THESE ARE SOLEY MY OPINIONS AND ARE NOT INFLUENCED FROM THE THOMAS & FRIENDS FANDOM
MORE THAN A PRETTY ENGINE
Written by
Jaya Ramdath
Directed by
Campbell Bryer
Produced by
Suzie Gallo
Air Date
30/10/22 - CAN
19/12/22 - USA
10/05/23 - UK
20/02/23 - AUS
Plot
Ashima discovers that she has to prove to the others that she's more than meets the eye.
I think this what an Ashima episode would be like had the CGI series had stayed with the special before series idea when Lost Treasure did it the other way in 2015. Ashima wasn't great ever since her appearance in 'The Great Race', a nice side character to help motivate Thomas to being himself but not great as a character on her own and BWBA didn't elevate her much further thanks to most of the episode focusing on Thomas and for Mattel cutting it short. I feel that the production team behind AEG tend to look back at previous content or at the previous team's series bible once Nelvana took over the ropes and try to make something better for the characters they never got a chance to grow before.
Ashima was great in the episode with her strong willed personality and determination. I definetly see this episode working in the original series but I wish the episode didn't state the moral because clearly we got the message when Ashima got cross with Thomas and the others thinking that she can't do the work due to being a pretty engine, it feels a littler hammering. Plus Diesel's comment on the boulder always chasing them got me a chuckle. One of the very rare times where a joke from AEG is actually funny and is not a very bad, forceable pun from Percy.
This is also one of the rare times where I give an AEG episode a top mark.
Series Rating:
Fast Friends - 1/10
Percy Disappear - 5/10
Ashima's Amazing Arrival - 3/10
Tri-and-a-Half-a-Lon - 3/10
Carly's Magnificant Magnet - 5/10
New Mail Engine In Town - 4/10
Hot Air Percy - 2/10
Carly's Screechy Squeak - 1/10
Shake, Rattle & Bruno - 8/10
Blackout - 2/10
Brand New Track - 5/10
Stink Monster - 3/10
Christmas Mountain - 7/10
Whiteout! - 4/10
Good as New - 4/10
More Than a Pretty Engine - 9/10
Overall Rating (So far):
66/160
