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Perseus and Tobin (also known as Percy and Toby, Perseus and Toby, or Percy and Tobin, and stylized with the & symbol) is an upcoming fantasy adventure film by Tim O'Hayre. It is based on the Thomas the Tank Engine franchise, as well as many of its other fan projects. The sequel to Perseus, The Little Trojan, the story takes place many years after the first movie, focusing on Percy as he braves new adventures with Toby the tram engine, who is introduced as a new variation of himself, inspired by the Tobias and The Sentinels incarnation of the character.
Synopsis[]
Many years after his first grand adventures, Perseus the small green tank engine is still hard at work on The Fat Controller's railway. While he enjoys the company of his friends that he has come to know and love over the years, he is still very open to making new acquaintances. One of such opportunities arises one day when Sir Topham Hatt orders another new engine to help with the branch line work. His name is Tobin, though he prefers "Toby," a kind old tram engine originally from East Anglia. Some of the engines take time to accept Toby, particularly a jealous Thomas, who feels like he will be replaced. Percy, on the other hand, immediately warms up to him, and they become fast friends, which secretly makes Thomas' envy grow.
To make things more interesting, Toby has a somewhat mysterious past, much like Percy. He too used to work at a harbour, also in East Anglia, with his siblings. However, he does not like to talk about the subject very much, for his last memories shared with his old family are dark. Eventually, quite by accident, Percy learns the shocking truth behind what happened to one of Toby's brothers, and tries to keep it to himself unless he can trust some others. But when a bitter Thomas also finds out and threatens to expose Toby out of spite in hopes of sending him packing, Percy must take on a new mission to help Toby fight his inner demons and save him from his enemies.
Plot[]
Percy has continued to enjoy his life on the Fat Controller's railway on Sodor. Even throughout the early-to-mid 1940s, during the Second World War, he maintains a positive attitude and cherishes every moment he gets to spend with his friends, especially Thomas, with whom he is still best friends. However, Percy is still often open to making new acquaintances every now and then so that his life would not be too repetitive. At one point, during the early 1950s, he will get the chance to meet someone new.
One day, in 1951, Thomas is travelling along the Ffarquhar Branchline as usual, along the quarry line. All is going well until he is stopped by a policeman at the level crossing by the steep hill. Much to Thomas' chagrin, this officer comes off as rude and arrogant, unlike the recently retired Constable Wilson, with whom Thomas had been good friends with for years. The new constable berates Thomas for violating railway safety by not having protections around his wheels, while his crew try to argue that Thomas has never had any problems before. Despite Thomas' driver's best efforts to argue in his favor, the officer gives them a citation and declares that Thomas cannot run on the line until the "proper" safety regulations are met.
When Sir Topham Hatt hears the news about Thomas' predicament, he informs the other engines about it so that they are prepared for any potential changes in the schedules. Percy, who also works on the branch line, worries for Thomas, but Edward and the other engines reassure him that Sir Topham Hatt will find a solution, which he does sooner than expected. Shortly after Thomas' encounter with the law, a new engine arrives on the Island. His name is Tobin, a GER Class C53 tram engine, otherwise known as a J70, whom Hatt had just saved from his old tramway in East Anglia after it had closed down, and he was also a harbor engine who had several brothers and sisters. Tobin arrives at Lower Tidmouth station, where Sir Topham Hatt fills him in on the branch line situation and asks for his help, and he happily agrees. It is also at this point when Tobin says that, while he doesn't mind his full name, he would also like to be called "Toby," for short, to which most of everyone else he first meets agrees.
Sir Topham Hatt takes Toby to Elsbridge to introduce him to Thomas and Percy. Both tank engines greet him warmly, but Thomas is secretly skeptical about the whole ordeal. Some, but not all, of Thomas' doubt about Toby is relinquished when he sees how well the tram engine handles the policeman at the crossing by ringing his bell. Now a trio, the three branch line engines become close friends. Percy is exceptionally excited to finally have a new friend for the first time in many years. Toby himself feels a strong connection with Percy, for he is the first other engine he gets to work with since his siblings, whom he had not seen since he had left the harbor for his tramway. However, when Percy and Toby start to work together slightly more frequently, Thomas starts to grow jealous on the inside, developing a mindset that Toby will fully replace him on the branch line, and also take his place as Percy's best friend. Succumbing to the fear, he vows to prove himself more useful than Toby in hopes that Percy would spend less time than the latter and more time with him.
