INFINITY TRAIN: BOOK ONE – A Digital HD Review by John Strange

INFINITY TRAIN: BOOK ONE – A Digital HD Review by John Strange

Warner Bros. Home Entertainment provided me with free access to the series in digital HD that I reviewed in this Blog Post.  The opinions I share are my own.

Imagine for a moment a young girl, just 13-years-old, blessed with an excellent intellect.  Now take that same girl and place her into a home where the parents have divorced, complete with all of the angst and uncertainty that circumstance creates.

Tulip (voiced by Ashley Johnson), is trying her best to deal with the situation in the only way she knows how.  Her passion for game programming has become her reason to live and her goal is attending Game Design Camp in Oshkosh.

When she is unable to attend the camp because neither parent can take her, Tulip runs away from home.  Running across fields in the snow, she arrives at the train station.  While she is ruminating on how far it is to Oshkosh, a train pulls into the station and the destination on the train changes to “OSHKOSH”!

When she steps aboard the train she is whisked away but to where?  It looks just like a snowy field like those near her house!  Welcome to the Infinity Train!  Every car is different.  Each has a problem for Tulip to solve.

But what adventure is worth watching if the hero doesn’t have stalwart companions?  Tulip soon adds those companions in the forms of Atticus, the canine king of Corginia (Ernie Hudson), and One-One, a robot with multiple personalities (Sad-One – Owen Dennis, Glad-One – Jeremy Crutchley).  These two provide a great balance for Tulip’s mood swings as they work their way through the train in search of the conductor, the one person who can probably get her off the train and on her way to camp.

For the opposition, we have The Cat (Kate Mulgrew) and her boss (and it’s boss).  And for a show like this, they’re pretty scary!

The episodes have a pace that I wasn’t expecting but there is a lot that gets packed into each eleven-minute episode.  The season gives Tulip a chance to ruminate on her actions and feelings while teaching us a little bit about how we should be looking at the world.

The ten episodes of Infinity Train: Book One takes an upset young girl and return her to her life a little wiser and a little better prepared for living that life.  Her companions give us as many surprises as do her opponents (I won’t call them evil because I don’t think they are).

All-in-all, a surprising show indeed, worthy of a 5-star rating.  Loaded with voice performers we all know from TV and movies, the show makes you think and, aimed at younger kids (10+), is excellent for us to sit them down with after they finish their home-schooling lessons.

I would generally talk about the extras from the DVD at this time but they weren’t able to get one to me for this review.  If they are as good as the show, they will be worth watching.

One note for older anime watchers, the drawing style of this show reminded me a lot of some of the popular anime series I have seen in the last few years so you should enjoy it.

Infinity Train: Book One will be released on DVD and Digital on April 21, from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment.

Series Directed by:

• Madeline Queripel, Owen Dennis

Cast:

• Ashley Johnson, Owen Dennis, Jeremy Crutchley, Ernie Hudson, Ben Mendelsohn, Kate Mulgrew, Bradley Whitford, Dee Bradley Baker, Audrey Wasilewski, Lena Headey, Matthew Rhys, Rhys Darby, Lindsay Katai, Reagan Gomez-Preston, Justin Michael, Mark Fite, Ron Funches, Naomi Hansen, Lily Sanfelippo

Episodes:

1. The Grid Car
2. The Beach Car
3. The Corgi Car
4. The Crystal Car
5. The Cat’s Car
6. The Unfinished Car
7. The Chrome Car
8. The Ball Pit Car
9. The Past Car
10. The Engine

Extras:

DVD:

• Animatics
• Infinity Train Gallery
• Commentary
• The Mix of the Final Episode
• The Train Documentaries

Specifications:

Runtime:

Feature:

• 110 Minutes

Enhanced Content:

• 75 Minutes

Studio:

• Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Inc.

Release Date:

• 04/21/2020

Region:

• A/1 (U.S. and Canada only)

Website:

• https://www.cartoonnetwork.com/video/infinity-train/index.html

MPAA Rating:

• TV-PG

Selig Rating:

Film Rating:

• 5 Stars

Bonus Features Rating:

• NR (Not reviewed)

Picture Quality Rating:

• 5 Stars

Audio Quality Rating:

• 5 Stars

Selig Rating Scale:

5 Stars: Should add to your DVD collection at any cost

4 Stars: Worth owning, but try to catch it a sale

3 Stars: Plan to get it, but wait to buy it used

2 Stars: Worth taking a look at, but not owning

1 Star: Pick it up at a garage sale and use it for drinks

0 Stars: Makes a great Trap Shooting target