Trivia / Thomas & Friends: All Engines Go

• Acting for Two:
  • Bruce Dow voices Sir Topham Hatt and Harold.
  • Jamie Watson voices Bulstrode, Skiff, and the Troublesome Trucks.
  • In the Brazilian Portuguese dub, Alex Minei voices James, Ultratrain, and Traniac.
  • In the episode "Thomas' Day Off", Bulstrode ends up having a brief encounter with Skiff. In the original Canadian version, they are both voiced by Jamie Watson.
• Actor-Shared Background:
  • Kana is an electric engine from Asia and voiced in the US dub by Ava Ro, an Asian-Canadian voice actress and singer (although Kana is from Japan, and Ro is actually Korean-Canadian).
  • Kenji and Hiro are both Japanese engines and are voiced by Kintaro Akiyama and Dai Tabuchi in the US and UK dubs, respectively. Both are voice actors of Japanese descent.
  • James, the red engine that appears occasionally, has been voiced by Luke Marty, who is an English actor residing in Canada, and the Island of Sodor was originally British prior to this show. Later episodes would replace Marty with Tom Dussek in the UK dub, who is also British.
  • Yong Bao is voiced by Patrick Kwok-Choon in the US and Lobo Chan in the UK. Both voice actors are of Chinese descent, while Yong Bao himself is explicitly stated to be from China.
  • Ashima is an Indian tank engine and is voiced by Canadian-Indian voice actress Diya Kittur in the US dub. In the UK dub, she is voiced by Sandeep Garcha, who is also of Indian descent.
• The Cast Showoff:
  • Due to the heavy presence of songs in the show, voicing Kana allowed Ava Ro to show off her singing talents, as she is a singer in real life.
  • Similarly, Meesha Contreras, the original US voice of Thomas, also got to show off his singing talents in the show, as he has a decent singing voice.
• Cast the Runner-Up: Glee Dango originally auditioned for the voice of Kana, but received the role of Sandy instead.
• Children Voicing Children: Not literally, of course. All of the smaller engines are voiced by actors who were either children or young teenagers at the time they were cast.
• Creator's Favorite Episode:
  • Aaron Barashi, Thomas' UK voice actor, says that "License to Deliver" is his favorite episode.
  • Glee Dango, the voice of Sandy in the US dub, cites "The Biggest Adventure Club" as one of her favorite episodes.
  • "Capture the Flag" is one of Charlie Zeltzer (US voice of Percy)'s favorite episodes.
  • Bruno's US voice, Chuck Smith, has stated that his favorite episode is "Shake, Rattle, and Bruno."
• Cross-Dressing Voices: Unlike the English dubs, there are some non-English dubs that have the child engines voiced by women instead of actual children/young teenagers. For example, The Latin American Spanish dub had all the child engines voiced by women (except for Bruno, who is voiced by a man instead), while the Italian dub had most of the child engines voiced by women, but Diesel was voiced by a man.
• Content Leak:
  • A promotional trailer showcasing the animation and the voices of some of the cast was leaked on the internet in January 2021. Although Mattel took the original down, it had already gone viral.
  • The cover of an upcoming character encyclopedia of the series was also leaked months prior to its release, and it showed James' and Kenji's reboot designs, thus confirming their involvement despite not appearing in the leaked trailer.
  • A few storyboards of a few episodes were also leaked, so did some toy merchandise.
  • Thanks to Mexico's Canal 5 premiering the series before any other country, some clips and full episodes have been seen months before the official US and UK air dates.
• Cowboy Be Bop At His Computer:
  • Several listings, including Cartoon Network's own video player, list for "A New View For Thomas": "When Thomas spends the day carrying rockstar idol Harold across Sodor, he gains a new perspective on just how amazing it is to be his engine-self." For one, Harold is not famous for any music. Also, the episode was about Harold gaining the perspective on how amazing it is to travel on the ground like Thomas, not the other way around.
  • In an interview with Campbell Bryer on Sodor Island, he stated that this show might be the first time the engines are depicted without drivers, which isn't true. That "honor" goes to Thomas and the Magic Railroad, which came out 21 years prior to this show.
• The Danza: Toby in the UK dub is voiced by Toby Hadoke.
• Dawson Casting:
  • There are some non-English dubs that have Thomas and/or Diesel voiced by adult men.
  • Kana and Carly are both confirmed by Word of God to be eight years old^note as revealed in an early version of the script for the episode "A Thomas Promise" that was used in auditions, but their respective voice actresses in the US dub, Ava Ro and Jenna Warren, were 14 and 21, respectively, when the show first premiered.
• Died During Production: Lee Woo-Ri, the voice of James in the Korean dub, passed away on March 14, 2024, while the show was still running.
