Thomas and the Magic Railroad: Japanese Trailers

Teaser/Promotional Trailers
NOTE: All of the trailers in this section were produced before the March 2000 test screening incident. And all of the trailers are left in English with Japanese subtitles.

Trailer #1
Background: An extremely rare trailer featuring some deleted scenes, including P.T Boomer, and alternative dialogue.

Voiceover: Unknown, possibly Tom Kane, who is known to have voice roles in some animated TV shows.

Availability: Extremely rare. It was only known to be seen at the end of the 2000 Japanese VHS of Doraemon: Doki Doki Wildcat Engine/A Grandmother's Recollections. It is unknown if this was seen anywhere else.

Scare Factor: None to Minimal. This is a fantastic rarity to look at, although the appearance of P.T Boomer will either make you cheer or freaked out. But, that's nothing compared to the next promotional trailer...

Trailer #2
Possibly the scariest trailer of this film ever produced...

Background: It's basically the Smelter's Yard scene of the film, but it has less dialogue, a different ending, James and Diesel 10 has different voices, and Junior sounds more frightened than in the final film.

Trivia: The ending of this trailer was filmed during green screen production of this film in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and was based on an incident where during filming of this scene, the James model fell in the pit and broke.

The Taiwanese version of this trailer was the topic of a Creepypasta story that can be seen at this link: https://geosheas-lost-episodes.wikia.com/wiki/Thomas_and_the_Magic_Railroad:_Lost_Taiwanese_Promotional_Trailer_%28Late_1999-Early_2000%29

Variant: There is a variant made in Taiwan that removes the voiceover and has Taiwanese subtitles at the bottom.

There was also a longer version which includes a good, but somber ending.

Voiceover: Unknown, but it's a scary, deep man's voice announcing the trailer. The variant had no voiceover, making it less creepy, while Michael E. Rodgers was the voiceover on the good ending variant, talking as Junior.

Availability: Even rarer that the first promotional trailer. The Japanese version was claimed to be seen at the end of a 2000 Japanese VHS copy of Dorami and the Doraemons: Robot School's Seven Mysteries. The Taiwanese version was seen on a December 1999 Taiwanese VHS of a Doraemon episode collection from the Taiwanese feed of Shogakukan Video. It is unknown where the version with the good ending came from.

Scare Factor: Original Version: High to NIGHTMARE! The scary atmosphere, Junior's terrified screaming and crying, the voice of Diesel 10, the voiceover, and the bad ending will scare a lot of children! It's even ironic that this nighmarish trailer appeared at the end of a children's anime VHS without warning!

Taiwanese Version: High. The voiceover is gone, but the atmosphere and the content can still give children nightmares.

Good Ending Version: Medium to High. The nightmare fuel is still here, and the voiceover has a frightened tone of voice, but at least Junior and James are able to get out safely, the voiceover is more friendlier and younger, and at least it has a happy ending, thus lowering the scare factor.

Trailer #3
Background: It is the same as the second Latin American teaser trailer, but with Japanese subtitles at the bottom instead of Spanish subtitles.

Variant: There is a variant that was Japanese dubbed.

Voiceover: Same as the second Latin American teaser tralier. The Japanese dubbed variant has an unknown Japanese voice over dubbing the Michael E. Rodgers announcement footage.

Availability: Even rarer than the first two trailers. It was claimed to be seen on the March 2000 Japanese VHS copy of Doraemon: The Great Insect Race/Doraemon Comes Back, just a week before the March 2000 test screening incident that forced the movie to get cut and caused the film to fail. It is unknown where the Japanese dubbed version came from, but it might be from various Thomas VHS tapes from Japan from January 1999-early March 2000.

Scare Factor: Same as the second Latin American teaser trailer. At least it is tamer than the previous teaser trailer.

Trailer #1
Background: Same as the first US theatrical trailer, but it was Japanese dubbed, had Japanese title cards, and there are some points in the trailer that had the firstThomas and Friends theme song.

Voiceover: Unknown.

Availability: Unknown where this came from, but it may appear on some Thomas tapes from Japan from late March 2000-early September 2000. It was also seen at the beginning of the 2001 Japanese VHS of the movie.

Scare Factor: None. This is a good trailer to look at.

Trailer #2
Background: Same as the rare 30-second Latin American TV spot of the film, but it is Japanese dubbed.

Voiceover: Unknown.

Availability: Unknown where this came from.

Scare Factor: Low. The somber tone of the TV spot can either make you cry or creeped out.