Thomas and Friends: the great discovery

What’s it about?

Thomas the tank engine is getting ready to celebrate Sodor Day. Thomas and James have a race to the wharf which Thomas wins. As a reward Thomas is given the special job of going into the hills with Duncan to collect timber. Duncan plays a trick on Thomas and sends him off in the wrong direction. There he comes across Great Waterton, an old deserted town that used to supply all of the steam trains with water.

The Fat Controller thinks it would be a good idea to restore Great Waterton in time for Sodor Day. Thomas is very proud to be given the job but is not happy when he sees a shiny new engine called Stanley arrive to take over his normal job.

What to look out for

There are some scary and tense scenes when Thomas is in danger that might frighten very young kids such as:

• Thomas travels across an old suspension bridge that creaks and sways when he goes over it. When Thomas gets to the middle, the bridge collapses falling into a deep ravine. Thomas just manages to make it back to safety.
• When Thomas tries to outdo Stanley, he takes a bend in the track too fast and rolls off the track; Thomas is uninjured.

• Thomas races out of control down a mining shaft  and crashes through a wall landing on a wooden platform. The platform floats down an underground river. Thomas picks up speed going faster and faster until he crashes through another wall to go flying over a ravine and gets stuck in the mud on the other side.

Moral of the Story

The message of the story is that it’s good to be useful and to do your best but you don’t have to be the best.