PLEASE NOTE: Michael D's is currently in READ ONLY MODE. Anything submitted will simply not be written to the database.
Lots of stuff is still broken, but at least reviews can now be looked up and read.
PLEASE NOTE: Michael D's is currently in READ ONLY MODE. Anything submitted will simply not be written to the database.
Lots of stuff is still broken, but at least reviews can now be looked up and read.
Thomas & Friends-The Very Best of

Thomas & Friends-The Very Best of

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Released 10-Jun-2004
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Details At A Glance

General		Extras
Category	Childrens	Main Menu Audio & Animation Scene Selection Anim & Audio
Rating
Year Of Production	?
Running Time	88:16
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Ads Then Menu	Cast & Crew
Region Coding	4	Directed By	David Mitton
Studio Distributor	Britt Allcroft Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	Ringo Starr Michael Angelis George Carlin Alec Baldwin Michael Brandon
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip	Starring
RPI	$19.95	Music	Mike O'Donnell Junior Campbell

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.29:1
16x9 Enhancement	No
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.29:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No	Miscellaneous
Subtitles	English for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

NOTE: The Profanity Filter is ON. Turn it off here.

Plot Synopsis

It restores my faith in the Thomas & Friends franchise to see a disc like this after reviewing the truly atrocious feature film Thomas and the Magic Railroad. While the feature film is scary, confusing and a poor combination of the original engines and poor human acting, the television series is fun, light, simple and enjoyable for the kids. My fifteen month old son loves the theme tune and the trains, although he is a bit too young to understand the stories yet.

This disc contains 16 episodes of the television series spanning the time period 1984 to 1998. This means that approximately half the episodes are read by Ringo Starr (for those from another planet, the drummer from The Beatles). He does an excellent job on these episodes and is many people's favourite narrator of this series. He reads the episodes from 1984 and 1986. The later episodes feature more special effects and action, however the earlier ones have a charm all of their own. All of the episodes run for approximately 5:30.

In detail, the episodes featured are as follows:

Thomas & Gordon - (1984) This seems to be the first ever episode as it introduces Thomas and the big engine, Gordon. Thomas gets into trouble by being cheeky to Gordon.
James & The Coaches - (1984) This episode introduces James and shows that he is impetuous and gets himself into trouble.
Cranky Bugs - (1998) A cranky crane at the docks causes trouble for Thomas.
Rusty & The Boulder - (1998) Rusty, a little diesel engine helping to construct a quarry, tangles with a runaway boulder.
Dirty Work - (1986) A diesel engine makes trouble by talking to the trucks behind the other engines' backs.
Paint, Posts & Queens - (1995) The engines must prepare for a visit by the Queen.
Buzz, Buzz - (1991) James causes trouble while trying to move some bee hives for a farmer.
Thomas & The Special Letter - (1995) A letter arrives from the big city asking for the engines to visit.
Thomas, Percy & The Dragon - (1991) Thomas is sent to collect something unusual from the docks.
Trust Thomas - (1991) Thomas has an embarrassing accident after trying to help.
Thomas comes to Breakfast - (1986) Thomas gatecrashes breakfast after deciding he doesn't need a driver.
No Joke for James - (1991) James is too big for his boots and gets himself into trouble.
Pop Goes The Diesel - (1986) A diesel engine joins the team on a trial basis.
Ghost Train - (1986) Percy pretends he is a ghost to scare Thomas. NB: This episode may scare the youngest children.
Percy Runs Away - (1984) In Percy's first episode, he gets out of control after making a mistake.
Gallant Old Engine - (1995) In a flashback episode, Rheneas fights to save the railway from being closed down.

Overall, this is top quality children's entertainment and is a well selected group of episodes.

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Transfer Quality

Video

The video quality ranges from reasonable to excellent dependent upon the age of the episode.

The episodes are presented in a 1.29:1 aspect ratio which is most likely the original aspect ratio.

The picture was generally clear and sharp throughout, with no evidence of low level noise. The 1984 & 1986 episodes have quite significant grain, however later episodes are better and the newest have no grain. Shadow detail was good.

The colour was very good throughout with all colours being well saturated and free from colour bleeding. Again, colour vibrancy improved with the newer episodes.

The older episodes had a few specks of white and some minor tape tracking marks, however the newer episodes showed no such artefacts.

There are subtitles in English for the Hearing Impaired. They are summarised and do not reflect the entire text which would probably help the core audience (those who can read at all).

*Video Ratings Summary*
Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

The audio quality is good.

This DVD contains only one audio option: an English Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack encoded at 224 Kb/s.

Dialogue was clear and easy to understand.

The music by Mike O'Donnell & Junior Campbell is very catchy and certainly got my little boy bopping along.

The surround speakers were used for some train noises and music when played using ProLogicII.

The subwoofer was used for music when played using ProLogicII.

*Audio Ratings Summary*
Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Extras

R4 vs R1

NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.

This disc is available in Region 2 in exactly the same format but does not seem to be available in Region 1.

Summary

This disc contains an excellent selection of 16 classic episodes from the long-running children's show, Thomas & Friends.