DVD Review: A Colourful World

THESE ARE SOLEY MY OPINIONS AND ARE NOT INFLUENCED BY THE THOMAS & FRIENDS FANBASE

A COLOURFUL WORLD

Episodes

An Engine Of Many Colours
Hunt the Truck
Counting On Nia
Tiger Trouble
Thomas Goes to Bollywood
Thomas in the Wild
Thomas and the Dragon
The Water Wheel

Special Features
Thomas' Big World: Different Ways To See The World
Thomas' Big World: Still The Best Of Friends
Meet The Characters: Ashima
Meet The Characters: Noor Jehan
UN Stories: Life On Land
UN Stories: Gender Equality

Written by

Micheal White
Lee Pressman
Becky Overton
Davey Moore

Directed by

Dianna Basso

Produced by

Ian McCue (HIT/Mattel)

Micaela Winter (HIT/Mattel)

Tracy Blagdon (Jam Filled)

Distributed by

HIT Entertainment/Mattel Creations (UK)

Release Date

29/07/19

Before we await for the upcoming two parter special 'Digs and Discoveries', the UK had finally been given the final S22 DVD of Thomas & Friends. Featuring two episodes from new writer and Thomas fan, Micheal White. So here are my views on 'A Colourful World'. 

EPISODES

The DVD consists three Sodor and China episodes and two India episodes. The first three were really good episodes and I still hold my opinion on them when the episodes debuted last year. 'An Engine of Many Colours' and 'Hunt The Truck' may have been written to the standard formula for the refreshed series, but how the way Micheal White handled them makes them the best episodes of the season in my opinion. The fantasy sequences really fit well into the story in James' episode they were dreams and in Bill and Ben's case it fits in well because it adds more to their worries. They were not just randomly placed to add as filler, they were massaged well into the story. 

'Counting On Nia' is an episode I feel that would relate to actual immigrants when they enter into a new country and Nia not understanding numbers in english was also something that is new to me. I remember after watching the episode I researched about numbers in Africa and it turns out that they are written differently. I understand that not everyone likes Nia because she replaced Edward and she didn't have any episodes to flesh out, but I didn't like the criticism that she was getting and that was because some claimed that Nia was a 'Mary Sue'. A character who is absolutely perfect and bears no flaws not one bit, almost like Superman. To me her not understanding numbers in english is a bit of a flaw because she was new to Sodor and it resulted her to have an accident until Annie and Clarabel had helped her understanding numbers through animals, plants and all. It gives the message that there can be solutions to a problem. To me it makes me believe that Nia has story potential for things that can relate to an immigrant maybe have an episode dealing with home sickness or wanting to celebrate Christmas in the way she had celebrated in her own country and have one of the Sodor engines being angry that there traditions are being spoilt for someone else.

Another episode that I did like and I considered this to be the best of the China episodes and that was 'Thomas and the Dragon'. It feels like Davey Moore's 'Batucada' episode that he did for the Brazil as it combines both culture and story so well and 'Tiger Trouble' was probably the best India episode before 'Crowning Around' came along and took the top spot. The India episodes from S22 weren't the best lot of episodes despite that I think 'Trusty Trunky' and 'Thomas and The Monkey Palace' as OK but looking back, the conflict wasn't strong in those stories. However 'Tiger Trouble' had added much strong conflict dealing with animal hunters and a good moral on how we should protect animals from harm. Plus it gave Shankar a bit depth as a lover of animals. A bit like Henry and his love of nature.

'Thomas Goes To Bollywood' wasn't awful but a bit bad. I still believe that it was a huge loss for Rajiv to take the spotlight with his arrogant persona, thankfully 'Crowning Around' made up for that. The ending wasn't really good though as there was no real danger for the arrogant actor and everyone hailed Thomas as a hero. It could've been better if the truck of mattresses wasn't placed probably for the actor and Thomas had to act fast to save him from an accident.

'Thomas In The Wild' was OK but it was more educational and less on story. But the Panda's I say are adorable. However I can take that episode over any Miller/Barlow era story any day and the fantasy sequence gave me a good chuckle and it kind of make sense considering that Thomas would've never seen a Panda.

