THESE ARE SOLEY UNDER MY OWN OPINIONS AND NOT FROM THE THOMAS & FRIENDS FAN BASE
PLAYTIME
Written by Sharon Miller
Directed by Greg Tiernan
Produced by Nicole Stinn
Plot:
Alicia Botti is going to perform at the Town Hall and Thomas is given the job to collect her from the docks. On the way, Thomas meets Percy who tells him that a new engine named Charlie has also arrived at the docks and that Charlie is more fun than Thomas.
PRO:
- Great to see Alicia Botti having a main role in the episode
- Despite that I never like the character of Charlie, his basis is a well done by the animators at Nitrogen studios.
CON:
- Why race on the main line? Aren't there speed restrictions on the island or what about the other engines? Wouldn't there be an accident waiting to happen.
- Annie and Clarabel wouldn't just stop rolling while Thomas was going fast on the main line.
Let me say this, I don't like Charlie, the character, as said in my 'Ho Ho Snowman' review two months ago. This episode shows that neglecting jobs is more important then actually doing them! Thomas is the hero of the story, he should at least do his jobs anyway without Charlie calling him that he's not fun. Despite the flaws in this episode, I do like how the animators kept a lot of realism towards Charlie's basis, which is of course a Manning Wardle L class tank engine:
Which is also the basis for Billy. It was also good to see Alicia Botti having a big role since she has been a cameo since Season 8. However, this episode has no educational moral and if Andrew Brenner reads this, please, if you're going to use Charlie in any future episodes as a main character, please make him learn some lessons instead of learning a lesson and forgetting about it the next episode.
Rating: 1/5
