THESE ARE SOLEY MY OPINIONS AND NOT FROM THE THOMAS & FRIENDS FAN BASE
WHALE OF A TALE
& OTHER SODOR ADVENTURES
Directed by
Don Spencer
Produced by
Ian McCue (HIT Entertainment)
Jennifer Hill (Arc Productions)
Episodes
Toad and the Whale
Who's Geoffrey
The Truth About Toby
Lost Property
Henry Spots Trouble
Special Features
Guess Who Puzzles? - Toby and Oliver
Fun with Driver Perkins - Mr. Perkins' Railway
Who's That Engine? - Toby
The Earl's Quiz - Percy's New Friends and Slippy Sodor
Mr. Perkins' Storytime - Toby's Tightrope
Mr. Perkins' Postcard - Ffarquhar Quarry
Released
9/06/15
EPISODES
All the episodes are five selected upcoming episodes from the 19th season sold exclusively to Wal*Mart stores across the US, which I have to say to people who have watched 'Sodor's Legend of the Lost Treasure' in the UK that these episodes are set before the special. Meaning the new characters and returnees will be featured in the 20th season. I won't go into much detail on the episodes as we'll await their TV run later in the year. But their are some good episodes and some can be a bit of a dud to me but they're alright in the end.
SPECIAL FEATURES
The Guess Who? puzzles are just the usual like every other DVD release as well as the Earl's Quiz, despite the choices of episodes. The Who's That Engine segment features Toby and the episode 'Signals Crossed', which I have to say is a fine choice of episode compare to the other Toby episodes that came out in the CGI era of the show. The Perkins segments are the same as what was seen in 'Trouble on the Tracks' in the UK and my views on them are here. It was also interesting to see one of the PBS segments in the DVD release, 'Mr. Perkins' Railway'. It's like the 'Down at the Station' segment that were released on DVD in 2009-2011 or 2012 but with more variety of real preserved steam locomotives from such railways like the North Yorkshire Moors Railway. The insight of the different type of engines is good for the young audience to learn about them.
OVERALL
It's a good DVD this year and I'm glad that Wal*Mart and HIT Entertainment are still releasing these to gather the excitement for the new series coming soon this year. I understand that over the years many fans want the UK audience to have a fair share on these DVDs and while I do understand and love for that to happen, but according to a friend I know on twitter, he says that in a marketing point of view the United States has to be the biggest audience when it comes to Thomas and Friends, which makes sense why they get these kinds of releases and it makes sense that way.
RATING
8/10
