It's clear Underground Ernie really wanted to be a love letter to the London Underground, but a lot of its kinks caused it to fall into obscurity.

I feel like Underground Ernie’s art style feels like a weird hybrid between early Dreamworks/Pixar animation, with the realistic looking humans look eerily similar to the ones in Shrek (but more soulless) to the train’s character designs that all feel like mashups of Cars, Finding Nemo, & A Bug’s Life. But then again, CGI was a new form of animation at the time and many companies haven’t exactly mastered it.

@realchristian77010

2 ай бұрын

Yep, agreed. But it still reminds me of Foodfight or Video Brinquido's productions.

@joshuaW5621

2 ай бұрын

It reminds me of Valiant, which came out the year before and also looks older than it really is.

@brendanhanley2741

20 күн бұрын

Millie legit looks like Fiona from Shrek

This is a real Ernie Moment.

@Slimjaem

2 ай бұрын

PlayDontPause!?

@I_like_planesandtrains860

2 ай бұрын

H O L Y C R A P

@camoshunthetankengine1

2 ай бұрын

🎵ERNIIIIIIEEEEEEEEE🎵

@YourlocalMegaManbattlenetworkf

2 ай бұрын

Under ground boi

@nicholasstanton9575

Ай бұрын

🎵 “ERRRRNNNNNNNNNIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” 🎵

God, it’s a good thing they’re kept underground..

@johnathonmcjohn3

2 ай бұрын

*THATS WHAT YOU THINK*

@nicholasstanton9575

Ай бұрын

ernieeeEeee.

@LucaandThomasProductions

Ай бұрын

Hahaha 🤣

i'm just gonna hear ERNIEEEEEEEEE every time i wake up in the middle of the night, aren't I?

@TheSmart-CasualGamer

2 ай бұрын

I ' M P R O U D T O B E O F S E R V I C E .

@susanlua4792

Ай бұрын

Probably 😅

Now I know why Thomas waited until 2008 to try Cgi

@Daansstuff-alt

2 ай бұрын

Erm actually TATMR used CGI 🤓

@Waskotorowy

2 ай бұрын

​@@Daansstuff-altbut only when it was needed

@Daansstuff-alt

2 ай бұрын

@@Waskotorowy r/whoosh

@Waskotorowy

2 ай бұрын

@@Daansstuff-alt stop this r/wooshing ples its annoying as heck

@Daansstuff-alt

2 ай бұрын

@@Waskotorowy of course you’d say that 😂😂😂

13:07 ah yes my favorite show. Sir Topham Hatt's trains.

@WaksWorld05

2 ай бұрын

I sure also like Vee’s Futuristic Railway and Captain Star’s Tugboats

@digitaltoaster4956

Ай бұрын

Or STHT

It would be kind of cool and funny if Victoria was portrayed as a metropolitan 4-4-0 to show how old she's really meant to be

@brendanhanley2741

Ай бұрын

Maybe victoria could be based of Fowler's ghost

I remember when the theme song came on my brother and I would sing “Underground Ernie, We hope he never gets there!” and it was peak comedy to us. Looking forward to this retrospective

This was a welcome surprise! I “run” the Underground Ernie wiki featured in this video (run being a big statement, it’s not been updated for ages) - great to see the show being talked about. Thanks for making this one!

16:19 my headcannon is he can upload his consciousness into a computer and use it the way we would use it

@joeleboeuf

2 ай бұрын

That does seem like the more logical approach.

@mikeyhasfuntoo9164

Ай бұрын

My idea is that he uses his wheels to play. Like, there’s a bit of his shed that goes off the rails, with a computer at the end, and he uses that

From one person who has reviewed this specific show, to another. Maybe it’s because I’ve seen loads of badly animated productions in my life, but never found this show creepy from its animation or designs. I thought the Dancing CGI Bear on a carousel from Teletubbies looked creepier. If there was a second season, not only would the animation have improved, but imagine them adding in new international stereotype trains to market into merchandise. Berlin from Germany, Beijing from China, Vancouver from Canada, Pisa from Italy, Dublin from Ireland, Cairo from Egypt- okay, I’ll shut up now.

