There are many great things about this DVD. The episodes are about 5 minutes long; enough to hold a toddler's attention withut boredom setting in. The narration (Ringo Starr) is clear, and beautifully done. The animation is lovely. What we don't like: The slightly awkward menu; you can choose one episode, or play all of them from the beginning. There is no option to start halfway through and play all episodes from there. the result is that the first 10 or so get watched a lot, and the rest get ignored. Overall, its brilliant. No little Thomas fan should be without it (and no irritating American accents, either!)
RRP: £12.99
Our Price: £6.97 (subject to change)
great toddler entertainment
Review date: 2005-06-27 Rating: 10 out of 10
Like the first DVD, this has been a huge hit in our household. My nearly-2-year-old adores it, and gets totally absorbed. We have 'Oh no!' with every crash (of which there are plenty!), and lots of additional sound effects ('toot toot!' etc).
There are more new characters in each story like Donald & Douglas the Scottish twins, Bill & Ben the twins who work at the China Clay works, Harold the Helicopter, Trevor the Traction Engine, Boco the Diesel, Duck the Great Western Engine, etc.
My favourite episodes on the disc are Break Van where Douglas is disliked by a nasty break van and Donald teaches him to show his twin a bit more respect, Thomas Comes to Breakfast where Thomas ends up popping through the Stationmaster's house one morning when his family are having breakfast, Percy's Predicament in which Percy has an accident thanks to some trucks who like to cause trouble and A Close Shave in which Duck crashes through yet another building, mainly a barber's and has his face smothered with shaving foam.
Well I mustn't give away any more details about the episodes because you won't want to watch them after reading this, enjoy the series and reminiscing about your childhood!
There are 26 episodes, each around 5 minutes long, so this is very good value, and doesn't tax a toddler's concentration span too much either! The menu allows you to play straight through or choose an episode.
Highly recommended!