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80 of 81 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A superb DVD featuring nine Thomas stories and two songs., 20 Sep 2001
By A Customer
This excellent DVD contains nine Thomas episodes, two songs and three games. The model railway used to film the episodes and the songs is superb and adds an element of reality not found in cartoons. Most of the stories are beautifully narrated by Ringo Starr, who brings the characters (especially the Fat Controller) to life in a charming way. The stories will appeal to children aged two and over, but even younger children (such as my fifteen month old) will enjoy 'watching the trains' and pointing at things they recognise. My personal favourite is Lady Hatt's Birthday Party. The Fat Controller (Sir Topham Hatt) is clearly both devoted to, and terrified of, his wife (a sort of Penelope Keith character), and suffers the most tremendous trials and indignations in order to be on time for her birthday party. Another good story is 'Busy Going Backwards', in which the break van Toad becomes tired of always seeing things slip away from him because he is stuck at the back of the train. 'I have forward thinking views Mr Oliver,' he tells Oliver the Great Western Engine. 'I could be a leader.' And so it turns out when the trucks detach themselves from Oliver at the top of Gordon's hill and the train, now with Toad at the front, runs backwards down the hill out of control. The songs are just as good as the stories and include 'karaoke style' words at the bottom of the screen. Be warned - the tunes are annoyingly catchy and you will find yourself humming 'Donald's Duck' at work ! 'Night Train' is very atmospheric and beautifully filmed, but the rather dark images may be lost a little on young children. The games are a bit simplistic. The first asks the viewer multiple-choice questions about the episode just shown, the second allows the viewer to click on different images and hear an appropriate sound and the third encourages children to count. The games look as though they were put together quickly in order to add some 'interactivity' to the DVD, and they are of limited interest compared to the stories. However they don't detract from the DVD as a whole. The menu structures are sensible and intuitive, and offer the chance to play the stories one after the other - which is important given their short duration. And of course the quality of DVD pictures makes watching Thomas a pleasure. All in all this is a superb DVD which will give young children hours of enjoyment. It is well worth five stars.
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