THESE ARE MY OWN OPINIONS AND ARE NOT INFLUENCED FROM THE THOMAS & FRIENDS FANBASE
CREEPY CRAWLY COURAGE
Sam Bissonnette
Directed by
Campbell Bryer
Produced by
Suzie Gallo
Air Date
29/01/25 - UK
Plot
Yong Bao's fear of creepy crawlies and Carly's disgust for skunks complicate their apple delivery to the Harvest Festival.
I think it's a shame Yong Bao hadn't been fleshed out in the Big World Big Adventures era of the original series run because I think it was a nice personality trait that he has a fear of bugs, if BWBA was at least given a further chance by Mattel maybe Yong Bao would've been an interesting character and likely we would've had an episode of him fearing something, despite being called brave and a hero and it was also nice to see some continuity with Carly with her interest in bugs from the Bubbly special, the show may have inconsistent writing but it at least respects its own continuity, at times. Although I have the feeling that the 'All Engines Go!' title is now becoming a catchphrase for all the characters in every episode, we had it in the second episode, don't know about the first one though as I can't really remember everything about it from the top of my head.
As for the episode itself it was another meh one. What could've been done to make the episode better, in my opinion, if Yong Bao and Carly were having a heated argument on what is better bugs or fuzzy animals that it resulted their friendship to end until they realise one another's perspective on why they don't like bugs or skunks when seeing something of a creature they like but not a particular one, it would at least make the song's inclusion a bit stronger with how they express liking the true side of each other.
Just throughout the episode it was nothing more but the two characters just rolling along the line with the three strike formula to build up the climax which was Yong Bao running around from a spider's web with some gags involving apples to fill up the run time and telling the audience the message of the story.
While I like that Yong Bao had some character and that Carly's love for bugs was still intact as well the fact that we're having stories where it's not always restricted to the core cast of characters, the episode was not that great or entertaining to sit through, it was a boring meh fest that could've had some tweaks to make it a bit more interesting.
Series Rating (So far):
Sheep Stampede - 6/10
The Berry Best - 3/10
Creepy Crawly Courage - 3/10
Overall Rating (So far):
12/30