'The Water Wheel' however was just confusing, the story started off with Hong-Mei talking about how bamboo is important, then it was about Thomas chasing a water wheel and the moral was about how important water is. I said it before in my episode review and I'll say it here. The episode could've worked if it were focused on Hong-Mei with her competitive and one track mind behaviour. There was no rain happening for a while and it was a hot summers day, Hong-Mei was bored in her shed as she can't run and so went out of her shed despite the ban. After racing around she was running out of water and tries to find a water tower but all them are dried up because of the lack of rain. Luckily she found a water wheel made of bamboo and the people helped her by filling her water tank from the river. Hong-Mei was happy and learnt that saving water is important.

SPECIAL FEATURES

The special features are pretty much what you can find on the offical Thomas US YouTube channel. However these videos are UK dubbed so for some it is a first. The first video is about Thomas explaining about different ways to travel around the globe. A nice video for young kids to understand the difference of travel. The second is of course a way of explaining to kids about friends who may live far away but that you are still the best of friends no matter how far you really are. I think they should've placed this video on the Steam Team DVD when it was released in 2018 to give more kids the message about Edward and Henry's departure from the Steam Team. But despite that it is still a good message to kids. 

The next video is another 'Meet the Characters' and this time with Ashima. This video however was never released on the YouTube channel until June 26th 2019. It was first discovered through a user on twitter through an on-demand streaming website called 'Kabillion'. Why was this never released with the others officially, I don't know. The other is about Noor Jehan. These videos are a nice way to express about the characters and what they do, but they don't really justify the personalities of these characters. I hope the writers of the show give these two there time to shine and not make them static characters.

We also have the two UN goal videos that were released on the US channel a year ago. Since the refresh series was shown to the public, Mattel had announced that they've been working with the United Nations and explain about the goals through Thomas to young kids. I like these videos and I really don't see how teaching kids to respect everyone equally and to respect life on land as 'politically correct' or political considering that the some people of the world don't really show respect that much today to other people and animals.  

OVERALL

The DVD doesn't have the best of the episodes but I don't think they are not god awful to sit through. If you feel the same about these episode I recommend buying episodes separately on iTunes, that's what I do when Australia release DVDs here as they are the same as the UK's. But if you have kids that like these episodes, then this DVD could be for you. The special features are nice and I think they are goods for kids too.  

Rating: 7/10

DVD Review: The Complete Series 20

THESE ARE SOLEY MY OPINIONS AND ARE NOT INFLUENCED FROM THE THOMAS & FRIENDS FANBASE

THE COMPLETE SERIES 20

Written by

Lee Pressman

Andrew Brenner

Davey Moore

Helen Farrall

Tit for Tat, Mike's Whistle & 

Useful Railway 
Originally Written by

The Rev.W.Awdry

Directed by 

Dianna Basso 

Produced by

Robert Anderson (Arc Production)

Tracy Blagdon (Arc/Jam Filled)

Ian McCue (HIT/Mattel)

Episodes

Sidney Sings

Toby's New Friend

Henry Gets the Express

Diesel and the Ducklings

Bradford the Brakevan

Saving Time

Ryan & Daisy

Pouty James

Blown Away

The Way She Does It

Letters to Santa 

Love Me Tender

The Railcar and the Coaches

Mucking About

Cautious Connor

All in Vain

Buckled Tracks and Bumpy Trucks

Tit for Tat

Mike's Whistle

Useful Railway

Extraordinary Engines - BONUS DISC

Engine of the Future 

Henry in the Dark

The Missing Breakdown Train

Hugo and the Airship

Three Steam Engines Gruff

Skiff and the Mermaid

Release Date

27/05/19

Distributed by

HIT Entertainment/Mattel Creations

After the debut of S19, some fans weren't really hyped up for S20 after what we saw last season. However all that changed when this season aired in the UK in 2016. Lots of good and interesting episodes including three adaptations of the Small Railway Engines book and the last time Railway Series stories were adapted was from the fourth season! Now that three years had passed, does this series still hold up? Let's find out.

EPISODES

The first series collection DVD to be released after BWBA being brand new. To be honest it wasn't as strange to watch these episodes today after seeing the freshened up series. However you can see the difference in the pacing of the stories of course. Does the series still hold up though after three years? I believe so. I still have a love for these episodes and I'm still amazed that, at the time, 21 years later we finally have three more Railway Series adapted stories, something that I thought would never happen given that the show is more focused on original stories not from the books. I honestly don't believe that we'll see more of these happening within the new series that we have today and I personally don't see it as a huge loss and I'll explain that later in my overall section.

