MovieChat Forums > Thomas and the Magic Railroad (2000) Discussion > Why no mouth movements on sodor characte...

Why no mouth movements on sodor characters?

posted 17 years ago by Sir_Jim_Monroe
6 replies | jump to latest

Why is it that the engines in this move and the series don't move their mouths when they talk. Do they have mind power or something??

[–] steviembro 17 years ago

Because the movie and the series were and are made using model trains., not animation, I think the scale was O scale or something.

[–] Sir_Jim_Monroe 17 years ago

But could'nt they put in some animatronically moving mouths like they did with Chucky?

[–] kiddorocker 16 years ago

Because they were trying to keep it similar to the TV show, where the faces and eyes told the story (along with wonderful narration by Starr/Carlin).

[–] 16 years ago

[deleted]

[–] mrdjx 13 years ago

In the original series, the characters didnt move their mouths when they spoke. Its probably the only thing in this film that actually does stay true to the tv series.

[–] mrdjx 13 years ago

The series started in the early eighties, and was animated by using model trains. This was before CGI was readily available, and hand drawn animation was (and still is) a long and costly process. With that in mind, the most practical solution was to just to have no mouth movements at all. Overtime, it became a hallmark of the series and I think the movie did well to leave it in.