HiT Entertainment

HiT Entertainment is the current owner of Thomas and Friends.

HiT was originally formed as Henson International Television (hit!) in 1983 as a branch of the Jim Henson Company in order to coordinate the co-production of Fraggle Rock in London. This subsidary was sold and retains none of the original Henson company architecture except for the name. It later rebranded itself as "HiT Entertainment".

They later purchased Gullane Entertainment in 2003 and have since produced the new series format of Thomas episodes and merchandise. HiT first acquired the television rights for Thomas and Friends in 2002, during the airing of the sixth season and the filming of the seventh. HiT's changes to the series have been reviled by many fans due to their over-educational and "three-strikes" setup. This contrasts with the Reverend W. Awdry's original meaning for the stories to be solely for entertainment.

On February 1st, 2012, it was announced that Mattel purchased HiT Entertainment from Apax Partners for $680 million.

US VHS and DVD Releases

 * Percy's Chocolate Crunch and Other Thomas Adventures
 * James and the Red Balloon and Other Thomas Adventures
 * Thomas' Snowy Surprise and Other Adventures
 * Best of Gordon
 * New Friends for Thomas and Other Adventures
 * Steamies vs. Diesels and Other Thomas Adventures
 * Thomas and the Jet Engine and Other Adventures
 * It's Great to be an Engine
 * The Early Years
 * Hooray for Thomas and Other Adventures
 * Thomas' Sodor Celebration!
 * Songs from the Station
 * Percy Saves the Day and Other Adventures
 * Calling All Engines!
 * Thomas and the Really Brave Engines and Other Adventures
 * Track Stars
 * Tales from the Tracks
 * Thomas' Trusty Friends
 * Thomas' Halloween Adventures
 * Come Ride the Rails
 * Milkshake Muddle
 * On Site with Thomas
 * Carnival Capers
 * Thomas and the Toy Workshop
 * Thomas and the Treasure
 * Engines and Escapades
 * The Great Discovery
 * Hero of the Rails
 * Splish, Splash, Splosh!
 * Thomas and the Runaway Kite
 * The Greatest Stories
 * Creaky Cranky
 * Misty Island Rescue
 * Merry Winter Wish
 * The Lion of Sodor
 * Wobbly Wheels and Whistles
 * Pop Goes Thomas
 * The Birthday Express
 * Thomas in Charge!
 * Day of the Diesels
 * Merry Christmas, Thomas!
 * Rescue On the Rails
 * Curious Cargo
 * Up, Up and Away!
 * Engine Friends
 * Schoolhouse Delivery
 * Blue Mountain Mystery
 * A Very Thomas Christmas
 * Celebrate with Thomas
 * Let's Explore with Thomas
 * Sticky Situations
 * Muddy Matters
 * Full Steam Ahead (coming soon)
 * Go Go Thomas! (coming soon)
 * King of the Railway (coming soon)

UK DVD Releases

 * The Complete Eighth Series
 * The Complete Ninth Series
 * All Aboard with the Steam Team
 * It's Great to be an Engine
 * Peep! Peep! Hurray! Three Cheers for Thomas
 * Calling All Engines!
 * Tales from the Tracks
 * Little Engines, Big Days Out
 * On Track for Adventure
 * Together on the Tracks
 * Thomas' Trusty Friends
 * Engines and Escapades
 * The Spirit of Sodor
 * The Great Discovery
 * Carnival Capers
 * Songs from Sodor
 * Heave Ho!
 * Hero of the Rails
 * Splish, Splash, Splosh!
 * Best of Thomas
 * Thomas and the Runaway Kite
 * The Complete Tenth Series
 * Creaky Cranky
 * The Complete First Series
 * The Complete Second Series
 * The Complete Third Series
 * The Complete Fourth Series
 * The Complete Fifth Series
 * The Complete Sixth Series
 * The Complete Seventh Series
 * Misty Island Rescue
 * Christmas Express
 * Wobbly Wheels and Whistles
 * The Complete Twelfth Series
 * The Lion of Sodor
 * Pop Goes Thomas
 * Day of the Diesels
 * The Birthday Express
 * Thomas in Charge!
 * The Best of James
 * The Best of Percy
 * The Complete Thirteenth Series
 * Up, Up and Away!
 * Rescue On the Rails
 * Curious Cargo
 * Blue Mountain Mystery
 * Merry Winter Wish
 * Sticky Situations
 * Go Go Thomas! (coming soon)
 * Sodor's Heroes! (coming soon)
 * Muddy Matters (coming soon)
 * The Complete Fourteenth Series (coming soon)
 * King of the Railway (coming soon)

Criticism
Many fans believe that HiT Entertainment damaged Thomas and Friends on several grounds:
 * Replacing the music by Mike O'Donnell and Junior Campbell with Robert Hartshorne and Ed Welch's tunes. However, since the CGI switch-over, and the departure of Ed Welch from the series, many fans have begun to enjoy Hartshorne's scores.
 * Changes in the personas of several characters; most notably Edward, Toby, Skarloey, Henry, Sir Handel, Rheneas, Diesel, and Diesel 10. Since Misty Island Rescue, Diesel and Diesel 10's personas seem more like their original ones. Likewise, since Blue Mountain Mystery, Skarloey, Sir Handel, and Rheneas have received personas more akin to the ones they had prior to the ninth season.
 * The writing style of the series changing from entertainment with a subtle moral, while kept fairly accurate to real railway operations, to an educational format with less realistic railway operations.
 * Contradicting continuity, most notably with Henry needing special coal once again and Hiro being referred to as "the first engine on Sodor".
 * Transitioning from model animation to CGI.
 * Crashes that result in less (or more) violent effects than would be in reality.
 * Using trucks for tasks that would, in real railway operations, be handled by other types of rolling stock best suited for the task.
 * A severe lack of brakevans between the eighth and twelfth seasons. Although brakevans are still not on every goods train, they have been seen more often in the CGI seasons.
 * Story lines which do not seem to relate to that of what a real engine could endeavor.
 * Stories commonly fixated on the Steam Team with older characters like Duck, Oliver, BoCo, Donald and Douglas, and Duke, among others remaining absent, with some not appearing at all.
 * New characters being introduced, possibly only for one episode, and then never appearing again.
 * Constant rhyming in the later seasons, more specifically between the thirteenth and sixteenth seasons.
 * "Zombifying" all minor human characters, particularly the drivers and firemen, into nothing more than the engine's hands.
 * Poor quality in story lines often involving the "three strikes, you're out" method where an engine has to do something, and then messes it up three times in a row only to retry and succeed, often with help from someone they refused help from in the first place.

External link

 * HiT's website