Thomas the Tank Engine: Excavating & Discovering – Thomas & Friends: Digs & Discoveries (2019)

Directed by: Dianna Basso, Joey So | 64 minutes | animation, adventure, family | Dutch voice cast: Jürgen Theuns, Lucie de Lange, Frans Limburg, Marloes van den Heuvel, Desie van Doeveren, Paul Disbergen, Karin Bos, Wiebe-Pier Cnossen, Hein van Beem, Kevin Hassing, Dennis Willekens, Florus van Rooijen, Huub Dikstaal, Meghna Kumar, Eva Damen, Amir Vahidi, Maarten Wansink

Thomas the Tank Engine has been a popular character with toddlers and preschoolers for generations. Initially as stop-motion films on television – legendary in the Netherlands by Erik de Zwart, who provided the stories with a voice-over, later made with the much more budget-friendly and less laborious CGI. It is actually special that it took so long before a cinema film of the friendly blue train came out. The real-live-action version ‘Thomas and the Magic Railroad’ (with Alec Baldwin and Peter Fonda!) did not reach the cinemas in the Netherlands. Luckily for the fans there is now ‘Thomas the Steam Locomotive: Excavate & Discover’.

With a running time of 64 minutes (with the main film clocking in at just 45 minutes), this animated film is ideal as a first cinema visit for the very young. The story is appealing, the emotions of the trains are recognizable (the trains and machines are happy, sad, angry, afraid or surprised), as are the situations in which they find themselves. Okay, hardly any toddler or preschooler will be able to identify with Thomas’s Italian adventure – but for that age group there are many events ‘new’ and ‘exciting’, as for Thomas.

The story is somewhat similar to the episodes on the DVD ‘Thomas the Steam Locomotive: Great Adventures in the Big World’ (in which Thomas secretly goes on a world tour). Thomas is visiting Italy. The big green locomotive Gina shows him all the sights. Thomas is afraid to admit that he is amazed by everything he sees and acts as if he knows a lot about architecture. When Gina shows him that archeology is being done in certain places in the vicinity of Rome, he calls himself an expert in that too. But as you can sense on your clogs, that is the reason for a big life lesson that Thomas gets.

Thomas learns that it’s okay if you don’t understand everything. That there are always things that others can do better, but that there is enough left in which he can excel himself. These are important things to pass on to young children. What’s also nice about ‘Thomas the Steam Locomotive: Excavate & Discover’ is the fact that it is not set on the fictional island of Sodor, but in an actual country. This gives an extra educational touch to the film.

Of course there is enough to argue with the quality of the animation, it is fairly simple and hardly exceeds the level of the television episodes. But the style is faithful to the original series, so that the nostalgic character remains a bit. ‘Thomas the Steam Locomotive: Excavating & Discovering’ is followed by three smaller films, in which we get to know Thomas’ new friends Lorenzo and Beppe a little better. Ideal for the short attention span of the target group. For the young Thomas fans, this film is a bull’s eye.