S22 Ep.4: Confusion Without Delay

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

CONFUSION WITHOUT DELAY

Written by

Davey Moore

Directed by

Dianna Basso

Air Date

6/09/18

Plot
Rebecca, the big tender engine, surprises Sir Topham Hatt by arriving early on the island. After all the other engines tell her how fast and useful they all are, Rebecca wants to impress them too. But she tries too hard that she turns up too early for the passengers and leaves early too! 

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After months of waiting we finally get to see Rebecca in action.

I remember years ago there were debates about whether it was necessary to introduce the likes of Pip and Emma into the series, considering that they were bringing Railway Series characters into the show. Some, in their respects, think that there's no need to because Gordon can take it or that Connor and Caitlin do trips from the mainland, they're too modern and that they (Pip and Emma) have no character. For the latter it's true as they didn't receive much attention from Christopher Awdry but for the other arguments, I think it is possible to have more than one engine pulling the express trains now that Rebecca, a permanent member of the NWR, pulls it alongside Gordon and for the latter as well, perhaps the production team should give the two HST engines some personality as well. They did for Flying Scotsman and Rev.W.Awdry barely gave him any in 'Enterprising Engines'. With the too modern argument, we have a diesel shunter from China in the BWBA movie that was based on a locomotive from 2003 and that's very modern for a show that has a 'timeline' set between the 50's-70's. 

Anyway back to the episode now, I love Rebecca and her character too. An engine trying to fit in after seeing how cool the 'steam team' were and she wants to make a great first impression but made mistakes in the end. Something I think kids can relate too. I think Gordon was well in character here and is still trying to accept the change. But after Rebecca came to Gordon's defence after his brother's teasing, he started to feel warm by her presence. I think it showcases that Gordon might get along with Rebecca in the end. I like the choice of her basis and with brakes making her slip, I remember hearing that's an actual flaw that her basis had suffered so it's nice to some railway realism is still here. 

Plus I like the yellow it seems more suited for an engine like her. In a marketing and psychological standpoint, the colour makes her standout and some child psychologists says that the colour yellow is considered a gender neutral colour as well, so both girls and boys might be attracted by her colour. It worked for Minions and Pikachu from Pokemon.   

There were some funny moments like Rebecca's exchange of words towards Diesel and Rebecca's voice actress had put on a funny impression of Diesel that gave me a chuckle and the Fat Controller not saying his usual catchphrase. 

However despite being great, there were some flaws such as Henry's reason of moving to Vicarstown being glossed over. I just hope we get a reason for him someday. In the end, this episode was great!   

Episode Rating

Number One Engine - 8/10

Forever and Ever - 8.5/10

Thomas and the Dragon - 10/10
Confusion Without Delay - 10/10

Series Rating (So far):

36.5/40

S22 Ep.3: Thomas and The Dragon

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

THOMAS AND THE DRAGON

Written by
Davey Moore

Directed by

Dianna Basso

Produced by

Micela Winter (HIT/Mattel)

Air Date

5/09/18

Plot 

It's the time of the Spring Festival, in which the New Year is celebrated in China. Yong Bao asks Thomas to bring the dragon that will serve for the festivities in the big city square.

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While the UK were watching 'Confusion Without Delay', Australia's third episode was another episode based around in China focusing on Chinese New Year, I think milkshake are keeping this for New Years at the end of this year or for Chinese New Year next year. To me this was better than the season's opener, which was also penned by Moore as the episode feels like a Thomas story with an engine being afraid of something this is completely unknown and while some might argue that Thomas wasn't scared of the dragon in the season three episode, Thomas does have a history of being scared such as Percy being a 'ghost'. I think maybe Thomas being boastful might have worked with him denying that he is scared, but it's not really any huge loss if that didn't happen as the rest of the episode just felt good. 

The pacing for this episode felt natural and doesn't feel like the plot was abrupt and the fantasy sequence didn't feel as ridiculous as Gordon's in 'Forever & Ever'. The Chinese new year celebration was nice to see and they did a great job of making it accurate and despite that my home town always have a Chinese New Year celebration for our Chinese residents, I learnt that this:

Was actually a Lion! I always thought they were Dragons ever since I was a kid and it was nice to learn something new from this show when it comes to different cultures. If some fans however were thinking that the Chinese Dragon from S3 is a returnee, prepare to be disappointed. In the end, it was an excellent episode. I also have a feeling that ABC Australia might keep this episode for Chinese New Year in 2019 too. 

