Approx. Run Time: 100 minutes (including bonus features)
Format: DVD MOVIE
Customer Reviews:
Thomas is the greatest.......2007-05-31
My grandchildren love the Thomas the Tank Engine videos. We purchased some for them for Christmas, but did not have any to keep at our house for their visits. My four year old grandson specifically requested "Calling All Engines" and the only place we could find it was on Amazon. It has become one of their favorite ones. This morning they came to visit and the first words from our two year old grand-daughter was "THOMAS!!!!" So we watched it again. They never get tired of it and neither do the grandparents (and that is saying a lot).
Thomas is awesome.......2007-01-11
We love Thomas here. The feature the newer DVD's are coming out with are great, being able to set it up to play over and over is great for those busy toddlers who want the movie to play and watch.
Oh, how the mighty have fallen.......2006-10-07
I love the old Thomas, back in the days of Ringo Starr and George Carlin, but ever since Alex Baldwin came on the scene, the Thomas shows seem to sink lower and lower. Gone are the days when I could let my kids watch the shows without my having to view them first. And in addition to having more questionable content (see below), the shows are much more twaddle than they used to be. Older Thomas shows don't beat the kids over the head with the moral like these new ones seem to. And the stories in the older Thomas shows just seemed better.
This particular escapade has dramatic tension, and a good message about working together to accomplish good things, but the engines now use expletives -- okay, not grown-up expletives, but things like "Cinders and Ashes!" which my children started using as expletives. (They hadn't used expletives before, other than "Bother!") The engines call each other names ("Stinky Steamies" for example), and, again, my children started calling each other "stinky" for awhile. We hadn't had name-calling problems before the movie. Now, I realize that most kids are exposed to much worse, but I draw attention to this because the older Thomas episodes didn't have any of this going on. Three-year olds could watch with impunity! ;-> But for those who care about this kind of thing, be warned.
The older Thomas episodes are so much more wholesome, just stick with them!
Thomas and Friends: Calling All Engines.......2006-07-19
Child likes this very much. This DVD contains many trains.
Did I miss something or what?.......2006-06-30
Everywhere I look, people are talking about how great of a movie Calling All Engines is and "Oh!, It's soooooo much better than Thomas And The Magic Railraoad!". In my opinion, this movie is just as much of a load of garbage that it's preceder was. It is POOOOORLY writen; I mean the dialogue is horrendous. But I think the straw the really broke the camel's back was when they cheekily added those stupid activities. WHY!!!! I'd be watching this movie and then out of no where, one of those activities would come on screen.
I'm giving this movie 2 stars because I really do love Thomas, even though this movie does only deserve one.
Description
Summertime is always beautiful on the Island of Sodor. It is a busy time for all of the engines....but when the Steam engines and Diesels can't get along, and no work is getting done, the engines are in a terrible mess! Will the new airport get ready in time? Will the bridge get built? Can the engines save the day?
Customer Reviews:
Best Thomas Adventure EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.......2006-03-23
Man if youve watched Thomas and the magic railroad this is perfect! This one brings Diesel 10 back and at the end you'll see him smile honestly! GOod Idea!
"Calling All Engines" - recommended by kids and mom alike!!.......2006-01-28
This is a wonderful video and we highly recommend it. Besides having tons of Engines (of both a coal and oil persuasion), Harold, and Sir Topham Hatt, there is a pretty good story about cooperation, and the fact that our differences are what make us special.
The story begins with an announcement that a new airport is going to be built. Orders are given to both the Diesels and the Steamies but trouble starts when Thomas decides to play tricks on `Arry and Bert, and Diesel. In one case, Thomas substitutes bananas for construction materials.
He and Percy have a good laugh, but soon find that everything has backfired. When they go home they find that one of the important jobs the diesels had was to rebuild their sheds. The old sheds were destroyed on time, but there was no supplies to build new ones. Consequently the gang are split up into shelters all over the island.
This bad situation is made worse when a hurricane rips through the island. What little work that was done on the airport is undone, and the beautiful new suspension bridge is mostly gone!
The Steamies decide that they need to work really hard now, but their plans fall in disarray as the Diesels retaliate to Thomas' pranks. [This is a good opportunity to point out to children that actions have consequences: good and bad.]
This long story, much like the television versions, are interrupted with breaks of music and games. In the case of this Video, the games involve practice logical reasoning skills. And unlike the TV show, most of the game-breaks have something to do with the story. For example, the first break comes after a mention of the age-old animosity that exists between the Steamies and Diesels. A discussion ensues about what the real differences between steam engines and diesels engines are. Steamies use coal and have whistles, for example, while diesel engines burn oil and have horns.
In any case, real trouble comes as biffing and bashing begin to go on all over the island. Things go so badly that the Steamies all begin to have nightmares as to what might happen to them if no tourists come. Everyone but Thomas. He dreams of Lady who he finds high in the mountains, shunting cars with Rusty. She tells him something to the effect that she and Rusty always get their work done with they cooperate.
This sets the wheels in motion and soon everyone is working together and everything is done... until an accident which, at the last moment, takes the runway out of commission. What can they do? Thomas (the principal good guy and Steamie) finds the solution in asking Diesel 10 (a former principal bad guy, now more realistically portrayed (lol) as a lead grumpy, strong, and scary diesel) for help. Yeah differences. Yeah cooperation. Just the stuff for small fry.
