THESE ARE SOLEY MY OPINIONS AND ARE NOT INFLUENCED FROM THE THOMAS & FRIENDS FAN BASE
Now that the movie and new series is out of the way, we are now given our first DVD of the new revamped series of Thomas & Friends in the UK. I had already discussed its history through my review, so if you are new to this blog and wondered what was the cause of this revamp to happen, you can have a read here. So let's a take a look at:
HERE COMES THE STEAM TEAM
Written by
Davey Moore
Tim Bain
Becky Overton
Andrew Brenner
Davey Moore
Tim Bain
Becky Overton
Andrew Brenner
Episodes
Confusion Without Delay
What Rebecca Does
Number One Engine
Trusty Trunky
Forever & Ever
Outback Thomas
The Case Of The Puzzling Parts
Confusion Without Delay
What Rebecca Does
Number One Engine
Trusty Trunky
Forever & Ever
Outback Thomas
The Case Of The Puzzling Parts
Special Features
Festive Episode: Runaway Truck
Festive Episode: Kangaroo Christmas
New Thomas & Friends Theme
New Roll Call
Adventures
Meet The Characters
Festive Episode: Runaway Truck
Festive Episode: Kangaroo Christmas
New Thomas & Friends Theme
New Roll Call
Adventures
Meet The Characters
Directed by
Dianna Basso
Dianna Basso
Produced by
Micaela Winters
Micaela Winters
Release Date
24/09/18
Distributed by
HIT Entertainment/Mattel
EPISODES
The DVD consists nine episodes from the new refresh series that had aired over in the UK, Australia and US so far, barring 'Kangaroo Christmas' for the three countries and 'The Case Of The Puzzling Parts' for the UK and US. I had reviewed these episodes back in September and I will say some episodes are great while others can be a hit and miss, particularly Puzzling Parts and 'Trusty Trunky'.
The two Rebecca episodes are among the best of the DVD in my opinion because she has a connecting personality to be people who behave the same way as her. She sees good in everyone, quite bubbly, happy but she feels very insecure about herself when it comes to the other engines. It makes her very dimensional.
There are some international which I do like but I feel that 'Number One Engine' should've been more focused to Hong-Mei rather than Thomas. I believe that there are some international episodes that had worked for him, but maybe some of those could've worked better with other characters instead. I understand they don't want to make the show too foreign for the audience who are familiar with Thomas and they had add him in to make them feel comfortable. But you can still add Thomas in those episodes just maybe in the way he was utilised in S20, have him there as a cameo or with minor speaking role.
With 'Number One Engine', why not have Hong-Mei wanting to prove that she's number one? We see her with her train of stone falling out of her trucks so why not have her not thinking about her job first and when she took the shortcut all of her stone had fallen out of her trucks and would feel most foolish for not putting her work first. The episode can teach kids not be foolish and that racing comes second, plus they could use 'Thomas' Shortcut' as the moral recap and Hong-Mei would probably have some characterisation instead of just being on the side line.
I said it before and I'll say it again, 'Trusty Trunky' would've worked better if it was set at the busy railway station, have the characters with their excuses and Thomas was finding things frustrating in the yard on his own until an elephant came to his rescue and was amazed on what they can do, earlier in the episode he disproves of the elephant shunting idea as silly. Plus the scene with Ashima and the cow really adds nothing to the episode, the episode was about elephants not cows! I understand they want to teach kids about the culture of India, but maybe have that scene work in a cow episode. The scene in the episode was just jarring.
'Forever and Ever' is an episode I still feel as the same when I first saw it, despite the lack of reasoning on why Henry was moving to Vicarstown. The same applies to 'Outback Thomas' and 'The Case Of The Puzzling Parts'. The same applies to 'Runaway Truck' which was considered as a bonus festive episode. My views on 'Kangaroo Christmas' will be released sometime in December as ABC Australia would've held it back for Christmas.
The two Rebecca episodes are among the best of the DVD in my opinion because she has a connecting personality to be people who behave the same way as her. She sees good in everyone, quite bubbly, happy but she feels very insecure about herself when it comes to the other engines. It makes her very dimensional.
There are some international which I do like but I feel that 'Number One Engine' should've been more focused to Hong-Mei rather than Thomas. I believe that there are some international episodes that had worked for him, but maybe some of those could've worked better with other characters instead. I understand they don't want to make the show too foreign for the audience who are familiar with Thomas and they had add him in to make them feel comfortable. But you can still add Thomas in those episodes just maybe in the way he was utilised in S20, have him there as a cameo or with minor speaking role.
