I was recently asked to review some Chuggington DVD's. To be honest, I hadn't heard of Chuggington, which in hindsight is surprising considering my son is such a huge Thomas the Tank Engine fan! Upon thinking about this however, it all became very clear to me. Jack has two big sisters who I suspect, like most big sisters, tend to commandeer the television and coerce him into watching "programmes we all like", ie programmes which inevitably feature mermaids or teenage girls being cool!
Poor Jack.
Well, I did a little bit of research and discovered that Chuggington is a massive CBeebies hit with both pre-schoolers and younger school children. It's also aimed at both boys and girls, unlike Thomas which I've always felt is very much aimed at the boy end of the market!
Produced by Sarah Ball, who has also worked on Bob the Builder, Chuggington the series is a sort of hybrid of Thomas the Tank Engine and Roary the Racing Car in that it features a wide variety of trains, but is filmed in very high quality CGI animation, the sort where you can nearly reach into the tv and lift the characters out...
Chuggington the place is a whole community of both old-style steam engines and sparkling new electric trains who help out one another and the community in general.
Although there are lots of trains, the series primarily focuses on three main characters, all of whom are trainee trains, known as Chuggers:
Wilson: a multifunction high-speed passenger train who is a bit of scatterbrain but full of enthusiasm;
Brewster: a dependable and reliable diesel-electric train;
and
KoKo: a sweet, ambitious and very confident little girl train.
Whereas with Thomas, all of the stories tend to centre around one character, in Chuggington we follow the trainee trains and observe as they strive to become fully-fledged trains, learning the ropes by playing, copying their elders and by practicing lots, just like their audience!
In addition, each train tries to earn reward badges in separate episodes which can be watched alongside the main episodes, or watched as stand-alone episodes in their own right.
The train voice-overs are those of real-life children which adds a real sweetness to the series, and with each episode lasting only around 10 minutes, children are quickly drawn into the stories and don't have a chance to get bored!
Good old-fashioned values and strong story telling are key aims of the show and this is very clear in each episode.
I asked my three children to sit with me as we watched the episodes we were sent and their responses were interesting.
Tara, aged 10 surprised me as she was the most keen to get stuck in. Even though she stated it was for little children, she giggled frequently throughout the episodes and picked up on all the little verbal quips such as, "On your tracks, get set, go!"
She loved the very modern look and even began making up her own jokes such as, "How do trains eat their dinner? They choo choo it!"
As a long-time Harry Potter fan, she agreed with me that KoKo reminded her of Hermione Granger in being very competitive and keen to always be top of the class!
Next was Sarah. Sarah is 6 and very girly, so I wasn't sure how she'd feel about watching a series about trains. However, she absolutely loved it and, like me, was charmed by the voice-over for KoKo. She adored the little high-pitched squeak in her voice often made when expressing excitement and I've a strong feeling she'll be working on her own voice to try to get the same effect!
Aside from this, Sarah appreciated all the very bright colours, really enjoyed the storylines and loved the way the trains all helped each other out - even when they didn't really want to initially!
Jack, who is 4, was a little confused at the beginning about watching a train series that didn't feature Thomas; perhaps he felt it would hurt Thomas' feelings!
However it didn't take too long for him to come around and he expressed genuine delight that the trains could jump up and down on their tracks, paint, have races and he was very taken by the superhero aspect that was introduced in one episode where the superhero was a flying train! He also quickly started copying the programme's catch-phrase, saying Chuggington was "traintastic"!
All in all, Chuggington was a great success in our house and I've a feeling the dvds will be watched over and over again. I'm only sorry we haven't had CBeebies on so much recently, or Jack in particular would have been introduced to the series much sooner.
Alongside the televised programme, as is the case with most programmes these days, there is lots of merchandise that can be purchased for all the little Chuggington fans out there. These range from individual trains to clothing, games and toys, meaning children can enjoy becoming the characters themselves or re-enacting the programmes they have watched.
Aside from my children enjoying the characters who make up Chuggington, I must admit I also found them very charming myself. A lot of that was down to the sweet voices of the children who speak for the trains as they really do bring so much character into them, but the actual trains themselves are almost human in ways and kept reminding me of certain actors who I just couldn't place!
The series has a lot to teach young children and I would feel there is something there for children aged from perhaps 3 months to around 8 years. Babies will thoroughly enjoy the bright colours and the fabulous voice-overs, whilst older children will get more out of the actual storyline and enjoy the learning aspects evident in each episode.
Chuggington is undoubtedly a nice change from some of the more Americanised cartoons that are often watched in our house. The innocence, comradeship and general cuteness of the main characters, alongside their helpful natures, makes this series more than a little unique.
