Engine with autism on track for new Thomas The Tank Engine blockbuster film A locomotive with traits on the autism spectrum will join Thomas the Tank Engine in a new blockbuster film based […]

A locomotive with traits on the autism spectrum will join Thomas the Tank Engine in a new blockbuster film based on the children’s favourite, voiced by Hugh Bonneville.

Thomas & Friends: Journey Beyond Sodor, released this Summer, introduces a new cast of “experimental engines”, including one designed to give children with autism a sympathetic character they can identify with.

The CGI-animated film marks the 72nd anniversary of the first Thomas The Tank Engine book, written by the Rev W. Awdry, which was published on Friday May 12, 1945.

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Now a £600m franchise, the latest Thomas big-screen spin-off stars Bonneville as the voice of new engine Merlin along with a range of characters designed to reflect modern sensibilities.

Geared engine Theo is “very shy, extremely cautious and awkward.” He has an “unusual experimental drive system that doesn’t always run very smoothly and he makes sudden jolts forward or back when his rods or cogs jam.”

Quiet and thoughtful, with a habit of blunt speaking, his confidence is often jolted. But Theo is “genuinely kind and caring” and would “just like to keep himself and his friends as safe as possible so they can hide away and have a quiet life.”

Thomas helps children with Autism

Ian McCue, Senior Producer of Thomas & Friends, said: “With the characteristics of Theo, there is an intentional nod to autism, albeit a subtle one for our autistic fan base, some of who have become good friends.”

A National Autistic Society survey found that children with autism spectrum disorders associate far more strongly with Thomas the Tank Engine than with other children’s characters.

Children on the spectrum responded to the engines’ easy-to-read expressions.

McCue added: “Beyond this though it is really also an acknowledgement of the diversity of personality types and one of our aims for the show is to replicate the richness of personalities children encounter with their own friends in the playground.”

Experimental engines

Another “experimental engine”, Lexi, nods towards a more fluid approach to gender. She is “cab forward”, even though she is convinced this this makes her “an un-useful engine.”

Lexi likes to “experiment with how she presents herself, often trying out different voices and how she phrases her expressions just to see which one she thinks works best.”

Awdry used his anthropomorphised steam engines to hint at a parallel between his Christian faith and the rules of the railway. The modern stories depict Thomas and his friends “embracing differences and working together to achieve common goals.”

In Journey Beyond Sodor, the 12th Thomas feature film, Downton Abbey star Bonneville’s Merlin believes he has superhero powers of invisibility.

Thomas – the little engine that could Awdry wrote 26 Railway Series books, beginning with The Three Railway Engines, which did not yet feature Thomas, before retiring in 1972. The stories were first adapted for television in 1984. Beatle Ringo Starr’s wry voiceover helped boost international sales. There are now more than 1,600 Thomas & Friends products ranging from lunchboxes and yogurts to duvet covers and iPad apps. Eddie Redmayne, Olivia Colman and Alec Baldwin are among the stars who have lent their voices to Thomas’s screen adventures. Mattel promised to turn Thomas into a $2bn brand matching Barbie when it bought previous owner Hit Entertainment in 2011.

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