"Director: Britt Allcroft"

• Thomas And The Magic Railroad | DVD | (16/07/2007) from £3.63   |  Saving you £11.12 (594.65%)   |  RRP £12.99

  For as long as anyone can remember the island of Sodor land of talking trains has been a realm of magic and innocence. But now Thomas the Tank Engine and his friends on the magic railroad are being threatened by diesel engines like the surly Diesel 10 and his sidekicks Dodge and Splatter. Even the magical Mr. Conductor (Alec Baldwin) who has always traveled between the train world and the human world of Shining Time Station is losing his powers and sparkle. In the middle of this crisis Lily (Mara Wilson) a resourceful 12-year-old meets up with Mr. Conductor on the way to visit her lonely grandfather Burnett Stone (Peter Fonda). With a host of whimsical witty and wise characters they embark on an adventure in the Island of Sodor with Thomas the Tank Engine to preserve that wonderful world that exists just beyond the limits of the imagination. Brave Thomas reminds them all that ""even little engines can do big things.""

• Thomas And The Magic Railroad | DVD | (13/11/2000) from £17.99   |  Saving you £-4.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £13.99

  Thomas, as anyone familiar with the eponymous, wildly popular TV series knows, is a very useful engine, and never more so than in his first theatrical release, which was a modest box-office success. On a tank filled with little more than pluck, determination and goodwill, Thomas sets out full-steam ahead on a danger-fraught mission to help his friend Mr Conductor. The conductor's stash of magic gold dust has run out, leaving him stranded on the Island of Sodor with Junior, his flaky cousin, and Lily, a little girl enlisted to lift her grandfather out of a funk on nearby Muffle Mountain. When Thomas bravely chugs beyond his hometown tracks' buffers with Lily aboard, he's transported to Muffle Mountain's secret railway and to Lady, a long-lost steamer whose legendary engine makes her more powerful than Diesel, the train-yard bully. Together, Thomas and Lady lead Diesel on a chase that causes a bridge to collapse, taking the dastardly Diesel down with it. Most impressive about the movie is its marquee names: Alec Baldwin works magic as the dutiful worrywart Mr Conductor, Mara Wilson is Lily and Peter Fonda plays the cool-looking but lugubrious Grandpa. It's a cast that will keep put-upon parents watching, if half-heartedly. Thomas fans of five years and under, meanwhile, will wish the actors wouldn't blow so much hot air; they will want to see their hero a bigger part in steaming up the storyline. --Tammy La Gorce