Thomas the tank engine

Thomas the tank engine

To understand the origins of Thomas the tank engine, we have to go back to 1942. Christopher Awdry, a  two-year-old British child, caught the measles. In an effort to cheer him up, his father, Wilbert Awdry, started telling him stories in rhymes about engines. The first three stories introduced respectively Edward the Blue Engine, Gordon the Big Engine and Henry the Green Engine. One year later, Wilbert decided to submit his three stories to Edmund Ward for publication. This one asked Wilbert a fourth story in order to continue "The sad story of Henry" and to finish on a happy ending. The four books were published in 1945 in one volume under the name The Three Railway Engines. Only one year later, Wilbert published Thomas The Tank Engine, which was highly requested by Christopher. Nowadays, Thomas is undoubtedly the most popular character of the entire railway series. The stories about Thomas were even adapted for television in 1984 under the name Thomas and friends.
 In the Railway series, Thomas is a station pilot who was sent to Sodor due to some wars. Over time, he builds his own branch line and earns two coaches whose names are Annie and Clarabel.
In the television series, Thomas is sent to Sodor with the aim of directing coaches for The Main Line engines.
 In both series, Thomas is an insolent but kind engine, and he always behaves well. He loves teasing other engines and especially the big ones, such as Gordon. Thomas has some faults such as being forgetful, impatient and boastful. He is lucky to have the Fat Controller and his two coaches to bring him back down to earth and draw the moral for him. But he has also some qualities, such as being optimistic and idealistic.
 Percy is Thomas’ best friend. They have the same personality. The role of Percy in the series is to teach the difficult words to viewers. He often makes mistakes and he also makes many accidents, certainly because of his own silliness or his tricks backfiring. However, he always tries to do his best by learning from his mistakes.
 There are plenty of parodies of Thomas the tank engine on the internet.  A lot of people have remixed the original theme song of the cartoon. The first remix was made in 2005. Many other songs have been uploaded since then.  ErnestEngine is a Youtube channel which works as a parody of the children’s program. Other well-known Youtubers have also made videos about Thomas.
 Thomas was voiced by 2 different people. Ben Small played him between 2010 and 2015 and John Hasler has been doing it since 2015.
 There are lots of marketing products with Thomas on it. You can easily find toys, clothes, sheet, cups, party kits, and other things at various prices. An educational video game launched in 2006. Moreover, Thomas is also the “star” of the Thomas Land area in the Drayton Manor theme park.

 As we said before, Thomas was the most popular character in the railway series and became an icon from which a lot of marketing is now derived. Nowadays, he’s an essential part of British culture. Thomas is very popular among children as well as parents thanks to the educational characteristics of the books. In fact, as we saw before, each character shows a specific trait which leads to a moral.

Estelle Culot, Céliane Collignon, Anne-Lise Maréchal

SOURCES

- http://ttte.wikia.com/wiki/Thomas
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_the_Tank_Engine
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Railway_Series
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_%26_Friends
- http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/thomas-the-tank-engine-remixes
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LemqREMtmtc
- https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3h6GjHjIpWkX_S27AmzdoA
- http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0299808/?ref_=ttfc_fc_cl_t6
- http://www.thomasandfriends.com/en-us/products/product-catalog
- http://www.partycity.ca/product/thomas+the+tank+engine+party+supplies.do
- http://lifestyle.howstuffworks.com/family/activities/movie-fun-night/how-thomas-the-tank-engine-works6.htm
- http://events.hitentertainment.com/en-us/dayoutwiththomas/index.html