Thomas' Tall Friend

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, the Japanese DVD 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 apple and Gordon to take The Mayor and Sir Topham 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 Thomas' orders when he could not lay down 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 eat some of his apples so he would lay down, but as soon as the giraffe ate all the apples, he didn'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 has some leaves and Percy was happy to help his best friend. After playing and eating the leaves, the giraffe finally layed 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, but the giraffe wouldn't not 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 in joy at seeing it awake. Thomas gets his photograph taken with his new tall friend.

Characters

Thomas
Edward
Gordon
Percy
Cranky
Sir Topham Hatt
Farmer McColl (does not speak)
The Mayor of Sodor (does not speak)
Henry (cameo)
James (cameo)
Emily (cameo)
Stanley (cameo)
Hiro (cameo)
Diesel (cameo)
The Photographer (cameo)
The Tree Specialists (cameo)
The Teacher (cameo)
The Ginger-haired Boy (cameo)

Locations

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 marks the debut of the Animal Park.

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.
Percy went with Thomas to the Animal Park, then Thomas leaves, but when he came back, Percy disappeared.

Merchandise

Wooden Railway - Thomas' Tall Friends 3-pack
Books - The Tall Friend, Thomas' Tall Friend, Holiday Gift Set and Thomas' Tall Friend (China only)
Magazine Stories - Thomas' Tall Friend/Thomas' Tall Friend
Take-n-Play

In Other Languages

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