Thomas & Friends: Hero of the Rails isn't the best Thomas movie but it's still good for what it is. The story of Thomas & Friends: Hero of the Rails is that Spencer has come to the island of Sodor to help with the Duke and Duchess boxford summer house, however Spencer keeps on bossing around all the engines until Thomas then challenges Spencer to show him that he can pull more heavy flatbeds than him all the way from the yards to brendom docks. Spencer agrees to this and so they start there race, but Thomas's breaks break and so he goes onto an abandoned track in the forest, however Thomas finds an old engine named Hero. Hero tells Thomas everything about him and how he ended up on the siding and it's because he had broken down and had been left on the siding for new parts but the parts never came. Thomas then decides he wants to help Hero and get him the parts he needs. Thomas also gets help from Victor, Kevin, Edward, Henry, Gordon, James, Percy, Toby and Emily. Thomas and his friends also have to make sure that the Fat Controller and Spencer don't find out because if the Fat Controller finds out he will probably scrap him and if Spencer finds out he may tell the Fat Controller. The story for this movie is really good. It's a nice heart felt story about trying to help someone who maybe in a loose end situation. This movie has some scenes that do drag on for to long though. This movie's story also has a lot of cool chase scenes as well mainly because of the cold camera angles and the voice acting as well. The characters in this movie are great. Thomas, Edward, Henry, Gordon, James, Percy, Toby and Emily are very sympathetic and you really do care for them since there just getting bullied by Spencer. Thomas and all his friends are perfectly in character although it is really dumb that they would think the Fat Controller would scrap Hero since in the bast the Fat Controller has said he would never do that. Spencer is also good as the villain in this movie. In this movie you can tell he really means business and that he really want to find out what Thomas is up to and that he won't let him get away with it. Spencer does have one problem with his character is that we never know why apparently he wanted Hero scrapped. The new characters Victor and Hero are amazing. Victor is really funny and he's also over just a really nice and helpful engine. Hero's is also amazing mainly because of how sympathetic he is and also because of how interesting of a character he is. His back story makes him very sympathetic as a character and very interesting as well and you really care about him in this movie. He also has a cool design because he isn't labelled as a token diversity character. Kevin is overall fine. There's not a lot to him but he does have some funny scenes in this movie. The animation doesn't look the best but none of it look cheap. The engines all feel like they have some weight to them. The songs and music for this movie are great. The opening music is really nice. The music used for the chase scenes are great and the theme song Go Go Thomas is so great and really fun to listen to. The voice acting is really good and they did a good job with the selection of voices they gave the characters well for the uk dub. The us dub voices for Henry and Toby sound very weird. There's also way to much narration from Michael Angelis and Michael Brandon. Thomas & Friends: Hero of the Rails 7/10.

I would say this movie is not perfect by any means. It truly marked the end of the model series (whole season 12 did that as well), and Spencer's reasoning for wanting Hiro destroyed is never explained in full. However, my biggest gripe with this movie is its narration. Every single action is narrated, when it can be seen onscreen! He never shuts up and lets the visuals speak for themselves. For instance the chase scene with Hiro would have been so much more impactful had the narration been cut out completely. Even a small child can comprehend what's happening. It doesn't need further explanation.

This movie is more cinematic, and the animation is fine, but the lighting is pretty dull and kinda weird, and it introduces an unforgettable new character called Hiro

7.6/10.