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Post by Steve Austin on May 13, 2020 9:43:57 GMT
Never quite understood the massive popularity of Thomas The Tank Engine. I've not read Rev Awdry's books or watched the tv shows closely but putting names & faces to trains or any kind of inanimate object/machine strikes me as lazy, though I do like 'Ivor The Engine', maybe it's because he doesn't have a face. I mean you can put a pair of eyes & smiley mouth on virtually anything, a turd even, and 'create' a character, and I think many writers for children have done just that.
Funny you should say that...
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Three Litre
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Post by Three Litre on May 13, 2020 10:01:26 GMT
Fair comment Tiger, I see what you're saying but in my opinion that basic principle has worked for generations of children to feed their imagination and it continues to this day with so many other stories and programs. Not quite machines but you can go back a couple of hundred years to Beatrix Potter making characters and storylines based on various animals whether wild animals, farm animals or pets. My kids loved the stories and visiting Beatrix Potter's house. I'd never read the stories until we had our kids and they are perfect for a night time read when kids are at that wonderful age where every such story is 'magical'. Then when I was a kid we had Tales of the Riverbank where live creatures were given a voiceover, Ivor The Engine as you mentioned - but one thing Ivor had which Thomas missed out on was a resident dragon. We also had Morph, Gillespie etc blobs of plasticine with names, Bill and Ben the flowerpot men, all inanimate objects given names and characters. Wind forward to more recent decades and the likes of Disney's Toy Story where inanimate objects, in this case toys, come to life. We've seen Budgie the helicopter courtesy of Fergie, Bob the builder with his machines Scoop, Muck, Dizzy etc. Personally I think it is clever rather than lazy, to give a creature or an inanimate object a name and character and to convey that to a child in a manner that makes the child understand and be able to differentiate between the good, bad or flawed traits of all those characters. It is a mild form of learning without the harshness and realities that humans bring. Sam Yes, the key line there is "feed their imagination". I think they do(did) a good job of that. I haven't seen any for some while but the old ones were entertaining and educational, IMO.
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Post by Arthur Pringle on May 13, 2020 12:34:11 GMT
Yes I'm looking at it from an adult perspective, though I still think animals & toys coming to life makes sense whereas giving a train or car emotions is stretching things. On a similar note I've always found the tradition of calling boats & other vehicles 'she' & 'her' a bit odd.
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Post by Sam Tyler on May 13, 2020 13:28:49 GMT
On a similar note I've always found the tradition of calling boats & other vehicles 'she' & 'her' a bit odd.
I'd agree with you on that one, I've never understood why some people give real-life machines a gender and furthermore why you'd give your car a name. Or do I risk being accused of being politically correct by saying that my motor is of non-specific gender? I certainly can't be doing with that either! Sam.
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DI Alex Drake
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Post by DI Alex Drake on May 13, 2020 13:38:56 GMT
On a similar note I've always found the tradition of calling boats & other vehicles 'she' & 'her' a bit odd.
I'd agree with you on that one, I've never understood why some people give real-life machines a gender and furthermore why you'd give your car a name. Uh-oh . To be fair, only my first car had a name ...
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Three Litre
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Post by Three Litre on May 13, 2020 13:49:17 GMT
I'd agree with you on that one, I've never understood why some people give real-life machines a gender and furthermore why you'd give your car a name. Uh-oh . To be fair, only my first car had a name ... Derek?
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Post by DI Alex Drake on May 13, 2020 13:50:04 GMT
Uh-oh . To be fair, only my first car had a name ... Derek? No, thankfully.
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Post by Sam Tyler on May 13, 2020 15:26:24 GMT
Uh-oh . To be fair, only my first car had a name ... Derek? No, it is bound to be a play on the model of the car, something like Polly the Polo or Milly the Mini. I suppose she could have had Derek the DeLorean.... Sam.
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Three Litre
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Post by Three Litre on May 13, 2020 16:07:16 GMT
No, it is bound to be a play on the model of the car, something like Polly the Polo or Milly the Mini. I suppose she could have had Derek the DeLorean.... Sam. ......or Derek the DeTomaso. More likely Penelope the Pink Polo or Gertrude the Green Golf.
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Post by D.C. Burtonshaw on May 13, 2020 16:29:09 GMT
No, it is bound to be a play on the model of the car, something like Polly the Polo or Milly the Mini. I suppose she could have had Derek the DeLorean.... Sam. ......or Derek the DeTomaso. More likely Penelope the Pink Polo or Gertrude the Green Golf. A mate used to have (his brother's still got it actually) a Ford Escort Ghia which he called "Gertrude the Ghia"!
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