I still love 'Diesel and The Ducklings'. Diesel to me is a very complex character and the episode makes him more of a third dimensional character and honestly I liked that much more than him being just a villain. It gives the moral that it's OK to showcase your soft side no matter how rough and tough you look and quite honestly, we need an episode like that in today's world. However I do wish that Duck was the one blackmailing Diesel about his soft side as he and Diesel have a bad history together and for Duck his message would be that revenge can't be sweet, of course this is what lead me to write the quadrilogy for my NWR Tales series.  

I still stand by my opinion that I stated back in 2017 in my 'Team Up With Thomas' DVD review that the episode 'Blown Away' really isn't one of my favourites. Skiff to me was a bland character, he wasn't interesting in 'Sodor's Legend of The Lost Treasure' and he didn't have that much character progression. I know he stood up towards Sailor John for doing something wrong but it only lasted for like a few seconds. It's that one moment you see it but if you turn your head and focus on something you've missed it. He's not by all means a terrible character I just wish they've done more for him than being this naive little sail boat.

I'm not too much of a fan of 'Pouty James' as I feel that his character has been flanderised here. But I kind of have a bit of soft spot for it as I can see Brenner capturing the classic series feeling towards it after rewatching it for sometime. The same can be applied for 'Henry Gets The Express', despite that Henry didn't have much of a personality to shine here, it was still an enjoyable episode and I see this working in the classic series.

It's also strange that the two Glynn episode's weren't on this release despite the fact that they were released alongside two S20 DVDs and were placed within S20. There's really an unknown reason, maybe because they were placed within the S21 package? But it looks like we might have to wait until next year to find out.  All the episodes from this DVD looking back is very good in my opinion and I believe they still hold up in the test of time. It's not a perfect season as there are some dudded ones here and there.

BONUS DISC

The bonus DVD is pretty much a left over from probably some unsold copies of the 2017 tent pole DVD. There are still the DVD commercials for Thomas products like the now defunct 'Adventures' range and the 'My First Thomas' baby merchandise, not the Golden Bear toy range. I haven't seen the episodes from this DVD apart from 'Three Steam Engines Gruff' and I have a bit of a soft spot for it and I think it's the nostalgia that's talking as I do love the Thomas, Toby and Percy combo here. But looking outside from the rose coloured glasses of nostalgia, the episode is still a dud. To be honest this could've worked for the likes of Bill, Ben and Timothy. 

Imagine that it was Halloween on Sodor and the twins love to play spooky tricks on the engines, especially Timothy. The twins made up a story about the three billy goats gruff to easily scare Timothy and one night there was a strange sound at the clay pits. Timothy told the twins who were shocked to hear that there is such a thing. The three engines heard the sound again realising that it was Trevor helping out Marion delivering some loose rock from a storm. This may sound similar to my Halloween story in 2018, of course the idea from that episode did come from SiF's blog review of 'Three Steam Engines Gruff'. 

I'm still not a fan of Hugo. I felt his debut episode was rather flat. He was never given a reason to be on Sodor and compare his episode to 'Harvey to the Rescue'. In Harvey's episode, the engines criticised him for being different because he has a crane on top of his boiler however after Percy had an accident he proved his worth by rescuing him and the other engines found him useful because of it. In Hugo's episode, he was being put down upon because of the constant fear that the steam engines on Sodor might be replaced by him but because Percy saw how they were putting him down they cheer for him. It would've been better if Andrew Brenner had gone for Hugo trying prove his worth, in my opinion he could've worked alongside Daisy and she sees him as a threat to her, it could've been unique as we have a diesel fearing to be replaced by another diesel. Just like Salty fearing that Porter might replaced him in 'Away From the Sea' in S17. I remember hearing from SiF that there were going to be more plans for Hugo but I think with the production of BWBA being green lit and with that S21 had to be cut short, he was probably given the chop. However if Thomas goes to Germany in BWBA, perhaps he might interact with him there. 