Episode Rating

Number One Engine - 8/10

Forever and Ever - 8.5/10

Thomas and the Dragon - 10/10

Series Rating (So far):

26.5/30

LOOK OUT FOR MY MOVIE/DVD REVIEW OF 
BIG WORLD BIG ADVENTURES THE MOVIE TOMORROW!

S22 Ep.2: Forever and Ever

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

FOREVER AND EVER

Written by
Andrew Brenner

Directed by

Dianna Basso

Produced by

Micaela Winter (HIT/Mattel)

Air Date

4/09/18

Plot
Gordon is so upset about Sir Topham Hatt's decision to move Edward and Henry out of the sheds that he makes his own changes in protest. Sent back to his shed in disgrace, Gordon insists that he's happy to stay there forever, but his new friend Nia, the steam engine from Kenya, helps him to take a fresh look at the situation. 

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So we got a sequel to 'A Shed for Edward' and I thought it was much better than the season opener. I feel like this should've been the first episode of S22 as it paves the way from the S21 finale. I will admit there were some flaws like Henry not having a reason on why he's going to Vicarstown, but I hope that'll be explored later on as the series progresses, but I think a few seconds on why he's moving could've been placed. I know we aren't going to get a Henry episode but maybe we might be a mention from either him or from Thomas in a different episode. I think the time limit is something to thank for that.

Gordon's tantrum after finding out that Henry is staying at Vicarstown is something I had a laugh at, as the newley revamped series is to have an increase in humour, although some fans in their respects see this as the older fanbase having a whinge and a moan about these changes, although it couldn't be a metaphor considering that the episode's would've been written and placed in production a year in advance, well before 'A Shed for Edward' had aired. Some people can go at big lengths on not dealing with changes such as the autistic community as it can become stressful as their lives are based on ritual and once when some changes it doesn't go well for them. Plus some have been saying that Gordon was out of character with him dealing with change when really he was always resistance when it comes to the subject, he was like with diesels back in the early days and despite being one of my most hated episodes, he was also like this in 'Edward Strikes Out' with Rocky. Plus he was like this in 'Henry Gets the Express' when he feared that Henry might take the express from then on.   

The dream sequence I think was fun but it felt but a little long compare to Thomas' in the season opener and it felt more like an merchandise commercial for the upcoming Glow-in-the Dark Trackmaster set that's coming out soon. Nia's message in the end though I felt was the icing on the cake, despite that I was hoping more from her, but maybe because I was still thinking of the longer running time like last season. But her moral of the episode still stands, change is hard to get use too, but despite that and no matter how the long distance is we are still friends near and far, although some think it was Nia saying 'I have it worse!' although I don't see that. She was feeling empathetic towards Gordon because she knows what it was like when it comes to the concpet of change. Nia's dealing is something that immagrants have to face with when it comes to it such being in a new country, being in a new place of work or study and trying to make new friends. It's hard but it takes time but we will get use to it.

The ending with Gordon freaking out over the hint of Rebecca's arrival is something I don't see as off putting, Gordon is still processing the concpet of change. He does understand it but he hasn't accept it yet. Although Thomas' teasing at the end is something that I find to be a little off. Perhaps Thomas should've said, 'I think it'll take sometime for Gordon to accept change, even if he does understand it.'

Could the episode be a bit better, it could but Henry's non explanation or the long running time of Gordon's fantasy sequence didn't turn the episode down for me. I pretty much enjoyed this episode and its moral I felt was handled fine. 

