This movie is more cinematic, and the animation is fine, but the lighting is pretty dull and kinda weird, and it introduces an unforgettable new character called Hiro
7.6/10.
7.6/10.
5 Reviews
It's pretty good
CadenTheGWR1500ClassEngine2 April 2022
For the first CGI outing, pretty good
breakdownthatfilm-blogspot-com11 February 2018
The year 2009 was a big year for the Thomas & Friends franchise. After the failure of Thomas and the Magic Railroad (2000), a transformation began to occur to the series that would change the show forever. Creative consultants began to retire from their roles and new ones took their places. On top of that the rights to the show transferred to different hands, leading to new ideas being added. Still though, live-action physical models were being used, that is until the 12th season when CGI faces were added to the models. This was a big sign to those watching that the show, it was headed in a direction many thought would not happen. But by the time the 13th season rolled around, Thomas & Friends had been fully converted to CGI with the release of this home video special.
Even more surprising was that the director to the special was Greg Tiernan. Prior to this Tiernan had only worked as unit director and not much else. He would later go on to direct the adult animated film Sausage Party (2016). The exact opposite of Thomas & Friends' demographic. Aside from this the story to adventure has Thomas and his friends going about work as usual until Spencer the fast silver engine arrives on Sodor. According to Spencer, the Duke of Boxford is having a summer house built and will be around all summer. This means being harassed by Spencer nonstop wherever he goes. Thomas becomes fed up and races Spencer only to discover in the process another engine by the name of Hiro, abandoned long ago in the brush. Hoping to help Hero, it's up to Thomas and his friends to help put Hiro back together.
With a script written completely by Sharon Miller, the story itself isn't the smartest but also isn't the laziest either. Being that she's written screenplays before for this franchise, it's acceptable to a point. The biggest issue this story has is trying to cram in a bunch of different characters by only giving them a few lines. Toby, one of the oldest characters in the show has one line of dialog; impressive. However what will lessen this burden is hearing all the unique voices all the engines have now. Prior to this, every story was told by the narrator only. Now the narrator talks along with the engines having their own voices. Both Michael Angelis and Michael Brandon act as the narrator respectively while the rest is performed by other voice actors.
As for them, there really isn't an actor who out performs the other because they all do well. For the US dub, Martin Sherman voices Thomas and Percy and he sounds youthful enough for it. Jules de Jongh voices Emily and Mavis. William Hope voices Edward, Toby, Rocky and the Duke of Boxford. Kerry Shale voices Henry, Gordon, James and Sir Topham Hatt. Voicing Spencer is Glenn Wrage. Finally voicing Hiro, the new main character is Togo Igawa. All of which give their roles life and something unique to hear. The animation was also quite the departure from past features. Being that everything has been converted to CGI, several iconic places have also been transferred over. Much of it is well done when taking it all in.
There is a new area to be featured though and that's the Sodor Steamworks lead by two new characters. Kevin the crane (Kerry Shale) and Victor (David Bedella). Other places like Tidmouth Sheds, Knapford Station, Gordon's Hill, and Brendam Docks are remarkably kept intact. It is a bit jarring at first though because no longer are the sets physically limited. Now the locations can be expanded to have many layers of colors, textures and the scope can expand far beyond any physical set. Those will be missed but seeing how much detail is put into these settings is still respectable. Acting as animation supervisor was Jeff Bailey who had held similar positions prior to this production. Music was thankfully well composed with Robert Hartshorne continuing to score the franchise. The unfortunate part is that the music is no longer a large center piece to the overall picture. Much of it seems to be over shadowed by sound effects and other things. With that there isn't any new character themes to hear except for a the second original theme song. Lastly there's one pop song called "Go Go, Thomas!" at the end, which is fun to listen to. Aside from this not much else.
With the newest transition of the show moving from practical effects to CGI, the conversion is pretty good. The characters, sets and animation is rendered well. The voice actors for their respective dubs are also performed competently. Writing is slightly above average with an okay story even though it tends to leave some main characters in the background. The saddest part is the lack of iconic music that was once so profound in its presence, no longer at the forefront.
