For a good long while once a year there would be a new Thomas film released every year with these being made as a way to start of the new series of the show. Some of them were good and others were bad with the film that i'm going to be talking to you all about today being one of the bad Thomas films as the characters both say and do things that make sense either in the context of the film or for the characters themselves and so then join me as I review the film that sees a classic Thomas villain make his grand return and where Toby oddly sounds like Parker from Thunderbirds with the film in question being called simply just "Thomas & Friends: Day Of The Diesels" enjoy.
The plot of this film is when Percy starts to feel left out by Thomas Diesel and an old foe plot to get him on there side for their own devious ends. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty not that bad. With this film having a plot that does feel like it could work as the plot of a Thomas movie but in saying that this films plot really isn't all that interesting as for alot of the time it does feel like that the film has no plot to speak off as the film does pick up and drop it's plot quite alot of the time which is something that does make it hard to work out what the main plot of the film is even meant to be alot of the time with this something that very easily could have been fixed just by having the film focus alot more on Percy's plot as that is meant to be the main plot of the film as we don't need pointless scenes of him seeing Thomas puffing away with Belle as that adds nothing to the films plot and showing that just the once more then gets the point across with this being a huge issue with the film as while yes this is a kids film through and through that doesn't mean that the plot of the film has to feel like it was scrambled together at the last minuet as on paper this is a film that could have been really interesting it just needed a few rewrites of the script to make it better is all and yet because of the fact that the film is more focused on giving us pointless scenes with the characters it really does mean that the film can't focus on it's plot with the plot of this film not even being really rather entertaining and as well as being not really rather engaging either in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Starring in this film is Ben Small as Thomas and Toby and Keith Wickham as Percy , Edward , Henry , Gordon , James , The Fat Controller , Den , Salty , Paxton and Dowager Hatt. Also starring in this film is Kerry Shale as Diesel , 'Arry , Bert , Norman and Sidney , Matt Wilkinson as Diesel 10 , Kevin, Stanley, Victor, Rocky, Cranky and Farmer McColl , Rupert Degas as Flynn and Dart , Teresa Gallagher as Emily , Belle , Mavis and Lady Hatt and Michael Angelis as The Narrator.
Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty not that bad. With the films acting being as good as it was ever going to be mainly being due to the fact that alot of this films actors have been voicing these characters for a very long time and in the case of Michael Angelis having been the official UK narrator for the franchise since it's third series and while he does sound like he's either just flat out done with the franchise or is just tired alot of the time he is still really good in this film with the rest of the films actors being really good as they all have voices that do somewhat match the characters with the only one whose voice doesn't really match the character that there playing being Matt Wilkinson as Diesel 10 who isn't bad persay in this film it's just that his voice oddly enough isn't scary enough for this character as this character should have a more scary and more gravelly sounding voice to him and yet here he has the exact opposite of that with the film best actor being Keith Wickham as he does get alot of time to show us just what he can do with his Percy voice which to the films credit they do take full advantage of by making Percy the lead character of the film with the acting that's in this film not really being helped by the fact that this is films script is just so bad as it gives none of this films actors absolutely nothing to work with interms of what it is that there actual personalities are even meant to be in the first place which is something that really does hurt the overall quality of the acting that's in this very film.
Doing the animation for this film is the legends and the greats that are currently over at Nitrogen Studios Canada. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual animation that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual animation that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty OK. With this films animation not really being the best Thomas animation out there as everything does look kind of flat and boring alot of the time which is something that does make as this films director also directed Sausage Party and the two animated Addams Family films and yet much like with those films you can tell that there is alot of thought and effort put into this films animation with there being some impressive lighting and camera moves that wouldn't have been able to be done in the shows model era where the films animation does fall flat tho is in it's backgrounds as none of them standout out from each other with all of them being just as dull and lifeless as the one that came before it which would be fine for an episode of the show as then you have to spread the budget across a whole series worth of episodes whereas as here that's not an excuse and while it would have been foolish to expect Disney levels of animation it's not out of the question to ask for something that does look better then just OK but to be fair tho the film does have some nice designs for the characters all of which feel right at home in the CGI era of the show and yet whilst there is alot of thought gone into this film animation it's the fact that the films backgrounds just aren't that visually interesting to look at that does hold the film back as even some of the bad model era Thomas films at least have good backgrounds where you can tell that there's some distance being covered in them where as here that doesn't seem to be the case.
