| This article is about the US/UK DVD release. You may be looking for the song or the German DVD. |
It's Great to Be an Engine! is a UK/US VHS/DVD featuring seven eighth series episodes and one song. It was also released under the title It's Great to be a Train for Danish releases, It's Cool to be a Train for the Norwegian and Swedish releases, It's Great to be a Locomotive! for Romanian and Finnish releases, Thomas and Friends - Volume 2 for Spanish releases and Thomas' Best Contraption for Czech releases. The South African DVD features one seventh series episode with redubbed music and two eighth series episodes.
Description
2004 UK:
Thomas & Friends are back with over 55 minutes of non-stop new stories and fun on the beautiful Island of Sodor. Brand new to video/DVD, It's Great to be an Engine includes 7 exciting stories plus interactive sections such as 'Dot To Dot,' 'Henry Huffs Out Of The Station' and a new song to sing along to! Episodes on this video/DVD are:
2008 UK:
Thomas & Friends are back with over 55 minutes of non-stop stories and fun on the beautiful island of Sodor. 'It's Great To Be An Engine' includes 7 exciting stories plus interactive sections such as 'Dot To Dot,' 'Henry Huffs Out Of The Station' and a song to sing along to! Episodes on this DVD are:
2004 US
Magic carpets, rip-roaring races, snow, sleet, wind and trainloads of ice cream! Every season on the Island of Sodor brings new opportunities for adventure and discovery. And that means there is never a dull moment for Thomas and all the engines on Sir Topham Hatt's Railway. Will Emily get the timber to Farmer McColl in time to save the baby calves? Will Toby muster enough confidence to push Gordon up a hill? Maybe with a little encouragement from his friends. And will James learn that it's better to be useful than to be important? Watch and find out. Share in these timeless stories featuring seven of the island's classic characters, and you'll see why it's true that It's Great to be an Engine!
DK/FIN/NOR/SWE
Thomas and his friends are back with new adventures from Sodor. Now we'll see when Gordon shall teach Percy, who usually shunts trucks, to pull coaches. But Gordon soon gets conceited about his own knowledge...
Episodes
UK/US
- Too Hot for Thomas - It's a hot Summer on Sodor and the ice-cream lady runs out of ice-cream. Thomas must collect all the ingredients for her to make lots more. He arrives at the seaside and is delighted to hear the children cheer!
- Emily's Adventure * - A storm sweeps across Sodor, blowing off the roof of Farmer McColl's barn. Emily goes to fetch new timber, but finds Elizabeth clearing a fallen water tower from the track and impatiently tells her to hurry up. Thomas suggests Emily tries asking nicely for a change, so reluctantly, but politely, she asks Elizabeth for help and is on her way.
- You Can Do it, Toby! - Gordon huffs at Toby - telling him he is not a proper engine - so he feels sad. However, when Gordon and his express get stuck, Toby is sent to help. He pushes and pushes and helps Gordon up the hill.
- Gordon Takes Charge ** - It's Winter and all the roads are blocked with snow. The Fat Controller asks Percy to help pull passengers and tells Gordon to show Percy what to do. Gordon is too busy showing off to Percy that he doesn't noticed the icy track and slips right through a station, headlong into a huge pile of snow! Gordon was embarrassed and the Fat Controller is cross!
- Edward the Great - Spencer is taking the Duke and Duchess to their Summer house whilst Edward helps move their furniture. Edward puffs off, but is quickly passed by Spencer who teases him. When the Duke decides to stop to take photographs, Spencer falls asleep and Edwards puffs on past. Spencer wakes to see Edward about to cross the finish line first.
- James Goes Too Far * - James is given the important job of delivering coal to all the stations on Sodor. He is very excited, but decides he's to busy to wait at the water tower or to help Edward take his trucks to the quarry. James puffs harder and harder until his water tanks goes dry. Salty comes to the rescue and reminds James that no job is more important than helping another engine!
