Thomas & Friends: Day of the Diesels (lost original cut of direct-to-DVD film; existence unconfirmed; 2011)

This article has been tagged as Needing work due to its lack of concrete references.

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DVD cover.

Status: Existence Unconfirmed

On September 6th 2011, Thomas & Friends released its fifth direct-to-DVD special called Day of the Diesels. The special revolves around Percy making friends with Diesel 10 and the other diesels after feeling ignored by his best friend Thomas.

While changes to Thomas productions are somewhat common and usually small, according to an interview fan website Sodor Island held with Sam Barlow, who served as the story/script executive of the show from the eighth to sixteenth season, there were several scenes that were cut from the final version that haven't been released.

The Cut

Little is known about the original version, although according to Sam, the changes and cuts were made as those scenes were deemed too scary for children.

Rupert Degas, who voiced Dart and Flynn in the special, was also originally supposed to voice Diesel 10. He recorded dialogue for the character but would end up being replaced by Matt Wilkinson. He says in an interview with Sodor Island that "someone felt my voice was a bit too scary, and someone else thought it was too camp, and someone else thought it was too theatrical." His line "The Steamworks is ours now!" still remains in the final cut for unknown reasons.

It's also been stated that the characters Dennis, Splatter, and Dodge were originally going to be in this movie, but it is unlikely that they were in this cut of the movie, though 3 characters who share the same bases as the previously mentioned characters do appear, so it is possible that Dennis, Splatter, and Dodge had a finished CGI model, but were retextured.

Debunked Alleged Early Airings

An old rumor had stated that on early airings of the special on PBS Kids Go! and Sprout used the original dark cut, however, this has since been debunked, as the first Sprout airing of the special was found and it did not feature the darker cut, and the user Jamesandedward7 had seen the original PBS airing of the special in 2012, recalling that it was identical to what you saw on DVD and Amazon Prime Video.

Availability

The latest mention of the original cut was on December 21st, 2018, when SiForums and Fansite posted on Twitter about the subject:

"Original Day of the Diesels cut has never been released, it's likely to be gathering dust in HIT's vaults, but all we know about it is through word of mouth and a few visuals that have surfaced online ahead of release. If anything major comes up, we'll do a feature on it. Slf said It's in Mattel's archives, we don't have access to it and we've never seen the full cut."

- The Twitter post about the original version.

It is unknown if the original cut of the special still exists or how far into production the special was before the changes and cuts were made. It is also unknown how many of Degas' Diesel 10 lines were recorded and if they survive today.

Gallery

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  A still from the original dark cut.

Videos

Rupert Degas' original Diesel 10 voicework (from "Misty Island Rescue")

See Also

Thomas & Friends

• Thomas & Friends: All Engines Go (partially found test animation of reboot of British children TV series; 2019)
• Thomas & Friends "Jack Jumps In" (found Alec Baldwin narration of British children's TV series episode; 2002)
• Thomas & Friends "Series 7" (partially found original music of British children's TV series American dub; mid-2000s)
• Thomas & Friends "Series 12" (partially found Pierce Brosnan narrations of British children's animated series; 2008)

Thomas the Tank Engine

• Thomas the Tank Engine (lost pilot episode of unproduced 2D animated adaptation of "The Railway Series" books; 1976)
• Thomas the Tank Engine "Down the Mine" (partially found pitch pilot version of British children's TV series episode; 1983)
• Thomas the Tank Engine "The Missing Coach" (partially found footage from cancelled British children's TV series episode; 1986)
• Thomas the Tank Engine "Season 3" (found original Michael Angelis narrations of British children's TV series episodes; 1991)
• Thomas the Tank Engine "Season 4" (found pre-recorded version of British children's TV series episodes; 1994)
• Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends (partially lost deleted scenes of British children's TV series; 1984-2021)

Other

• The Adventures of Thomas (partially found production material of cancelled "Thomas the Tank Engine" live-action film; early-mid 2010s)
• Barry the Rescue Engine (lost production material of cancelled "The Railway Series" book; 1980s)
• Jack and the Sodor Construction Company (partially lost episodes and production material of cancelled spin-off series; 2002)
• Storytime with Thomas (partially found Fox Family series; 1999-2000)
• The Thomas & Friends Institute of Innovation (partially found informational short film; 2013-2014)
• Thomas and the Magic Railroad (found deleted scenes of children's fantasy adventure film; 2000)
• Thomas and the Magic Railroad (lost test footage of 3.5" character models for British children's TV series; 1995)
• Thomas and the U.K. Trip & Thomas Number 1 (found Japanese "Thomas the Tank Engine" crossover TV special and music video; 1991)
• Thomas the Tank Engine (found original illustrated edition of book; 1946)
• Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends (found build of cancelled NES port of educational game; 1993)
• Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends (lost build of cancelled PlayStation educational game; 1999)
• The Three Railway Engines (lost live BBC broadcast adaptation of "The Railway Series" books; 1953)
• The Three Railway Engines (found original edition of book; 1945)

External Links

• SiF interview w/ Sam Barlow. Retrieved 31 Jul '20
• SiF Twitter post about the original cut. Retrieved 31 Jul '20
• SiF interview w/ Rupert Degas.