Another episode that I didn't find as entertaining is 'The Missing Breakdown Train'. It was nice to see Judy and Jerome again but the entire episode was almost nothing. It was two cranes wanting to be moved again and that's it not much else until Daisy fell off the line. I think a much better approach should be the two cranes wishing to be used for an emergency but Rocky was doing all the rescue work. But when Daisy had her accident, Thomas was to fetch Rocky but he was busy elsewhere and the only cranes were Judy and Jerome. After rescuing the search and rescue centre vehicles congratulated them and the Fat Controller made them members of the team. It would give off the message that two are better than one. Plus when it comes to the running time you can see why they made it shorter now. 8 3/4 minutes for such a minimal story relies so much on filler to fill in the time and I think this episode could maybe work within the new time limit. Honestly this was probably the weakest tent-pole release in my opinion. Not much of the episodes were interesting and the only one that was good was 'Henry In The Dark'.

OVERALL

Season 20 still holds up in my opinion but it's not a perfect season. There some good stories and there are some duds. I love the Railway Series adaptations that Brenner had brought in, but with the idea of them working in the series now, I don't see it as a huge loss. It's great that more of the Rev.W.Awdry's stories had been placed in the TV series canon but with the shorter running time and the fantasy sequences eating most of it up, I see it as impossible. But why isn't it a huge loss? If you look around on the internet you will find many fan made productions of the non-adapted stories in any form (Wood, Hornby, Bachmann, Trainz etc.) it may not be the TV series but it's the best of what we got. Plus when you look at the official YouTube channel, the Railway Series stories are still being told by Mark Moraghan's character, Mr. Evans, which was 'Thomas and the Guard'. I don't know how many shorts there are but I hope there are more to come.

RATING: 6.5/10

DVD Review: Monkey Trouble!

THESE ARE SOLEY MY OPINIONS AND ARE NOT INFLUENCED FROM THE THOMAS & FRIENDS FANBASE

MONKEY TROUBLE!

Written by

Becky Overton

Tim Bain

Lee Pressman

Andrew Brenner

Episodes

- Thomas and The Monkey Palace

- Cyclone Thomas

- Banjo and The Bushfire

- Samson and the Fireworks

- School of Duck

- Rosie is Red

- Seeing Is Believing 

- Apology Impossible

-Thomas' Animal Ark

Special Features

Karaoke Music Video

Meet the Characters

Thomas' Great Big World Shorts

Release Date

8/04/19 - UK

5/06/19 - AUS

Distributed by

Mattel Creations (UK)

ABC Kids (AUS)

Here is our first Thomas & Friends DVD for the year 2019 for the UK. There had been some worry for the future of physical media, particularly for the North American audience as Thomas is shown exclusively on Nick Jr despite a deal made between Mattel and the streaming services (Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime) a year ago. The UK had some worry as well, since the last Thomas DVD released was in September 2018. But of course all that was settled when this was shown on Amazon UK and with the Thomas DVDs selling well over, Mattel wouldn't give up on releasing more to Thomas' native homeland. So here are my views on the recent release. 

EPISODES

The DVD consists eight episodes from the 22nd series featuring Australia and India from the international side of the series and five episodes from the Sodor side. I'll start off with the dudded episodes first and the first one is 'Apology Impossible'. I hate this episode and I think it had so many opportunities to make Philip grow as a character. We saw him standing up to a bigger engine for the first time and he is still acting all wimpy and not doing anything towards James like why not have him, Thomas, Paxton and Rebecca helping him pushing James away from the bridge. Plus I still do think Gordon would've been a better option rather than James. Another episode that is a dud is from Australia called 'Banjo and The Bushfire'. I still think the title was pointless and while the story wasn't bad it really wasn't good. I mean the episode could've been about why fire and wildlife don't mix and how that can harm the animals and their homes. Tamika's sole appearance is nothing but barebones here and I hope with S23 coming soon and for a fact that Australia will be in it next season, we see her in it again. Her and the other international engines need better treatment in my opinion when it comes to development. 

Now onwards to the other episodes. I honestly don't see anything bad from the Monkey Palace episode it was not a perfect episode but it's better than the other India episodes barring 'Tiger Trouble'. The same can be said about 'Cyclone Thomas' too, while not perfect with Thomas not being told that he shouldn't be playing doctor as it is a serious job but it had a good message about wanting to help in anyway.

I do think 'School of Duck', 'Rosie Is Red', 'Seeing Is Believing' and 'Thomas' Animal Ark' were the best episodes among on the DVD. My views on these episode are still the same as when I first watched them so please follow the link that is highlighted on the episode title.