Even more surprising was that the director to the special was Greg Tiernan. Prior to this Tiernan had only worked as unit director and not much else. He would later go on to direct the adult animated film Sausage Party (2016). The exact opposite of Thomas & Friends' demographic. Aside from this the story to adventure has Thomas and his friends going about work as usual until Spencer the fast silver engine arrives on Sodor. According to Spencer, the Duke of Boxford is having a summer house built and will be around all summer. This means being harassed by Spencer nonstop wherever he goes. Thomas becomes fed up and races Spencer only to discover in the process another engine by the name of Hiro, abandoned long ago in the brush. Hoping to help Hero, it's up to Thomas and his friends to help put Hiro back together.
With a script written completely by Sharon Miller, the story itself isn't the smartest but also isn't the laziest either. Being that she's written screenplays before for this franchise, it's acceptable to a point. The biggest issue this story has is trying to cram in a bunch of different characters by only giving them a few lines. Toby, one of the oldest characters in the show has one line of dialog; impressive. However what will lessen this burden is hearing all the unique voices all the engines have now. Prior to this, every story was told by the narrator only. Now the narrator talks along with the engines having their own voices. Both Michael Angelis and Michael Brandon act as the narrator respectively while the rest is performed by other voice actors.
As for them, there really isn't an actor who out performs the other because they all do well. For the US dub, Martin Sherman voices Thomas and Percy and he sounds youthful enough for it. Jules de Jongh voices Emily and Mavis. William Hope voices Edward, Toby, Rocky and the Duke of Boxford. Kerry Shale voices Henry, Gordon, James and Sir Topham Hatt. Voicing Spencer is Glenn Wrage. Finally voicing Hiro, the new main character is Togo Igawa. All of which give their roles life and something unique to hear. The animation was also quite the departure from past features. Being that everything has been converted to CGI, several iconic places have also been transferred over. Much of it is well done when taking it all in.
There is a new area to be featured though and that's the Sodor Steamworks lead by two new characters. Kevin the crane (Kerry Shale) and Victor (David Bedella). Other places like Tidmouth Sheds, Knapford Station, Gordon's Hill, and Brendam Docks are remarkably kept intact. It is a bit jarring at first though because no longer are the sets physically limited. Now the locations can be expanded to have many layers of colors, textures and the scope can expand far beyond any physical set. Those will be missed but seeing how much detail is put into these settings is still respectable. Acting as animation supervisor was Jeff Bailey who had held similar positions prior to this production. Music was thankfully well composed with Robert Hartshorne continuing to score the franchise. The unfortunate part is that the music is no longer a large center piece to the overall picture. Much of it seems to be over shadowed by sound effects and other things. With that there isn't any new character themes to hear except for a the second original theme song. Lastly there's one pop song called "Go Go, Thomas!" at the end, which is fun to listen to. Aside from this not much else.
With the newest transition of the show moving from practical effects to CGI, the conversion is pretty good. The characters, sets and animation is rendered well. The voice actors for their respective dubs are also performed competently. Writing is slightly above average with an okay story even though it tends to leave some main characters in the background. The saddest part is the lack of iconic music that was once so profound in its presence, no longer at the forefront.
Too much narration
landona-990864 December 2023
Warning: Spoilers
I would say this movie is not perfect by any means. It truly marked the end of the model series (whole season 12 did that as well), and Spencer's reasoning for wanting Hiro destroyed is never explained in full. However, my biggest gripe with this movie is its narration. Every single action is narrated, when it can be seen onscreen! He never shuts up and lets the visuals speak for themselves. For instance the chase scene with Hiro would have been so much more impactful had the narration been cut out completely. Even a small child can comprehend what's happening. It doesn't need further explanation.