As was mentioned at the start of this review this film does feature the return of a classic Thomas villain that being Diesel 10. With the character actually getting a pretty cool reveal as he slowly but surely slinks his way out of the shadows of the Diesel Works to meet with Percy near the start of the film which was a good reveal and it is something that would have been really shocking to see if he wasn't revealed during the post credits scene of the previous film and yet his plan in this film does feel out of character for him where as in Thomas And The Magic Railroad he just wanted to destroy Lady for no good reason other then he could which is perfect for him as it makes him out to be the series big bad villain who all engines should fear and yet here the only thing that he wants to do is to take over the Steam Works because of the fact that the Diesel Works are in a state of disrepair and that's it which would have been fine for an episode of the show heck it would have worked for an episode of season 15 of the show but for a movie that's meant to be about his grand return it oddly feels out of character for him to want that as his end goal as Diesel 10 hates all other steam engines so wouldn't it make more sense for him to have a plan that involves getting rid of them all as he is meant to be a villain afterall and yet the makers of this film give him a plan that actually makes him out to be the good guy of the film as the Diesel Works are in bad shape so surely giving him a plan that makes him out to more devious would be more befitting him as a character and heck the only devious thing that he does is convince Percy to join the diesels and even then it could be argued that Thomas , Belle and Flynn unknowingly did alot of the work for him.
Thomas oddly feels out of character in this film as he just straight up says that all diesels are bad and yet he knows at the very least three diesel engines all of which are kind engines. With those being Salty , Mavis and Daisy and while it could be argued that he isn't friends with Daisy which is a fair point to make he is still good friends with both Salty and Mavis and heck both of them even appear in this movie which makes it weird thing for Thomas to say now if he said that most diesel engines are devious engines then that would have been different but he doesn't he says that all of them are and that is something that Thomas just wouldn't say yes he would say that he hates diesel engines but he would also make sure to say that he likes some of them and is friends with some of them as well with that line only feeling like that it was in there because of the fact that this films writer Sharon Miller needed another reason for Percy to go and join up with the diesels even tho the same thing would have worked if it was by quite literally any other engine that isn't friends with either Salty or Mavis heck given that Toby has had a bad experience with Daisy in the past it would have made sense for him to say it and you could even argue that due to the fact that when the show first introduced Mavis she and Toby didn't really get along and so it would have made sense for him to say it or even one of the bigger engines as well but for one reason or another it just had to be Thomas which makes it look like that the makers of this film don't even watch the show that there working on as Thomas in this film just feels like an afterthought at best and like a really badly written version of himself at worst.
Another thing that really doesn't work for this film is the fact that Percy and Thomas falling out is done really badly here. As Percy was right there with Thomas when The Fat Controller gave Thomas his orders to show Belle around in the first place with Percy being given a completely different job to do in the first place with everything that happens after the fact being done in a such a way that makes it look like that both Thomas and Percy are joined at the hip and do everything together when all you have to do is look at past episodes to see that that's not true and heck even in the previous film Mystery Island Rescue the two characters spend the vast majority of the film apart and Percy didn't feel left out then nor did he during alot of the episodes of the show and when he was it was done so much more better then in this film as you could see that Thomas was in wrong alot of the time whereas here it's Percy that's in the wrong as while he is he is the "baby" of the group and therefor doesn't really know alot of things he does know that he and Thomas will always be best friends and that being really useful is still a good thing even if that means taking on jobs that will keep you away from your best friend for the entire day and yet here he oddly gets really protective of Thomas when that is something that just doesn't work if the makers of this film really wanted to have the characters have a falling out and stop being friends then have them fight over the course of the film with that being what leads Percy to join up with the diesels and not the fac that he feels left out as then it would be feasible given the characters state of mind at the time as having him join up with Diesel 10 and his friends at the first chance that he gets just makes the whole thing with Thomas and Percy not being friends feel rushed and underdeveloped.
