Talk:Woodland Animations

re Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends

For a long time now, a link to Woodland Animations has been present on the {{Thomas}} navigation template. Questions have been asked, but no concrete evidence of a link has been forthcoming to support its presence there.

The following was such a question (taken from User talk:Majorclanger), which is best preserved here...

You seem to have been keeping an eye on Woodland Animations, which is good.

According to the ImDB page (linked from the article) the company was 'responsible', in some capacity, for a greater number of productions than are credited in WP. My particular 'interest' is in the Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends reference, which led to Woodland Animations being added to the 'Thomas' navigation template for some considerable time. (It has just been removed, hence my sudden interest!)

What reference material are you using to decide the inclusion/exclusion of productions? If the IMDB list is inaccurate, had you thought of requesting a change there? It would be useful to know if there is a genuine link between Woodland Animations and Thomas (or not), since as long as the IMDB reference exists, people will want to 'correct' the WP articles...

This discussion should, perhaps, be written on its talk page -- but I leave you to move/copy it if appropriate!

(For WP:THOMAS) -- EdJogg (talk) 09:47, 21 January 2008 (UTC)

First, I should confess that I personally know very little about Woodland. I got dragged into monitoring it as one particularly persistent troll began attributing other series to Woodland (specifically some Smallfilms series, which I have a particular interest in). While fighting that battle, I tried to straighten out the series list, but found that there's not a lot of reliable info on the web about Woodland. I vaguely recall leaving "Thomas" intact due to the IMDB reference, though I don't consider IMDB to be particularly reliable in general. When another editor removed it, I was perfectly happy to go along. I can't categorically state that Woodland had nothing to do with it, but it's pretty clear that they were not the primary producers - if so, they would surely be on the credits. Also, the cited obituary for Ivor Wood lists "other successes" for Woodland, but doesn't mention "Thomas", which certainly would be considered more successful than some of the series listed (Bertha, Charlie Chalk, et. all.). There's also a Guardian story used as a reference for Ivor Wood that covers Woodland, and again does not mention "Thomas". It's all pretty circumstantial, and I know too well that absence of evidence is not evidence of absence, but I've looked a fair bit for solid info linking Woodland to the first Thomas series, and finding none, can only conclude that any connection is tenuous at best. I don't know if that's much help to you, but hope so. And I apologize for that terrible five clause sentence above! Majorclanger (talk) 20:07, 21 January 2008 (UTC)

I think you've covered similar ground to me here, but it's good to have it confirmed. If we doubt the validity of the IMDB data, then it might be worth noting this on appropriate talk pages. If references come to light later, then it can be easily re-added. Thank you. EdJogg (talk) 02:05, 22 January 2008 (UTC)

Can anyone provide evidence of any relationship between Woodland Animation and Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends? If not, we ought to remove it from the template.

EdJogg (talk) 09:30, 26 February 2009 (UTC)

Silence. Hence I'm going to remove it now. -- EdJogg (talk) 08:22, 10 July 2009 (UTC)

Additional references

Just found an obituary for Ivor Wood at the Times Online which may be of additional use to this article.

Also http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/postman-pat-is-sold-for-pound51m-616288.html which describes the sale to ER in more detail.

EdJogg (talk) 09:32, 10 July 2009 (UTC)