Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Nice Effects, Lame Stories, December 6, 2004
As a parent who has to watch what his kid is watching, I grew fond of the original stories narrated by Ringo Starr and George Carlin. Their readings and characterizations, the technical content of the stories, and the distinct characters of the engines make TV-time bearable. These new stories lack the charm of the old, the narrator is bland, and the blatant moralising is annoying. It's Barney on Rails. I can just hear the marketing executives wondering how they can make the Thomas franchise more palatable for as wide an audience as possible. Some of the engines also act differently from their established personae--Thomas has never shown much of an interest in transporting children (unlike Trevor the Traction Engine), but in the first story he suffers great anxiety because the other engines get to take children to the beach, but he is stuck transporting ice cream components. Gone also is the old Thomas theme, replaced with a new bubble-gummy piece of music.
That said, my two-year-old likes this DVD. He's not as critical as his parents, I guess. The trains have been rendered more three dimensional using computer effects, which is much easier on the eye then the old tapes. It takes a good two minutes to finally get to the story menu and select a story.
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Better than "Steamies Vs Diesels.", January 3, 2005
A Kid's Review
After "Steamies Vs Diesels" I was a bit apprehensive about approaching this DVD, but I really enjoyed it. On "Steamies Vs Diesels," the new camera work made everything look plain weird, but on this DVD it gives the series a more realistic look. The new composer's music has improved, and the score for the DVD is lovely.
As for the episodes themselves, "You Can Do It Toby" and "Edward the Great" are probably the best of the lot. "Too Hot for Thomas," "Percy and the Magic Carpet" and "Gordon Takes Charge" are pretty good too. "Emily's Adventure" and "James Goes Too Far," however, are let down by the obvious "ask politely" and "help your friends" morals rampaging through them.
As far as the narration goes, Michael Brandon does an excellent job as usual. One complaint though is that Mr Brandon is rather inconsistent with his voices. Some of his characters sound different with every line they speak, and others sound different from episode to episode. I suppose the other elements of the narration overlook this, but what's the point of giving individual voices if you aren't going to be consistent with them?
Overall, a very good DVD. Still lacking something, but a vast improvement on the previous batch of HIT-produced episodes.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A hit!, January 10, 2005
My 2 year-old doesn't know anything about any previous narrators, music or whatever. She loves these new episodes, loves the games in between and LOVES the Thomas song! Unfortunately, on the VHS version you don't get the children singing it like they do when it airs on TV, you just get the instrumental version at the beginning and end. But she sings and dances along without their help anyway!
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