@wadeyhyena1657

2 ай бұрын

Let's not forget: Stockholm from Sweden Madrid from Spain Bern from Switzerland Nairobi from Kenya Hanoi from Vietnam Dubai from India

@ThomasTheorist

2 ай бұрын

I personally don't find the show creepy at all - but most people do, so at thr start I kinda react how people would react now when first seeing the show but I honestly have no issue with it haha

@joshuaW5621

2 ай бұрын

Oh cool, James A. Williams himself is here. Who else has seen his video on Underground Ernie raise your hand.

@magnum_pig_2004

2 ай бұрын

@@joshuaW5621 *raises hand*

@WaksWorld05

2 ай бұрын

The OG Ernie reviewer is back, I guess. You’re not alone anymore. Hey, where’s Manila from The Philippines as Filipino rep in Ernie?

The concept of Underground Ernie and even the well written banter between the characters feels natural enough that it could honestly work in the same world as Thomas in my opinion... provided the world and how the railways work is tweaked to make a bit more realistic sense and the train characters are given some serious TTTE style redesigns.

I’ve learned a lot about Underground Ernie thanks to this video, and it sounds like a cool show! So cool that I will add errrrrniieeeeeee to my alarm clock

It’s a shame that Underground Ernie is such an easy target because the theme song goes incredibly hard

Dublin is planning on building a metro system too in a few years. I was also on the London Underground earlier this year when I visited London.

@toyotaprius79

2 ай бұрын

The Dublin Metro was initially supposed to be built before 2010

22:22 Japan loves Thomas The Tank Engine because he resembles the yokai; oboroguruma

31:32 Maybe Ernie's sentient balls are the ones that sing that random 🎶🎶ERNIE🎶🎶🎶 cue! I guess we solved an unanswerable Underground Ernie question XD

I think Moscow is the coolest looking character in the show. I like how his mustache is like a furnace that helps keep him warm in the winter, it really helps him standout I feel.

17:26 HE SAID IT! HE SAID IT!

9:44 EERNIEEE 19:00 THOMASSS

@splittieful

5 күн бұрын

Add that with the explosion with it and it will sound like that meme.

Guys, I have a theory, Underground Ernie was edited in Imovie which can explain the transitions and random fades

@DiscoDoctor

2 ай бұрын

More likely than unlikely. Though it was probably edited in a program that no longer exists!

9:01 Guys, Stingo is the bee who stung James. (Misinformation)

Rather than being JUST based on Sherlock Holmes, Bakerloo was a mix between Sherlock Holmes and the Duke of Wellington. Bakerloo was originally an abbreviation for The Baker Street and Waterloo Railway, so there's Sherlock Holmes from Baker Street, and Duke of Wellington from Waterloo

I read in an issue of Steam Railway magazine in 2006 that Underground Ernie was intended to put Thomas & Friends into the sidings. But in reality, it was Underground Ernie that ended up in the sidings instead of Thomas & Friends.

Here's a nightmare: Underground ernie all engines go

@FoxGalahArtStuff

26 күн бұрын

Oh no... OH NO!

Now imagine if there was a cartoon like this, but with NYC’s subway system Honestly it’d be extremely cursed since there aren’t many options when it comes to face positioning. It could go for either the Underground Ernie style, or maybe a Chuggington style where the faces are embedded into their bodies. But either way the show would be VERY cursed lol

@gothnerd887

2 ай бұрын

Perhaps something like X95 in this video kzread.info/dash/bejne/hoKWutaYhLu4hto.htmlsi=SPUUw3XGnyJy7TWA

@nwrxj9264

2 ай бұрын

As someone who literally works for the NYC subway, there's an easy way to make them look sentient; by having the front windows be the eyes and having the mouth be on the front door (although, I personally wouldn't have it open as a result.)

@ethan_playzroblox4265

2 ай бұрын

@@nwrxj9264 But now this brings a new question: Would the trains have a face at either end, or would each cab car be sentient like Pip and Emma? Plus, not all trains have 2 windows at each end. For example: The R46, R62, and R68s. Their second windows are replaced with rollsigns. And also, maybe the show would progress throughout the years starting with cars like the Low-V’s and Arnines and then progress to what we have now with like the NTTs such as R142s and R211s.