If you'd like to find out more about Chuggington, you can watch short videos, play games and meet some of the wonderful characters on Chuggington.com . Have a traintastic time!
Catch Chuggington every weekday on CBeebies
Poor Jack.
Well, I did a little bit of research and discovered that Chuggington is a massive CBeebies hit with both pre-schoolers and younger school children. It's also aimed at both boys and girls, unlike Thomas which I've always felt is very much aimed at the boy end of the market!
Produced by Sarah Ball, who has also worked on Bob the Builder, Chuggington the series is a sort of hybrid of Thomas the Tank Engine and Roary the Racing Car in that it features a wide variety of trains, but is filmed in very high quality CGI animation, the sort where you can nearly reach into the tv and lift the characters out...
Chuggington the place is a whole community of both old-style steam engines and sparkling new electric trains who help out one another and the community in general.
Although there are lots of trains, the series primarily focuses on three main characters, all of whom are trainee trains, known as Chuggers:
Wilson: a multifunction high-speed passenger train who is a bit of scatterbrain but full of enthusiasm;
Brewster: a dependable and reliable diesel-electric train;
and
KoKo: a sweet, ambitious and very confident little girl train.
Whereas with Thomas, all of the stories tend to centre around one character, in Chuggington we follow the trainee trains and observe as they strive to become fully-fledged trains, learning the ropes by playing, copying their elders and by practicing lots, just like their audience!
In addition, each train tries to earn reward badges in separate episodes which can be watched alongside the main episodes, or watched as stand-alone episodes in their own right.
The train voice-overs are those of real-life children which adds a real sweetness to the series, and with each episode lasting only around 10 minutes, children are quickly drawn into the stories and don't have a chance to get bored!
Good old-fashioned values and strong story telling are key aims of the show and this is very clear in each episode.
I asked my three children to sit with me as we watched the episodes we were sent and their responses were interesting.
Tara, aged 10 surprised me as she was the most keen to get stuck in. Even though she stated it was for little children, she giggled frequently throughout the episodes and picked up on all the little verbal quips such as, "On your tracks, get set, go!"
She loved the very modern look and even began making up her own jokes such as, "How do trains eat their dinner? They choo choo it!"
As a long-time Harry Potter fan, she agreed with me that KoKo reminded her of Hermione Granger in being very competitive and keen to always be top of the class!
Next was Sarah. Sarah is 6 and very girly, so I wasn't sure how she'd feel about watching a series about trains. However, she absolutely loved it and, like me, was charmed by the voice-over for KoKo. She adored the little high-pitched squeak in her voice often made when expressing excitement and I've a strong feeling she'll be working on her own voice to try to get the same effect!
Aside from this, Sarah appreciated all the very bright colours, really enjoyed the storylines and loved the way the trains all helped each other out - even when they didn't really want to initially!
Jack, who is 4, was a little confused at the beginning about watching a train series that didn't feature Thomas; perhaps he felt it would hurt Thomas' feelings!
However it didn't take too long for him to come around and he expressed genuine delight that the trains could jump up and down on their tracks, paint, have races and he was very taken by the superhero aspect that was introduced in one episode where the superhero was a flying train! He also quickly started copying the programme's catch-phrase, saying Chuggington was "traintastic"!
All in all, Chuggington was a great success in our house and I've a feeling the dvds will be watched over and over again. I'm only sorry we haven't had CBeebies on so much recently, or Jack in particular would have been introduced to the series much sooner.
Alongside the televised programme, as is the case with most programmes these days, there is lots of merchandise that can be purchased for all the little Chuggington fans out there. These range from individual trains to clothing, games and toys, meaning children can enjoy becoming the characters themselves or re-enacting the programmes they have watched.
Aside from my children enjoying the characters who make up Chuggington, I must admit I also found them very charming myself. A lot of that was down to the sweet voices of the children who speak for the trains as they really do bring so much character into them, but the actual trains themselves are almost human in ways and kept reminding me of certain actors who I just couldn't place!
The series has a lot to teach young children and I would feel there is something there for children aged from perhaps 3 months to around 8 years. Babies will thoroughly enjoy the bright colours and the fabulous voice-overs, whilst older children will get more out of the actual storyline and enjoy the learning aspects evident in each episode.
Chuggington is undoubtedly a nice change from some of the more Americanised cartoons that are often watched in our house. The innocence, comradeship and general cuteness of the main characters, alongside their helpful natures, makes this series more than a little unique.
If you'd like to find out more about Chuggington, you can watch short videos, play games and meet some of the wonderful characters on Chuggington.com . Have a traintastic time!
Catch Chuggington every weekday on CBeebies