2/12/18
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I honestly do like the Australia episodes more than the India and China episodes, despite there own faults. They feel all connected. However I find this episode to be a little odd with its moral about Christmas. Thomas was saying that the time of year should be about spending time with those you love and not about snow, presents, trees and all. But most of the episode was about Thomas trying to get a toy kangaroo back to a little Australian girl named Madeline. I mean, probably to make the episode better, why not have Thomas feeling homesick for his friends on Sodor when it comes to Christmas? I mean surely he would've missed them during his world travels? And while at it, have him feeling sad that there's no snow in Australia as we celebrate it in the summer time, when this episode was out on DVD in the UK in August, I was surprised to see people were shocked that Christmas is celebrated in that season and it still makes me think that it's great to teach kids in other countries who celebrate Christmas in winter about the different seasons and it make sense for Thomas' ignorance about the world here.
Back to my version of the plot, why not have Shane telling Isla to make Thomas feel he's right at home by pouring out pretend snow. But that didn't work because it was pretend snow. Maybe in the end, the Australian Railway controller calls up the Fat Controller and send Percy to Australia and Thomas thinks that was the best Christmas ever that he gets to celebrate with Percy and with his new Australian friends.
In the end though, the actual episode wasn't bad, but it could've been better.
SERIES OVERALL
So now we end our first full season of the revamped series, is it worth the outrage that some fans have hoped for? Is it another dark era that some had been paranoid about? In my opinion, no. The revamped series may have some duds here and there but it doesn't feel too different. However there were some lackluster episodes, particularly from the International side. I get it that they want Thomas to be the focus to make kids feel comfortable. But there are some episodes that aren't really fit for him, I get it that they want him to be someone to learn about different cultures and learn about the UN goals and have him being the focus. But why not give the international engines the spotlight? Kids might be more interested in them than say Thomas because these are characters they never knew before. They were in 'The Great Race' but mostly as background fodder. I said this before and I'll say it again, one example is the Bollywood episode from India. The plot screams Rajiv! His arrogant personality would bring better conflict to the story. If the production team are reading this, please give the characters from the other countries some screen time.
It also makes me a bit worried that these countries will be placed on the back burner while they'll focus on other countries, I mean yes there should be more to freshen up the series and make it worth something to watch but characters like Yong Bao and Hong Mei barely had any development. They were just there to say, they're from China! Hong Mei I thought was a charming character and would love to see more of her! I definitely do see her as a tomboy engine who can be a bit jealous or impatient. I mean Thomas is popular in China and I doubt Mattel would neglect a country that is considering as one of the top countries where Thomas is popular. Perhaps create videos for the YouTube channel that focus solely on them with Thomas not being around? I mean those 'Meet the Characters' video they've been pushing out on the YT channel had done nothing for the characters apart from that they exist.
Ashima is still the dull character that she was in 'The Great Race'. The episodes set in India weren't really the best but I won't say they were the worst, they were mostly average in my opinion. I did like 'Trusty Trunky' because of its realism of elephants helping out on the railway and the Monkey Palace episode was good because of it having some conflict. Although it could've been much better. However Rajiv is definitely the best character coming from India with his arrogant, pompous, boastful behaviour. There is just so much potential with him when it comes to stories and he can work so well with characters like Shankar and Noor Jehan. The latter two feel like characters that have a realistic view point and would bring Rajiv back down to earth.
The episodes in Australia as I said before would have to be the best among the international stories. They have conflict and strong characters. Shane has more of a personality compare to the likes of Hong-Mei as well as Aubrey and Aiden. Isla to me is a breath of fresh air when it comes to the aircraft characters. In the past we had Jeremy and Harold who were both cocky and trash the railway because they think they are superior. Isla, despite being a doctor's plane, takes her position seriously as she transports someone important and doesn't have time to be cocky. 'Outback Thomas' was fun despite its faults, 'Cyclone Thomas' was great, 'Banjo and The Bushfire' was weak and despite it being a bit odd with its plot, 'Kangaroo Christmas' wasn't bad, but the plot could've been given some fine tuning.
Meanwhile Sodor is where I think the heart and soul of the series is mostly at. There had been plenty of good episodes some were fantastic! I particularly loved 'Samson And The Fireworks' and 'Rosie Is Red' because of its relation towards kids when it comes to the situations that were made in those said episodes. 'Hunt The Truck' is by the far the best episode on Sodor. The dynamic between Edward, Bill and Ben was spot on and it gave me a third series vibe, sometimes its rare to me to see a modern day episode feel like a classic series style episode. Heck Michael White had done a much better job with the 'Walter Mitty' moments, as Ian McCue puts it at MIPJunior last year.
One thing that I do love from the series is that the Fat Controller is treated more like a human and less like a tired out slapstick controller that he was last season. It's nice to see him being authoritative but not too much with less comedy here and there. I hope the production team keep up with this.