Episode Rating:
Number One Engine - 8/10
Forever And Ever - 8.5/10

Series Overall (So far):
16.5/20

S22 Ep.1: Number One Engine

Well, after much waiting we are here to witness the new revamped series of Thomas & Friends, despite that it had already aired in Italy in August. I had already discussed about the history of this idea in my editorial review of the trailer here, so feel free to check it out and see what lead to this. All I can say now is this, is the new series a hit or is it a blunder that some people had hoped for? Well let's find out! But first:

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

NUMBER ONE ENGINE

Written by

Davey Moore

Directed by

Dianna Basso

Produced by

Micaela Winter (HIT/Mattel)

Air Date

3/09/18

Plot
Thomas is in China, where another blue tank engine named Hong-Mei is the number one engine on the national railway. Hong-Mei challenges Thomas to a race and wins, so Thomas is determined to beat her in a second race. But when he takes a short cut along the steep mountain pass, he hits a rock on the line and derails...


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The first episode of the revamped series and to me it was good. Not great nor bad or anything just good. I do understand from other people's perspective is that the episodes now run on a shorter time limit, 7:00 minutes when you remove the opening and closing credits. Last season's episodes had a running length of 11 minutes long and there are a couple of episodes that had suffered from relying on something to pace the episode, like repetition or filler. 'Terence Breaks the Ice' is one episode that comes from the top of my head with his pacing and most of the episode had relied on the flashback. Sure it's a way to let the younger audience to get to know who Terence is and Thomas' history with him, but the flashback took most of the time as the episode was thin in plot and I think it could work here. 'Emily in The Middle' also feels like it relied on repetition as well with the twins' bickering and switching from front to back. I think the pacing is something we have to get use to as we are familiar to the longer running length from the past few seasons.

Considering now the show is teaching kids about different cultures, I think it was nice. Some fans think it was shoehorned in but I feel like they were placed nicely into the story about how they write number in a different language and that the colour red is the colour of luck in China, hence why it's a very popular colour over there, something I learnt that was new from this episode. Plus the little references didn't feel like they took anything away from the show. 

The idea of this episode of racing isn't anything new, we had them before with the likes of 'Thomas' Shortcut' and 'Reds Vs. Blues'. But to me this episode feels a bit different as Thomas is trying to prove that he's the number one engine to Hong Mei and learned that there's no need to be better than the other, we can be number one equally, considering that some episodes are basing their stories through the UN's sustainable goals and how some media outlets are saying this fits under the gender equality goal. 

One of the characters that stood out is An An and Lin Yong as they are the polar opposites of Annie and Clarabel. Thomas' coaches from Sodor are more stern when it comes to Thomas' antics but An An and Lin Yong are more daring, imagine an episode with them together. It would provide a great dynamic between the two characters. 

In the end, it wasn't a bad start to the new revamped series. The pacing of the story I see is something that some have to get use to after years of the longer running time, the shorter running time got rid of the three strikes formula that some fans wanted gone for a while, I mean we had 'Timothy and the Rainbow Truck' had it a three strike formula, even though I felt it was done right.

Episode Rating:

Number One Engine - 8/10

Series Rating (So far):

8/10

DVD Review: The Complete Series 19

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

THE COMPLETE SERIES 19

Written by

Lee Pressman

Davey Moore

Helen Farrall 

Nick Olster & Mark Huckerby

Becky Overton

Andrew Brenner

Robin Gay (story idea)

Episodes

Who's Geffory?

The Truth About Toby

Lost Property

Henry Spots Trouble

Toad and the Whale

Very Important Sheep

Salty All at Sea

Den and Dart

Helping Hiro

Snow Place Like Home

The Beast of Sodor

A Cranky Christmas

Diesel's Ghostly Christmas
Thomas the Babysitter

Rocky Rescue

The Otherside of the Mountain

No Help at All

Goodbye Fat Controller

Wild Water Rescue

Bonus Disc: Start Your Engines 
Slow Stephen
Two Wheels Good

Reds Vs Blues

Best Engine Ever

The Little Engine Who Raced Ahead

Philip to the Rescue

Special Features (Start Your Engines):
Really Useful Engines 
The Earl's Quiz 
Landmarks of Sodor 
The Fat Controller's Tales 
"Race With You" Sing-Along Music Video
"On A Journey Today" Sing-Along Music Video

Special Features (S19 DVD): 

N/A

Release Date

2/07/18

Like every other year, the UK has their 19th series compilation DVD of season 19, of course. 2015 marked the 70th anniversary of the Railway Series books and during that year we had seen two specials. One is 'The Adventure Begins' which is a DVD focusing on the Rev.W.Awdry's early Railway Series books and the other is 'Sodor's Legend of the Lost Treasure', which is one of the yearly specials. Some fans were left in anticipation of what S19 might offer, however some were disappointed by the outcome of it. Considering that S19 is nearly 5 years old in a couple of years, does it still hold up? Let's find out!

