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This article is about the episode. You may be looking for the Step Into Reading book, the Chinese book, the 2011 magazine story, the 2012 magazine story or the Thai DVD.

“Will he blow over?"
"Why's he so spotty?"
"Does he sit down?”
― Gordon, Edward, and Percy upon seeing the giraffe

Thomas' Tall Friend is the first episode of the fourteenth season.

Plot

A new animal park is being built on Sodor and Thomas is called upon to deliver a giraffe to the Animal Park as Percy delivers leaves, Edward delivers apples and Gordon to take The Mayor and Sir Topham Hatt to open the park. Cranky tells Thomas to wait for the giraffe's keeper but Thomas wanted to show the giraffe to the children and leaves without waiting for the giraffe's keeper. Thomas runs into trouble when the giraffe will not follow his orders and lay down to allow Thomas to go under a bridge. Gordon comes from behind with The Mayor and Sir Topham Hatt on his express. Seeing the giraffe blocking his way, Gordon tells Thomas to go back to the Docks for the keeper, but Thomas thinks the giraffe will do what he tells him and went to a siding to let Gordon pass.

Edward arrives and Thomas asked him if the giraffe could eat some of his apples so he would lay down, but as soon as the giraffe ate all the apples, he wouldn’t lay down. Edward was not happy about this and tells Thomas to go back to the Docks for the giraffe keeper, but Thomas still thinks the giraffe will do as he says and Edward leaves. Then Percy arrives and Thomas asked him if the giraffe could have some leaves and Percy was happy to help his best friend. After playing with the leaves and eating them, the giraffe finally lies down and Thomas and Percy chuffed to the animal park.

But when they arrived, The Mayor and Sir Topham Hatt were cross after waiting a long time for the giraffe, who wouldn't wake up. Thomas knows what must be done and goes back to the docks to collect the keeper. After taking him to the animal park, Thomas goes to get fresh leaves and apples to replace the ones the giraffe ate and returns to the Animal Park with them. The giraffe immediately follows its keeper's orders and even turns its attention to Thomas when Thomas whistles with joy at seeing it awake. Thomas gets his photograph taken with his new tall friend.

Characters

Locations

Cast

UK

US

Trivia

  • The photo album at the end of the episode contains photos from the episodes, Thomas and the Runaway Kite and Creaky Cranky and one from the special, Hero of the Rails.
  • This episode marks the debut of the Sodor Animal Park in the television series; it had previously appeared in several magazine stories.

Goofs

  • After Thomas goes back to the docks, the giraffe's flatbed somehow switches tracks at the Animal Park.
  • During the scene at Brendam Docks, Gordon's coaches move positions; one disappears, and later one is not rendered properly, as it goes through Gordon's tender.

Merchandise

In Other Languages

Language Title
Catalan L'amiga alta d'en Thomas
Chinese 托马斯的高个子朋友
Czech Tomáš a jeho vysoký kamarád
Danish Thomas' høje ven
Finnish Tuomas ja Pitkäystävä
French Thomas et la girafe
German Thomas’ großer Freund
Greek Η ψηλη φίλη του Τόμας
Hungarian Thomas hórihorgas barátja
Indonesian Thomas yang Tinggi
Italian Thomas e il Suo Alto Amico
Japanese トーマスとキリン
Korean 토마스의 키다리 친구
Norwegian Thomas's høye venn
Polish Wysoka Przyjaciółka Tomka
Portuguese A Amiga Alta de Thomas
Romanian Prietenul Înalt al lui Thomas
Russian Высокий Гость
Spanish La Amiga Alta de Thomas
Swedish Thomas långe vän
Thai เพื่อนตัวสูงของโธมัส
Welsh Ffrind Tal Tomos

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