S18 Ep.6:Toad's Adventure

THESE ARE SOLEY MY OPINIONS AND NOT FROM THE THOMAS & FRIENDS FANBASE

TOAD'S ADVENTURE

Written by

Mark Huckerbry & Nick Olster 

Directed by

David Sotton

Produced by

Robert Anderson (Arc)

Hallim Jabbour and Ian McCue (HIT)

Air Date

1/09/14

Plot

Toad was tired of hearing Oliver's adventure about their escape from the scrap yard. So Toad had an adventure with James which resulted into a near miss.

PRO:
- Oliver's boastful attitude
- Moral: Be careful what you wish for and the importance of Brake vans
- The sweeping camera angles 
- Toad was in character
- A guard putting on the brakes instead of Toad doing it by himself

CON:
- Oliver's down scale

This is one of the episodes that I was definitely looking forward too. Like 'Wayward Winston' last year, this also shares the same moral for kids about careful what you wish for. Toad wishes to have his own adventure which resulted into a near miss thanks to his bravery. Arc Productions had produced amazing camera angles and show that they have no limitations, the opening sweeping shot of the green hills and countryside was really fantastic and look very British as well. Oliver was in perfect character with boastfulness, as I hear from many YouTube commenters, it's bad. If you have the time watch 'Oliver Owns Up' he was arrogant and boastful in that episode. Toad was in perfect character with his polite and formal way of referring the engines as 'Mr.' or 'Misses' and of course there's his optimism as well. I know when you see guards or engine crews doing stuff for the engines they're of course 'the hands' of the characters, but it's a first time we actually see a guard doing something rather the just blowing a whistle and waving a flag. We see him braking a train. There is one con though for this episode and that is Oliver being a bit small compare to the live stock wagons by the end of the episode. Arc, if you're reading this, you may need to go to England and examine the size of some of the characters basis. Nitrogen did theres when they were the animators of the series. 

Notice how Oliver's buffers are not in line with the live stock wagon

All in all, it's a good episode and the two writers had done a great job of hitting the nail of a great episode. I like Oliver's western voice and Toad's voice sounds like an older version of Root from Oakie Doke, a Cosgrove Hall show that I loved as a kid. I know some people like his whistle, Oliver, but I prefer his Season 3 whistle, the current whistle in my opinion is a toned down version of Duck's whistle.

Rating: 7.5/10