Oh dear, what a hugely tragic waste of celluloid Thomas the Tank Engine's first movie proved to be. Rev. W Awdry's much loved (even by me, in my yoof) books about trains really shouldn't be popular, but in the Uk are a perennial favourite with the pre-teen crowd. They even managed to convert them into a successful and really rather good television series, given a dry idiosyncratically Liverpudlian narration by one Ringo Starr. So far, so British. Unfortunately, it was decided that the day to day incidents of trains on the Island of Sodor (it's pronounced "so-door" not "sod-or" - honestly) were not interesting enough and so the for the film, some "magical" elements were introduced. The Fat Controller evidently deemed not PC enough to be included is duly replaced by Mr Conductor (Alec Baldwin's film career perhaps not pitching as high as it might) who has lots of sparkling dust that makes trains go. Or something. Anyway, the upshoot is that it sounds terrible, the reviews were terrible and nobody went to see it. Most parents probably worried about ruining one of their childhood favourites for their own children.
John Barry had originally offered to score the film as a special treat for his young son, but he felt it was so dreadful that he walked off and Hummie Mann was brought in as his replacement. This is definitely not a typical John Barry type film and Hummie Mann (or Marc Shaiman or similar) seems like a much more sensible replacement. The first half of the album is filled with a mixture of vaguely pop or vaguely musical songs. He's a Really Useful Engine sits very much toward the latter, but is very much aimed at kids. The three songs by Hummie Mann, lyrics by Sue Ennis and Don Black (presumably left over from Barry's involvement) are pleasant enough ballads and nicely arranged (apart from Joe Henry's rather annoying delivery), but not likely to stick in the mind for all that long. Summer Sunday is perhaps the most enjoyable inclusion; a laid back jazz trio and vocal arrangement cuts through the sickly sweet melange created by the rest. Nice. The Locomotion, this time performed not by Kylie, but those Jerome Moross pinching (The Big Country main title providing almost the entire musical content of their first song) and ultra-bland popsters Atomic Kitten in an exceptionally dreadful "updated" version.
With all of these kinds of things, Hummie Mann's score was never likely to be terribly ground breaking or eccentric, but it is certainly tuneful, sentimental and playful as expected. The Main Title thoughtfully includes Jnr Campbell and Mike O'Donnell's television theme, although I can't help thinking it could have been used a little more. Some reviews have suggested the music is almost entirely sentimental and revolting, but Mann keeps the dramatic ball rolling reasonably well. This is not earth threatening terror, but Diesel 10 Threatens Mr. C builds up more than enough comic menace. Other nice touches include the travelling guitar music, first introduced in Lily Travels to Sodor and reprised a couple of times, most notably toward the end of Lily and Patch.
Certainly a "get what you expect" kind of score, but an enjoyable enough effort. While no great musical innovator, Hummie Mann has the heart for writing playful and sentimental music, almost certainly writing something better than the film deserved. What Barry would have made of it is anyone's guess. Had it been up to me (probably just as well it wasn't), I'd have made the film properly live action (instead of trying to combine miniature trains with real people which sounds doomed on paper and worse on film) and filmed it in lots of picturesque parts of England and got Richard Griffiths (the gay uncle in the wonderful Withnail and I) to play The Fat Controller, while retaining Ringo Starr's narration. The score by Julian Nott, he of Wallace and Gromit shorts, simply for his quintissential English charm and quirkiness. Oh, and change it to Thomas and the Magic Railway or something - railroad not being perhaps a typically British phrase. I guess my ill feelings toward the film have made me perhaps more critical of the music than necessary, but even I suspect that even an unbiased reviewer would feel the album is unlikely to set anyone's collection alight, but for a pleasant half an hour of listening, you could do very much worse than Mann's score.
Rating ~ 
Total Time ~ 48:23