''Chuggington'', also known as ''Chuggington: Tales from the Rails'' in series 6, is a British animated television series aimed at pre-school children, produced by Ludorum plc and Herschend Entertainment Studios. It is broadcast on the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

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channel, Disney Jr., and other channels internationally. Originally composed of six series, running from 2008 to 2021.

Setting

In the fictional city of Chuggington are young

novice A novice is a person who has entered a religious order and is under probation, before taking vows. A ''novice'' can also refer to a person (or animal e.g. racehorse) who is entering a profession with no prior experience. Religion Buddhism ...

anthropomorphic Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities. It is considered to be an innate tendency of human psychology. Personification is the related attribution of human form and characteristics to ...

railway locomotives, called "Trainees", Koko, Wilson, Brewster, Hoot & Toot and Piper. The trainees and sometimes the more experienced chuggers learn the value of loyal friendship, telling the truth, listening carefully, persisting under adversity, completing tasks, resolving conflict without violence and similar values. The locomotives, called "Chuggers", are intelligent, empathetic, independent and somewhat self-directed. They have mobile facial and body features (i.e. other than Olwin, all chuggers have eyebrows that resemble windscreen wipers). Chuggers have no drivers, yet some engines have crew doors that can be opened. Chuggers regularly interact with humans such as passengers and maintenance staff. Some chuggers are modelled after well-known locomotives from various countries. The city of Chuggington has a central area of large modern buildings. Side-by-side railway tunnels, coloured red, blue, yellow and green run out of the main depot and go beyond the city, leading to the outside world. The four rail lines lead to four different places; the blue line is to a large

quarry A quarry is a type of open-pit mining, open-pit mine in which dimension stone, rock (geology), rock, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel, or slate is excavated from the ground. The operation of quarries is regulated in some juri ...

with a system of mine tunnels, a green line which runs through the countryside, a red line which runs to a

harbour A harbor (American English), or harbour (Commonwealth English; see American and British English spelling differences#-our, -or, spelling differences), is a sheltered body of water where ships, boats, and barges can be Mooring, moored. The t ...

and

port A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as Hamburg, Manch ...

, and the yellow line which runs through the city centre and to the neighboring town of Tootington.

Episodes

Characters

Wilson, Brewster, and Koko are the main characters in ''Chuggington''.

Young trainees

Main

Non-advanced

Adult chuggers

Ambiguous

Humans

Production

The creative core behind ''Chuggington'' is Sarah Ball, a producer and director who worked on ''

Bob the Builder ''Bob the Builder'' is a British animated children's television series created by Keith Chapman for HIT Entertainment which ran from to in the United Kingdom through the CBBC strand and later CBeebies. The series centres on the adventures ...

'', and Don Toht, who designed the characters and sets.Castleman, Lana
Q&A: Caminada charts startup's next moves
''Kidscreen'', 27 March 2009. The animation is made with

Autodesk Maya Autodesk Maya, commonly shortened to just Maya (; ), is a 3D computer graphics application that runs on Windows, macOS, and Linux, originally developed by Alias and currently owned and developed by Autodesk. It is used to create assets for inter ...

software. As well as the regular ten-minute episodes, there are four-minute shows, ''Chuggington: Badge Quest'', focusing on the trainees' efforts to earn reward badges for their "Chugger" training. Three ''Chuggington'' specials were commissioned for release on DVD from 2013 onwards.PRE-SCHOOL MONTH: New characters bolster Chuggington , Licensing Industry , News by
. Licensing.biz. on 2012-01-09. On 29 November 2017,

Fuji Television JOCX-DTV (channel 8), branded as or , is a Japanese television station that serves the Kantō region as the flagship (broadcasting), flagship station of the Fuji News Network (FNN) and the Fuji Network System (FNS). The station is owned-and- ...

took over the Japanese rights to the show (including production, distribution and licensing) in Japan from Ludorum. On 10 December 2018, Herschend Entertainment Studios acquired the rights to the series.

Broadcast

The first series of 52 episodes was sold to broadcasters including the BBC, ABC (Australia),

TF1 TF1 (; standing for ''Télévision Française 1'') is a French commercial television network owned by TF1 Group, controlled by the Bouygues conglomerate. TF1's average market share of 24% makes it the most popular domestic network. TF1 is part ...

(France), ⁣ Super RTL (Germany), and

Fuji TV JOCX-DTV (channel 8), branded as or , is a Japanese television station that serves the Kantō region as the flagship (broadcasting), flagship station of the Fuji News Network (FNN) and the Fuji Network System (FNS). The station is owned-and- ...

(Japan) in a deal announced in February 2008. A second series of 26 episodes was purchased by the BBC and many other broadcasters throughout the world. Aimed at children between the ages of 3 and 6, ''Chuggington'' made its UK debut as a "soft launch" on

BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's second flagship channel, and it covers a wide range of subject matte ...

on 29 September 2008.

