Chuggington

I discovered Chuggington whilst watching CBeebies with my now six month old son who at the time was about three months old. I noticed his excitement at the beginning credits and the absolute awe with which he would watch the screen.

The show is CGI, colourful, vibrant and wholesome. Like it's obvious predecessor Thomas (the Tank engine), Chuggington features trains which are alive, interacting with people. Each episode is ten minutes long with lessons to be learnt by the audience through the 3 main chuggers (trains) Wilson, Brewster and Koko.

Chuggington is a great show for children of all ages, despite it's intended target audience of three to six years. It is refreshing to see a show that doesn't patronise the viewer like many of the other shows for the same age range.

We love this show at our house. We watched all the seasons when they were on Netflix 2-3 times. Good themes, teaching teamwork, friendship and problem solving. We now own the series. Top notch kids show.

As a major fan of trains and already has 4 train tracks between his home and mine, my grandson cannot stop watching this! He loves this show, and I even think it's very entertaining and very well made. I never knew how many different stories and ways to teach children lessons and manners could be done with trains until watching this show. Every episode has a lesson to learn. My grandson is 2 yrs, 3 mos. old and whenever it gets close to evening time, he says "trains, trains" until he gets our attention and we know this show must come on. It's a must-watch for all young children!

Many people hate this show as they say it's a Thomas and Friends rip off. I was one of them. But I decided to watch some episodes a few months after this mindset started and it wasn't that bad. The stories are honestly interesting and alright but nothing spectacular. I like the engines designs, the animation is quite good, especially by 2008s standards.

I think this show is not as good as Thomas (but better than series 13-16 of thomas), but it has it's charm and will get some enjoyment out of you.

I can't believe how low of a rating this has overall. We love this show! It was the first show that kept my son's attention when he was a baby and he was colicky, which all moms know is EVERYTHING! We watched 2 episodes a night before bed for a long time. The stories are interesting and pleasant. The songs are infectiously catchy. The characters are a delight! And I've always thought Thomas was a bit too stuffy and boring, personally. I love that there is another type of train show to turn to. They teach about hard work, friendship and honesty. And there is a technical aspect to it too, while obviously animated, talking trains, it still shows a lot of cool engineering type creations. Also, the story and characters advance. They start as new "train-ees" and learn skills to eventually get their jobs. It's a kids show that doesn't drive a parent crazy... I mean they all can eventually if you watch them enough, but this is far better than most!