Thomas & Friends: The Early Years (The Complete First Season)

Before I begin, let me just say that Cloudy Harpe's review is wrong. This DVD is NOT a compilation of the first five Thomas tapes released in America, but is actually a compilation of all twenty-six episodes from Series 1. "Whistles and Sneezes," "Gordon Takes a Dip," "Down the Mine" and "Thomas's Christmas Party are on this DVD; "Double Trouble," "A Cow on the Line," "Old Iron" and "Thomas Comes to Breakfast" are not.

But anyway...if you don't already own this, go out and buy it now. It is, quite simply, the best Thomas DVD available. This episodes are from the good old days when Thomas was about trains and railways instead of friendships and morals.

What's even better is that the episodes are all narrated by the one and only Ringo Starr, and are in their original British format. Words and phrases like "trucks," "guard" and "Fat Controller are all intact (though the latter phrase might prove offensive to some over-protective parents).

The special features are not so good, however. They're rather poor-quality, and are narrated by the dreadful Robin Smith, who gives his characters awful voices and always sounds far too cheerful. But don't be put off by this; the rest of the DVD is fantastic, and something that every Thomas fan will love.

Buy it.

First off, Ringo is the best narrator hands down. Alec and George aren't bad, but I can't stand the new episodes because of the new narrator. Getting 26 episodes for this price is well worth it. And its really nice have 13 episodes per disc IN THE CORRECT ORDER. I'm fairly new to the Thomas world but I would guess they re-did the voice on some of the older episodes was to make them a little more pc as the trains used to refer to Topham Hat as the Fat Controller. Who cares.

The only reason I didn't give five stars is I would have liked to have some Thomas songs on the bonus disc. My son is about to turn two and while he likes to watch Thomas and knows the characters, he doesn't follow the stories that well yet. He LOVES the songs on the Best of James and Best of Thomas DVDs. We currently have about 11 different Thomas DVDs but I'll buy more complete seasons if they ever come out with them.

To sum up, I enjoy watching the stories as much (if not more) than my son. It's a very refreshing change from Barney and The Wiggles. If you haven't purchased any Thomas videos I would suggest trying one that has some songs as a bonus feature. And be patient. My son didn't go nuts for Thomas the first time he watched it (too young) but now he just loves it. Also, I am biased because his Thomas Wooden train set is the first set of toys I like to play with as well, so its nice to have that to do with him.

I already own every episode form the Ringo Starr era on the old videos but I plan on purchasing this DVD. The really funny thing is out of the five Ringo Starr videos made the three that were the best were all stopped being made. Tenders & Turntables is my favorite Thomas video but Thomas Breaks The Rules and Better Late then Never were my other too favorites. I'm really happy this is being made because I know there all a lot of you who never got copies of these great movies and now you are able to see the pure goodness Thomas used to be. I gurantee if you buy this set or the old videos you will want Thomas back to the way it was. If you think the new Thomas movies are good be prepared to be blown away.