Thomas the Tank Engine videos feature live-action animation, stories with morals, and characters that are multi-dimensional. One of the things that make this series unique is the realistic characters. They are far from perfect, and never sappy or saccharin.
This title features Alec Baldwin as storyteller and 6 all-new episodes starring Thomas and his friends, followed by a music video segment with "Every Cloud Has a Silver Lining". This segment shows clips from the Thomas the Tank Engine series.
Four of the six episodes have a spooky theme (Stepney gets lost in the fog, Toby fears an old mine and castle are haunted, Duncan gets spooked after hearing a ghost story, and Henry meets up with a strange figure in the fog). The other 2 episodes have the engines fleeing from a runaway boulder, and Sir Topham Hatt's misadventures on his family vacation.
Young children seem to be fascinated with the expressive faces on the engines, and entranced with the stories, even when they are too young to quite understand all of the vocabulary.
Perhaps kids who are a bit squeamish or who get spooked easily may not appreciate some of the story lines in the featured episodes (particularly the ghost stories and the episode in which a train plunges to its "death"). Although the morals of these stories are positive and show kids that imaginations can sometimes get the best of us, some children may be too young to learn from these lessons.
