Customer Reviews

Thomas and Friends: Steamies vs. Diesels and Other Thomas Adventures

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Wow!, HIT! Entertainment has changed Thomas alot, but the changes they made aren't all that bad. For example, the new theme song at first sounded pretty dumb but it soon grew on me. The only bad thing HIT! added were those ridiculous activites. I think even little kids will get bored of these silly things, they offer no form of actual learning fun and you can get envolved with them that much. Besides those activites, the stories were okay:

1)THOMAS TO THE RESCUE 4/5:
Sir Topham Hatt sends Thomas to help Mavis at the quarry. Thomas is surprised to see Diesel there. Diesel says that Sir Topham Hatt will soon scrap steamies and Thomas begins to worry. But will Thomas help all the diesels when they start breaking down due to bad fuel?

2)HENRY AND THE WISHING TREE 4.5/5:
Henry wishes that he could pull the Express sometime instead of Gordon. The next day, Henry's wish has come true but Gordon ends up in the repair yard and Henry is afraid that it is his fault that that happened.

3)SQUEAK, RATTLE, AND ROLL 4/5:
Gordon develops some new squeakng noises and when he has to take some children to the harbor, he is afraid that Sir Topham Hatt will hear his squeak and send him to the scrapyard.

4)PERCY'S NEW WHISTLE 3.5/5:
Percy perfects his whistle to surprise 'Arry and Burt but his new whistle will soon get him in alot of trouble.

A pretty good video, but it could've been better. For instance, get rid of those ridiculous activites.

Please this DVD is very, very bad! When I saw the cover I thought is was going to be good. But when My child saw ths he Fell asleep!! The Engines do not look roght and they move very differently! Also the the opening where it says Thomas & Freinds-What??? That's not the song! Please I really am telling you DO NOT BUY THIS ONE! IT IS HORRIBLE:(!!

I believe that Thomas has gone CGI. This video looks more like animation, and to me has lost the charm of the past movies that are obviously miniature trains on tracks. Everything looks brighter and the numbers and words are more crisp, but it's lost the uniqueness that it once had.

Of course my 2 and 4 year old boys love it...just like all the others, but I wish that it was filmed the old way.

All Togther- the Whole DVD is Bad but here are a few things that are the worst!

1. They Changed the Theme music to a stupid wired rytham that we all hate! Waht happend to the good music we all love?

2. Those stupd activtes insted of the intermsiions bewtween stories. What? Even for kids they are dome and piontless and way too easy!

3. Have really noticed how the engines look and move> -Yeah! that what I'm Taking about!

Hit is absoultoly runing Thomas! I HOPE THOMAS AND THE JET ENGINE WILL BE BETTER!

I just love the changes they made on this vid.(Although,once again,the UK got 2 more epis than us!>_<)They make the series so fresh.HIT picked up from Gullanes horrible mistakes and turned TTTE around.So i recommend this DVD 4:
1.New music
2.Micheal Brandons narration
3.The longer epis(and the epis themselves)
So enjoy this great DVD!^________^

I liked the new fetures on the movie but NOT instead of the storries. however i liked all 4 stories and the 2 music vidios were good too. another good thing is that they showed older engines like Gordon, Henry, Percy, Thomas, Bertie, Trevor, Mavis, and Deisel. The stories 'Squeak Rattle and Roll' and 'Percy's New Whistle' had deisels but did not need them and 'Henry and the Wishing Tree' had no diesels. 'Thomas to the Rescue' was the only story that needed deisels.

The Stories are

Thomas to the Rescue:1st favorite

When Thomas works with Mavis and Diesel Diesel says "Steamies can't help" and Thomas feels bad. Then all the deisels on the island get sick from bad fuel and only Thomas can help.

Henry and the Wishing Tree:3rd favorite

Henry is tired of pulling logs and wants to pull pasengers. Thomas tells him about a wishing tree so Henry went to make a wish to pull the express. After working Henry finds Gordon in the repair yard. He thinks he made Gordon go to the repair yard. Henry now wants to pull logs again but will he.

