Spills & Thrills - DVD Review

WARNING: The following review contains spoilers. 

For the first review on "Carty Cinema Reviews", I decided to review this oddity: a new Thomas & Friends DVD. Having seen the show since I was child, I have a more than average knowledge of the show. While a regular fellow like myself would find nothing exciting about another children's DVD release of a show about a talking tank engine, this release was different. Much, much different!

Spills & Thrills 
DVD Cover
Studio: Lionsgate
Release Date: 3/4/2014
Run time: 67 mins.
RRP: $14.98

THE EPISODES

Spills & Thrills features "6 new never-before-seen adventures" from the Seventeenth series of Thomas & Friends. The list is as follows:

Away from the Sea

No More Mr. Nice Engine

The Smelly Kipper

Gone Fishing

Thomas' Shortcut

The Afternoon Tea Express

All episodes showcased on this release feature the new narration of British actor Mark Moraghan. Those who were tired of the previous narrator, Michael Brandon (Captain America), will find comfort in this release. The DVD also boasts about a 16x9 image (1.78:1), something that has been uncommon for prior episodic releases of the show in the United States. Being that the show is animated in 16x9, it was a crying shame that past releases have been cropped to 4x3. This has been the discussion of both parents and fans alike for the past 10 years!

Here's a description of the episodes on the disc from Lionsgate (as I won't get into the individual episodes themselves this time around): 

All aboard for Spills & Thrills with Thomas and his friends! The Island of Sodor is always bustling with activity, yet when the engines try to be “Really Useful” they often find themselves in some messy muddles!  James tries to prove he’s not afraid of the dark, or too vain to haul smelly fish, but when he pulls the night time Kipper Express he gets more than he bargained for! Stephen’s need for speed, and Salty’s need to impress, sends them both into some sticky, slippery situations.  Hiro shows Diesel that nice engines do finish first and Sir Topham Hatt shows you can’t cry over spilled milk…twice! It’s full steam ahead for Spills & Thrills on Sodor!

THE BONUS FEATURES

Spills & Thrills features the following bonus.. erm, features:

"Go, Go Thomas" Music Video

Calling All Engines - "Stephen" and "Rosie"

The Earl's Quiz - "Up, Up, and Away" and "Not Now Charlie"

Mr. Perkin's Story Time - "Trucks"

Who's That Engine? - "Hiro"

All are also presented in 16x9, thankfully. 

THE QUALITY

Spills & Thrills presents a nicely encoded NTSC MPEG-2 interlaced image that fares well among each episode. There's no visible macroblocking, however, being that it's interlaced, there are some artifacts to be dealt with, but nothing that will take away from your viewing pleasure, or the kiddies viewing pleasure (they probably don't care in the first place). If this does distract you, you can purchase HD copies on iTunes and YouTube.

There are three audio options on this release: English, Spanish, and French. Each dub is encoded at 192 kbps and is Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Whether you're a hardcore fan of Thomas & Friends, or a frustrated parent who is trying to keep your kids entertained for an hour, Spills & Thrills will not disappoint! I, for one, had stopped purchasing past releases from Lionsgate back when Railway Friends was released due to the 4x3 cropping. Now, I can safely say that I'll start checking these releases out more regularly.

It should also be added that there's a new crew behind Thomas & Friends. I would personally like to give a round of applause to Andrew Brenner and the writing crew for bringing us some fresh material to celebrate a new era of Thomas.

RATING: 3/5 stars.