With 'Number One Engine', why not have Hong-Mei wanting to prove that she's number one? We see her with her train of stone falling out of her trucks so why not have her not thinking about her job first and when she took the shortcut all of her stone had fallen out of her trucks and would feel most foolish for not putting her work first. The episode can teach kids not be foolish and that racing comes second, plus they could use 'Thomas' Shortcut' as the moral recap and Hong-Mei would probably have some characterisation instead of just being on the side line.
I said it before and I'll say it again, 'Trusty Trunky' would've worked better if it was set at the busy railway station, have the characters with their excuses and Thomas was finding things frustrating in the yard on his own until an elephant came to his rescue and was amazed on what they can do, earlier in the episode he disproves of the elephant shunting idea as silly. Plus the scene with Ashima and the cow really adds nothing to the episode, the episode was about elephants not cows! I understand they want to teach kids about the culture of India, but maybe have that scene work in a cow episode. The scene in the episode was just jarring.
'Forever and Ever' is an episode I still feel as the same when I first saw it, despite the lack of reasoning on why Henry was moving to Vicarstown. The same applies to 'Outback Thomas' and 'The Case Of The Puzzling Parts'. The same applies to 'Runaway Truck' which was considered as a bonus festive episode. My views on 'Kangaroo Christmas' will be released sometime in December as ABC Australia would've held it back for Christmas.
SPECIAL FEATURES
OVERALL
The DVD contains pretty much the two festive episodes, some songs and some 'Meet The Characters' videos. You can view my opinions 'Runaway Truck' in the list episode. I think the Thomas theme video could've been better if it was the extended version, that can be heard on iTunes and Spotify. The other two music videos were though. Plus the character videos are pretty much bios of the newbies and that is pretty much it. But it's nice to see the mainland being reffered to as England though.
OVERALL
I think there was some missed potential with this DVD. HIT/Mattel should have made this DVD with some Sodor episodes that focuses on the Steam Team characters such as James' episode, Merlin's episode etc. along with some of the Sodor based episodes that are on this release and keep some of the international episodes have their own DVDs focusing on the China episodes, Australia episodes and India episodes with additional Sodor episodes to help with the running time. You can also have some of the 'Meet The Characters' videos focusing on the characters from those particular countries. It's not that the DVD was bad but it could've been better if Mattel Creations and HIT Entertainment had gone with that idea instead.
It's also a shame too that we aren't getting a Christmas release this year like we usually do. Would've been another potential DVD called 'Christmas Around The World', I don't know what was Mattel's decision was for this to be in favour but what we got is what we got.
Another thing too about the Thomas DVDs is that North America hadn't have a single release by Universal during the course of this year! Not a S21, S22 or even a movie release. With the exception of 'Thomas' Halloween Adventures' as that was a re-release. My guess Nickelodeon got the rights to air Thomas exclusively on TV hence why there wasn't a DVD release nor a digital release in NA, and as I said before in my movie review, I see it as potentially damaging to Thomas' US presence. Not many families can afford cable nor can they afford for a streaming service to watch any of the new Thomas content and DVDs are the best cheaper option for them. Unless Viacom has plans to distribute it themselves after Universal's contract expires, but we'll have to wait and see. But so far, it's quite sad.
Another thing too about the Thomas DVDs is that North America hadn't have a single release by Universal during the course of this year! Not a S21, S22 or even a movie release. With the exception of 'Thomas' Halloween Adventures' as that was a re-release. My guess Nickelodeon got the rights to air Thomas exclusively on TV hence why there wasn't a DVD release nor a digital release in NA, and as I said before in my movie review, I see it as potentially damaging to Thomas' US presence. Not many families can afford cable nor can they afford for a streaming service to watch any of the new Thomas content and DVDs are the best cheaper option for them. Unless Viacom has plans to distribute it themselves after Universal's contract expires, but we'll have to wait and see. But so far, it's quite sad.
It's nice to see the toy/DVD package again after so many years but although it's just another Thomas mini that you can get cheaper at any store, depends though on what year they have, they should've made a more exclusive one for kids who have an interest in collecting these. Like maybe have a Mini version of Nia or Rebecca like they showed at various events promoting Thomas.
Overall Rating: 7/10
THAT'S ALL OF THE DVDS FOR THIS YEAR. THERE WON'T BE MUCH REVIEWS IN NOVEMBER AS THE NEXT TWO POSTS WILL BE RELEASED AROUND DECEMBER 2018.
