Customer Reviews

Thomas & Friends: The Great Discovery

5 star:		(28)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

We saw this movie in the theater (it is showing in July in various states). The screenplay was really well written and the movie was really well done. Pierce Brosnan is a superb narrator and does some really great engine voices; he is the best Thomas narrator yet. Even my husband enjoyed it, and he generally dislikes watching Thomas (I think it was partly the James Bond connection with Pierce, and partly how well the movie was done). The storyline: Thomas accidentally discovers an abandoned town on Sodor. A new engine (Stanley) is called in to do Thomas' work while Thomas supervises the restoration of the discovered town ...Stanley is a really nice, fun, hard-working engine and doesn't mean any ill will whatsoever towards Thomas....and Thomas ends up becoming very jealous of Stanley and how well he works and gets along with the other engines & characters (including Percy and Annie & Clarabel). By the end of the movie Stanley and Thomas become friends and both can see how the other engine must have felt. Great starting point for discussing jealousy and how to handle it with your preschooler.

I was reluctant to buy another Thomas movie for fear that my 4 year old will make me watch it over, and over, and over...but I'm glad we got this! It's a great movie and I just LOVE the song at the end! Pierce Brosnan does a great job with all the voices. I'm VERY glad we got this and look forward to watching it again and again...(which I'm sure I'll have to!!)

Definitely a must have for thomas the tank engine collection, Pierce Bronson does a superb narration, the stories and the direction was great, and the music was AWESOME! Whoever is singing the song at the end of the dvd has completely changed the familiar thomas the train song and gave it a catchy hip-hop tune which fits perfectly with the musical genre of today. Must buy it, you won't be disappointed. (^o^)

This is a great movie! Pierce Brosnon is an excellent narrator as well - you can tell he has read these to his children! It is a very good story line about the old town of great waterton, and such great and amazing perils that Thomas goes through. Very exciting and fun.

My daughter is six years old. She is a giant Thomas fan. This movie is the greatest. We both loved it. We also love the music cd that came with the dvd. It is so neat. My daughter listens to the music while playing with her trains. We are very, very pleased with this product.

LanieandTaylor

After watching all of the previews on the other Thomas DVDs, my wife told me to buy this one for our 2-year old. He is Thomas crazy, and will even watch the older Thomas episodes with Carlin and Baldwin as narrators.

Well, The Great Discovery held his attention for about 15 minutes, then he walked out. I can't say I blame him, really. I was dissappointed, to say the least.

First, Pierce Brosnan. He's a great Bond, but a lousy narrator. After listening to him, my wife said, "It sounds like he's being forced to do it." In my opinion, he tried too hard to make it work. Sadly, it didn't.

Some parts of the movie were just downright phony. An engine falling into the water and doesn't sink? An engine flying across a chasm? Oh, and just happens to skid to a halt next to a railroad track? (How convenient!)

The plot worked, although it did get a bit mushy in places. Sir Topham Hatt declaring an island-wide State of Emergency after Thomas disappears? That's a bit overboard.

I did like the minature work the producers did on Great Waterton. The models were very impressive. The new engine Stanley is a good addition. The other engines are marking time. Jeremy the Jet makes a cameo. Personally, I think the producers were just cranking out one last Thomas in minature until they perfected their CGI.

I could do without the Rap version of the Thomas theme song. The last thing we need gangsterized is Thomas and Friends.

Give 2-year olds credit. They know what's good. Unfortunately, this DVD now makes a great bookend.

Save your money. Buy "Hero of the Rails" instead.

I was not that thrilled to buy yet another Thomas movie, but we are Pierce Brosnan fans and my three year old loves Thomas so I wanted to give it a try and I was not disappointed.

That said, I do think the beginning of the movie is a bit off. Mr. Brosnan sounds a bit monotone, but he seems to pick up the pace and after a while you get caught up in the story about the great discovery (finding the town of Waterton). They introduce a new engine named Stanley (so you can add that train to your growing collection) that my son has not stopped talking about since he saw the movie. Also, the Thomas Theme song at the end is updated and is pretty catchy. A good buy for any Thomas fan.

It's all about expectations, and I always expect Thomas to be realistic. So I'm a little disappointed when the movies tend to be less realistic than the TV show.

This is a few years old now, with lots of great animated TV episodes released since then (and Misty Island Rescue). My son loves Thomas so much that I hope they just keep making more Thomas features like Hero of the Rails. I bought this because my son hadn't seen it and even old non-animated Thomas is "new" Thomas to him.

I really love Michael Brandon's narration and even Ringo did a good job. I really like Pierce Brosnan as an actor but I found his narration really dull and strangely lifeless. Although I really hated his Thomas voice, he did a great job with some of the other engines and Sir Topham Hatt.

The story is a bit similar to Misty Island Rescue, which came much later. Thomas is out exploring and finds the long lost town of Waterton that nobody knew was there (Thomas also "discovers" Misty Island). Sir Topham Hatt undertakes the huge restoration project and needs the help of all the engines (similar to the construction of the Rescue Center in Misty Island) to get it done for Sodor Day. A new engine, Stanley, is introduced, and Thomas becomes very jealous. In usual Thomas fashion, he does something he shouldn't and Sir Topham Hatt announces the usual disaster has ocurred.

Thomas feels very bad and decides to stay up at night to be a very useful engine. However, he ends up going down a mine tunnel, getting carried away playing, and crashes through a barricade into what looks like an underground slow river. And he floats! Neat trick that.

A state of emergency is called and everyone goes searching for Thomas. Even the schoolchildren take the day off school to go look. The river ultimately spits him out the side of a cliff, but instead of falling straight down along with the waterfall, he flies across the chasm to the other side, goes crashing down a hill, and ends up in a pile of dirt by some old tracks. Stanley finds him and they end up saving each other.

My 3 year old loves re-enacting the bridge scene where Thomas almost crashes into a ravine when an old bridge collapses, but he does get a little tense and scared. He also loves re-enacting the scene where Thomas goes too fast and crashes. So his Thomas wooden set is taking a beating thanks to this feature!

He likes it and it has a good message (jealousy is bad!) and that is what is important. Though mommy, who also gets to see it, wishes Pierce Brosnan was a more exciting narrator.

I bought this movie for my son. We already had the book, and I knew since he loves Thomas that he would love the movie. As usual, this movie was great family fun, a joy to watch with my son. I received this movie in the mail a few days after I ordered it. Great movie for family time, or just for kids in general. :D

I took the time to read reviews before buying this because it seems quite a few movies overlap same stories and songs. Like we bought Thomas' Christmas Story last year and bought The Snowy Surprise this year only to find out their is only one new story just repackaged. Very dissappointing to a 3 year old who thinks he has a new movie and knows as soon as it starts he has watched this one already before. Very hard to explain! With that said, we own about 8 of these and this one is by far the best!!! I can't stress that enough. Two new songs we haven't heard before and video of movie with the songs after. My three year old ask me to dance with him everytime the main song comes on. HE ABSOLUTELY LOVES this one the most. Lots of action and a great storyline as well. I saved my highest Atttt for Pierce Brosnan. It is obvious he is a dad of 5. FANTASTIC JOB!!!!! My favorite narrarator BY FAR.