Thomas & Friends: Day of the Diesels Movie [DVD] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC] [2011]

This is a 2010 CGI feature-length ‘Thomas & Friends’ movie narrated by Michael Angelis with the voices provided by Ben Small, Keith Wickham, Matt Wilkinson, Kerry Shale and Teresa Gallagher.After a fire stars on the Island of Sodar, Thomas (Small) and Percy (Wickham) race to help and encounter new fire train Belle (Gallagher) whom Thomas takes a shine to straight away. Their friendship soon leads to Percy feeling sad and lonely. As Diesel (Shale) notices this crack in the friendship, he influences Percy to spend more time at the Diesel Works with the Diesel engines. He does so, and is soon influenced and manipulated by Diesel 10 (Wilkinson) who wants to exploit Percy’s good nature for their benefit.As Diesel 10 uses Percy to get the Diesels in with the Steam-works in a plot to take over the steam engines on the island, Thomas and Belle are unaware of the plot happening behind their back, and with the arrival of new fire truck Flynn (Rupert Degas), Diesel 10 continues his plot.Only when it is too late does Percy see what has happened, and so swallows his pride to rally Thomas, Belle and the others to confront the Diesels and save the Steamworks from being run amok…The introduction of wonderfully scary and evil Diesel 10 adds a nice good vs evil theme to this film, with the steam engines going up against the Diesels in a battle for the prestigious Steam-works compared to the dirty, run-down Diesel-works.A great new fire train, Belle, features here and she is a worthy addition to the team, with lots of great sequences with Thomas that add to the fact you feel so sorry for Percy as he takes centre stage here to simply be isolated, and then manipulated for the Diesels.Of course, the moral tale of friendship and respect echo here but it’s very well told and narrated, with good effects and great detail in the fire sequences; that classic element of Thomas danger never far away from funny and sweet drama and humour.

***watched on amazon prime***I sat and watched this with my 2yr old boy and he was glued, didn’t blink once and chin permanently to the floor. I have seen other reviews saying it’s scary, dark and uncomfortable for toddlers, my boy didn’t flinch once.Moral of the story is Percy doesn’t feel as special as before since Thomas becomes friendly with new engines. Percy decides to accept an invitation from Diesel to visit him and his friends at the Dieselworks, a place that should never be visited by a steam engine as “diesels can be devious” according to Thomas. Arriving at the Dieselworks, Percy notices that it is run down and dirty compared to the clean and tidy Steamworks. The diesel engines befriend Percy and trick him into assisting with a plan to take over the Steamworks. After the takeover, Percy realises what he has done and who his real friends are and along with the rest steam engines behind him they take back control of the Steamworks again. At the last minute the Fat Controller returns acknowledging the need for a new Dieselworks, Thomas and Percy resolve their issues and are best friends again.

I bought this as a special treat for my Thomas and Friends crazy 3yr old. As expected it was a total hit with him and he asks for it several times a day (I am restricting him to one viewing a day!).This story is based around Percy and what happens when he makes friends the Diesel engine, a couple of new diesel engines appear in this film as do two new fire engines.I must say this did slightly scare my little boy at the first viewing as there are a couple of scenes of buildings on fire. When I say scared this was just him coming and sitting on my lap, he hasn't done that since the first time he watched it so it hasn't bothered him since.All in all great film for little Thomas and Friends fans

My son loves to watch it all the time but I'm not too sure.

Got this for my son, he loves it

My son loves Thomas so its no surprise that he wanted this DVD. After seeing a teaser of Diesel 10 at the end of Misty Island he couldnt wait for this to come out. He loves the Diesels and they only ever get small parts so this was the DVD for him. The production and computer animation is high quality. Storywise its weaker than other adventures and the fire trucks are clearly american orientated which makes them a bit uninspiring for kids in the UK given Thomas has always been a UK treasure. Apart from that he makes me watch it with him at least once a day and we've had it months. Please k*ll me now :-)

Freed from the constraints of the five-minute TV format, the makers of Thomas and Friends take the opportunity of an hour long special to explore the murky politics of industrial relations on the Isle of Sodor. The plot centres around the neglected underclass of the diesels. Unloved by the profoundly ‘trainist’ fat controller, the diesels languish in a dirty and semi-derelict dieselworks while the privileged ‘steamies’ enjoy a smart and state of the art steamworks.Since the fat controller “doesn’t listen to diesels”, the disenfranchised diesels have no recourse but direct action. They organise themselves and stage an illegal occupation of the steamworks. Finding themselves forced out, the steamies come to see the diesels’ point of view and join the petition to get the fat controller to build a new dieselworks. Which he does. Hurrah. Now everyone can get back to Being Really Useful.That’s not the story the makers of the programme think they’re telling, but it genuinely is the plot. And just in case you missed it, it’s recapped in song at the end.Yes, there’s also a sub-plot about Percy being insecure, something about a missing hose, and lots of ‘wheeshing and whooshing’. The trains don’t just ‘go’ somewhere. They wheesh and they whoosh, they clatter and clank, they roll and they rumble, all the way from the bargain bin to the charity shop DVD shelf.