Now then this film has / had an exact grand total running time of exactly fifty seven minuets and twenty six seconds. Which to be fair is a pretty solid running time for a Thomas film to have with this film even having the right amount of plot there to really cover that amount of running time but in saying this tho the film really doesn't use it's running time all that wisely as the film film doesn't develop it's plot all that well with the film being more focused on forcing a breakup between Thomas and Percy and having Thomas act out of character then it is telling a good well developed plot and yet the film could have had those moments in the film and still developed it's plot just by adding in more scenes that allowed for the plot of the film to be more developed and yet because of the fact that the film does drop and pick up it's plot alot of the time that does mean that the plot of the film can't be that well developed as the film has to start up it's plot several times with the film not even taking the time to fully develop it's characters which is kind of understandable as it could be argued that alot of the films characters get there character development in the show and therefor don't really need it in this film and even then it could be argues that Diesel 10 gets some character development as he does learn not to be so impulsive but even then that doesn't really work as he doesn't act impulsive at all in the film as everything that he does in the film s well thought out with Percy being the only character in the film that had the potential to get some character development as he could have learnt not to be so reliant on Thomas and except that Thomas won't always have the time for him but the film doesn't do that and instead leaves him with no character development at all but I really will admit that this film really does have some really good pacing to it tho.
So now then as this is a comedy that really does mean that I have to actually talk about the actual comedy that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty i in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual comedy that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty not that bad. The film does have some decent jokes in it but in saying this tho alot of the films don't really land all that well like the fact that the first thing that Diesel 10 does when he captures the Steam Works is go spinning on the turn table which the film does take great delight in showing and yet it's also something that really doesn't work in the film and yet rightfully all of the films jokes are very child friendly with there being alot of cute jokes in it like the fact that that when Percy goes to rescue Thomas and Phillip from the Steam Works just Dart just says the exact same thing that his friend was saying only differently which is a cute joke but it's not something that will get alot of laughs out of people if there not actively listening for it infact there really isn't a joke that could be the best joke of the film as the film isn't that bothered in telling us a good joke rather it's more focused on showing us how Percy and Thomas stopped being friends for the film and that's really it with the film not even trying to have have a good joke in there when given the characters that appear in the film they really could have had some decent laughs in the film like we could have had a joke with Salty telling one his stories to the other diesels only for them to try and shut him up only for a character like Percy or Thomas to tell him to carry on just to wind the diesels up something like would have been a decent joke and it's something that would have made this film alot more funnier to watch then what it already is in the first place in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Overall yeah this film is pretty bad film it's not the worst Thomas film out there as there is alot of effort put into this film but it's also not the best one either as everything in this film just feels either lazy and undercooked with alot of the films main ideas being things that were handled better in other Thomas films in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now then i've talked about all of the good and as well as all of the bad things that are in this very film in this very review and as such that really does mean that this very film really does earn itself a grand old score of exactly a 5 out of 10 from me.
Now then as for where I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review well then noys and girls and as well as ladies and gentlemen I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review from Amazon . Co . Uk and Google Images. With my personally preferred website to use to get the images from this very film that I used in this very review being the really great Google Images really simply just due to the fact that really alot of if not really all of the images that are all really from this very film with alot of them being really better quality then what you'd really think of and all of the images are really of course up and really on Google Images are also really all fairly high in quality and as well as them all being really fairly freaking high in definition.