Thomas & Friends: The Great Discovery

Thomas and Friends: The Great Discovery is a 2008 adventure-family film based on the Thomas and Friends TV-series, the film stars Pierce Brosnan as the role of the narrator, being the only Thomas and Friends production to feature him as that position (albeit he was going to narrate the series starting from Series 12, though it was canceled for unknown reasons), it was also the first of the yearly-Thomas direct-to-video movies released from 2008 to 2018 (as Thomas and the Magic Railroad was a theatrical film and Calling all Engines! didn't have a sequel released the year after).

It was also the last Thomas media to fully use the model faces, as the 12th series (also from 2008) was the very last series to use the modeled trains and filmed in live action, but the faces were covered in CGI and was the very last Thomas media to use these humanoid figurines, as all of them were fully replaced being animated in CGI by 12th series onwards.

Plot
Thomas the Tank Engine and his friends prepare for Sodor Day, however, Thomas discovers an abandoned town named Great Waterton after managing to escape from a collapsing bridge, meanwhile, while a new engine named Stanley arrives on the Island of Sodor, the island itself starts to re-construct Great Waterton, but after mishaps happen in the process, Thomas must set off in a dangerous mission.

Why It Rocks

 * 1) Has beautiful cinematography, due to being shot in high definition, like Season 11.
 * 2) A lot of good songs, especially the credits song, "Thomas, You're the Leader", which later ended up being featured as a regular song in the CGI series (albeit cut off) and has become a cult classic with many fans and children.
 * 3) Stanley is a pretty good and interesting new character. And while Thomas was jealous of him at first, they later become friends at the end.
 * 4) The story, while basic, is filled with a lot of action-packed moments, especially the Morgan's Mine sequence, which is probably the most famous scene in the special.
 * 5) Pierce Brosnan's narration, while sometimes distracting due to his voice and Irish accent, can be good at times. Some fans even wish he took over for Michael Brandon and the late Michael Angelis after Season 11 as he was originally supposed to.
 * 6) While not the last Thomas production to feature models, it's considered by many fans to be a really good send-off to the model era of Thomas and Friends.
 * 7) The premise of Thomas discovering a new town and trying to get it reconstructed in time for a special day is a pretty good plot for a Thomas special.
 * 8) Good soundtrack by Robert Hartshorne and Ed Welch.
 * 9) It is an improvement over Calling All Engines, as it lacks some of its problems such as this film not including unnecessary Learning Segments as HiT decided to focus more on the story, showing they've learned from their mistake.
 * 10) A lot of characters appear in the film, which made it one of the ultimate Thomas films.
 * 11) It gives out a really great moral about not being jealous of others.
 * 12) It made a fitting send-off to the model series due to the huge number of characters and a great credits song.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) Plot hole: How was Thomas able to find a lost town such as Great Waterton? The signalman or Thomas's driver would have to set the switches for him, neither of which would be willing to do, as it would interfere with Thomas's schedule and the tracks would be in such poor condition that he could derail.
 * 2) The engine drivers and firemen are practically nonexistent, neither are seen in any of the engine cabs, nor is there any mention of them in instances such as when Thomas goes too fast onto a curve and topples over, rolling down the embankment, which would have seriously injured or even killed them; or when Thomas runs through the abandoned mine, in which they could suffocate from the smoke.
 * 3) The special hinted that Stanley would become a part of the Steam Team, to the point that even the Engine Roll Call mentioned him. While he did appear fairly often since the special, he did not become part of the Steam Team, which remained the same 8 engines it had been prior.
 * 4) As typical for this era, the film overuses rhyming and alliteration.
 * 5) Oddly, Brosnan did not narrate any further Thomas productions after this.
 * 6) In the mine, Thomas falls into an underground stream, in which he floats to a waterfall, then flies across the ravine! An engine like him would be too heavy to float in water, much less make it across such a wide ravine.
 * 7) Missed opportunity: Duck, BoCo, Toad, Donald, Douglas, and some other characters that appeared in the live-action model and figurine era never got to appear in this production at all. Possibly due to the fact the movie was expensive enough as it is.
 * 8) While the series improved a little in Season 11, it sadly got worse after this until Seasons 17-21, proving that this movie was a one-time high-quality thing until a year later.
 * 9) *The high-quality writing was present in "Hero of the Rails" and "Blue Mountain Mystery", unlike most of Seasons 12-16, but the chance to see the show step up from its decline in Seasons 9-11 was completely missed from when HiT brought the show into CGI. They made the marketing merchandise quality look really great, made Thomas' popularity go at an all time high in 2010, the animation made by Nitrogen Studios made everything look so much more promising (even back then), television ratings even went at an all time high, and they even sold more DVDs than they ever did. It's such a shame neither "The Great Discovery", "Hero of the Rails", and Season 11 to an extent were the things that could make the 1984 Thomas series redeem itself.

Trivia

 * Currently, this is the only Thomas & Friends production narrated by Pierce Brosnan, though originally, Pierce Bronsnan was to narrate Season 12 to Season 14 in both English dubs, as well as 3 specials.
 * This is the final Thomas & Friends production to use live-action models exclusively.

The Full Movie
>https://youtu.be/9_CKkBARgwQ