SPECIAL FEATURES

The music video of the new theme song is pretty much that. What I think they should've done was rather than using the theme song, they should've used the extended version that can be downloaded on iTunes or streamed on Spotify and use clips from various seasons and the BWBA movie. Kids would love it but I think it would've been better if there was more. 

There are also the 'Thomas' Great Big World' segments. One was focused on the animals of the world and the other was about the new steam team. Not really anything special but it was a nice and informative for kids and I think the current steam team videos with the updated rivets and detail on the main characters are much better compare to the one here. Not a big fan of the jokey stuff in the videos either but I've heard worse (*stares at 'The Great Model Railway Challenge' hosts and there uninspiring puns*)

Then you have the 'Meet the Characters' videos and as usual just about the international characters that were on the DVD such as Tamika, Shankar and Rajiv. I will say the scene of Rajiv and the Bollywood actor at the station would've been much a better Bollywood episode. 

OVERALL

How 'Thomas Goes To Bollywood' SHOULD'VE been.

While the DVD has a couple of duds, it wasn't that bad in my opinion. There are some good episodes to watch through and while the special features aren't that great in my opinion they were fine and harmless. Personally I buy a handful of episodes that I've enjoyed and have them on my phone and while I do like buying a physical DVD, I do see the benefits of downloading and streaming, but it has its own limits too with some content deleted when there licensing is up. It's nice to see that physical media is still going strong in the UK as well as Australia but with the way things are going on in the US, I think it might be because there is no US distributor right now. Take a look at iTunes US for Thomas content. All of the DVD length videos are gone including the classic series and yearly specials and the only ones left are S16-20. The only place is Amazon Prime and even they aren't releasing new content to their streaming service. 

I believe that Paramount might do the job considering that Viacom and Nickelodeon got exclusive rights to be the merchandise agents and that Paramount are owned by Viacom as well. There hasn't been a DVD released there since 2017 and there are parents on Facebook are frustrated right now with the lack of it. To me this damaging of the show's popularity in the US with the new series being exclusive to one channel that parents have to buy and with the lack of newer content means not much money for Mattel/HIT Entertainment and the only way for parents to find the new Thomas content is through YouTube recordings from the people who do have the subscription. Something that Mattel/HIT as a business would not love. If anyone from Mattel/HIT are reading this PLEASE do something about it for everyone, this is poor customer service.

Rating: 6.5/10

Monkey Trouble is out now at UK shops and will be released in Australia on June 5th 

Toy Review: Trackmaster Push Along

Happy belated New Year! I hope everyone is having a good year so far. Since there isn't any new Thomas DVD released yet in the UK and since Mattel had announced via twitter that they aren't planning any DVDs for the US anytime soon, here is the first post for 2019 about the new range that will be replacing 'Adventures' this year and beyond (maybe). Anyway, here is my review on the new range and here is usual warning: 

THESE ARE SOLEY MY OPINIONS AND ARE NOT INFLUENCED FROM THE THOMAS & FRIENDS FANBASE

TRACKMASTER PUSH ALONG

This is their literal logo. The push along name is on the bottom let hand corner.

Back in 2018, 'Tootally Thomas' had announced that Mattel were cancelling their Adventures range due to poor sales. To me this was an unexpected and disheartening surprise. Considering that these days the toys that Mattel had released under the Thomas banner have been given mixed reception among parents and fans, Adventures, to me, at least had some quality added to it despite the squat cabs and large dimension. Plus it is strange how Mattel cancelled the line in just a year since its debut, but I guess because it was a new range and a new range means buying the same characters and sets again because its incompatible with the previous range before it, which I get from the consumer side.

Anyway, when the new Trackmaster Push Along pictures came to surface on the internet, there was some mixed reception. I honestly try and defend some of Mattel's products such as Trackmaster and Wood, yeah I don't think Wood was that bad. Heck even when they introduced the large magnets in the Take-N-Play range, I defended that strongly because they are a magnet! But after seeing some, some of the character's modelling was off putting like Belle, Gordon, Henry and James look more like monster trucks rather than engines. However there are some good ones that I consider buying such as Rebecca, Rajiv, Rosie, Shane etc. as they look more better compare to the other ones. 

I bought the Thomas model just recently as of writing this and to be honest he looks good but the toy isn't really that different expect for the slight height and the Trackmaster coupling. They can couple up to the Adventure toys. It's really not any different compare to their previous range and that's it really.

