Common Sense Media Review
By Tracy Moore
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Thomas and friends adventure offers lessons in cooperation.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 3+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Watch
Parent and Kid Reviews
Based on 2 parent reviews
What's the Story?
It's summertime on the island of Sodor, and an airport must be built and completed in order to bring more vacationers to the island. Will Thomas and his friends learn to cooperate to get the job done, or be tripped up in petty pranks and disagreements over their differences?
Is It Any Good?
This is extremely family-friendly fare and offers some realistically kid-like challenges -- sharing, working together, and working out your differences. Thomas and Friends are classic boy-centric tales of trains and their adventures in the English countryside. Calling All Engines! offers adventure and problem-solving, folded in with solid messages about cooperation, teamwork, and the idea that everyone's part is important to the whole.
Kids who like trains will find the action fascinating, and aside from the obvious gender routing, parents can be assured the overall takeaway here is a good one. However, the shortage of female characters leaves this world a little lacking on the kind of full-scale cooperation more programs are moving toward these days.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Familes can talk about the differences in the steam and diesels in the movie, and how the types learned to work together in spite of those differences.
Sometimes the engines pulled pranks on other engines to make their work harder, or take longer. What happened when they did this? Were there consequences for their actions?
Movie Details
- On DVD or streaming: September 6, 2005
- Cast: Michael Brandon
- Director: Steve Asquith
- Studio: Lyons Group
- Genre: Family and Kids
- Topics: Adventures , Book Characters , Great Boy Role Models , Trains
- Run time: 60 minutes
- MPAA rating: NR
- Last updated: June 1, 2024
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