This by no means that the stories on the international side were terrible or bad! It's far from it, it's just that they were average at best. I get it that they want to focus on the UN goals but stories like 'Thomas In The Wild' didn't really offer much plot to the story. I mean on a educational level it was fine about the different animals but on an entertainment level, it didn't offer much to wow someone. Perhaps the production team should have stories like the Monkey Palace or the Bollywood episode focused upon the international character rather than Thomas. Thomas can still be there as a supporting role but have an international character be the sole focus and bring out there personalities. Maybe other international episodes might have something with Thomas in mind. I did like 'Thomas And The Dragon' because it balances both culture and an entertaining story plus an episode like that can be good for a character like Thomas when it comes to him being a bit ignorant as he would never be familiar with the concept of Chinese New Year and culture considering he had been living on Sodor for many years. Yes he had faced with a dragon back in Series 3, but not many kids today would know of that episode's existence except for older fans who do.
But despite it being strong, there are some duds from the Island and I think the weakest one of all was 'Apology Impossible'. Looking back, that episode was a mess despite the character progression from Philip. I think what made the episode so terrible to sit through was that James' character was exaggerated by full force that it made him more out of character! James is supposed to be a vain and arrogant but not in the style of Gordon. I still think that episode should've been given to Gordon to give Philip a new perspective of an engine that he had admired. Another episode that I find weak from Sodor was 'The Case of The Puzzling Parts' and that was just boring to sit through. The dynamic between Paxton and Sidney was excellent but the story was just paper thin and way too average. I like the slice of life stories but don't make it too boring, it reminded me of 'The Missing Breakdown Train', it was average and nothing really happened until the end, unlike Sidney and Paxton's episode.
The fantasy sequences are a hit and miss to me. Some felt unneeded and some are just there to eat up the time limit because of their bare plot but some did have some need, I still think 'Thomas In The Wild's' fantasy sequence was needed to show Thomas' imagination about Panda's. But I think the fantasy sequences worked better by Michael White. In 'An Engine Of Many Colours', the sequences were justified as dreams and 'Hunt The Truck' the sequence of the twin imagining about ruining Christmas really adds the drama of Bill and Ben's conflict. Perhaps the production team should take a look at these episodes and try to make the fantasy sequences like that for future episodes.
With Thomas now narrating the stories instead of a celebrity from Liverpool, I think it was done well. Thomas' narration was there only when it was needed, just like from previous years. One person told me that the narration should be in detail but honestly, that worked in the model era because it had its limits. Now that the show is in full CG and has a full voice cast, it really doesn't need a narrator that much nowadays because the characters are more expressive now with their own voice. Plus kids can understand the stories in the end without the need of someone telling them too much.
Although some of the stories that required a moral at the end felt rather awkward. 'The Water Wheel' has a confusing moral about using water, one of the UN development goals, but most of the episode wasn't even about that in the slightest. As I said before the episode should've been given to a character like Hong-Mei, have her being impatient and make her run so fast that she used up all her water.
'Apology Impossible' was downright stupid with its moral about standing up for yourself, not that I'm saying that that lesson is stupid but how the way it was executed. Philip was standing up to James but he is still his timid self afterwards, Philip needs to showcase that moral right! It didn't work with him against Vinnie in TGR nor James in that episode. That episode was a mess! However other episodes have tried their best with the morals and life lessons in the end. I do like that the show is teaching kids about gender equality, despite its controversies from years of misinformation, it didn't feel shoved down or anything controversial like having Rebecca acting like she's better than Gordon. Nor showcasing that Gordon is loosing the power of pulling an express train, like most people believe from their misinformation. Thomas had teach kids life lessons about friendship, working together and all and I think it's not bad for the show to teach kids that both girls and boys can do the same thing together.
The running time is something that I'm a little mixed about. While I understand that it's made for the faster pace storytelling, I feel that it's suffering the show as Thomas was focused way too much when it comes to international side. I understand that he's suppose to be someone trying to understand the world and its different cultures, but like I said before, I think kids might be more interested in the international characters. As I said before, the characters like Hong-Mei, Tamika, Yong Bao etc. didn't really have screen time or development apart than just being there for the sake of being there and we don't get an explanation like why Henry is moving to Vicarstown and I blame the running time for that. The test audience may want the shorter running time, but a test audience doesn't represent the majority of Thomas' audience. They only represent themselves and what they want.
Even though I have no problems with the UN goals that the Thomas team had selected, I hope we don't have the same plots for the same goals like from this season because the plots won't be anything fresh or new and I hope they don't select some new ones because if Thomas has to teach kids about climate change then it would downright idiotic of the UN and the production team for thinking that a steam locomotive can teach kids about climate change despite him being a steam engine is a major cause to it back in the day, which would give Thomas a negative image among parents and children. I'm not a climate change denier, unlike some idiots in the political world, I just want to see some common sense still intact in the show.
