2005 marked the 60th anniversary of the Railway Series and so to celebrate, HIT Entertainment bought us Calling All Engines, the first-ever DVD special followed by season 9 in the autumn of 2005. Was the movie another success? If you wanna hear my opinion, read and find out...

1. Plot

The plot for the movie was better than Thomas And The Magic Railroad. It had a steamie vs diesel confrontation and that's how well it was used. There was a bit though and that was the learning segments which were barely needed at all. Overall, I'll give this category a 8/10.

2. Character Development

The character development for this movie was good. It's nice to see the rivalry between steamies and diesels and good cameos from Derek and Daisy. I also like how Lady and Diesel 10 were given minor roles in the movie. I feel that the part where Thomas arranges for Diesel to take a load of bananas was a bit stupid though but without it, I don't think there would've been a story. I'll give an 7/10 for this category.

3. Narration

The narration for this movie was good. Both narrators did a good job, even if Michael Angelis started to sound like he was getting old and Michael Brandon was still off with his voices at some points. On the whole, I give this category an 8/10.

4. Visuals

There were some good visuals for this movie, despite the lack from the use of break vans throughout. Nothing bad to say about it, I give this category a 8/10.

5. Music/Songs

While Robert Hartshorne's tunes were as slow as they were in the eighth season, Ed Welch did a pretty good job with arranging the songs and I like the reeducation of the Engine Roll Call. It's an 9/10 for this category.

6. Length

This movie had good pacing to it, but was just bought down a bit by the learning segments. That's all. I'm giving this category an 8/10.

7. Writing

The script for this movie was better then Thomas And The Magic Railroad. There was not much alliteration to it either, unlike the writing that we had after this movie. Although, it wasn't great and I must admit that Sharon Miller could write better movies than this. I just can't explain what's wrong with the script. This category gets a 6/10.

8. Direction

Steve Asquith works as a much better movie director than Britt Allcroft. The sets, the modeling and mostly everything else about the movie makes it well-directed. Not much more to say, I'm giving this category an 8/10.

Overall Views:

On the whole, this movie is a big improvement over Thomas And The Magic Railroad. There were some nitpicks here and there but I just don't know how to explain them. It's a very enjoyable way to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Railway Series and it's nice how the movie had an industrialized feeling of using characters that haven't been used in a while. Overall, I think this movie gets an accurate rating of 7.8/10.

WHAT'S YOUR RATING?