Trivia / Chuggington

• Children Voicing Children: The three trainees are children and were all voiced by children.
• Creator Killer: The combined failures of their few other non-Chuggington properties (including the 2009 Dennis the Menace (UK) animated series and "Marvo the Wonder Chicken"), Season 4, the deteriorating Tomy agreement, and the "Little Trainees" relaunch (with the abridged series of the same name and Jazwares' "Little Chuggers" toys) lead to Ludorum PLC going into liquidation several months after selling the series to Herschend Entertainment Studios.
• Dueling Shows: With Thomas & Friends. Though the two really aren't as similar as one might immediately think. Chuggington has no narrator and while it does feature anthropomorphic trains, the general format and style of the show is rather different. However, the 2021 reboot, Thomas & Friends: All Engines Go, was much more directly modeled after Chuggington (which itself had been brought back for a sixth season the previous year), in a blatant case of Follow the Leader.
• Executive Meddling: The reason why Season 4 was created and why Season 3 was short lived.
• Network to the Rescue:
  • While Chuggington faltered in toy sales and advertising during its fourth and fifth seasons, the Disney Junior Channel would give the half-hour extended episodes a fair amount of on-air promotion leading up to their premieres, which were placed in prime-time slots.
  • The "Little Trainees" Abridged Series seemed to be an attempt to invoke this; Disney Junior gave it some promotion (helped by the shorts being exclusive to their "WATCH" app), and international networks were positive towards it. This was part of a relaunch for their younger demographic (ages 2-4, as apposed to the initial ages 3-6), paired up with the revamped Jazwares toyline. Inverted as Disney dropped the series entirely in November 2018 and the Jazwares toyline ended up being a massive financial failure on both ends. Due to the relaunch failing to gain traction, Ludorum was sold to Herschend Enterprises (the producers of Splash and Bubbles and owners of The Harlem Globetrotters and parks such as Dollywood).
    • Played straight hard when Herschend announced its full plans for the series; a sixth season of 52 episodes for Summer 2020, a new series of 26 1.5-minute long live action/animated shorts titled "Discover Chuggington: All Aboard!" that went out first and is on the DisneyNOW app as well as Disney Channel, a new toyline from Alpha Group returning to the original Die-Cast vehicles with improved playsets more based around the actual locations from the series for Fall 2020, a HUGE reintroduction campaign for the series' 10th anniversary (with a new app titled Ready to Roll, a new website, a partnership with Union Pacific to promote rail safety, extensive licensing programs, refreshed assets, broadcast support, and and planned events), and live events and theme park attractions for the future. Julie Phillips, the studio's VIP of development and production stated "The company saw the property as evergreen with a lot of world-building potential that was never fully realized for TV production or global [consumer products]", showing they intend to do far more with the series than Ludorum could've as an independent company (compared to the much larger Herschend). The Disney Junior agreement was even renewed in December 2019 ahead of time!
• No Export for You: The later specials, likely due to the financial disappointment of the first two/low episode count of the fifth season, suffered from this; "Snow Rescue" only got released to DVD in the US, Australia, and a couple other countries (though is now available with BOTH dubs on the series' original YouTube channel), while only the US received the two specials for Season 5 ("Delivery Dash at the Docks" and "The Big Freeze", which are now only viewable on DVD). Taking it up a gear, only "Chug Patrol: Ready to Rescue" has seen a digital release on Netflix/Amazon.
• The Other Darrin: Wilson, Koko, and Brewster were recasted for seasons 4 (2013) and 6 (2020).
• The Other Marty: In 2021, Wilson's voice in seasons 1-3 was redubbed with Teddy West (his voice actor in the 2021 revival), due to his original voice actor, Morgan Overton, getting busted for child pornography possession.
• Same Language Dub: Like many British children's series, there was a US dub of this show. The dub was originally recorded in Britain, but in season 6, it moved to Los Angeles, resulting in familiar voices like Mick Wingert showing up.
• Schedule Slip: The final main half-hour extended episode produced to date, "Delivery Dash at the Docks", was released to DVD five months after its airing on Disney Junior; the final special produced for the main series, "The Big Freeze", premiered on DVD before it.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Season 3 would have lasted for a full 26 episode season, had executives not requested change-ups to the format (hence why Season 4 was a major revamp).
  • An early licensing presentation prior to Season 4's premiere revealed that two other specials were planned for 2015 and 2016: "High Speed Action: Koko, Hanzo and the Speed Fleet" and "Rescue and Repair: The New Chug Patroller". Whether these were to have been part of the Season 4 lineup or if they would have been in the next season is unknown, though it seems as though the plan for the 2015 special was partially reworked into "Delivery Dash at the Docks".
  • Had the relaunch been successful, production would have begun on a series of 26 4-minute shorts for Fall 2018. Due to lack of funding, plans for them were shelved; it's unknown if whether or not these would have been re-edited shorts, like the "Little Trainees" series or the "bonus episodes" on YouTube.

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