But if some fans think that the round the world concept is a one off attempt and that the next season is going to be set on Sodor only, they're going to be disappointed. For starters the song 'Around The World' that plays at the end of each international episode, have at least listed many countries where Thomas might be going. I don't know what countries that he'll go to next but it doesn't smell like a one-off as many had hoped for, I for one believed it was. Some countries had left me intrigued and one of them was Japan. What would I like to see is Thomas being treated like a celebrity considering that Japan has a huge affection with railways that it's almost the equivalent of the UK's love affair with it that it's apart of there national culture. Plus it would be nice meta reference to Thomas' huge popularity over there as well. There is some story potential like Thomas getting into the celebrity highlife until it got him up in the funnel and it can teach kids not to get too up themselves with maybe Gordon or James used as an example at the end of the episode.
Some people had said that Thomas should only stay on Sodor next season, that would be impossible as Mattel would want him on his world travels to make it more familiar to the target range for comfort. I mean if you have episodes focusing on the international characters, it might be foreign to them because they weren't given any big exposure in the 2016 special. They have faces, yes, but every show that has a steam locomotive in it can have a face. Thomas isn't the only one that does that concept, you know. Plus it's not called Big WORLD Big Adventures for nothing you know, so having him on Sodor without him going around the world seems like a stupid idea. Having Thomas around the globe makes sense for that reason to give these international episodes some identity. But despite that, Thomas had been hogging the spotlight giving little exposure to the international characters. Why not have Thomas there but only with the appearance here and there like that they did with him from S20.
Am I going to give up on Thomas now after one season of the new stuff? No, not everything is going to perfect at first go. Yes this is the same production team that brought us things like 'The Adventure Begins', 'King of The Railway', 'Tale of The Brave', the miniature engine stories, 'Sodor's Legend Of The Lost Treasure' etc. but when it comes to new things like the format and running time it's going to be tough to get used to and I believe from this team that they will improve to make it better, after all they do listen to the fans unlike the previous production team. I mean you can say that the Miller/Barlow era knew the tone of the show, but how the way they've handled it was awful, I mean sure there were some bad morals in this era, but there were truly awful morals with Thomas having no comeuppance, like Thomas taking hats without permission for a snowman? And him not learning about taking other people's thing, that was awful! How he was rewarded a trip to the mainland to collect some Jobi wood after rescuing Diesel who had taken them without permission, but he (Thomas) really had put Diesel down because of what he is and he (Diesel) only took them because he wants to prove how useful he is. How Percy was acting all selfish because Thomas wasn't paying attention to him and not really being happy for Thomas creating new friends. How Thomas had just up and left the steamworks with his 'wonky' whistle endangering the lives of the workmen there and the animals in his vent van. Yeah those morals, and there are more from that era, that are terrible for kids to learn from and if there were a Miller/Barlow era version of this new series, I'm sure it could've been a lot more worse! This is by no means me saying that what was given in BWBA was perfect or reasonable with its morals but the morals placed in BWBA and from past series of this era at least shows Thomas learning from them, at times. Plus the writing at that era was bland and repetitive to sit through.
Yes this season isn't perfect but I'm still going to support the official release during their ups and downs and everyone can have their opinions on it, but I probably won't go around and cherry pick the negatives comments just to prove something is bad.
Another thing that I like to point out in regards to the series is Mattel's marketing for this series, mostly in the US. Mattel wanted to revitalised the brand but in the US the series as well as the movie is only exclusive to a channel that not many parents can afford, Nick Jr. If you had gone on the US Facebook page, you'll see many parents wanting to know about the series and movie not having a DVD or streaming release and the FB page telling them with their robotic responses. The idea of having the show on stream and TV is a great idea and maybe DVD as well, it feels more balanced in my opinion for parents who can or cannot afford things. Having it released exclusive only on a cable TV channel to me looks damaging for the brand because many parents would not be interested in buying a cable service. What was the negations between Mattel and Viacom? Did the latter find the idea of Thomas being on streaming services as a threat for their own network? Because if they do, it's pretty stupid of them having that mind set as they placed some of their own shows and movies there before, like Spongebob! I don't know because there's nothing about these changes and I don't find this fair for many families in the US. Mattel has to change their deal with Viacom to make Thomas more accessible to families who can't afford a cable service. If a DVD is released, would parents be interested in purchasing it despite it being months since its release on Nickelodeon? As Britt Allcroft puts it, 'Thomas is for everyone!'
In the end, this series maybe a hit and miss, but I did find it to be a lot more better than S21.
Episode Rating
Series Rating:
192/220
LOOK OUT FOR MY LAST POST OF THE YEAR WHICH IS THE ANNUAL DVD RETROSPECTIVE POST.
COMING OUT ON NEW YEARS EVE
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