EPISODES

I remember watching 'Henry Spots Trouble' when it first came out on 'Whale of a Tale & Other Sodor Stories' when it was a Wal*Mart exclusive DVD and digital download and I hated it because of Henry being in his wimpy persona. But after reading other people's viewpoint on the episode and actually seeing it again not too long after its debut, it was surprisingly a big change from the usual Henry is a wimp episode (e.g - 'Henry's Magic Box') To me what makes it surprising is that Henry's wimpy attitude actually works in this episode! Henry may have human characteristics but he is still an engine and of course what would an engine know about chicken pox? We never had any episode previously of him knowing the concept of it all and it makes the episode more enjoyable. Henry is learning something that is new and different and that is not common to engines. I understand that this episode could work with the likes of Percy or Paxton and I can see that as well. But with Henry and his persona that he was given, he was treated right and kudos to Davey Moore for using that persona and turn it into something that can be relatable to every child with the fear of the unknown story.

'The Otherside of the Mountain' is still one of the most rushed stories I have seen from this DVD still ever since it was a YouTube upload from a Japanese fan. The story is basically a rehash of 'Thomas' Shortcut' with a few little tweaks here and there and the crash was just unneeded, written by the same writer who wrote the former. Sure they want Thomas to see what Bertie sees and to showcase the moral that Thomas needs to pay attention that it feels forced and the build up was really anti-climatic with the poster that Bertie was talking about to Thomas. Just watch 'Thomas' Shortcut', it's heaps better than this story. This is not a way to bash Andrew Brenner as a bad writer, he's not.

'Rocky Rescue' is another terrible episode I just can't stand. The whole team work moral was just hammered down such as Rocky saying he's happy of just being part of a team and the whole working together moral hammered down by Thomas and the rescue team, like we get it! Team work is good, just stop hammering it down, please! But the one good thing from this episode is that Rocky FINALLY has a personality, he has a calm and cool attitude, hopefully they focus more on him in the future. 'No Help at All' had done it more better as the moral was mentioned at times but it really didn't feel like it was hammering it.

'Wild Water Rescue' was a bit bland to watch looking back, there was not really much conflict between Diesel and Percy. What could've been better if Diesel had tricked Percy, Percy was cross with Diesel after finding out that he'd played a trick on him and he didn't get a chance to be on the newspaper, Diesel felt bad and want to make things right and had an accident which involves Percy to rescue him and got his dream to become a reality. I will say that Diesel's complexity is good to see in the episode, it shows that despite being devious, tricky and troublesome, he just wants to be really useful for once towards the other engines. It adds a bit of depth to his character being more dimensional rather than being a one-dimensional villain.

'Diesel's Ghostly Christmas' was still a good watch and I love it how they've separated the two episode as it was on television back in 2015. I do remember someone saying that it didn't add anything new, but what Christmas Carol adaptation is? Many of them have adapted from the same book such as Mickey Mouse, The Flinstones etc. The only one that I could think of that did it different was Blackadder, by having Rowan Atkinson's character going from good to bad like his ancestors, and that was done to fit the show's image and it was hilarious!

I still think 'Goodbye Fat Controller' was a lot more better than 'The Truth About Toby', for the former, despite the whole thing being a rumour, the engines have the right to worry about the idea that the Fat Controller was leaving the railway because there's a fear of the unknown. Who would replace the Fat Controller? A controller who doesn't see the point of having steam engines on a railway and would prefer modern day traffic? Some fans have been saying that Edward was out of character here but to me I say that it fits him. Edward is an old engine and the Fat Controller, in the TV series, sees his worth on the railway and what would happen if he's replaced? There is the potential of him being scrapped by a new one. Whereas in the Toby episode, the engines feared that the Fat Controller might scrap Toby because he was at the scrap yard. Sure according to the Sodor book by the Rev.W.Awdry and his brother George, the coffee pot engines were scrapped by Sir Topham Hatt 1, and that's true, but the TV series had evolved and changed the Fat Controller over the years and we know today he wouldn't have the heart of scrapping Toby, the guy saved him from his old railway! So it's unbelievably gullible that the engines thought something like that would happen. I will say that the ending feels like something for the critics who over the years theorised that Sodor is a communistic island and the Fat Controller scraps engine if they aren't useful in a dictatorial fashion. Sadly there are gullible people out there that will believe anything on the internet and won't bother to research it themselves and actually think of the context of the stories and characters. They would believe anything as fact and that's that, seriously researching things yourself is not that hard! I understand that the episode's message was about not to gossip or believe everything that might not be true, but it was the wrong choice of character in my opinion.