Squeak Rattle and Roll:4th favorite

Gordon begins to make some auful noises and thinks he's falling apart. Soon Gordon found that the slower he went the less he squeaked. Then Gordon has to take a fast train to the docks but if he goes fast STH will hear his noises. If he goes slow he'll be late. What will he do?

Percy's New Whistle:2nd Favorite

Percy wanted a whistle as loud as Arry and Berts horns so he practiced untill he had a loud whistle. He soon annoys the other engines and gets into trouble. when Percy hears Thomas heading strait into a snow drift Percy blew a loud whistle and saved Thomas.

Extras: Diffrent sounds, Getting There 2, and Name That Engine 2.

Songs: Sounds song, and Engine roll call.

wow. this video was very bizzare. I mean, what happened to the real thomas music. Instead of great music we've all come to love, we get treated with weird music. and then, in between stories we get stupid activities. I'm not a little kid, but I think that even the "different sounds" activity would be boring for little kids. Great stories and Michael Brandon is excellent, but who are they trying to pull with the messed up music and stupid activities. I want thomas back, and I hope that 'Thomas and the Jet Engine' will give us our original thomas back. This video was a disappointment.

this is a great dvd this video has 4 stories

thomas to the rescue:Thomas wonders if sir thompham hatt will scrap steamies after diesel calls thomas a stinky old steam engine but when the diesels get contaminated feul its up to thomas to get fresh fuel

henry and the wishing tree:henry wants to pull passengers instead of logs when henry comes upon a wishing tree he makes a wish but he soon fells unhappy will his second wish come true?

squeak,rattle and roll:gordan starts making loud noises gordan thinks sir thompham hatt will scrap him when he finds out about the noises when sir thompham hatt finds out he sends gordan to the repair yard!

percys new whistle: arry, and bert tease percy about his whistle
percy later surprises arry and bert with his whistle being very loud.he keeps using his super loud whistle ,but i causes trouble by damaging thomas frieght cars almost caused bertie to have an accident and create a giant snowball that crashs on percy. but he uses his whistle to stop thomas from having an accident.

music vedios: sounds song and engine roll call

With this release, a lot of changes have been made to the series. The original composers have left, presumably due to their age (they're both in their late fifties); their replacement does a very good job, though when I first heard his music it sounded like fingernails scratching a chalkboard. The transitions with the engines behind nameboards have been replaced with a series of interactive puzzles, which are alright but which are too easy, even for younger viewers. HIT have also used new production techniques, which I'm afraid I dislike...on several occasions they make me feel dizzy. Michael Brandon now narrates, and he does a very good job indeed.

The episodes themselves, sadly, are something of a disappointment. "Thomas to the Rescue" has a fantastic storyline (a railway-realistic episode is long overdue), but is let down by the fact that it's almost agonisingly slow-moving. "Henry and the Wishing Tree" shows Henry struggling to pull coaches, which completely contradicts earlier episodes in which he was seen pulling coaches with no trouble at all. "Squeak, Rattle and Roll" is just pathetic (Gordon has been in all sorts of situations before and not been scrapped, so why would Sir Topham Hatt scrap him because of a few noises), not to mention poorly written (at one point Sir Topham Hatt tells Gordon that he needs to have his "engine" inspected). "Percy's New Whistle" is alright, but too similar to "Dunkin Duncan" from the Chocolate Crunch DVD for my liking.

All in all this isn't terrible, and worth spending a few bucks on. But hardcore fans of the series will almost certainly be disappointed.

If you are a parent looking for a Thomas tape this a good one. Alot of people complained about the music changing or the stories or the new look. Well my 2.5 year old loves this one. He likes the part where they expplain the different sounds that trains make and he likes the games in the middle instead of the regular intermissions and he likes the song at the end. Reading the other reviews it either seems like they were written by adults whom for whatever reason still watch these tapes without children or older children whom the stories might bore them but for a young Thomas fan this is a great DVD.