Meanwhile, Toby begins to have strange dreams about his past. In said memories, he frequently interacts with his older brother named Bruce, who mostly seemed to appear kind and caring, but also having his moments of vanity. Remembering his brother makes Toby feel peaceful, but it never lasts too long, for every other dream sees him being bullied by another engine, named Roger, who is much ruder and more arrogant, despite being Bruce's age. What makes Roger even more odd, however, is that he appears very similar to Bruce, as if he was a completely different engine. This makes Toby wonder why Bruce, despite his kindness never stood up to Roger, or why the two engines were never even seen together. One morning, after another night terror from the previous evening, Toby reluctantly opens up to Percy about his past, expressing his confusion as to why he cannot make sense of the very last moments he shared with his old family. Percy, feeling very sorry for Toby, assures him that everything will be alright, and that he will always be there for him, like he is for his other friends. This makes Toby feel much better.
Unbeknownst to Toby and Percy, Thomas had overheard their conversation from afar. Feeling more spiteful and envious than ever about their bond, he irately damns Toby and vows to get him sent away so that he can win back Percy's full affection and remain his only best friend. Adding to his previous attempts at exceeding Toby's performance, Thomas starts to engage in acts of sabotage, trying his best to make them look like accidents of Toby's volition. Each attempt backfires when Toby is able to solve the problems on his own, making others impressed. Regardless, Thomas keeps trying, gradually raising the stakes of his scenarios. One time, Percy catches Thomas in the act of preparing on of his schemes and threatens to expose him to Sir Topham Hatt if he doesn't stop. Unphased, Thomas counter-threatens to tell everyone about his conversation with Toby, while adding a fabricated detail that the latter had done something terrible in his old life, which, in his jealousy, he wonders if is actually true.
Feeling betrayed and heartbroken by his best friend, Percy has a serious mental breakdown and runs far away from Sodor during the night. The next morning, Toby is the first to notice that Percy is missing, and Thomas is the second. News spreads fairly quick, and Sir Topham Hatt organizes a search party. Thomas, while feeling naturally worried for Percy, doesn't tell anyone about their fight. However, Toby starts feeling suspicious of Thomas all the same and starts to keep his distance from him, much to Thomas' secret delight. At one point or another, the two have an argument of their own over which one of them will be the one to find Percy. It is during this altercation when Thomas almost accidently spills the beans about his actions, when the two are interrupted by Sir Topham Hatt, who informs them that Percy is nowhere on the railway and plans to expand the search to the Mainland.
Meanwhile, Percy tearfully races along the lines of the other railways. Not necessarily looking for a specific place to go, he wants to stay as far away from Thomas as possible, having a newfound hatred for him, and sensing a better friendship with Toby. Eventually, he finds himself at a harbor, which initially looks somewhat familiar, as if it were the same harbor in Wales he used to work at. At closer inspection, however, he realizes it is not Newport, but rather the East Anglian port, the same docks where Toby used to live. Percy even stumbles upon a Toby's few surviving younger brothers and sisters, who have still been working there ever since Toby had left for the tramway. While giving Percy hospitality and listening to his story about how he ended up there, they tell him how they have gotten on with their lives, while also expressing their fears of being withdrawn from service and scrapped due to more modern transportation advancements that have been in progress since the war.
When Percy asks about Bruce and Roger, the siblings offer him a major revelation: There was never another tram named Roger, despite Toby's claims of his existence. Rather, what Toby didn't know, was that Roger was the second personality of Bruce, which had been developed long ago from an unknown tragedy. The siblings warn Percy about what he had been told, for if Toby found out too soon, he would likely loose himself in his personal quest to uncover the truth about his family and himself. Unsure what to do with this new overload of information, Percy thanks Toby's siblings for their hospitality, and spends the night there. That night, as Percy is sleeping, he is shunted by an at-first unseen other engine to another part of the docks, secluded from anyone else in earshot or eyesight.
