Thomas & Friends arrive on DVD with Curious Cargo and “Friends” has never meant so much to the series as this particular release does. Not only do you get four fun filled adventures with great lessons the DVD is also divided up into four stories lead by different friends, oh, and there is the giraffe as well.

In the first episode Thomas has been tasked with delivering the tallest animal to the brand new zoo on the island of Sodor. As usual Thomas wants to do things his way which leads him to find trouble and cause a bit of trouble for his friends. If only he had listened at the start. Then you have an episode with Percy. Percy wants to play but everyone else is too busy. When he see’s Cranky playing with a seagull he decides to go out looking for animal friends of his own but before he can heed the advice of Cranky he’s full steam ahead and finding out that making friends with the animals isn’t so easy. Toby in Bash is the third episode in the list in which Toby meets a new train named Bash and is tasked by Sir Topham Hatt to show Bash around. Toby is so excited to take Bash around Sodor that he forgets everything is new for Bash. Finally the last episode we meet Belle, a train with water cannons, who see’s that Toby has a bell so they must have lots in common.

We get to see a lot more of Sodor and meeting the various trains in each episode is fun. The moral lessons found here are about listening, being courteous to others and acknowledging their feelings, as well as behavioral issues that come off a bit bad hat. On top of all that you have the usual DVD exclusive bonus of seeing Driver Perkins and his lice action antics. I’ve never related more to his plight then in this particular story arc in which Perkins finds the drivers common room a mess and Sir Topham Hatt on his way to inspect it. The first thing I thought of is when I ask my kids to clean their room (I have two who share a room) and one or both always answer with, “But that’s not my mess.” Driver Perkins passes straight over this response and begins cleaning up regardless of whose mess it is. A real lesson for all kids I think.

Other bonus features include A Find What Doesn’t Belong Game. I only played it once, very simple, probably to simple for older children (and obviously adults) and from the looks of it the game only goes on for four screens before your back to the start of the game. There’s a karaoke video and of course trailers. All in all a solid release from your friends on Sodor.