@nwrxj9264

2 ай бұрын

@@ethan_playzroblox4265hey, you just mentioned the NYC subway in the first comment, so I just explained my design logic for that. Also in my mind, I wouldn't have a face on both ends of a hypothetical fleet of anthropomorphic NYC subway engines.

28:07 sounds a bit like the Kermit frog ERNIEEEEEEEE (Thank you for 6 likes Thursday 9th May)

Sure the animation definitely wasn’t the best, but I think the characters and stories are enough to carry the show, proving bad animation can be saved by other better features

@NinTOONdo64

2 ай бұрын

It’s sort of similar to Jimmy Neutron. Another CGI show with its animation wasn’t exactly the best either but it became so memorable with its writing and jokes.

@MaxiGreatWestern1361

2 ай бұрын

why are you here

I never watched "Subterranean Ernest" as a 'Murican kid, but I only discovered that show from my first trip to the Bachmann UK website in 2006/2007.

I think that Underground Ernie deserves a reboot. Don't you.

@johnathonmcjohn3

2 ай бұрын

if so maybe make it look less ugly

@gothnerd887

2 ай бұрын

Maybe Jubilees hologram projector can be used for Vocaloid stuff.

If a CGI reboot of this show ever came (which is unlikely), i hope the trains don't look creepy and freakish and nightmare inducing Side note: cgi characters around this time were very creepy, freakish and nightmare inducing, such as spooky spoon

TT: How do you make a game you're a train?!?!?! Jubilee: I've got a printer and a big PC

I was going to search up something Mario-related that began with “Underground” and when I typed it in, the first thing I see is “Underground Ernie” and I was confused why it was searched so much. And now I find out why.

UNDERGROUND ERNIE!! I remember its vaguely mainly about some episode about a tunnel. But still iconic

If Underground Ernie had a series 2, there would be a GWR pannier tank engine painted in London Underground colours to represent the underground trains of the past.

The only things about underground Ernie I remembered from my childhood were: Victoria shouting help when she skids on the snow Hammersmith and city breaking apart along with the grunting noise Hammersmith made The dinosaur hologram which terrified me as a kid

This was my favourite show alongdide Thomss when i was younger, thanks for the nostalgia!

I remember watching this. I love it!

Oh my gosh I absolutely loved this show and its concept, even though in practice it was... this. I even had toys of the characters. So fun to see you covering it!

Oh the Paddy waggon set up absolutely sent me 🤣🤣

Love the intro " burn it, burn it with fire" 😂😂😂😂 Fantastic

Someone should make a fanmade series of Ernie

With indie animation taking off on KZread, I'm surprised no one has tried to reboot this show.

How can Jubilee work a computer despite being a train? Because Jubilee is the computer.

@WaksWorld05

2 ай бұрын

Ok that actually makes a whole lotta sense

@islandofsodorflims8712

2 ай бұрын

Or maybe he has invisible arms.

@joshuaW5621

2 ай бұрын

At least it’s not as confusing as Cars 2’s level of logic.

@user-wh8my6sr8l

2 ай бұрын

Or he has wheel hands

@skarloey1214

2 ай бұрын

🤯🤯🤯

I remember watching this at a friends house and I still got the bachmann models of these. As a kid I loved it Idkw but I just did lol.

Fun fact about Circle: Bachmann made a train set that has a model of her. It's.. certainly an uncanny valley sort of thing with how weird it looks. *It's eyes move, which make it worse.*

I got pissed at the fact that there wasn't a character based on the Fowler's ghost locomotive

They even had mall rides produced based on characters from that show that I remember seeing in Australian shopping malls as a kid in the 2000s. I think that show was even aired by the ABC in Australia back then during their kids block.

MAY THE 4TH BE WITH YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

@kevinkeenan-2.1

2 ай бұрын

And with you too.

@toyotaprius79

2 ай бұрын

Every day May as well be 420

@雪者

2 ай бұрын

To you too!

plot twist: Dr Hart's patients are Adam, Beta & Luke

14:03 Victoria’s personality and appearance is that of Daisy’s, oh my she even has lipstick!

