Thomas & Friends: Calling All Engines
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Thomas and Friends: Calling All Engines! is a British film based off the Thomas and Friends TV show, being the second film (after Thomas and the Magic Railroad) overall as well as the first direct-to-video film based on the franchise, it was released on VHS and DVD on September 6th, 2005. It serves as the sequel to Thomas and the Magic Railroad and is the second film of the Thomas & Friends series.
Plot
The summertime is coming and the engines are looking forward to taking holidaymakers around the Island of Sodor. One day, the Fat Controller announces that an airport is to be built on Sodor, which will bring more holidaymakers than ever. Thomas and Percy go to the site of the new airport, only to discover that 'Arry and Bert - who start bullying them - are on the same job.
That afternoon, Thomas goes to the timber yard and finds 'Arry and Bert, who boast that they have a very important job. Thomas decides to play a trick on them by biffing Bert's flatbed just before the crane drops the timber. Later, whilst Thomas and Percy are shunting trucks in the yard, Diesel arrives and scolds Thomas about the trouble he had caused for 'Arry and Bert and boasts that he too has an important job. This gives Thomas another mischievous idea; he gives Diesel trucks of bananas instead of bricks or timber.
Later, Thomas and Percy go to the Smelters to collect some steel girders. Upon arrival, they find Diesel 10 loading trucks of scrap metal. The two tank engines are very scared and decide to come back once Diesel 10 has gone. On their way home, Thomas and Percy are concerned to see the Sodor Suspension Bridge is not painted and the new airport is only half-built. Worse still, Tidmouth Sheds has been demolished; Diesel, 'Arry and Bert's important job was to rebuild it but due to Thomas' tricks, the renovation is deferred. As a result, the engines are forced to temporarily sleep elsewhere; James has to stay at the Coaling Plant, Edward has to stay at the Quarry with Diesel (who is annoyed to share the shed with a steam engine), Henry and Percy have to stay at the Smelter's Yards, Gordon has to sleep under a tent and Thomas has to stay at Knapford Sheds with Emily, who is not happy about sharing her shed as she is used to sleeping alone.
That night, a fierce storm sweeps across Sodor and causes havoc, including blowing Gordon's tent away and the collapse of the suspension bridge. The next morning, Thomas awakens and sees all the damage done by the storm around the island. The Fat Controller tells the engines that the storm damage must be cleared up before the work on the new sheds and the airport can continue. Edward and Henry deliver bricks and wood to the airport, Harvey clears the line from branches and Thomas brings workmen to the suspension bridge. However, all the steam engines and diesel engines are cross with each other and refuse to talk to each other. Meanwhile, Thomas sees Diesel 10 again, who is helping to clear the track of debris and runs away in fright. That night, Thomas tries to tell Emily about his day but Emily refuses to talk about it and tells Thomas to go to sleep. However, when Thomas falls asleep, he starts whistling in his sleep, which really bothers Emily.
The next morning, Thomas is sent to collect some iron beams for the suspension bridge from Brendam. The Fat Controller warns him that it is heavy and he might need help. Diesel taunts him saying that diesels do not need help but Thomas is confident he can do it by himself. Once he arrives at Brendam Docks, Thomas has a hard time moving the beams but slowly but surely, he has the heavy load moving. Upon arrival at the suspension bridge, he feels tired but now the beams need to be placed. Diesel wants to try but the foreman entrusts Thomas to do it, as he has already proven his strength. Thomas has a hard time keeping it steady but manages to lower a beam into place. He gloats that steam engines are better than diesels, much to Diesel's fury. Thomas then heads to the yard to collect some paint for the bridge. Diesel, who is also in the yard, biffs the flatbed so hard that the red, yellow and green paint splashes all over Thomas, which proves to be the last straw for the blue tank engine. Thomas retaliates by biffing 'Arry into a pile of gravel, who, in turn, bumps James under the coal hopper. The matter escalates until all the engines are fighting; Gordon bangs Bert into a work shed, Diesel shoves Toby onto the Tipper's loading ramp, Emily bumps the former into a shed, Bert biffs Henry under a leaking oil pipe and the latter pushes Diesel off the track. By the end of the day, everyone is dirty and no work has been done.
The Fat Controller is furious at the delays and tells the engines that if they cannot get along with each other, then no holidaymakers will come to Sodor this year. This leaves the engines deeply worried over their recent actions and several of them end up dreaming about what might happen to them if no holidaymakers come to Sodor and the engines are no longer useful; James has a dream about being turned into a coconut shy at a funfair, Gordon becoming a playground, Edward becoming a scarecrow and Percy being turned into a roller coaster. As for Thomas, he has a dream of how to make things better. In his dream, he sees Lady and Rusty working together. As Lady tells Thomas about teamwork, Thomas goes off to find Mavis as soon as he wakes up the next morning; he knows Mavis is kinder than the other diesels and will be happy to help.
