by Britt Allcroft and the first Thomas & Friends film. It is based on both the aforementioned series and its spin-off, Shining Time Station.

Background
Unlike other Thomas series and films; there is only one English language version between both the US and UK. However, the film went through a series of changes after test screenings in America garnered negative reception; most notably the excision of the live-action character P.T. Boomer (played by Doug Lennox). The voice cast was the other primary change to the film, with much of the original voice cast being redubbed.

During Production, it was widely publicized online that an Isle of Mann cab driver and Volunteer Firefighter named John Bellis was to be the voice of Thomas. Having only heard him utter a meager few words, Britt knew that John was the right man to voice Thomas himself, turning to tell her colleagues "I have just heard the voice of Thomas. The man is exactly how Thomas would sound!" A few days later, she offered John the part, and he accepted.

Despite being flown out to Toronto record all of Thomas' dialogue, American test audiences, however, thought Bellis' voice made Thomas sound too old and thus John Bellis was canned. Thomas' voice was performed in the final cut by Canadian voice actor Edward Glenn. Bellis was apparently disappointed by this, and to the point where he refuses to really discuss the matter with fans who have contacted him to ask him about it.

The same trailers depicted Diesel 10 with a gruff English upper-class accent, as opposed to the New Jersey accent he had in the theatrical release. Sodor Island Forums ended up digging up the information that Diesel 10 was originally voiced by Australian voice actor Keith Scott. But this voice was deemed too frightening by the American test audiences. Canadian actor Neil Crone was then brought in to do the voice of Diesel 10, where he gave him a Russian accent. This too would fall into the hands when the audiences made the wild claim that it would somehow be "offensive" and Crone revised his voice to a New Jersey accent. The troublesome trucks had also been voiced by Crone along Splatter and Dodge's actor Kevin Frank in the directors cut, but most of their material was cut from the final film.

Britt Allcroft revealed that the original voice of James and Percy was Michael Angelis, the narrator for the UK series of Thomas from 1991-2012. English actor Patrick Breen originally also provided the voices for Dodge and Splatter. Both of them were canned by the test audiences. Susan Roman and Linda Ballantyne replaced Angelis as James and Percy respectively, whilst Neil Crone and Kevin Frank replaced Breen.