Stingo. That takes me back to when I was a kid watching Fifi and the Flowertots with my sister. Always used to come on after Thomas and Fireman Sam (S5, for anyone who's curious). I'd love to see someone make a retrospective on that series someday. I always used to hate Primrose for how snooty she tended to be. Violet was pretty chill though she could lose her head sometimes. I always used to feel bad for Slugsy since he tended to get roped into Stingo's operations all the time. Bumble was a close friend of hers, and he was pretty chill. That's about everyone I can remember right now. I think there was a spider too? I could be wrong. Great review regardless! :)

@wadeyhyena1657

2 ай бұрын

ERNIEEEEE

@joshuaW5621

2 ай бұрын

I remember that show as well.

It took 18 months to animate the show im pretty sure that if it looked decent, the computers rendering it would catch fire and blow up

You mentioning how the title of Underground Ernie has a human character's name reminds me of the title of Bob the Builder, infact I can also see a bit of similarities between Ernie and Bob. Also Moscow's mustache looks like a grill mouth from a Bob the Builder vehicle character honestly.

One other thing- I always found the gags at the end really creepy, especially that one with the football. Has a real liminal space feeling.

You know, I can only imagine what Gordon's encounter with one of the underground trains would be like, as from what I remember from my visit to London, there have been some points where the mainline and underground routes kind of run parallel to eachother. Can certainly imagine some of them being as rough and harsh, as sort of the conditions of the railway system can get.

@retrogamelover2012

Ай бұрын

21:02-21:23 Also, the hell you're talking about, Thomas Theorist? This guy's a perfect representation of America. He represents all the loud, obnoxious and in-your-face jingoists, that won't shut up about how great their country is.

Now I really want a show about the London overground

you know the feeling of "wait, I know that song" and then you struggle for 15 minutes trying to remember it No Rain, by Blind Melon got me at 9:46 - 12:48 Anyway, really good and insightful video to this show Adam! Really enjoyed this one besides me getting hung up on a song lmao

Most of the show probably wouldn't bother me as a kid but Moscow would probably give me nightmares

Also Underground Ernie uses the brake squeal sound effect from The Railway Series Ted Robins narrations

Question: where are the other line trains? Because they were too creepy to appear in the show, they were off camera at all times

If this show was released now, Twitter would have a field day with it

@NitroIndigo

Ай бұрын

Maybe it'll see a spike in fame, like Horrid Henry.

3:07 I feel nervous Ernie 😂 (Thank you for 3 likes Monday 6th May)

16:20 i wonder what jubilee’s search history is like also, i have a battery powered circle in a wooden box in a drawer, purely bc the battery compartment is so rusted i can’t get the batterys out.

I had all of the Underground Ernie stuff. Now all I have is two trains: Brooklyn, Hammersmith and City - so technically three.

I still wonder why they didn’t model the trains off of real tube trains, but then again I do like that all the trains are standard gauge

17:26 If Thomas still calls Percy a green caterpillar, then he hasn’t seen Circle, because she’s the true green caterpillar on wheels

29:33 best WOW sound ever.

Some of these characters look like they're from bug's life or hermie the caterpillar or cars. Hope this show gets a reanimated collab.

I literally only know of this show because of Sam's Trains

@CBoioutthere

2 ай бұрын

Same here

Was going to review this show but now I don’t have to. This looks very promising Adam! Just like Chuggington, despite worse animation than that show, Underground Ernie is pretty charming and chill, plus being a good take on the talking train formula! Anyways, back to the Cars ranking gulag I go!

@ThomasTheorist

2 ай бұрын

I would love to see you do Underground Ernie tho!

@WaksWorld05

2 ай бұрын

@@ThomasTheorist maybe, if I have something unique to say about it

@iamatrainfan

2 ай бұрын

​@@WaksWorld05may i ask you something

@WaksWorld05

2 ай бұрын

@@iamatrainfan yes

@iamatrainfan

2 ай бұрын

@@WaksWorld05 do i think chuggington is a rip off of thomas My answer is yes abit or kinda The reason why it's because the person who used to work in ttte's old toy company that manufacture thomas toys called learning curve want to create another version of thomas he even team up with someone who work on hit entertainment to created Ludorum And importantly the guy who create chuggington hated thomas

Gary Linekear in 2000 voiced a CGI London Underground Character 😂.

