Latest Thomas movie teaches which friends to follow

The new Thomas movie “Big World, Big Adventures” is an entertainment caper every young boy will enjoy. But beyond the cute blue train lies an important message of adventure and friendship. As much as the film encourages new experiences and cultures, it also reinforces who your real friends are and who is worth following around in life, not just the world.

The film also features Bobby van Jaarsveld singing the theme song. He shares his experience of growing up with Thomas and being part of this project.

We were lucky enough to hear him in action at the premiere of the film and meet some other SA bloggers along the way. Nicky had a lot of fun playing with some of the trains they had at the event. He even decided to walk around with a particular train and try it on various tracks!

Says Bobby: “This film resonates with me partly because my own friends are such a big part of my life. I feel much the same way as Thomas does about friendship: for me, the true meaning of friendship is acceptance.”

Thomas is invited on a trip around the world by a race car named Ace, voiced by Australian singer and entertainer Peter Andre. Ace builds Thomas’ expectations up with promises of a trip around the world as he races on all the different continents. Thomas does get to travel around the world, but as it turns out, Ace is a fair weather friend who prefers to be “free and easy”.  He doesn’t check if Thomas arrives safely at a destination or wait for him. He also doesn’t much care for any obligations Thomas has in terms of what cargo he has to deliver where, or letting down a friend.

The friend he let down in this story, who turns out to be one of those steadfast ones, is Nia. Nia is an African tank engine from Kenya. She is voiced by Yvonne Grundy.

Nia is smart, fun and playful, with a strong moral compass. Her name, pronounced Nee-Yah, means ‘purpose’ in Swahili; her engine design is based on the East African Railway’s ED1 class; and her exterior is inspired by iconic African textiles. In building this character, Thomas & Friends’ first African female engine, Mattel, Inc. received input from the UN Woman’s African Programme Advisor on the portrayal of gender equality and female empowerment. This was part of a greater collaboration with the UN, with the goal of incorporating into Thomas & Friends five of its 17 Sustainability Development Goals. A consultant from the Royal African Society also came on board to advise on cultural representation, including Nia’s scripting, animatics, and voice casting.

So you’ll see that she is an important, powerful woman character who represents Africa very well as well as steering Thomas back onto the right track.

Even Nicky picked up on this theme telling me afterwards that when the two trains separated due to Ace’s desire to get back to his race venue: “it wasn’t actually nice!”

The thing he was more interested in, however, was how Ace hitched a ride on Thomas and that evening while playing his XBox games spent quite a bit of time trying to get his car to mount a train.  For some reason kids just love to connect, manipulate and join objects so having a train and a car all connected up was vehicle heaven for him.

I hope my big boy learns the value of a true friend and until then I will never tire of his enjoyment in playing with his cars and trains.

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