Five Stars. Good story. Good lessons. We also get to learn a lot more about Sodor on this video and we certainly get to see lots of trains. I don't know what parents of younger children find, but I know that my almost 4 year-old son loves this video. He has actually managed to sit for the whole 150 minute running time, and then wanted to watch it again!
HIT Entertainment Falls Short Again.......2005-10-12
My two-and-a-half year old and I have watched Calling All Engines approximately a dozen times since we purchased it about a month ago. We are both huge Thomas fans and so I write this review with mixed emotions. I would like to say that I thoroughly enjoyed this DVD, but alas, even my precocious wee one, likes this video less than its predecessor, Thomas and the Magic Railroad (2000)
The storyline of Calling All Engines is entertaining, the scenery, as in all episodes of Thomas and Friends, is outstanding, and the songs are entertaining. The DVD also contains bonus features including an interactive game, a read-along story, Diesel 10 Means Trouble, character gallery (the weakest of the bonus features), deleted scenes, and a music video. Although diehard Thomas and Friends fans will enjoy this video, there are problems with the film that make Calling All Engines substandard.
Although HIT Entertainment has great success with its television programming, they seem to fall short when it comes to producing feature length programs.
Michael Brandon fails miserably as the "storyteller." He seems unable to remain in character for more than a few seconds and oftentimes slips from a character's voice to the narrator's voice in mid dialogue. Furthermore, in several places he mispronounces words, for example, bananas is pronounced "bananers." He evens manages to mispronounce Sir Topham Hatt's name! These are problems that should have been corrected with ADR, but for some reason HIT entertainment choose not to do so.
The continuity and flow of the story are destroyed by the frequent interludes where Mr. Brandon asks the viewing audience to make choices for the characters, or to teach little lessons. For example, the story is interrupted, early on, for almost four minutes to ask the audience to identify characteristics that set steam and diesel engines apart. If this interruption in some way advanced the plot, or assisted in the development of the characters it might be acceptable, but it does neither. Finally, these interludes are often animated which is visually distracting given the care that was taken in creating and photographing the other scenes.
In addition, the film is advertised as being "closed captioned" which it is not.
For all its flaws, Thomas and the Magic Railroad which incorporated stop action photography and live action was a far more rewarding film. Perhaps in its next outing HIT entertainment will take what it has learned from these two efforts in full length Thomas features and produce the kind of film that Thomas and his friends deserve.
The Pictures all wrong but I Loved this movie!.......2005-10-09
Hi I am 13 years old and ever since I was 3 I loved Thomas and friends and Calling All Engines! is a better movie then Thomas And The Magic Railroad my copy came with A Bronze Diesel engine and I wish Boco was in the movie but sorry no luck. My only pet peave is why is their a Picture of a Calling All Engines! DVD With A Bronze Toby in front of it? Is he gonna be with another dvd sometime soon??!!!
Calling All Engines review.......2005-09-27
It makes you wonder why they would even bother making another Thomas movie after "Thomas and the Magic Railroad", but this time they got it right. No live cast, no Mr. Conductor, no Alec Baldwin, all Thomas. The only similarity this movie has to "Magic Railroad" is Diesel 10. But in "Calling All Engines" Diesel 10 isn't the creepy, evil character that he was before. His character change is for the better, a kid's movie doesn't need a homicidal talking engine in it.
I have to say that I did like it. It was much better than the recent episodes and it was just fun. A great movie for any Thomas fans. The movie was really entertaining (some parts were laugh out loud funny) and Gordon and Percy had some great lines. Michael Brandon did very well his voices (notably Diesel 10, Arry, Bert, Lady, and Henry). It was also nice to see some memorable old characters who made appearences. Small cast, which I liked, that had every main character.
Though the story was simple and predictable, the movie was still entertaining. Nowadays, Thomas isn't known for it's excelent storylines (which is a pity, but Calling All Engines is never boring, and fans of Thomas will like it.
I even liked the songs. Out of all of them, "The Dream Song" was my favorite (only on the DVD). Every one of the songs were catchy and upbeat, some of the best in the entire series.
The interactive bits were added into the middle of movie. It wasn't terrible, but it did interrupt the flow of the movie. You may want to see them once (they are, unfortunently, part of the movie's plot) and then fast-forward past them the next time you see it.
The only main flaws of this movie were the visuals. I liked Calling All Engines, the visuals and locations were as bland as ever. There were some familiar scenes from past seasons, but most of the movie had some very dull locations. In Magic Railroad there was Shinning Time, the Magic Railroad, Muffle Mountain, and the busy yards. In Calling All Engines, Sodor doesn't feel like the bustling railway that it used to. The locations seem the same all over the island and makes the railway seem much smaller than it really is. The endless, flat, countryside is as dull as ever and doesn't have anything in it (aside from the occasional signalhouse). Even the smelters is boring and doesn't have the life and energy that it did in "Stepany Gets Lost". I know that the locations have been this way for a while, but I was expecting more in a full-length movie.
Aside from the minor flaws of the locations and interactive segments, "Calling All Engines" is fun for any Thomas fan. Recommened.
4 out of 5 stars
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- 10 Years of Thomas & Friends
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DVD
DVD
General
| Kids & Family
| Genres
| DVD
| Video
Thomas and Friends: Thomas and the Really Brave Engine
Thomas The Tank Engine and Friends - Races, Rescues & Runaways
Thomas & Friends - Percy Saves the Day & Other Adventures
Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends - Salty's Secret
Thomas & Friends - Songs From the Station