Thomas finds Mavis at the washdown and tells her about his plan that the diesels and steam engines must work together to save the new airport and their railway. Mavis explains that they must talk to each other first, so Thomas suggests having a meeting at the coaling plant the next day. When Thomas and Mavis tell the engines about the meeting, the former sees Diesel 10 and wants to tell him about it but gets too scared and puffs quickly away thinking that Diesel 10 will never work with the steam engines anyway. That night Thomas is so tired he decides to sleep in the woods. Meanwhile, Emily is happy she has her shed to herself again but finds that she actually misses Thomas.
The next day, Gordon, Henry, Toby, Percy, James, Diesel, Daisy, Mavis, 'Arry and Bert arrive at the coaling plant to start the meeting, much to the surprise of the confused workmen and coaling plant manager. Thomas races to the coaling plant and gets there, just to see 'Arry and Bert almost calling the meeting off as the engines start to argue about who is to blame for starting the trouble. Upon Thomas' arrival, he convinces them that they must work together to open the new airport, repair the suspension bridge and rebuild Tidmouth Sheds. At last, the engines put their differences aside. When Harold brings the Fat Controller, Thomas explains that the steam engines and diesels have finally agreed to work together and the Fat Controller is pleased to hear this. Percy and Mavis deliver the paint to the suspension bridge, Toby and Daisy bring workmen to the airport and 'Arry and Bert help Gordon up his hill so he can bring the carpenters to work on rebuilding Tidmouth Sheds.
Very soon, the new airport is complete and the first aeroplane is sent to Sodor. Unfortunately, Thomas is shunting a long line of trucks and they derail due to a buckled rail and hit a water tower, which collapses to the ground and cracks the runway with the derailed trucks scattered all over the tracks. The workmen quickly repave the runway and find that they need George to finish the job. And with Harvey on the other side of Sodor and George being too slow, neither one of them are unable to make it on time. However, Thomas quickly has an idea and rushes off to find Diesel 10 and ask him to help them, who is hesitant at first but Thomas tells him about how he will be the most useful engine if he were to help and so he agrees and follows Thomas to the airport. Mavis, Percy, Emily, Diesel, 'Arry and Bert are surprised to see Thomas had brought Diesel 10 and are working together. Seeing Diesel 10 working alongside a steam engine convinces Diesel, 'Arry and Bert, to finally respect the steam engines themselves. With the aid of the other engines, they clear up the mess and Thomas collects George to repair the runway.
With the runway smooth again, the first aeroplane safely lands. The engines have learnt that teamwork runs a railway, not opposition about their differences. That evening, the engines are happy to see Tidmouth Sheds rebuilt, especially Emily when she finds that an extra berth has been added to the sheds for her to stay there from now on, having grown to love sharing her shed since Thomas' brief, temporary stay.
"Disgraceful, Disgusting, and Despicable" Qualities
- The plot, while interesting, can get extremely mean-spirited, since it focuses yet again on the steam engines vs. diesels debate, except this time taken to a much worse degree.
- The learning segments in the film can feel forced at times.
- In fact, the learning segments were removed from the next film due to criticism regarding their inclusion here
- While now fully focused on Thomas instead of having him reduced to a side character, the film just feels like an extended episode of the show, since there's not a lot of cinematic elements in the film, which would be an issue that further films like The Great Discovery or Sodor's Legend of the Lost Treasure would fix.
- Very poor conveniences, such as the scene were Thomas attempts to trick Diesel into carrying bananas instead if building materials as a prank and to get back at him..... only to be revealed that Diesel needed the building materials to fix up the Tidmouth Sheds that had been demolished.
- Diesel 10's role is incredibly different from his one in Thomas and the Magic Railroad, as instead of being a completely threatening yet hilarious villain, he gets reduced to a simple grumpy locomotive with a mild dislike towards steam engines (albeit not as extreme as in TATMR), it could be argued that he did redeem himself between the events of Magic Railroad and this film, which would be a good point if it wasn't for the fact that in his next major appearances like Day of the Diesels, he goes back to being a villainous mastermind.
- The extremely infamous scene where the steam engines and the diesels "fight" against each other via pushing each other, albeit comedy gold, is mean-spirited and very out-of-place in a PBS Kids film.
- Plot-holes:
- How is Tidmouth Sheds demolished?
- Daisy is shown disliking steam engines in one scene despite having worked for Thomas' branch line and somewhat changing her ways after her first appearance.
Really Useful Qualities
- The final scene where it is revealed that Tidmouth Sheds was rebuilt to have a space for Emily is pretty great, same with the alternate version of the Engine Roll Call.
- As mentioned earlier, the fight scene is pretty funny despite it's mean-spirited nature.
- Great visuals, typical of model Thomas related media.
- Lady's and Diesel 10's appearances in this film are nothing short of awesome, in fact, Diesel 10 cooperating with the steam engines feels extremely satisfying (albeit it was ruined by his next appearances).
- This special provides a message saying to if you want to fix your mistakes fast, you have to put aside your differences and work together.