But my main gripe is the name of it all. Why call it 'Trackmaster'? Did Mattel do some market research and found that their main seller is the Trackmaster range or did they pull that out of their head at the last minute? To me the name can be quite confusing for the consumer considering that the packaging looks vastly similar to one another. What would happen if their's a character that a child wants in Trackmaster battery form and it turns out to be from this range and when they get home they realise it doesn't take batteries at all. Nothing is really distinct. What Mattel could've done was keeping the range as 'Adventures' but tool it up to make it compatible to both (Trackmaster/Adventures) tracks or better yet, leave the Adventures range alone and actually make tracks and sets like the Super Station! Cause if parents collect different ranges all together why not make one whole track system that can work?

The Super Station set had been given an award in 2017 by the 'Oppenheim Toy Portfolio' and was a popular selling toy too, you think with that success Mattel might want to try and create more sets for that and it would make sense too considering that all of the Thomas toys released by Mattel can fit all on that one track. I don't know what Mattel's idea was for the Super Station, but I believe they had many complaints from parents how, in all honesty, that the various Thomas toys don't work on track that are not really compatible.

'Trackmaster Push Along' Thomas with 'Adventures' Ace 

on 'Adventures' track.

The sets for this new range however seem rather lazy with the wagon it's provided. I mean, it sticks out like a sore thumb and what they could've done instead was reuse the wagons and carriages from the 'Adventures' range. If Mattel are cost cutting things why not reuse those toys and save parents the trouble on buying new sets and toys? In the end, the range looks OK but considering that Adventures went under the knife due to poor sales most likely because parents have to buy the same characters again for compatibility, I don't see this range lasting well. If there are any parents reading this, I suggest maybe buy characters that your children don't have and not worry about buying the sets if you have 'Adventures'. If their are parents who child are just getting into Thomas, I think their isn't much option unless who may have a family member or a friend who are willing to give away their lot if their kid had grown out of Thomas or eBay if someone is selling sets, toys and accessories. If not, like I said before, there isn't any other as some stores have very little to make way for this range.

Rating: 3.5/10

A Retrospective of Thomas & Friends DVDs in 2018

As the clock is ticking down the hours of 2018, let's take a look at the DVD's of Thomas & Friends that were released during the course of 2018:

THESE ARE SOLEY MY OPINIONS AND THEY ARE NOT INFLUENCED FROM THE THOMAS & FRIENDS FAN BASE

SOME OF MY OPINIONS MAY BE DIFFERENT FROM MY PREVIOUS REVIEWS: 

---

DANGER AT THE DOCKS

Review Date:

27/1/18

The second last release of the 21 episodes. To be honest, I don't really think these are the best portion of S21. The stories aren't bad but they weren't really the strong ones. The only one that was good from this bunch was 'Philip's Number', you can read my opinion on the episode in the DVD review by looking through January 2018 on the blog archive.

Rating: 8/10

ON THE GO WITH THOMAS

Review Date:

19/4/18

This is probably the best one of the S21 releases. I honestly don't have any criticism towards the choice of episodes that they've gone with here. Plus the highlight was the 'Little Engines' remake, it's nice to see that the songs from the classic series are given some new lease of life and some had finally made their debut on UK home video since the song was made over a decade ago.

Rating: 9/10

THE COMPLETE SERIES 19 COLLECTION

Review Date:

18/07/18

S19 wasn't really the best among the Brenner/McCue era after the likes of S17-18. Some had even said that the season was on par with S13-16, which is something that I disagree with strongly. Sure some episodes were duds and not really interesting to watch (e.g - Rocky Rescue) but some episodes were good to sit through and even some duds have some watchability in them and the stories at least have effort put into it. I think considering we had the likes of 'The Adventure Begins' and 'Sodor's Legend of the Lost Treasure' back then, fans were expecting something much bigger for the show, as we were in the 70th anniversary period as well by that point, a good example of self-hype. One of the criticisms I give to S19 is that this was the start of the 'series before special' idea. All of these episodes were set before the 2015 special but there was nothing that hinted that. I mean why not have Daisy working on Thomas' branch line or have someone mentioning about the new extension? Or have the Arelesdale Miniature Engine stories adapted for this series. It makes me glad that BWBA stopped that and moved back to what the series had done since the start of the DVD specials. However what I do like was that S19 gave episodes to characters like Stephen who hadn't had episodes focused on them in a while. 

