After the success of King of The Railway in 2013 and like every other year, another new Thomas special is released under the pen of Andrew Brenner entitled 'Tale of The Brave'. The movie focuses on Percy who believes there's a monster, after Thomas saw some footprints at the china clay pits, and so was scared and was teased, until he met Gator who was brave, but he can still be scared of somethings. I won't go through anymore though. I think the special is far more better then the previous Thomas specials. The story has many great morals about bravery such as 'running away from your problems is not very brave', the highlight moral, 'being brave is not the same as not being scared, it's about what you do even when you do feel scared.' and one moral 'you have to be brave to say goodbye to someone.' which is at the end.
Percy's story can be understandable to a child in the target range as the morals can reflect to children that go through with these in real life as well as other people too. The climax was much needed in the special to showcase Percy's bravery. Some parents might say that this is 'scary' but they need to know life can be full of fears and that you can be braver then you think. The new characters are great too, we have Marion a bubbly steam shovel, who BTW is a female character doing a male oriented job, take that critics! Timothy, Reg, who is more of a plot device in the special and Gator, the voice of reason/big brother for Percy. They were in good characterisation and there voice acting was splendid.
The CGI is great as usual from Arc Productions and I look forward to more specials soon.
Percy's story can be understandable to a child in the target range as the morals can reflect to children that go through with these in real life as well as other people too. The climax was much needed in the special to showcase Percy's bravery. Some parents might say that this is 'scary' but they need to know life can be full of fears and that you can be braver then you think. The new characters are great too, we have Marion a bubbly steam shovel, who BTW is a female character doing a male oriented job, take that critics! Timothy, Reg, who is more of a plot device in the special and Gator, the voice of reason/big brother for Percy. They were in good characterisation and there voice acting was splendid.
The CGI is great as usual from Arc Productions and I look forward to more specials soon.