Pretty good for the first cgi thomas & friends production.
matdrummo24 May 2024
Warning: Spoilers
Thomas & Friends: Hero of the Rails isn't the best Thomas movie but it's still good for what it is. The story of Thomas & Friends: Hero of the Rails is that Spencer has come to the island of Sodor to help with the Duke and Duchess boxford summer house, however Spencer keeps on bossing around all the engines until Thomas then challenges Spencer to show him that he can pull more heavy flatbeds than him all the way from the yards to brendom docks. Spencer agrees to this and so they start there race, but Thomas's breaks break and so he goes onto an abandoned track in the forest, however Thomas finds an old engine named Hero. Hero tells Thomas everything about him and how he ended up on the siding and it's because he had broken down and had been left on the siding for new parts but the parts never came. Thomas then decides he wants to help Hero and get him the parts he needs. Thomas also gets help from Victor, Kevin, Edward, Henry, Gordon, James, Percy, Toby and Emily. Thomas and his friends also have to make sure that the Fat Controller and Spencer don't find out because if the Fat Controller finds out he will probably scrap him and if Spencer finds out he may tell the Fat Controller. The story for this movie is really good. It's a nice heart felt story about trying to help someone who maybe in a loose end situation. This movie has some scenes that do drag on for to long though. This movie's story also has a lot of cool chase scenes as well mainly because of the cold camera angles and the voice acting as well. The characters in this movie are great. Thomas, Edward, Henry, Gordon, James, Percy, Toby and Emily are very sympathetic and you really do care for them since there just getting bullied by Spencer. Thomas and all his friends are perfectly in character although it is really dumb that they would think the Fat Controller would scrap Hero since in the bast the Fat Controller has said he would never do that. Spencer is also good as the villain in this movie. In this movie you can tell he really means business and that he really want to find out what Thomas is up to and that he won't let him get away with it. Spencer does have one problem with his character is that we never know why apparently he wanted Hero scrapped. The new characters Victor and Hero are amazing. Victor is really funny and he's also over just a really nice and helpful engine. Hero's is also amazing mainly because of how sympathetic he is and also because of how interesting of a character he is. His back story makes him very sympathetic as a character and very interesting as well and you really care about him in this movie. He also has a cool design because he isn't labelled as a token diversity character. Kevin is overall fine. There's not a lot to him but he does have some funny scenes in this movie. The animation doesn't look the best but none of it look cheap. The engines all feel like they have some weight to them. The songs and music for this movie are great. The opening music is really nice. The music used for the chase scenes are great and the theme song Go Go Thomas is so great and really fun to listen to. The voice acting is really good and they did a good job with the selection of voices they gave the characters well for the uk dub. The us dub voices for Henry and Toby sound very weird. There's also way to much narration from Michael Angelis and Michael Brandon. Thomas & Friends: Hero of the Rails 7/10.
My children's favorite film ever!
sofia-414-2004574 July 2012
One of my second sons first words, right there with mommy and daddy were "Hiro" (with sounds missing of course). This word meant TV.
I don't think I have to say much more. ;)
It was simply what his 2,5 years older brother always wanted to watch. :)
And it's parent friendly too! Meaning the kids father don't go out of his mind as he does with the Teletubbies for example.
Now (at ages 2 & 4,5) both my kids enjoy the movie and see it regularly. The younger one has adopted his big brothers interest in Thomas and Hiro.
Short about the movie: Thomas finds an old engine by mistake and since he's afraid sir Toppom Hat is going to trash him rather than fix him he tries to repair him himself.
I don't think I have to say much more. ;)
It was simply what his 2,5 years older brother always wanted to watch. :)
And it's parent friendly too! Meaning the kids father don't go out of his mind as he does with the Teletubbies for example.
Now (at ages 2 & 4,5) both my kids enjoy the movie and see it regularly. The younger one has adopted his big brothers interest in Thomas and Hiro.
Short about the movie: Thomas finds an old engine by mistake and since he's afraid sir Toppom Hat is going to trash him rather than fix him he tries to repair him himself.
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