Froggy The Frog

Now that Thomas and Friends Big World! Big Adventures! The Movie has been released for DVD, here is my review of the film. Please be warned, there are spoilers ahead, but this is also from the perspective of an older fan. Enjoy my review! Big World! Big Adventures! is the latest movie in the Thomas and Friends universe. This film has caused quite an uproar in the community, with half against it, and half praising its existence. This uproar has gotten so bad that those in the community can't express their opinion without being attacked. But now that the film is finally on DVD, is this film worth travelling the world for... or is the world just one boring mess? Let's take a look shall we! THE STORY: Did you watch the trailers? Well the film is exactly what the trailers said. Thomas goes around the world to five different continents. The story here is pretty weak, and quite easily predictable, but that's not really new here, as every Thomas film, with the exception of Tale of the Brave maybe, is predictable. Here however, there's less of a story because its goal is to try and teach about each continent. The film instead tells its story by means of mini stories in each continent. These are told well and can be either exciting, dangerous or just filled with humor. As well as that, the film focuses on the character interactions. Does it work? Yes! There's jokes aplenty, and no toilet humor from what I saw. Some jokes are subtle, in the background, or just funny outright! I laughed at quite a number of the jokes and almost cried with laughter at one or two. Although from the ending, I now understand why Thomas is exploring the world in Series 22, providing that is the case! THE CHARACTERS: The main characters are really sweet to see, excluding Ace. The best characters are between Thomas and Nia. There are many times I felt sorry for Nia from how badly Thomas was treating her (Although this was more Ace's fault) and then after a while I was rooting for Thomas, especially as he was really trying to make up how badly he had treated Nia. As for Ace, I feel he had missed potential. He appears for a good segment of the movie and then just vanishes near the last 10-15 mins of the movie, off on his own racing competition with his friends. Most of his scenes are simply trying to manipulate Thomas or terrified of animals/water. Whilst they are funny to see, I do wish he wasn't just appearing in this movie, as I feel Series 22 would have really fleshed his character out. But hey, he was an alright character at most. Other characters like the Sodor engines played minor rules. Gordon had the most lines, but that was near the beginning of the movie. They do all sing a song though near the beginning though! The Flying Scotsman also made a minor appearance, as well as Young Boa and Carlos, (Although his scene in the song "Free and Easy" was cut out due to reasons!) as well as The Old Miner Engine, all played little roles, although The Old Miner Engine did play a slightly bigger role in one part of the movie. THE ANIMATION: For Jam's second film, with this being fully animated by Jam (as Arc had a head start with Journey Beyond Sodor), they did a pretty good job. They did re-use models, but considering none of these sets will be used again (except Series 22, and they had a schedule to get this film out, I understand why they did it.) The character movements I found were about the same level as Journey Beyond Sodor, with some scenes going further. By the way, that scene where Thomas and Ace go loop-the-loop, was not a dream sequence. It was a bit of a dumb scene, but it was only for a few seconds. THE SONGS: I found all the songs very catchy! All upbeat and I didn't find one I hated. One song was a pretty sad one too. CONCLUSION: Big World! Big Adventures! was an enjoyable film, just don't go in expecting a groundbreaking story. If you can look past Ace or the fact the story was split into mini stories, this is a very enjoyable ride. The world certainly was interesting to see! Score: 8.5/10