13-year-old Tulip Olsen (Ashley Johnson) still hasn’t gotten over the fact that her parents have recently divorced, but is excited to be going away to Computer Programming camp for the weekend. However, when both of her parents are unable to drive her to Wisconsin, Tulip becomes livid, screams at her mother, and storms off. She then comes across a mysterious train, which she hopes will take her to her camp.

Upon entering the train, Tulip discovers that each car contains its own strange new world. Almost immediately she befriends a robotic sphere named One-One, who speaks in a British accent and is looking for his mum. One-One is actually comprised of two halves, Sad-One (Owen Dennis) and Glad-One (Jeremy Crutchley), who often have differing outlooks on a situation. It becomes clear to Tulip that she is trapped on this train, with a mysterious glowing number on her hand that is counting down… but counting down to what?! She hopes that the train’s conductor will be able to get her off the train, and so she and One-One make their way towards the front, moving from car to car. However, as they enter each new car, they must figure where the door to the next car is, and how to unlock it. Along the way they add traveling companion King Atticus (Ernie Hudson)—a talking corgi who pretends he’s more evolved, but truly likes being treated like a pet dog. Atticus is also a voice of reason to Tulip’s temper and anger. As the group explores these strange new worlds, they find themselves helping to solve problems, facing their own demons, and coming face-to-face with new dangers. Will Tulip ever find her way home?

The series plays out like one feature-length, complete story. Each episode flows right into the next, taking the group to some odd new world with some new problem to solve, while also progressing the main storylines of Tulip trying to get off the train and figuring out what the numbers on her hand mean, and also providing growth for the characters. Each episode usually opens just as the group is leaving some other car that we didn’t get to see, describing some bizarre off-screen adventure that would have also made a fun episode. While there’s a lot of humor, the series also deals with some more serious topics like death and divorce, and by the end of the season, things take a somewhat darker turn. Once I started the first episode, I found myself watching straight through to the end (having to confirm to Vudu midway through that I hadn’t just fallen asleep on my couch).

The season is broken down into ten 11-minute episodes, many of which have some talented voice guest stars. Here’s a breakdown of the first season:

1. The Grid Car (11:18)
   Tulip enters the mysterious train and partners up with a spherical robot named One-One. While running away from danger, they end up in a car with grids on the wall, which play music and form colorful bricks when touched.
2. The Beach Car (11:24)
   The duo arrives on a beach with a naive gelatinous blob named Randall (Rhys Darby) and the cunning, manipulative Cat (Kate Mulgrew) who’s trying to sell him on a donut hole pyramid scheme.
3. The Corgi Car (11:18)
   Tulip and One-One befriend King Atticus, leader of the corgi-filled land of Corginia, which is being haunted by a giant shadow monster, and rapidly flooding.
4. The Crystal Car (11:18)
   The group finds themselves in a crystal land whose residents can’t speak, and the only way to summon the stairs to the exit door is by singing a heartfelt song.
5. The Cat’s Car (11:19)
   The group arrives in Cat’s car, where a tape of Tulip’s memories makes her face her past, and deal with her emotions regarding her parents’ divorce.
6. The Unfinished Car (11:19)
   The group arrives in in a city filled with turtles, and meet its leader King Aloysius (Matthew Rhys). However, buildings seem unfinished and gravity doesn’t work quite right, and One-One’s desire to fix things puts the everyone in danger.
7. The Chrome Car (11:18)
   The group arrives in a chrome, mirrored covered world where Tulip gets bamboozled by her own reflection and calls for help from the Reflection Enforcement officers, Special Agents Mace (Ben Mendelsohn) and Sieve (Bradley Whitford).
8. The Ball Pit Car (11:18)
   The group ends up in a world of ball pits and slides, helping stuffed rabbit Khaki Bottoms (Ron Funches) navigate an obstacle course, but things take a dark turn when the Steward returns.
9. The Past Car (11:18)
   In order to save Atticus, Tulip views the memory tape of the loving relationship between two mysterious strangers, Amelia (Lena Headey) and Alrick (Matthew Rhys). Meanwhile, One-One seems to have some unique powers and ability to control the memory playback.
10. The Engine (11:18)
    The group finally makes it to the front of the train, but they are in for a few surprises.

Due to the current state of our world, Warner Bros. was unable to ship the DVD for review and instead provided a code for the digital release. I really enjoyed this first season of the series, and immediately wished that I had the second season to watch. It has fun, well-developed characters that grow over the course of the season. It also tells a entertaining and creative story that feels more like an animated feature than a ten-episode TV season. The digital release has a pretty solid HD presentation, with more than satisfying audio and video. Unfortunately this digital release doesn’t include any of the 75 minutes of bonus material listed for the DVD, so I cannot really comment on the length or quality of those features, though it looks like a great selection of material (see list below) that I would have loved to be able to watch.

The digital release is available at your favorite retailer Vudu, Amazon, itunes, etc), but please note that since this is a TV program, it is not Movies Anywhere compatible, and thus wont port to any other retailers. My recommendation would be to go for the DVD release intead so that you also get all of the supplemental material.

What’s Included:

Episodes: (1:53:08)
• All 10 episodes of the first season:
  “The Grid Car”, “The Beach Car”, “The Corgi Car”, “The Crystal Car”, “The Cat’s Car”, “The Unfinished Car”, “The Chrome Car”, “The Ball Pit Car”, “The Past Car”, “The Engine”
• Digital: 1080p / Widescreen 1.78:1
• DVD: 480p / Anamorphic Widescreen 1.78:1
• Audio: English Stereo 2.0
• Subtitles: English SDH

Extras (approx 75 min):

The following bonus material is included on the DVD release. We could not review this, but it is provided for those trying to decide between the DVD and digital releases:
• Animatics
• Infinity Train Gallery
• Commentary
• The Mix of the Final Episode
• The Train Documentaries

Final Thoughts:

I really enjoyed this first season of Infinity Train, which I found thoroughly entertaining and wildly imaginative and fun. I would highly recommend checking out this series, and while the digital release provides HD picture, it does not include any of the 75 minutes worth of supplemental material included on the DVD. So I would actually suggest going for the DVD release instead so that you can get all of that behind-the-scenes bonus material as well.