“Thomas is a tank engine, who lives at a big station on the island of Sodor. He’s a cheeky little engine with six small wheels, a short stumpy funnel, a short stumpy boiler, and a short stumpy dome” (Thomas and Gordon). I have been on a nostalgia binge watch over the past couple of days reliving my childhood fantasy of talking trains. I believe and any form of media can be art and Thomas the Tank Engine is no exception. This children live- action television series had magic and imagination I had never seen before as a child. It was not like Barney the dinosaur, or Dora the Explorer; Thomas was different. This year marks the 70th anniversary of Thomas The Tank Engine and Friends. However, things have changed over the years and Thomas has moved towards CGI films …show more content…
W. Awdry is the author of the stories. They were first made to entertain his sick son Christopher Awdry when he was a child. Soon, with persuasion from his wife, Rev. W. Awdry has the stories published as “The Railway Series” around the time of World War II. The books were a hit and sold millions of copies. One day a business woman named Britt Allcroft came to see Rev. Awdry. She stated that she loved the books so much that she wants to make a television show using the stories and characters he has made. Thus, Thomas The Tank Engine & Friends was brought to the world of television in 1984.

I never grew up with the original stories; I grew up with the television show and the books based off stories from the television show. However, I was drawn to the show because of how real Thomas looked. Thomas was a live-action show used with model trains that were based off of the trains that Rev. Awdry had seen with his son Christopher. When Rev. Awdry designed the train’s personality he also had a unique face to go along with it. Every engine was special and the show stayed very true to that, unlike the illustrators who would constantly bicker with Rev. Awdry about how the faces show look similar to one