Friday 4 November 2016

DVD Review: Full Steam To The Rescue

THESE OPINIONS ARE MY OWN AND ARE NOT INFLUENCED FROM THE THOMAS & FRIENDS FAN BASE

FULL STEAM TO THE RESCUE
Episodes

Written by
Becky Overton
Davey Moore
Andrew Brenner

Special Features
Bonus episode: The Christmas Coffee Pot
Bonus episode: Over The Hill
Really Useful Engines
The Earl's Quiz
Landmarks of Sodor
The Fat Controller's Tales
Guess Who?
Music Video: Glynn's Christmas Wish

Directed by
Don Spencer
Dianna Basso

Produced by
Ian McCue (HIT)
Robert Anderson (Arc)
Tracy Blagdon (Arc)
Jennifer Hill (Arc)

Release Date
24/10/16

Distributed
HIT Entertainment

So after a long wait, we finally get the last six episodes of the nineteenth season that had aired in Japan back in January 2016. One of the episodes that was released on DVD was 'Wild Water Rescue', as a Target exclusive for a Trackmaster train set over in the US. However we finally have all of these episodes in good quality footage.

This was originally suppose to come out before my 'Ultimate Friendship Adventure' review, however UFA came out before I got my copy of this DVD:

EPISODES
The episodes consist of the last remaining S19 episodes that were aired in Japan back in Jan.2016. My views of these episodes can be seen with the link provided above. The episodes that I do like from this DVD, as mentioned in my 'Ultimate Friendship Adventures' review are 'Thomas the Babysitter', 'No Help At All' and 'Goodbye Fat Controller' and of course my least favourites are the other three. My views though on 'Wild Water Rescue' had changed as the story felt rather plain but it's not a terrible episode with its moral in the end.

SPECIAL FEATURES 


The special features are the same as what they are in the 2016 Christmas DVD over in the US. So my views on them can be seen here. However for the UK audience they were however treated to two bonus Christmas episodes from the 20th season. The next three will be available on the UK's 'Thomas' Christmas Carol' which comes out later this month. I don't know why but I believe it could be because of Channel 5's scheduling for the show? After all they had aired the Christmas episodes of S19 in January 2016 and I think the people behind Thomas might have thought to give these episodes out in time for Christmas, I don't know. But I hope this means we see the UK and US being in sync with each other when it comes to the Christmas releases *fingers crossed*, hopefully the generic releases too maybe. The S20 Christmas episodes will be kept aside during S20's TV run.

OVERALL
The episodes in my opinion are a hit and miss to me but there are fans that would enjoy some of these stories. It's great to see the two episodes from S20 having a spot on this DVD too and the special features can be entertaining for the young audience and for the older audience too. The DVD itself is alright but maybe the DVDs for the UK should revert back the same way as the US ones with just the intro, episodes and intervals and then song and credits. It flows nicely in my opinion.

RATING:
7/10