Rating: 6.5/10

BIG WORLD! BIG ADVENTURES! 
THE MOVIE

Review Date:

5/09/18

Was the fury of this movie any necessary? In my opinion, no. Ever since the movie and revamped series was announced back in 2017, most people from the fanbase went into a huge meltdown and criticised the likes of Nia for being a bad character from the little info that press releases were saying about her. Too many had jumped the gun and thought that this was another 'dark era' because their are some new changes to the show that pretty much weren't too drastic, and when the movie was finally released, I thought it was very good. Nia and Ace made a great dynamic with Thomas and they feel like Thomas' shoulder angels. Nia is the one telling Thomas to be responsible but Ace is the one telling Thomas to have fun and not follow the rules and Thomas blindly follows him because he is 'free and easy' until he (Thomas) learnt how Ace can be a bad influence, a moral that I don't see working in the 'dark era' which was the Miller/Barlow era. Plus the pacing feels like what every other Thomas special was in the past as well, so nothing drastic had happened. However the ending could've been a bit better, but I still enjoyed it in the end.

Some fans had said that railway realism is now going to be thrown out of the window, despite that it hadn't been 100% since S5. But there are plenty such as rails running through the Sahara dessert, the brazilian rainforest, the Morenci Loop is an actual place and so on, despite that the Rainbow Mountains and the loop-de-loop scene are the more unrealistic ones. 

Considering that next year we are going to get three 20 minute specials, most likely for TV, I'm fine if they stop creating these yearly specials as it would stop the illegal cinema recordings. Yes HIT and Mattel should've released the movies simultaneously over the years, but illegal recordings are illegal recordings no matter what excuse fans have.     

Rating: 9/10

HERE COMES THE STEAM TEAM!

Review Date:
17/10/18

There episodes that I think that should've been more better, particularly in the International side and episodes like Puzzling Parts was boring. Other than that, the DVD was good and despite the series being such a great success, it gained 40% of viewership in the UK, it had its faults and I hope improvements are made to make the newly refreshed series better.

Rating: 7/10

---

And so that was 2018! What's in store for next year? Honestly I don't know. All I know is that the new revamped series is here to stay and I hope it gets improved for the best. I'm also sad that next year will be Andrew Brenner's last season as head writer after five years. Say what you want about him and his specials and episodes but he had led a team in bringing Thomas back to being great again, not a Trump reference. I had a feeling that this news will happen one day but I am not that worried about the future. Brenner may have left but Ian McCue, Michael White, Davey Moore etc. are still with us and they know the show well.

If he's reading this, I want to thank Andrew Brenner for all the hard work he had done for Thomas the Tank Engine with his team of great writers and I welcome aboard the new head writer for Season 24. Dry Rails and Good Runnings! And I also like to say:

HAPPY AND SAFE 2019!!

- NWR991.

S22 Ep.26: Kangaroo Christmas + Series Overall

THESE ARE SOLEY MY OPINIONS AND ARE NOT INFLUENCED BY THE THOMAS & FRIENDS FANBASE

KANGAROO CHRISTMAS

Written by

Tim Bain

Directed by

Dianna Basso

Produced by

Micaela Winter

Plot
Thomas tries to save a toy kangaroo from an actual Kangaroo! 

Air Date

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

Number One Engine - 8/10

Forever and Ever - 8.5/10

Thomas and the Dragon - 10/10
Confusion Without Delay - 10/10
Trusty Trunky - 6.5/10
What Rebecca Does - 9/10
Thomas Goes to Bollywood - 6/10
Samson and The Fireworks - 10/10
Runaway Truck - 7/10
Rosie Is Red - 10/10
Thomas In The Wild - 5/10
Thomas' Animal Ark - 9/10
Thomas and the Monkey Palace - 7/10
An Engine of Many Colours - 8/10
Outback Thomas - 10/10
School of Duck - 9/10
Tiger Trouble - 9/10
Seeing in Believing - 9/10
Apology Impossible - 3/10
The Water Wheel - 6/10
Hunt The Truck - 10/10
Cyclone Thomas - 8/10
The Case Of The Puzzling Parts - 6/10
Banjo And The Bushfire - 4/10
Counting On Nia - 8/10
Kangaroo Christmas - 7/10

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