THESE ARE SOLEY MY OPINIONS AND ARE NOT INFLUENCED FROM THE THOMAS & FRIENDS FAN BASE
ULTIMATE FRIENDSHIP ADVENTURE
Saving Time
Written by
Andrew Brenner
Helen Farrall
Andrew Brenner
Helen Farrall
Lee Pressman
Davey Moore
Directed by
Dianna Basso
Dianna Basso
Produced by
Ian McCue
Distributed by
Universal
Release Date
1/11/16 - iTunes
1/11/16 - iTunes
8/11/16 - DVD
So here we are, the final Thomas DVD release for 2016. To me though this one was strange. The strange thing is that Universal hadn't advertise this as a digital download on their website, they only said that it'll be release on DVD with no mention of it being released for digital download. It wasn't until Michael M, great composer on YouTube and nice guy, had messaged the official Thomas Facebook page about it and placed it on Twitter.
The question is why didn't Universal advertise it? They did with previous titles before and they hadn't done a preordering thing since 'The Great Race' whereas two years ago when they first started they did that with the yearly specials and episode releases. It's been two years and are the people at Universal that lazy with the Thomas stuff? But aside from that little issue, This DVD features for the first time, the US dub of the remaining last episodes of season 19 and five S20 episodes which are shown for the first time on DVD, although S20 is currently on air in North America on PBS Kids and those four S20 episodes had been broadcasted on TV in the UK. So, here is the final Thomas DVD release and final review for 2016!
EPISODES
The question is why didn't Universal advertise it? They did with previous titles before and they hadn't done a preordering thing since 'The Great Race' whereas two years ago when they first started they did that with the yearly specials and episode releases. It's been two years and are the people at Universal that lazy with the Thomas stuff? But aside from that little issue, This DVD features for the first time, the US dub of the remaining last episodes of season 19 and five S20 episodes which are shown for the first time on DVD, although S20 is currently on air in North America on PBS Kids and those four S20 episodes had been broadcasted on TV in the UK. So, here is the final Thomas DVD release and final review for 2016!
EPISODES
The episodes consist of five episodes from the recent 20th season with four episodes that had made their debut on UK television back in September 2016 and one is awaiting to air on UK, Australian and North American television as well. I had already expressed my views on the first four S20 episodes and the links are provided above. In short those four episodes are pretty good and it gives S20 the ultimate feeling that the entire season would probably be better than S18.
The DVD also consists of five S19 episodes and these are released for the first time in America. These episodes had been released on television in Japan in January 2016 and had also been released on 'Full Steam to The Rescue' over in the UK back in October 2016. There are some good episodes but some are not, in my opinion. The good ones from the 19th season on this DVD are 'Thomas the Babysitter', 'No Help At All' and 'Goodbye Fat Controller', you can see why in the links provided above and of course the least favourable episodes in my opinion are 'Rocky Rescue' and 'The Other Side of The Mountain' and once again, my views are provided in the links above.
The episode 'Saving Time' however will be left aside during S20's TV run.
SPECIAL FEATURES
N/A
OVERALL
Yeah so the DVD felt like maybe a last minute idea to release something for the North American audience or maybe they didn't have any intervals at the time of making it, I don't know. But overall I think it was an alright DVD. There are episodes that many fans might or might not enjoy, however the best outcome for the iTunes version is that we have crystal clear HD and Arc's animation is beautiful to look at.
7/10
I will be putting my S20 reviews on hold at the moment as I will be heading over to America to visit my sister and her husband. I have the Christmas episodes and 'Saving Time' filed away in my drafts and since I don't know when the air dates for Australia's broadcasting will happen, I have a feeling it would most likely air while I'm over in the United States. I know that S20 is currently airing over in America at the moment, but I most likely won't have time to review what episode airs when I'm over there and I don't think it would be brand new ones as well.
Yeah so the DVD felt like maybe a last minute idea to release something for the North American audience or maybe they didn't have any intervals at the time of making it, I don't know. But overall I think it was an alright DVD. There are episodes that many fans might or might not enjoy, however the best outcome for the iTunes version is that we have crystal clear HD and Arc's animation is beautiful to look at.
RATING:
I will be putting my S20 reviews on hold at the moment as I will be heading over to America to visit my sister and her husband. I have the Christmas episodes and 'Saving Time' filed away in my drafts and since I don't know when the air dates for Australia's broadcasting will happen, I have a feeling it would most likely air while I'm over in the United States. I know that S20 is currently airing over in America at the moment, but I most likely won't have time to review what episode airs when I'm over there and I don't think it would be brand new ones as well.
