Search - Thomas & Friends - Percy Saves the Day & Other Adventures on DVD

Great Birthday present.

G. Langley | Texas | 04/05/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I love the Thomas toys and my kids love the movies. This video isn't just about percy (he only saves the day in one of them, and isn't even in some of the others) if you were expecting that. It really should be named "Look who saved the day" because its all about different Engines doing just that.

The toy is nifty. I mean, if you bought a Percy toy new it would cost about as much as the toy and movie together, and this Percy is sparkly! My kids loved it."

Better than "Hooray for Thomas"...but only just

G. Langley | 01/12/2006

(3 out of 5 stars)

"This DVD suffers from the same problem as Anchor Bay's last Thomas release, "Hooray for Thomas," did...a good set of stories, let down by the narration and music.

Michael Brandon has improved slightly from his shoddy performance on the "Hooray for Thomas" DVD, but he still isn't much good as a narrator. To be fair to him, he has changed his Skarloey and Rheneas voices to ones that suit them better than the ones he previously gave them. But he has also changed his voice for Rusty, who now sounds like a squawking nuisance. Arthur sounds plain and dull, and Fergus's voice is far too high-pitched and childish...same goes for Bill and Ben. And Duncan has been given what sounds like a bad Italian accent (presumably Brandon was trying to make him sound Scottish but it came out wrong). Brandon's voice in general also irritates me, and he just doesn't say his lines like he means them. Whatever happened to the man who wowed me with his narration for "Steamies Vs Diesels" and "Thomas and the Jet Engine"?

The new music also falls short. Most of it is bland and unmemorable, and on numerous occasions it fails to suit the mood of the scene. I don't know why HIT felt the need to rescore the episodes anyway...the old music worked fine as it was, and it was so much better than the new music we're being given here.

The episodes themselves aren't too bad (I especially like "Something Fishy" and "What's the Matter With Henry"), and children could learn useful lessons from them. My personal favourite moment from this DVD is the music video at the end, "There Once Was An Engine Who Ran Away." It's a fast-paced little jazz song from the original music composers, telling the tale of how Fergus ran away (a tale which will be detailed further in an episode on the upcoming DVD "Thomas and the Really Brave Engines"). For me, that song makes these DVD worth owning.

If only it wasn't for Brandon's narration, this would probably be one of the highlights of my Thomas DVD collection."