All Engines Go! Review - Race for the Sodor Cup Movie Review

Since I'd been reviewing the new show I'd decided to review the movie that came along with it. I was  thinking of buying this on DVD from whatever store in Australia still sells it and then thought of renting it on iTunes. That was until ABC placed it up on their iview service and I was glad because after witnessing it...you would have to find out why I was glad not wasting my money on this.

But first as always:

 THESE ARE SOLEY MY OPINIONS AND ARE NOT INFLUENED FROM THE THOMAS & FRIENDS FANDOM

RACE FOR THE SODOR CUP

Written by

Peter Gaffney

Directed by

Jason Groh

Campbell Bryer

Produced by

Rick Suvalle

Suzie Gallo

Release date

17/09/21 - UK (VUE)

10/10/21 - CAN (TV)

29/10/21 - MEX (TV)

8/03/22 - USA (DVD)

6/04/22 - AUS (DVD)

Plot

Super-fast Kana is convinced that her speed is all she needs to win the Race for the Sodor Cup, a competition that draws engines from all over the world. However, when a racing practice gone wrong causes her partner, Kenji, to get hurt, Kana ends up paired with Thomas. Kana and Thomas will discover that it takes teamwork to become the best racers they can be, but is it enough to defeat the international champions and win the Sodor Cup?

MY VIEWS

The special opens up with Thomas puffing along the countryside imagining himself competing for the Sodor Cup. He then met up with his friends, Percy & Nia at Knapford. As they race down the track they then saw Kana roaring down the line. I thought this special was going to be the pilot of the new show since Mattel went all out promoting the movie for its London VUE premiere and have us being introduced to Kana but with some references to past episodes from S1 of the new show, this takes place after. Then we were given our first song sung by Kana which honestly wasn't that great.

Later on in the special, we see the engines making their way down to the docks to meet Kenji, who would be Kana's partner in the Sodor cup race. Two of the competitors are named Riff and Jiff and yeah and I hate their generic looking design. They are suppose to be engines but they just don't look any engine you would find in real life. The original series, when it comes to the basis of a new character, at least find an engine that would best suit the character and make it look unique so it could sell toys. Here they just look like blobs place on wheels and call it a day. This applies also to Farona and Frederico. 

I know the reboot is treating the engines at a more freelance design but if you have characters like Kana and Sandy being based on actual designs that you find in America or Japan, even if they look a little freelance, then why not do it for the other characters as well? 

We then see Diesel who is a big fan of Farona and Frederico who had come from Spain, according to a Japanese character guide book of the special. Talking of the two antagonists of the special, I wish, for the sake of accuracy, find some spanish voice actors since they'd come from Spain. They had Kenji voiced by Dai Tabuchi who actually had come from Japan and then moved to the UK so why not do the same for someone who is spanish to voice the two villians? It's not really a big problem of the special but it just feels inconsistent with the idea of diversity. 

I mean, BWBA at least got voice actors for countries like Italy, China, Australia, India etc. in terms of accuracy as well as for 'The Great Race' for characters like Ashima and Vinnie instead of having voice actors from the UK putting on accents, which is ironic because most of the other international engines were voiced by the UK voice actors for the 2016 special but that was more likely done with the idea that the international engines in the 2016 special were to be one-off's before BWBA was a thing. You might say that was the case for the two villians in the Sodor cup movie but Kenji, who was barely in the first season apart from one episode, and Hiro, who was barely in the show, had a Japanese voice actor.

Later in the special we see Kana and Kenji out training and looking over the race course with Thomas and the others, while Kana has trouble with the curves. We then see the reboot version of Hiro who was once Kenji's coach. It scene might feel like filler but it's important when it comes to the know how of the route. The scene with the runaway mine carts in the old mine is annoying because while they have the power to jump up and move out of the way why not just stop them by force? They are engines still and the show did try and showcase that at times. Also it's pointless to talk about the runaway carts because they were bearly used for the climax of the special. 

Anyway, the engines made there way to Canonball curve and Kana was going down the hill much too fast on the curve and Kenji was worried that she might derail. Kana was wobbling but Kenji saved the day only for his fender to be damaged. In the next scene we see Sandy playing in the scrap pile with Carly placing her there, with the excuse to find pistons. Later Thomas and the others brought a damaged Kenji to them. It turned out that Kenji can be fixed but it could take weeks for a new fender to get to him and so he would have to miss out on competing the Sodor Cup. 

Later Farona, Frederico and Diesel later came to the maintenance yards and after the former saw what happened to Kenji they began to smack talk him and this made Kana angry. I will say so far during this movie, Kana had shown more personality in this alone than in any of the episodes she was in for the first season. She's fast but she can be too focused on that that she's not looking out for her safety, impatient, impulsive and would get quick to anger whenever someone critcises her. Through most of the episodes in Series 1 of AEG, Kana just comes off as someone who just loves going fast. 

