Thomas & Friends: Misty Island Rescue Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.5

Thomas & Friends: Misty Island Rescue Blu-ray Movie Review

Are Thomas and Friends really useful on Blu-ray?

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman October 1, 2010

Wilbert Vere Awdry was just a simple Anglican priest and concerned father trying to nurse his son Christopher through a bad bout of the measles when he came up with the idea of keeping the child entertained with a series of stories about anthropomorphized trains. When young Christopher asked his father to actually build some of the story characters, the good Reverend did his best, but couldn’t quite capture the essence of Gordon. Rev. Awdry (and Christopher) had to settle for the easier to assemble tank engine, and thus iconic Thomas was born. Awdry ended up publishing 26 Railway Series books before he stopped writing in the 1970s, at which point Christopher took over the authorship duties and added several more. It’s somewhat ironic, as any parent in sticker shock can tell you, that Thomas became a worldwide multimedia phenomenon, with a long running television show and a series of die-cast models that are spendy enough to make parents with completist children need to consider taking out a second mortgage to give their kids the entire Thomas universe in miniature. Though Thomas and his friends are charmingly retro, they’ve chuffed and huffed their way onto hi-def with this new hour or so long “feature,” which plays like a very special episode of the Thomas and Friends television show, making its quiet moral points and introducing a quartet of new characters.

Younger children have long flocked to Thomas and Friends for the show’s extremely gentle and low key approach toward entertainment. As a parent who has run the gauntlet of everything from Dragon Tales to Bananas In Pajamas (perhaps the single greatest example of why the British lost their empire), I can state that Thomas, while understated and frankly only occasionally very exciting (even to youngsters), maintains a fascination for children that is perhaps unmatched, at least for this particular demographic. Thomas and his engine buddies are a sweet group (even sometimes cranky Diesel, the one non-“steamy” in the aggregation), obviously perfectly modeled themselves on young children and their halting steps toward socialization. Plots in Thomas and Friends tend to help reinforce the need to see others’ points of view, and if they occasionally slip over into what the American right would label European style socialism (the trains espouse a utilitarian philosophy, prizing being "really useful" above all else), they make their points without beating the poor kids’ heads with a moralistic ruler.

Misty Island Rescue finds Thomas first rescuing Diesel, who takes it upon himself to move some valuable “Jobi wood”, which is needed for the new Sodor Search and Rescue Center, in order to prove that he’s the most “really useful” engine on the island. Of course Diesel’s selfish act leads to disaster, and near demise for Diesel himself, until Thomas comes to the rescue. Thomas is rewarded for his “good decision” by Mr. Topham Hatt with a trip to the mainland. Unfortunately, Thomas insists that he be placed on a raft trailing a tug boat, King Kong like, to make it to the mainland, and when the chain joining the boat and raft breaks, Thomas soon finds he’s the one in need of rescue when he washes ashore on mysterious Misty Island.

Thomas initially thinks he’s stranded, but soon becomes aware he’s not alone on the island. Enter three new characters, Bash, Dash and Ferdinand, a sort of assembly of train Stooges who initially don’t get along very well with Thomas, but who, in the best tradition of kids’ programming, ultimately prove to be good friends, especially when the quartet (including Thomas) gets into some serious trouble. The fourth new character in this enterprise is a rescue boat, named Captain.

This is harmless fare which younger children should find engaging. Misty Island makes some subtly salient points about pride (Thomas gets to thinking all of his decisions are good after he saves Diesel) and admitting you were wrong (Thomas’ first impression of Dash, Bash and Ferdinand proves not to be accurate). While adults may roll their eyes at the simple storyline, not to mention several logical inconsistencies (how does Thomas manage to turn around on those train tracks?), this is such a sweet, unassuming piece that it’s hard to come down too hard on it.

While a happy ending is a foregone conclusion, there’s actually a bit of padding here as, after Thomas and the Misty Island trio are rescued, Sir Topham Hatt ends up lost on the island, necessitating yet another trip over there to get him back with the crew. Just when things seem to be drawing to a joyous conclusion, and after a country-western theme song, suddenly a nefarious new train appears, sounding for all the world like The Simpsons’ nemesis Sideshow Bob, threatening mayhem to our Sodor Island heroes. Could a sequel be far behind?

Thomas & Friends: Misty Island Rescue Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Anyone who comes to this Misty Island Rescue Blu-ray expecting the pristine vistas of a Pixar CGI release is bound to be woefully disappointed. This Thomas outing takes a deliberately more painterly, whimsical approach to its animation, which is delivered here via an AVC codec in 1080i and 1.78:1. The image here is never really sharp in the traditional sense of the word, but it's intentionally fuzzy, especially with regard to the rather impressionistic backgrounds. Don't look for an overabundance of detail in the trains, either, as they're basically textureless engines with rubbery looking faces. All of that said, this is certainly a step up from the television broadcast look, and provides a wealth of nicely saturated color and more varied environments than are in a typical t.v. episode. The mist effects look very good, never devolving into digital noise, and contrast is also very good, giving the spooky dark scenes some nice pop.

Thomas & Friends: Misty Island Rescue Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

In the "you may not believe this, but. . ." category, Misty Island Rescue has a wonderfully immersive DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix that will keep your kids' heads spinning with aural delights from virtually the first moment. As Harold the helicopter flies in, we hear his rotors clearly panning from the rear to front channels, and a variety of effective ambient effects really boosts this outing's sonic appeal. Water effects are lush and nicely separated, and even voices are well placed around the soundfield. Fidelity is excellent, and the minimalistic though charming underscore is well mixed into the proceedings. As with the Thomas enterprise in general, there's nothing overly bombastic here; this is, after all, geared to very young children. But quite a bit of care has been taken with this mix, and it shows.

Thomas & Friends: Misty Island Rescue Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Three fairly lame extras are included which might delight the very young and undisrciminating. The Search for Thomas game offers a variety of locations on Sodor, each of which has a question-clue about Thomas' whereabouts which requires a correct answer to move forward (don't worry, it's pretty basic stuff that even a 4 year old should be able to handle). Two karaoke tracks are also included, the country-western Misty Island Rescue (1080i; 2:08) and the swing based Sir Topham Hatt (1080i; 2:09).

Thomas & Friends: Misty Island Rescue Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

There's so much bombastic kids' fare out there, sometimes it's nice to be able to offer them something this unassuming and relatively lowkey and quiet. Misty Island Rescue will most likely entrance kids up to at least 6 or 7 or so with its engaging mix of visuals and gentle moralizing. For those in that age bracket, this release is recommended.