Percy wakes up moments later to find himself in a work shed near the edge of the pier. He becomes horrified upon seeing that he is surrounded by several lifeless shells of tram engines similar to Toby and his siblings. Then, he is greeted by yet another J70, who reveals himself to be Burce, who had been roaming East Anglia and other areas of Southern England for many years. Bruce tells Percy that he had been conflicting with his second personality, Roger, his whole life, which often landed him in trouble with his friends, family, and even the dockyard manager at the time. After one of his somewhat minor accidents with some fish vans in the late 1930s, Bruce swore to completely separate himself from Roger, for the benefit of both him and those around him. At first, this made Roger angry, for he would no longer be able to control Bruce, but he then saw an opportunity to free himself from Bruce and carry out his plans on his own, and it would also involve hurting Bruce for as "payback."
One fateful evening, around 1939, merely days before Toby's last day at the harbor, Bruce was on shunting duties near the workshop area, when a faulty crane started to malfunction. Bruce tried to steer clear of it, but Roger overpowered his conscience and made him puff too close to the crane, allowing it to fall on him and crush him. Toby was devastated and frantically offered to help with potential repairs, but the manager, who unreasonably blamed the accident entirely on Bruce, refused to pay the expenses. On the day of Toby's departure to the tramway, Bruce comforted Toby, assuring him that he will always be with him in spirit, before being loaded onto a scrap train and taken away.
Bruce would spend much time riding several other scrap trains as time passed due to the overcrowding of some scrap or smelter yards. Several years passed, and by 1942, during the peak of the war, the time when Bruce was supposed to receive the cutter's torch had finally come. However, the scrap train that he was riding was sabotaged by German soldiers, and was derailed so they could steal engine parts for their advantages. Bruce was taken to an engine works built and run by the Nazi Party, and he was not only repaired, but also cloned by one of the facilities leading researchers. The cloned tram was initially just a shell and modified with weaponry, but it suddenly gained sentience by the soul of none other than Roger, who was now free from sharing a body with Bruce and able to continue with his life and goals.
Roger tried to manipulate Bruce into joining the Nazis with him and was almost coerced further by the scientists and military officers, but Bruce managed to escape from the works, and had been roaming ever since, looking for Toby. When he finally finishes recounting his story to Percy, Bruce asks him to help in his search. Although hesitant at first, Percy agrees to take Bruce back to Sodor. The two wait until morning to set off. Back on Sodor, the other engines have grown increasingly worried for Percy. Edward is supportive of Thomas, but the big engines have become suspicious of him, like Toby also had.
Cast[]
- Daniel Irwin and Perseus / Percy
- TBA as Tobin / Toby
- Winwatch98 as Thomas
- Mr. Berkshire as Bruce, Tobin's older brother
- Berskhire also voices Roger, Bruce's evil alternate personality
- Victor Tanzig and TBD as Tobin's other brothers and sisters
- Jamie Ringwood as Edward
- Zundapp as Henry
- Richard J. Browning as Gordon
- Kyle Dennison (Trampy) as:
- James
- Trucks
- Thomas' driver
- Harbor men
- Caitlan Hill as Annie and Clarabel
- Nic Goodrich (The Unlucky Tug) as Sir Topham Hatt I / The Fat Controller
- TBD as Lady Jane Hatt, Sir Topham Hatt's wife
- TBD as Charles Hatt, Sir Topham Hatt's son and eventual successor
- TBD as Barbara Jane Regaby (née Hatt), Sir Topham Hatt's daughter
- TBD and TBD as Stephen and Bridget Hatt, Charles' children and Sir Topham Hatt's grandchildren
- TBD as Percy's driver
- TBD as The Thin Clergyman
- Tom Marshall as the Narrator
Production[]
Production[]
Development[]
In February 2025, while still in the early stages of writing the first Perseus movie, O'Hayre had an idea for a potential sequel involving another popular Thomas character. Having thought about it for a bit, he chose it to be Toby, due to the fact that the Tobias and The Sentinels trilogy inspired him to make the first film in the first place.
Writing[]
O'Hayre began writing the script on March 6, 2025.
Casting[]
Design[]
Filming and animation[]
Cinematography[]
Soundtrack[]
- Main article: Perseus and Toby/Soundtrack