As the clock is ticking down the hours of 2018, let's take a look at the DVD's of Thomas & Friends that were released during the course of 2018:
THESE ARE SOLEY MY OPINIONS AND THEY ARE NOT INFLUENCED FROM THE THOMAS & FRIENDS FAN BASE
SOME OF MY OPINIONS MAY BE DIFFERENT FROM MY PREVIOUS REVIEWS:
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SOME OF MY OPINIONS MAY BE DIFFERENT FROM MY PREVIOUS REVIEWS:
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DANGER AT THE DOCKS
Review Date:
27/1/18
The second last release of the 21 episodes. To be honest, I don't really think these are the best portion of S21. The stories aren't bad but they weren't really the strong ones. The only one that was good from this bunch was 'Philip's Number', you can read my opinion on the episode in the DVD review by looking through January 2018 on the blog archive.
Rating: 8/10
Rating: 8/10
ON THE GO WITH THOMAS
Review Date:
19/4/18
This is probably the best one of the S21 releases. I honestly don't have any criticism towards the choice of episodes that they've gone with here. Plus the highlight was the 'Little Engines' remake, it's nice to see that the songs from the classic series are given some new lease of life and some had finally made their debut on UK home video since the song was made over a decade ago.
Rating: 9/10
THE COMPLETE SERIES 19 COLLECTION
Review Date:
18/07/18
S19 wasn't really the best among the Brenner/McCue era after the likes of S17-18. Some had even said that the season was on par with S13-16, which is something that I disagree with strongly. Sure some episodes were duds and not really interesting to watch (e.g - Rocky Rescue) but some episodes were good to sit through and even some duds have some watchability in them and the stories at least have effort put into it. I think considering we had the likes of 'The Adventure Begins' and 'Sodor's Legend of the Lost Treasure' back then, fans were expecting something much bigger for the show, as we were in the 70th anniversary period as well by that point, a good example of self-hype. One of the criticisms I give to S19 is that this was the start of the 'series before special' idea. All of these episodes were set before the 2015 special but there was nothing that hinted that. I mean why not have Daisy working on Thomas' branch line or have someone mentioning about the new extension? Or have the Arelesdale Miniature Engine stories adapted for this series. It makes me glad that BWBA stopped that and moved back to what the series had done since the start of the DVD specials. However what I do like was that S19 gave episodes to characters like Stephen who hadn't had episodes focused on them in a while.
Rating: 6.5/10
BIG WORLD! BIG ADVENTURES!
THE MOVIE
Review Date:
THE MOVIE
5/09/18
Was the fury of this movie any necessary? In my opinion, no. Ever since the movie and revamped series was announced back in 2017, most people from the fanbase went into a huge meltdown and criticised the likes of Nia for being a bad character from the little info that press releases were saying about her. Too many had jumped the gun and thought that this was another 'dark era' because their are some new changes to the show that pretty much weren't too drastic, and when the movie was finally released, I thought it was very good. Nia and Ace made a great dynamic with Thomas and they feel like Thomas' shoulder angels. Nia is the one telling Thomas to be responsible but Ace is the one telling Thomas to have fun and not follow the rules and Thomas blindly follows him because he is 'free and easy' until he (Thomas) learnt how Ace can be a bad influence, a moral that I don't see working in the 'dark era' which was the Miller/Barlow era. Plus the pacing feels like what every other Thomas special was in the past as well, so nothing drastic had happened. However the ending could've been a bit better, but I still enjoyed it in the end.
Some fans had said that railway realism is now going to be thrown out of the window, despite that it hadn't been 100% since S5. But there are plenty such as rails running through the Sahara dessert, the brazilian rainforest, the Morenci Loop is an actual place and so on, despite that the Rainbow Mountains and the loop-de-loop scene are the more unrealistic ones.
Considering that next year we are going to get three 20 minute specials, most likely for TV, I'm fine if they stop creating these yearly specials as it would stop the illegal cinema recordings. Yes HIT and Mattel should've released the movies simultaneously over the years, but illegal recordings are illegal recordings no matter what excuse fans have.
Some fans had said that railway realism is now going to be thrown out of the window, despite that it hadn't been 100% since S5. But there are plenty such as rails running through the Sahara dessert, the brazilian rainforest, the Morenci Loop is an actual place and so on, despite that the Rainbow Mountains and the loop-de-loop scene are the more unrealistic ones.
Considering that next year we are going to get three 20 minute specials, most likely for TV, I'm fine if they stop creating these yearly specials as it would stop the illegal cinema recordings. Yes HIT and Mattel should've released the movies simultaneously over the years, but illegal recordings are illegal recordings no matter what excuse fans have.
Rating: 9/10
HERE COMES THE STEAM TEAM!
Review Date:
17/10/18
There episodes that I think that should've been more better, particularly in the International side and episodes like Puzzling Parts was boring. Other than that, the DVD was good and despite the series being such a great success, it gained 40% of viewership in the UK, it had its faults and I hope improvements are made to make the newly refreshed series better.
Rating: 7/10
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HERE COMES THE STEAM TEAM!
17/10/18
There episodes that I think that should've been more better, particularly in the International side and episodes like Puzzling Parts was boring. Other than that, the DVD was good and despite the series being such a great success, it gained 40% of viewership in the UK, it had its faults and I hope improvements are made to make the newly refreshed series better.
Rating: 7/10
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And so that was 2018! What's in store for next year? Honestly I don't know. All I know is that the new revamped series is here to stay and I hope it gets improved for the best. I'm also sad that next year will be Andrew Brenner's last season as head writer after five years. Say what you want about him and his specials and episodes but he had led a team in bringing Thomas back to being great again, not a Trump reference. I had a feeling that this news will happen one day but I am not that worried about the future. Brenner may have left but Ian McCue, Michael White, Davey Moore etc. are still with us and they know the show well.
If he's reading this, I want to thank Andrew Brenner for all the hard work he had done for Thomas the Tank Engine with his team of great writers and I welcome aboard the new head writer for Season 24. Dry Rails and Good Runnings! And I also like to say:
If he's reading this, I want to thank Andrew Brenner for all the hard work he had done for Thomas the Tank Engine with his team of great writers and I welcome aboard the new head writer for Season 24. Dry Rails and Good Runnings! And I also like to say:
HAPPY AND SAFE 2019!!
- NWR991.
