THESE ARE SOLEY MY OPINIONS AND ARE NOT INFLUENCED FROM THE THOMAS & FRIENDS FANBASE
YONG BAO AND THE TIGER
Ian McCue & David Stoten
Directed by
Ian Cherry
Produced by
Tracy Blagdon (Jam Filled)
Ian McCue (HIT/Mattel)
Plot
Yong Bao tells Thomas the story of how he came to have a magnificent tiger emblem on his tender.
Air Date
7/07/20 - AUS
Back in 2016, China had a specially made video with the release of 'The Great Race' of Yong Bao, since of course he's based on the RM class of China Railways. The short was 2D animated and was shown on the internet, although I don't know what website it was from and it wouldn't be YouTube since China had banned the website in their country. Around that time during the media announcement of the 2016 special we were given a special backstory through the mainstream media about Yong Bao which had peaked alot of interest to older fans, including me, and hope that it becomes an episode someday. Four years had passed and we are finally given an official episode and not only do I find this the best episode of S24 but probably one of the best episodes ever.
The story was strong and Yong Bao's character development was great. He was bullied by the mean engines, as they were called in the credits, for shunting trucks but he grew his confidence after seeing a tiger from the mountains, since tigers are a symbol in Chinese culture of bravery, happiness and power, which was shown from Yong Bao after he'd saved one of the engines who had bullied him.
The visuals in the episode was beautiful as well as Chris Renshaw's music. I was also surprised that Yong Bao had been recasted, even his original voice actor, Dan Hi, was in the episode too as the railway inspector. But although that I'd liked Dan Hi's voice, I do like Chris Lee Kum Hoi's voice for Yong Bao, it was nice. Anyway, this to me was the best episode of the 24th season and I think Ian McCue and David Stoten are a great writing duo. If there ever is a 25th season, I hope we see more from the two again. This was an excellent episode and I don't see anything wrong with the episode.
I just hope that whenever we get a DVD release we get the song 'He's So Brave' released as music video, which accompanied the animated short as well in China.
Series Ratings (So far):
A New Arrival - 7/10
World of Tomorrow - 7/10
Thomas and the Royal Engine - 9/10
Emily's Best Friend - 7/10
Thomas' Fuzzy Friend - 8/10
The Great Little Railway Show - 9/10
Thomas and The Forest Engines - 5/10
Emily to the Rescue - 4/10
Shankar's Makeover - 8/10
Nia and The Unfriendly Elephant - 9/10
James the Super Engine - 7/10
Thomas' Not-So-Lucky Day - 7/10
Ace's Brave Jump - 5/10
Sonny's Second Chance - 9/10
Thomas and the Inventor's Workshop - 8/10
The Inventor's Spectacular Bridge - 9/10
Yong Bao and the Tiger - 10/10
Overall Rating (So far):
128/170
