DOUBTING 'THOMAS' MOST PRESCHOOLERS PROBABLY WON'T BE ABLE TO TRACK THIS COMPLICATED PLOT.

Byline: Valerie Kuklenski Staff Writer

Thomas the Tank Engine is the main character in a quaint series of children's books that have been made into pleasing little animated TV shows and videos, but on the way to the big screen the idea got derailed.

It cannot be argued that the new feature ``Thomas and the Magic Railroad'' was in the wrong hands. Britt Allcroft, its producer, writer and director, found the Rev. Wilber Awdry's books and brought them to life in the early '80s with the series ``Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends'' and ``Shining Time Station,'' seen here first on PBS and now on Nickelodeon.

``Thomas and the Magic Railroad'' has two big problems. First, in an effort to fill about 90 minutes, Allcroft has made the story too complex for its target audience of preschoolers.

Thomas, a precocious steam engine on the Island of Sodor, learns that nasty Diesel 10 intends to find a certain lost engine then do away with all the island's steam engines to take control of the Sodor railroad.

Meanwhile, there is a man who lives on Muffle Mountain, Burnett Stone (Peter Fonda), who never smiles, keeps to himself and secretly tends a steam engine whose fire went out long ago.

At the same time, Mr. Conductor (Alec Baldwin) must keep the peace on Sodor in the absence of the vacationing railroad owner, Sir Topham Hatt. But Mr. Conductor finds out he is running out of his vital gold dust that helps him travel between Shining Time Station, where he is about a foot tall, to Sodor, where he is scaled proportionate to the trains.

Burnett's granddaughter, Lily (Mara Wilson), comes to visit him from the Big City and winds up in Shining Time by mistake, thereby getting enlisted by Mr. Conductor's surfer dude cousin, Junior, to help with finding more gold dust.

Then there's the mystery of a magic railway that shows in shadowy lines on a Shining Time map but whose exact position and purpose are unclear. Thomas figures it can be reached by going through a magic buffer, one of those wooden structures at the end of a track that stops trains.

Still with me? Well, the 3- and 4-year-olds watching the movie aren't. They perk up when the trains are rumbling across the screen but get fidgety when there's too much exposition.

The animation is true to the style of the TV series: three-dimensional engines that wobble down the tracks, their eyes moving back and forth and their facial expressions changing only when they're off camera. The trains talk, but their mouths don't move to match the words.

For sentimental Thomas fans that's a plus; they want to see the same Thomas and friends that they've enjoyed for years. But for newcomers to the franchise, the animation is a letdown, looking like Destination Films could not or would not put more energy into it.

The live characters are the best part of this package. Baldwin, in a role he surely never would have taken before he became a father, is charming as the conductor. In the moments he looks directly into the camera, he really connects with his young moviegoers.

Fonda's talents are underused here, but he does a good job of making Burnett sad but not scary. Wilson, best-known for her roles in ``Mrs. Doubtfire'' and ``Miracle on 34th Street,'' is appealing as Lily.

The complex story is too much to chew for the average preschooler, but the kids who are old enough to stick with the plot probably already saw the visually stunning ``Dinosaur'' and the clay-animation tour de force ``Chicken Run'' and will be left yawning by the simplistic ``Thomas and the Magic Railroad'' animation. Thomas and his friends are better off living in books, videos and TV programs and should leave the big screen to other kiddie characters.

The facts

--The film: ``Thomas and the Magic Railroad'' (G).

--The stars: Alec Baldwin, Mara Wilson, Peter Fonda, Michael E. Rodgers.

--Behind the scenes: Directed, written and produced by Britt Allcroft. Co-producer Phil Fehrle.

--Running time: One hour, 26 minutes.

--Playing: Citywide.

--Our rating: Two stars.

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Photo:

Cody McMains trains his eyes on Thomas the Tank Engine in the new feature ``Thomas and the Magic Railroad.''