Since watching the video last night, I've been quietly singing to myself "MIND THE GAP AND DON'T BE NERVOUS!!!"

I think something that would be fixed about the faces on the trains is if they made the faces more vehicle-ie like the cars characters

Nice callback to Sam'sTrains review of Circle (The Disease Caterpillar)

I remember seeing a pic of ernie and thought it was disturbing this was like a year ago

Well this video was a blast to watch Poor Luke and PDP who watch with You one of the episodes,I can not way for their reaction on the episode 36:59 that scared the hell out of me

the samstrains references with the “Circle” character… a man of culture 😎

Baker loo is totally a BBC Sherlock fan and has an entire bulletin board dedicated to fan theories and predictions of what will happen next, and a dedicated Ripperologist. And Jubilee definitely has a twitch account and livestreams Minecraft and Skyrim regularly. And circle does weed These are my headcanons, and if you disagree, then fight me.

Underground Ernie looks like Thomas and JJ had cursed babies. Well that's traumatizing 💔.

Yay new video❤

i didnt know that it was an actual show i got toys of these as a kid and I thought it was just random toys

This looks like a KZread bootleg that would have something like a buncha Stalins reenacting 5 monkeys jumping on the bed.

I realise why I've always been ok with Underground Ernie's animation, I grew up with early Barbie movies so I'm well accustomed to badly rendered CGI.

Someone FINALLY did it

29:09 well in Turning Red, 4Town has 5 members despite having 4 in the name

@joshuaW5621

2 ай бұрын

I don’t even think Matchbox 20 ever had 20 members anyway.

I remember this show when I was an infant…And I do not remember it looking so eerie! But, I do remember liking it at the time. I was raised in London so the Underground was a common sight so it was cool seeing that iconography I saw in real life in a train show. I even had a few of the toys (tho I almost never played with them as I had the superior Playrail/Tomy Thomas toys to play with. I even had toys of the main 3 human characters, & I remember them falling apart 😅). But yeah, nice seeing this little blip in my childhood again. As for any other non-Thomas train shows that the fandom will know like Chuggington or Underground Ernie, I can only think of 1 more that fits that bill. And, it’s probably the best out of any of the other ‘British Kid Train’ Shows. I think it’s time we visit the top left-hand corner of Wales and visit *Ivor The Engine…*

You know at first I assumed the "Eeeerniieeee" you played during transitions was simply how the opening ended, but...what the hell where theuy thinking?!

I did watch it years ago but can't remember much it. Great review, I didn't realize the animation is horrible. Wow, the review goes in details of it.

We got underground Ernie, when are we getting city link Cecil? Taking place in the city link in Melbourne, Australia. This a a joke btw, wanted to make that clear

“Am I having a stroke right now?!!?”

“o h n o” - Sir Topham Hatt 2013

You know, I wonder if Bakerloo being all taken in by the fantastical is a subtle reference to the fact that Sherlock Holmes' creator, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, actually believed in the existence of Fairies.

The way the human characters sometimes stand right next to the underground train's face makes me think the train could just stretch its face out, grab the person with its teeth, and swallow him whole. Also, Moscow's weird glowing mustache thing kinda looks like a big wide smile at first glance and that makes it way more terrifying than it already is. Also also, if there was to be an episode where Osaka met Brooklyn, I'm sure the first thing Osaka would say is "America ya!"

I really wanted Ernie to introduce District, Metropolitan, Northern, Piccadilly and Central in S2

It looks like chuggington and jay jay the jet plane had a underground subway child

woo!!

Well the designs are off-putting at least...

They do actually have computers designed for people who aren’t able to use their upper body. I saw one that was designed to work based on the person’s eye movement rather than a mouse, some of these computers also use voice commands, so its not impossible for jubilee to use one if it’s been programmed to respond to eye movement or voice commands, he could also use a stick that he holds in his mouth to work the keyboard and mouse. But then again they still had potato powered cellular modular telephones in the show so… the tech isn’t really there..