WARNING: The following review contains spoilers.
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| King of the Railway DVD Cover Studio: Lionsgate Release Date: 9/17/2013 Run time: 62 mins. RRP: $19.98 (DVD only) /$24.99 (DVD/Blu-Ray Combo Pack) |
THE FILM
HiT Entertainment has been following a similar pattern for the last couple of years. There is a new Thomas & Friends feature-length (60 mins.) special release every September in the United States and Canada. These features are generally set after the season that was shown on television and always brings in new characters. This film brings one too many, but we'll get to that later.
Like my last review of a Thomas & Friends release, King of the Railway features the new narration of British actor Mark Moraghan. Michael Brandon is completely out of the game forever, to some fans dismay.
Here's a description of the film from Lionsgate:
Join Thomas & Friends as they embark on a legendary movie adventure! The steam team’s quest begins when a special guest arrives on Sodor with a big surprise and important jobs for Thomas, Percy and James. The engines meet new friends and discover suits of armor; coats of arms and legends of long-ago heroes. Then their bravery is put to the test when their new friend Stephen goes missing. Will Thomas find him in time? Will the engines discover the truth about the Island of Sodor’s biggest mystery? It’s a crusade of knightly proportions for Thomas & Friends in this epic movie!
It's not an epic movie, by any means. The film, while a vast improvement in writing from previous Thomas features, is quite a bore. King of the Railway lacks a true action-packed climax that past specials have all had. Whether it be Thomas going up the incline to talk to Luke, or the diesels invading the Sodor Steamworks, they were all exciting for the viewer.
However, this film does incorporate something past films have never really utilized: multiple sub-plots. In the film, Spencer comes back to Sodor to help transport the Earl of Sodor from Ulfstead Castle and back. When Gordon gets word of this, he makes it his duty to race Spencer from station to station and win! This race, while not important, does end up becoming part of the film's finale. Another added sub-plot is when Stephen is searching for a new job so he can be "really useful". He travels from place to place in desperate search for work to do. While doing so, Stephen gets himself trapped in an old abandoned mine. This bigger sub-plot ties into the climax of the film.
As I had hinted earlier on in the review, King of the Railway suffers from introducing too many new characters. Granted, Stephen the Rocket, Millie, and the Earl are both fine additions to Sodor's residence. But, two American locomotives, Connor and Caitlin, aren't. The pair are introduced approximately half way into the film and serve little-to-no purpose whatsoever. They may only be on the screen for 20 minutes, but they'll cost you more than the Blu-Ray itself to let your child play with the merchandise version of only one of the characters!
Hardcore Thomas fans will also notice that a certain inconsistency with a number 3 Green engine is finally resolved, all by one simple line from Toby the Tram Engine. It's amazing what can happen when you (finally) have a Railway Consultant on hand.
There's also a new animation company behind Thomas now: Arc Productions. While the visuals now appear more cartoon-like, Arc does a fairly decent job at continuing the animation style that Nitrogen Studios had set in place back in 2009. Remember when the show was completely model based?
THE BONUS FEATURES
The King of the Railway feature is accompanied with some additional bonus materials:
"Working Together Again" Music Video
"Searching Everywhere" Music Video
"It's Gonna be a Great Day" Music Video
"Searching Everywhere" Music Video
"It's Gonna be a Great Day" Music Video
Guess Who Puzzle - "Stephen", "Connor", and "Millie"
"The Search for the Lost Crown" Game
All bonus features are in 1080p, for the Blu-Ray only.
THE QUALITY
King of the Railway presents a nicely encoded AVC-1080p image that is sharp and holds up great. There's no visible macroblocking on the Blu-Ray transfer and colors are stellar, at least on my display. It's the sharpest looking outing from Thomas & Friends yet! But, every transfer, no matter how sharp or good it looks, is bound to have an issue or two.
Thomas & Friends is and has always been rendered/filmed in 25 frames per second due to it being shot and produced in the United Kingdom from 1984 to 2008. For all prior United States releases of both the specials and episodes, distribution studios have utilized pulldown to adjust the frame rate to NTSC standards. For the first time in 2012, when Blue Mountain Mystery was released, Lionsgate decided to slow the film down to 24 frames per second (cinema standard). While this method does work, Lionsgate failed to apply pitch adjustment to the audio, which caused lots of phasing in the audio tracks. This same process was utilized for King of the Railway, and the same problems are still evident. One would think that Lionsgate would actually do a proper conversion for the film, but they didn't. Your children may not notice, but I know that I sure do. Of course, this procedure is not entirely necessary. Last time I checked, 25i is an option for video frame rates on Blu-Rays.
The Blu-Ray contains a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 English Track and two other Dolby Digital Stereo 2.0 tracks in Spanish and French. There is also a Dolby Digital Stereo 2.0 English track, but why would you want to listen to that track when you have lossless audio?
Thomas & Friends is and has always been rendered/filmed in 25 frames per second due to it being shot and produced in the United Kingdom from 1984 to 2008. For all prior United States releases of both the specials and episodes, distribution studios have utilized pulldown to adjust the frame rate to NTSC standards. For the first time in 2012, when Blue Mountain Mystery was released, Lionsgate decided to slow the film down to 24 frames per second (cinema standard). While this method does work, Lionsgate failed to apply pitch adjustment to the audio, which caused lots of phasing in the audio tracks. This same process was utilized for King of the Railway, and the same problems are still evident. One would think that Lionsgate would actually do a proper conversion for the film, but they didn't. Your children may not notice, but I know that I sure do. Of course, this procedure is not entirely necessary. Last time I checked, 25i is an option for video frame rates on Blu-Rays.
The Blu-Ray contains a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 English Track and two other Dolby Digital Stereo 2.0 tracks in Spanish and French. There is also a Dolby Digital Stereo 2.0 English track, but why would you want to listen to that track when you have lossless audio?
FINAL THOUGHTS
For long time fans of both the Railway Series and Thomas & Friends, King of the Railway is sure to please with its references to Sodor's history and the new style of writing, animation, and narration! While critics like myself don't find it the most exciting special, it's certainly not the worst we've ever had. That claim would have to go to Misty Island Rescue!
RATING: 3/5 stars.