• Disabled Character, Disabled Actor: In both English dubs of the show, Bruno is voiced by two autistic children: Chuck Smith in the US dub, and Elliot Garcia in the UK dub.
• Disowned Adaptation:
  • Britt Allcroft, the creator of Thomas & Friends, has stated through a (now deleted) Facebook post◊ that she understands the fans' feelings towards the reboot and subtly and politely criticizes it herself by stating that there is only one Thomas (that being the one from the original show). She would later deliver a much more scathing and in-depth post about her feelings against the show (and the state of the franchise under Mattel in general). Bluntly stating that it is not Thomas and that Mattel's decisions and their Executive Meddling have tarnished the franchise's magic.
  • Veronica Chambers, the daughter of Wilbert Awdry, the original author of The Railway Series which would serve as the basis for the original Thomas & Friends series, has also expressed that she doesn't really like the show.
• Executive Meddling: The engines using their wheels as hands. Allegedly, they were doing this constantly in early animatics. Producer Rick Suvalle had to fight really hard to reduce how often they did this, eventually compromising and allowing them to switch points and pick up objects if it was the only option. Suvalle always intended for Carly to be the "hands" character, using her crane arm to pick up objects for the other engines.
  • The original plan was to air episodes in pairs (two episodes together for one half hour block), with the songs being in the first half. Cartoon Network, however, broke up the episodes, resulting in episodes that would have aired together to be broadcasted apart from one another.
• Fandom Life Cycle: The show has a large hatedom due to its vastly different tone and many inaccuracies, but it does have its fans, putting its fanbase level at stage 2 or 3.
• Fake Brit: American actor Bruce Dow voices Sir Topham Hatt with a British accent in the US dub (and in the UK dub as well, before Tom Dussek replaced him as the character's UK voice).
• Fake Nationality: Kana is Japanese, but neither of her voice actresses are of Japanese descent. Kana's UK voice, Chloe Raphael, is white, while the character's US voice, Ava Ro, is Korean-Canadian.
• Follow the Leader:
  • Believe it or not, Jay Jay the Jet Plane is also going to have a similar-looking reboot. It is unsurprising, since the original show was inspired by the original Thomas and Friends series. Although, unlike the Thomas reboot, the Jay Jay reboot will still be in CGI.
  • In the fandom, a lot of people are assuming the show is this with other Merchandise-Driven preschool cartoons like PAW Patrol and PJ Masks. It also, coincidentally or not, premiered in the wake of a Chuggington revival.
• Invisible Advertising: Unlike their premiere of Race for the Sodor Cup, where they made and aired a promo, the Treehouse TV premiere of The Mystery of Lookout Mountain has very little to no promotion whatsoever.
• Kids' Meal Toy: McDonald's had a set of six connectable toys in Japan in January 2023. These consisted of Thomas, Percy, James, Diesel, Nia, and Kana.
• Non-Singing Voice: The Brazil Portuguese dub has Thomas' singing voice done by a different child voice actor, and it's easily noticable.
• Only So Many Canadian Actors: The show recycles many of the same old Toronto-based child actors commonly seen in preschool shows. They also got Neil Crone to reprise his role as Gordon from Magic Railroad, which also had Toronto-based actors.
• The Other Darrin:
  • In the transition between Series 24 of the original series and Season 1 of this series, many characters had to be recast due to production occurring at different studios (or, in many of the non-English dubs, dubbing switching from one studio to another).
  • For some odd reason, the soundtrack album of the TV series and most of the merchandise included different voice actors compared to in the cartoon itself, even though the voice actors in the cartoon can sing. Although, some voices were changed starting with the album version of the song "Stuck in the Mud at Night" for some reason (likely due to scheduling conflicts or puberty).
    • The Let's Race web miniseries that was made to promote Race for the Sodor Cup also had an entirely different voice cast.
  • Diesel's voice actor was replaced in the US dub of season 2 due to Shomoy James Mitchell hitting puberty.
  • Similarly, Meesha Contreras was replaced by David Kohlsmith in the US dub for the rest of season 2B and was replaced again by Kai Harris starting with season 3.
  • Terrence was recast in Season 3 of the US dub due to Kai Harris taking the role of Thomas instead of continuing to voice the former. He is now voiced by Milo Toriel-McGibbon.
  • The UK dub would have Wendy Patterson replace Catherine Disher and Linda Kash as Annie and Clarabel while Tom Dussek replaced both Bruce Dow as Sir Topham Hatt and Luke Marty as James.
  • In the UK dub, Shaun Jemmett took over as the voice of Thomas in The Great Bubbly Build, replacing Aaron Barashi.
