Blu-rays, and lost scenes, and leaks. Oh my! At long last, we’re returning to the series on “updates” to topics covered last season. Both Eric AND PJ may be MIA for this episode, but Rico is not alone here. Zoey Wyeld (Wild Zoey Appears) joins this podcast as a special guest for the first of this two-part episode. In Episode 9 (coincidentally) of season 1, Rico and Eric discussed the 2000 feature-length film Thomas and the Magic Railroad and all the changes that happened late in post-production. Since that happened, a feast of lost material from the original film has surfaced! Rico and Zoey discuss their history with the Thomas franchise and their memories trying to find the holy grail that was this film’s “director’s cut”. From rumors surrounding a Canadian library, to the various petitions to secure an official director’s cut release, the history of the film leading up to 2020 is discussed. 2020 saw an unofficial workprint leak, a Shout! Factory re-release, deleted storylines with PT Boomer, and a bunch of interviews and new behind-the-scenes footage from the film. Zoey and Rico travel back down the restored magic railroad to explore it all. This podcast episode is merely a taste for what’s to come in the second part. But until then, any lost media enthusiast, Thomas fan, film buff, or fan of this podcast will find something to enjoy from this episode. Until next time, sparkle, sparkle, sparkle!!
(The outro uses audio from Waltmann13 and Uberduck.ai, and in the case of the former, is used with permission.)