[.ca] Thomas the Tank:Trust Thomas (ISBN 6302320569)

my son gives it 5 stars and i give it 4 1/2 stars.:
this is one of the thomas videos that we almost agree on--it is a very good video, with lots of different messages (cooperation, sharing, working together, be good to your word, etc.) and it is far less annoying to listen to than some other tapes... george carlin does a fantastic job of bringing the characters to life; henry's forest is a particularly poignant tale. the one complaint i have about this and really all the thomas tapes is that there is no positive female character in the entire series: mavis is young and doesn't listen to anyone; annie and clarabel complain and worry too much; caroline complains and doesn't like to work; lady doesn't talk but is just pretty; and old slow coach is, well, old and retired; etc. in this video, this particular aspect seems especially obvious to me, but probably not to 3 to 6 year olds.

Trust Thomas and Other Stories:
This is a great video! Even though I've only had it for 2 months, it is one of my favorites among Thomas videos. In "Trust Thomas", Bertie's road didn't get mended, and he said you couldn't trust an engine. When Thomas has an accident, he explains to Edward, and Bertie changes his mind. In "Mavis", Mavis, a young diesel who works at the quarry, learns that if you don't take advice, it can cause trouble. In "Toby's Tightrope", Mavis wants to go on Toby's line. When she tells some freight cars to bump her, Toby takes the freight cars. When Toby goes near a "tightrope" bridge, Mavis soon becomes really useful. In "No Joke For James", James boasts about how useful he is. When he plays an impractical joke, he wonders if he will ever be useful again. In "Percy's Promise", Thomas asks Percy to take home the Vicar's Sunday School in Annie and Clarabel, and Percy promises. Then Harold and Edward warn Percy that a storm is coming. Will Percy Be able to take the train home? In "Henry's Forest", A storm destroys Henry's favorite part of the island-the forest. Watch Terence and Trevor make the forest look better so Henry won't be sad anymore. In "The Trouble With Mud", Gordon gets all covered in mud. He doesn't get to pull coaches, he looks bad- that's what Gordon thinks is the trouble with mud. My favorite story is Percy's Promise. This is a great video.

My son would give it five stars!:
Thomas videos are on heavy rotation at our house. Thomas the Tank Engine and his friends got my son hooked on trains at 2; he's now 3 1/2 and he loves them. The British-born videos are very engaging for little kids. (Even my one-year-old finds them fascinating, and she doesn't even understand the words.) Kids really learn a lot about trains along the way --- there's so much realistic detail to the stories. I also give them a good "background noise" rating as a mom; they have pleasant voices and musical scores. You have to get over the fact that their lips don't move when they talk, but the sets that make up the "island of Sodor" (Thomas' world) are truly amazing --- sets and trains have incredible detail on that small scale (but not the human characters, for some reason). My only reservation about Thomas videos is that the characters' pettiness is a bit unsettling, especially in our modern, politically correct world. The characters call each other names, they're jealous of each others' achievements, and a character who's proud of himself is soon 'dressed down' by the others. Of course, there are also plenty of positive traits and each story ends happily, but you're going to see a kind of small-mindedness in the characters that you wouldn't see in a 'Little Bear' or 'Blues Clues' or 'Bear in the Big Blue House'. One plus for anglophiles --- you might be tickled that your little one picks up British expressions (mine calls me 'cheeky' from time to time).

A Good Thomas Tape:
This is one of the first George Carlin narrations and it's pretty good. Mavis is a feisty diesel at first but in the later tapes she is nice. In Trust Thomas James plays sick and Thomas gets in trouble doing his work. In Mavis Toby has problems with the new diesel. In Toby's Tightrope Mavis has to save Toby from falling of a bridge. In No Joke for James James gets in trouble when he lies to Gordon so he can pull coaches. In Percy's Promise Percy agrees to take Thomas's train but has to plunge though water to get them home. In Henry's Forest Henry helps to repair his forest after a storm. In The Trouble With Mud Gordon can't pull his train because he is too dirty. Overall this is a good tape but it is not the best one.