  • From season 3 onwards, Percy's UK voice is now performed by Oliver Milchard, due to Henri Charles hitting puberty.
• Promoted Fanboy:
  • Daniel Share-Strom, a writer who joined the staff during the latter half of the first season, respected Thomas & Friends as a beloved cultural franchise, and he admitted in an AMA that he did a Double Take before completely flipping out upon realizing that he just joined the creative team of a cultural icon.
  • Aaron Barashi was a huge fan of the franchise before he was cast as the UK voice of Thomas in this show. According to this interview, Aaron loved playing with Thomas toys as a toddler and from there, he became a fan of the cartoon, so naturally, he was excited when he found out that that he had landed the role of Thomas, which, according to him, felt like a dream.
  • Luke Marty revealed in the comments section of a demo reel on his YouTube channel that he had watched the original series a lot as a child prior to being cast as James' current US voice^note He formerly voiced the character in the UK dub before getting Other Darrined by Tom Dussek in that dub. He would later state in another comment that he has been a huge fan of the Thomas franchise ever since he was little, and that it was a "lovely opportunity" to be part of the All Engines Go voice cast.
• Recast as a Regular:
  • Edward Glen previously voiced Thomas in Thomas and the Magic Railroad, but plays Toby in the show.
  • Japanese actor Shinichiro Kamio played minor character Captain Joe from the original series, but plays Harold in the show.
  • Kai Harris was originally cast as minor character Terence before replacing David Kohlsmith as Thomas.
• Renewed Before Premiere: The show had its first two seasons greenlit before it even premiered.
• Role Reprise:
  • Neil Crone reprises his role as Gordon after previously voicing him in Thomas and the Magic Railroad.
  • In the German dub, Tetje Mierendorf, Walter Wigand, and Marion von Stengel will reprise their roles as Gordon, Cranky, and Clarabel, respectively, after previously voicing them in the CGI series.
• Same Language Dub: This series has the original Canadian/US dub, and a British English dub contrast to the original series where it was the exact opposite.
• Screwed by the Network:
  • Canal 5 pulled the series after a few days because it performed poorly in ratings. They replaced it with BWBA reruns. Months later, they have put AEG back in rotation to air the rest of Season 1 and Season 2, making this situation temporary.
  • The show was pulled from Cartoonito in late 2023, though it's still accessible on VOD services as of March 2024. As a result, Season 3 made its US premiere on Netflix.
• Short Run in Peru:
  • The first 12 episodes of the series aired on Televisa's Canal 5 before the rest of North America and other countries.
  • The reboot's first special, The Race for the Sodor Cup, had a UK cinematic release before any other country got it. The second special, The Mystery of Lookout Mountain, on the other hand, premiered in Canada before it was released anywhere else.
• Streisand Effect:
  • When the teaser trailer was accidentally leaked to the public in January 2021, months before it was scheduled to air that fall, many fans jumped at the chance to spread it around. Even after Mattel issued DMCA takedowns to discourage piracy, the trailer had already been seen by hundreds of people both in and out of the fandom.
  • This also happened to the first few episodes, which aired on Mexico's Canal 5 less than a month before they were scheduled to air in the US. Mattel has also issued DMCA takedowns to reuploads on Youtube, but that hasn't stopped many fans from seeing the series early.
• Throw It In!: By the time they decided to incorporate songs into the episodes, there wasn't any good spot for a song in the first episode, which was written prior to this decision. The writers ultimately decided to have the song stop and start throughout.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Early test pilot footage shown in a sizzle reel for Cartoonito, shows a very different artstyle, on top of different designs for Thomas and Gordon compared to the final design. This was a pitch pilot for what would become this series. According to Rick Suvalle, the voice actors were Mattel executives and Gordon was more of an antagonist instead of a father figure.
  • This show was originally going to be a continuation of the original Thomas & Friends show, but then it was confirmed to be a reboot instead due to the original being cancelled due to low, disappointing toy sales.
  • Kana was originally going to be named Akira as a reference to AKIRA. She was also originally going to be Kenji's sister. However, Kana's name and relationships were changed when production was still going on.
  • The show was originally going to aired two episodes back-to-back in the US before the segments were aired separately.
  • According to Rick Suvalle in a tweet, Sandy's original name was Dusty.
  • Henry and Edward were originally meant to be Adapted Out, but they were added back in at the last minute because the animators needed more engines to work with.
• You Sound Familiar:
  • From the German dub of the show, Simona Pahl, Rosie's voice actress from Series 13 to 16 of the original series, voices Thomas in All Engines Go.
  • In the US dub, Toby is voiced by Edward Glen, who previously voiced Thomas himself in Thomas and the Magic Railroad.

---