Reception

Emily Ashby of ''

Common Sense Media Common Sense Media (CSM) is an American nonprofit organization that reviews and provides ratings for media and technology with the goal of providing information on their suitability for children.

'' gave the show four stars out of five, saying that "Young 'trainees' teach preschoolers important social skills."

Criticism

Many people have derided the show for being a "Thomas ripoff" due to its perceived similarities to

Thomas & Friends ''Thomas & Friends'' is a British children's television series which aired from 9 October 1984 to 20 January 2021. Based on ''The Railway Series'' books by Wilbert Awdry and his son Christopher Awdry, Christopher, the series was developed for ...

Merchandise

In January 2009 it was announced that RC2 would be producing ''Chuggington'' toys under their

Learning Curve A learning curve is a graphical representation of the relationship between how proficient people are at a task and the amount of experience they have. Proficiency (measured on the vertical axis) usually increases with increased experience (the ...

brand; the toys were released to the market in 2010. RC2 contributed to half of the series' production budget in exchange for long-term global toy licensing rights.

Media

DVDs from

Anchor Bay Entertainment The revived Anchor Bay Entertainment is an American independent film production and distribution company owned by Umbrelic Entertainment co-founders Thomas Zambeck and Brian Katz. Anchor Bay Entertainment markets and releases "new release genre ...

include the first, entitled ''Chuggington: Let's Ride the Rails'', was released in March 2009 containing six episodes. A second DVD, ''Action Stations'', released in October 2009, contained another six. The third DVD release, ''Wheels to the Rails'', with another eight episodes, released in November 2010. Anchor Bay's ''Chuggington: Let’s Ride the Rails!'' was the first Chuggington DVD to be released nationwide in the United States on 8 February 2011. In the UK, several children's books have been released, including ''Koko on Call: A Nightlight Adventure'', based on an early episode. Publications International and Scholastic introduced ''Chuggington'' books to the US market in late 2010 and early 2011, respectively.

Toys

In early 2010, the Chuggington Diecast Series of model trains was released in the UK. The ''Chuggington'' Diecast Series by Learning Curve was released in the US nationwide in late 2010. In 2012, the system was rebranded to ''StackTrack'', in which children can stack the railway tracks on top of each other with supports. This system was discontinued by 2017, however the ''StackTrack'' track system is still in use. Later in 2010, the interactive range was released in the UK. The chuggers and Vee, their dispatcher, can interact with each other using 'Smart Talk' technology and over 300 stored phrases. Each chugger can recognise the other chuggers, and their train stops. The interactive phrases spoken depend on which chuggers and locations are placed together, giving a more varied, but not random, conversation. The ''Chuggington'' Interactive Railway was released in the United States in February 2011. This system was discontinued by 2017. The Chuggington Wooden Railway was released in September 2010 to Canada, and on 1 March 2011 to specialty retailers in the United States. It is compatible with all other wooden railway systems. This system was discontinued by 2017. In late 2011, Mega Brands released the 'Chuggington Construction' range, but was now discontinued, as of 2013. In the United States, other ''Chuggington'' products include games (I Can Do That! Games), puzzles (Cardinal), and activity sets (

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). In 2012, the Plarail ''Chuggington'' range was released and was discontinued around 2017. In 2013, Bachmann Trains made a series of ''Chuggington'' electric train sets and separate sale engines and cars. It is compatible with all other HO scale systems by other companies and is made to work with the

range. In 2017, Bachmann Trains have discontinued the ''Chuggington'' range. In 2019, Alpha Group Co., Ltd. acquired the rights for any future ''Chuggington'' vehicle toys.

Train and Tramway

According to Okayama Electric Tramway press report on 12 January 2018, it will be operated in 2 cars and 1 train with its own decorated appearance that reproduced Wilson and Brewster in Japan. With the all-seat reservation system, the operation start date is 16 March 2019. It is confirmed as the world's first in the railroad and tram related motif with this character as a motif. :ja:岡山電気軌道#軌道事業#導入予定車両 (Japanese language edition) Retribute date on 21 February 2019.

References

External links

* * * {{CBeebies programming 2000s British animated television series 2010s British animated television series 2020s British animated television series 2000s British children's television series 2010s British children's television series 2020s British children's television series 2008 animated television series debuts 2008 British television series debuts British children's animated adventure television series British children's animated comedy television series British children's animated fantasy television series British preschool education television series British television series revived after cancellation Animated preschool education television series 2000s preschool education television series 2010s preschool education television series 2020s preschool education television series British English-language television shows Television series about rail transport BBC children's television shows CBeebies original programming Disney Jr. original programming Fuji Television original programming Trains in fiction BBC animated television series