- Percy and the Magic Carpet - It's a windy day and Percy is proud to be chosen to collect something important from the docks, but is disappointed it's merely a roll of carpet. Salty suggests the carpet might be "magic" and teaches Percy some magic words, but - oh no! - the carpets bands snap, it gets caught in a gust of wind and finally lands on the tracks - with Thomas heading straight towards it!
(*Followed by a Learning Segment) (**Followed by a song)
South Africa
- Fish
- The Old Iron Bridge (redubbed music)
- Emily's Adventure
DK
- A Warm Day
- Emily's Adventure
- You Can Do it, Toby!
- Gordon Takes Charge
- Edward the Great
- James Does an Important Job
- Percy and the Magic Carpet
FIN
- Thomas, A Hot Summer's Day
- Emily's Adventure
- You'll Be Great, Toby
- Gordon Teaches
- Edward Much
- James Goes Too Far
- Percy and the Magic Carpet
NOR
- Too Hot for Thomas
- Emily's Adventure
- You Can Do it, Toby
- Gordon Shows Off
- Edward the Great
- James Goes Too Far
- Percy and the Magic Carpet
SWE
- Emily's Adventure
- Edward the Great
- James Goes Too Far
- You Can Do It Toby!
- Percy and the Magic Carpet
- Gordon Gives Lessons
- Thomas in Hot Air
SPN
- Emily's Adventure
- Thomas Saves the Day
- Edward the Great
- Percy and the Magic Carpet
- Don't Tell Thomas
- Gordon the Teacher
- Too Hot for Thomas
ROM
- Too Hot for Thomas
- Emily's Adventure
- Do Not Leave Toby!
- Gordon Takes Command
- Edward the Great
- James Goes Too Far
- Percy and the Magic Carpet
CZ
- Too Hot for Thomas
- Gordon Takes Charge
- James Goes Too Far
- You Can Do it, Toby!
- Edward the Great
- Percy and the Magic Carpet
Song
UK/US
Learning Segments
UK/US
South Africa
- Dot to Dot - Edward
- What Thomas needs to do in the Winter
- Helping One Another
Bonus Features
UK
- If You Were an Engine Game
- Day Out with Thomas Preview
US
- Read to Race
- If Your Were An Engine...
- Cargo Challenge
- Character Gallery
- Read Along 'The Special Delivery'
- Sneak Peaks
- Web Fun (2004-2007 release)
DK
- Fireman Sam bonus episode
Trivia
- This is the first DVD under the same title for US and UK regions to have the same episodes and no extra episodes for one region, as well as the first US release captioned by Caption Technologies Inc.
- A photoshopped image from Toby's Windmill is on the 2008 rear sleeve of the UK DVD, with Toby's face changed from sad to happy.
- This was the first Thomas UK VHS released in widescreen.
- This is one of the few new series releases that does not have the Engine Roll Call in it.
- The US DVD uses the CiTV theme music for the DVD Menu and the Cargo Challenge Game.
- In the 2004 UK DVD Extras selection opening with the scene of Emily's whistle from Emily's Adventure, the audio is really low pitched making the whistle sound different.
- On the Universal reprint, Web Fun is removed for unknown reasons.
- In the booklet of the US DVD, it's shown that on Thomas' Cargo Challenge that kids can choose either 2, 5 or 10 trucks for Thomas to pull. However, on the actual game, they can only choose 2, 4 or 6 trucks.
Goofs
- In the DVD menu, Annie and Clarabel's names are missing and Thomas is behind the fence at the platform when it should be behind him.
- In one of the intermissions, Edward has Thomas' whistle sound.
- The US trailers has a closeup of Gordon's whistle with the sound of Thomas'.
- The front cover of the 2004 UK DVD said "7 Unseen Stories," but Too Hot for Thomas and Percy and the Magic Carpet are the only unseen episodes as the others already aired on TV.
- Michael Angelis is credited in the opening of the Norwegian DVD.
- In the booklet of the US DVD, Edward the Great is not listed in the Pick a Story section, unlike the other episodes.