After all the smack talk from our villians, Kana told them that she would be racing with Thomas. However Thomas doesn't seem to like the idea. However Hiro thinks that Thomas and Kana racing together is interesting and agrees to train with them for the race. Then we get our second song from Hiro which is called the 'Training Song' and while not memorable it is important to story with the idea of teamwork and all. 

After the song, there was more training and after Kana saw Riff and Jiff, she wanted to go fast and then we see our villians once again still giving Kana some smack on herself for being 'fast'. This annoyed Kana and agreed to race them down Canonball curve. Thomas, Hiro and the others were worried for her safety. As Kana raced down Canonball curve with the villians, Kana derailed as she went too fast and the two villians teased her for it and went on their way to the actual race. Kana was having some doubt but after Hiro taught her to keep on trying she decided to race with Thomas by her side. 

Soon it was time for the race. I will say, the Fat Controller having doubts for Thomas being in the race just puts me off. I know this is a reboot but the Fat Controller wouldn't be someone who is like that. It's like a father doubting his own son, like what you see in 'Chicken Little'. It didn't sit right with me. 

Thomas and Kana managed to get through the race with many twists and turns along the way delivering their deliveries, our villians derailed giving them their comuppance and then we have another unmemorable song from Thomas and Kana, they won the race and we end the story there. 

OVERVIEW

Honestly the movie was mostly medicore. While there were some good moments, mostly it was Kana having more character and some good development starting off with her being impulsive until learnt that she could do with what she got. But the rest of the movie was pretty much a mehfest to me. I'm not very fond of the villians as I feel they were weak and I know it was done for the target audience but why can't kids learn that there aren't many nice people in the world? Not showcasing that is wrapping them up in cottonwool and not preparing them for the outside world. 

From watching the movie I feel this could've been the introduction to the reboot Thomas series and have Kana as new engine on the railway. With Kana's personality shining in the movie it would've been even better to have her being cocky thinking she knows the route, despite being the newbie, for the race and with Gordon being mentioned earlier as the winner of the Sodor Cup race many years ago why not have him being Kana's coach? Have the villians berating him and Kana and both them prove their strength and ability. I think that would work better than what we got.  

The whole special didn't really give me that much feeling unlike the original series specials, particulary the Brenner/McCue era specials. The latter at least had more emotional and engaging stories that keeps you invested like Percy dealing with his issue on bravey in 'Tale of the Brave' or how Thomas tries to be number one again in 'Sodor's Legend of the Lost Treasure' or trying to get into the Great Railway Show in 'The Great Race' but learns that he is who he is. They were such good stories that still hold up well nearly a decade later and have such rewatchable value. This special was alright with its story but it just felt a bit weak with the villians feeling toned down. 

I was watching the UK dub of the special on ABC iview, I was thinking of renting it via iTunes Australia which was about $5AUD but I'm glad that it was free on ABC Australia's streaming service because after watching all of S1 in its US dub, the US dub just has more flair with its voice acting even though it was annoying at times. The children voicing the characters in the UK dub are by no means at fault with how the way they'd acted. It's up to the voice director to give that direction and UK dub made the characters sound bored like they don't want to be in the studio doing this. 

Talking about watching this, this was released here in Australia last year on DVD back in April but I'd bearly seen it in stores physically and the only way to get it was online. But around September I'd noticed that five months after its release no major Australian store was even selling it online! Heck EzyDVD are still selling the 'Thomas in Charge' DVD which was released here in 2014 and mind you it came from an even worse era of the brand's history.

Which makes me question this, if Mattel are saying that Thomas is doing so well, why hasn't this DVD been shelved physically at stores here in Australia? Why aren't the major stores even selling the DVDs on their website anymore? Plus you also have to question this in regards to the DVD specials. This was given the VUE cinema treatment in the UK back in 2021 with a big special premiere in London with well known names and yet in 2022 the second special 'Mystery of Lookout Mountain', which will be reviewed after S2 finishes its run, hadn't been given any sort of hype before its release and no cinema release in the UK and instead was just placed on TV without  much fanfare, the same can be said here in Australia.

It was suppose to get a cinema release in the US in March 2023, a first since 2013's 'King of the Railway' had a cinema release with US celebrity guests at The Grove in Los Angeles. However that was unknowly cancelled by Mattel and from what I've heard it was done so to release the movie on World Autism Awareness Day on April 2nd, though they'd released it the day before on Netflix, because of Bruno the brake car. But even then they had done a terrible job at marketing the movie, especially for one of their biggest markets since they'd just released a trailer two weeks before release, hardly any toys for it heck not even some books or anything unlike the previous specials, that includes this one as well. 

There is a DVD release for the second special coming soon for the Lookout Mountain special in the US and maybe there might be one for Australia and the UK, but given how the UK and Australia were barley given any of the episodic releases after the Sodor Cup movie I have very high doubts for its release. 

Honestly for a new marketing team that came in to help Thomas to get back on track with toy sales they aren't doing a good job at giving more exposure to the show to help drive those toy sales, especially in markets where Thomas is successful. 

OVERALL RATING

4/10