History WesternAnimation / ThomasAndTheMagicRailroad

[[caption-width-right:350:[[{{Tagline}} The world's favorite train in his first magical movie adventure.]]]]

Perhaps the most infamous aspect of the film however isn't what made it in, but what ''[[WhatCouldHaveBeen didn't]]'' make it in, as the film has became notorious in the years following its release for its hugely TroubledProduction and the large wrath of content that was scrapped last minute, most notoriously an entire BigBad in the form of P.T. Boomer, who was cut so late that scenes featuring him were shot and glimpses of him are still present in the final film. This has led fans to demand for a directors cut for the film. While a directors cut was never released[[note]]however, a workprint cut did get leaked onto the internet in 2020[[/note]], [[Creator/ShoutFactory Shout Entertainment]] would compile many of the film's deleted scenes and release them on a blu-ray release of the film in 2020, leading fans to finally get a glimpse of the magic railroad that never was. This subsequently lead to fan-made reconstructions of the original vision.

* Chekhov'sGun: The viaduct. Diesel 10 threatens to drop Mr. Conductor off of it to find the magic buffers, with his weight and the lack of gold dust causing it to start crumbling. Then in the climax, the chase between Lady, Thomas, and Diesel leads right back to it, with the viaduct collapsing completely right before Diesel crosses it, resulting in a non-fatal DisneyVillainDeath.

* WithinArmsReach: Diesel 10 catches Mr. Conductor in his claw and carries him to the viaduct, intending to drop him over the edge unless he tells him where the buffers that lead to the titular Magic Railroad are within ten seconds. Mr. Conductor then pulls out a pair of gardening shears that he intends to use to cut one of the wires on Diesel's claw, but accidentally drops them. Thankfully, the shears still land on the claw and are just barely within reach of Mr. Conuctor's arms. As Diesel counts down, Mr. Conductor reaches for the shears, grabbing them and cutting the wire just before Diesel can get to one, resulting in Diesel's claw launching him into the air, causing him to land on bags of flour near the windmill he was looking for to uncover the next clue to the source of the gold dust.

** Diesel 10, His return scares everyone, trains and human alike.

* ArcWords:
** "Little engines CAN do big things!"
** "Sparkle" and "Magic", in the case of Lady.

* AllMythsAreTrue: Lady is widely assumed by the other engines to be a mere legend, and it takes Diesel 10's return for them to realize she is actually real.
* AllThereInTheScript: The original scripts (and the work-print) give some context to certain aspects that are not readily explained in the final film, like the reason why parts of the railway appear to be under construction (the railway was undergoing renovations and repairs at the time of the film, this is also the reason for the Sir Topham Hatt posters throughout the film), why Lily is staying with Burnett Stone (her mother is about to enter labor and give birth to her brother, and her father is working out of town), and why certain locations like Muffle Mountain are called such (it muffles the sound of the trains from the other side), amongst other things.

* BigBudgetBeefUp: The characters and sets were all rebuilt from scratch on a massive sound stage in Toronto. This included a ''life-sized'' model of Lady built for the scenes by the well and Muffle Mountain.
* BigDamnMovie: For both Thomas and ''Shining Time Station''.

* VocalDissonance: James and Percy are voiced by Creator/SusanRoman and Creator/LindaBallantyne from ''Anime/SailorMoon'', making them sound too feminine for male locomotives. For Percy, it at least makes sense for him to be voiced by a woman due to him being the youngest of the Steam Team, but James' voice is quite misfitting due to him clearly being an ''adult'' engine. Interestingly, they were originally going to be voiced by Michael Angelis, the original narrator of ''WesternAnimation/ThomasAndFriends'', but test audiences thought he sounded too mature for either of them.

* DemotedToExtra: Given the comparatively small number of scenes set on Sodor, most of the primary characters of ''Thomas & Friends'' are either reduced to minor roles with either a handful of lines or a single token focus scene (as with James and Toby) or are absent from the film altogether (with Sir Topham Hatt being PutOnABus for the film's entire timeframe). Even Thomas, the ''title character of the film'', resultantly appears for only twelve minutes of the film's 84-minute runtime.

* DemotedToExtra: Given the comparatively small number of scenes set on Sodor, most of the primary characters of ''Thomas & Friends'' are either reduced to minor roles with either a handful of lines or a single token focus scene (as with James and Toby) or are absent from the film altogether (with Sir Topham Hatt being PutOnABus for the film's entire timeframe).