START YOUR ENGINES

Basically 'Start Your Engines' is just a re-release of the DVD that came out in 2016 as the trailer for 'The Great Race' is still intact with the words 'Coming Soon'. I understand that some fans aren't keen on the idea of having the same DVD again but there are people who miss out on buying it when it came out two years ago. If you want to see my view, please click the title of the DVD above.

OVERALL

Basically, like all series compilations, they are good to have if you have a collection of every season of Thomas. I think S19 is good still and not anywhere like S13-16. There's a dud here and there but there was at least some watchability for those kinds of episodes. 

OVERALL RATING: 6.5/10

NWR Editorial: Big World Big Adventure: The Movie Trailer

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

THIS POST MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS

NWR EDITORIAL:

BIG WORLD BIG ADVENTURE: THE MOVIE TRAILER

When 'Journey Beyond Sodor' had its trailer released on May 12th 2017, Christopher Keenan, the executive producer behind Thomas & Friends, had revealed in an interview with Kidscreens that Thomas was going up for a revamp. Many fans were concerned about this news thinking it might be a spin-off to the show, I thought so too. However that was all shot down later on in the year when it was announced that the new show was to be shown at MIPJunior and the idea of the show was to take Thomas on an international trip around the world meeting friends from 'The Great Race'. With fans thinking that this is a 'reboot' resulting into fear and anger despite that the series beforehand, in their perspective, was doing fine. 

However SiF had stated that Thomas has a decline in ratings thanks to the ever increasing popularity of Nickelodeon's Paw Patrol and a lack of toy sales and so Mattel decided to revamp the show with more humour, music and fast paced storylines to make it more interesting and relevant to today's generation of kids. This also resulted into having two new female characters, Nia and Rebecca, replacing Edward and Henry at the sheds, although the latter two are fine and will still be in the show. The new female characters were added for gender equality and because the viewership from girls is increasing, that subject however will be discussed at a later date.

However despite fans criticism of the new changes, it had been reported that the new revamped series had been met with positive reception from the crowd at MIPJunior in Cannes, France in 2017.

More clips had been revealed for the new show through a Toy Fair presentation earlier this year, but my opinions of the show will be posted at a later date when the new revamped series had made its debut on television. Now in May 2018, we finally have the trailer for the 2018 DVD special and here are my thoughts on the trailer that was posted by the official Thomas & Friends UK YouTube channel, although it was posted 10 days ago on IMDB.

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The trailer opens up with Thomas pulling into Vicarstown, probably him pulling the local again and would most likely be bored of doing the same job and seeing the same sites again and again and that motivates Thomas wanting to see the world, it's my belief on what that scene would most likely to be played out.

We then meet our new character Ace, a race car who is racing around the world. I wonder how his character would play out? The synopsis mentioned that he is mischievous, so I believe will see him getting into a few scrapes with Thomas on their world travels. Also I like the fact that Ace is from Australia, considering he said 'G'Day' in the trailer and that word is mostly common towards people in Australia and New Zealand as well, his accent is even different towards the UK voices from the other characters.

We also see Nia, the character that will be joining the 'steam team' replacing Edward, who by the way was seen in the trailer along with Henry and Toby in the teaser that was released last week, so he's not gone as some fans thought, him and Henry are still being used but their roles won't be as big as they use to be and Toby is safe as well.

Other newbies are shown in the trailer such as the African Garratt and I love it that they are finally introducing one! It's quite common back in the days of steam that Africa had used Garratt locomotives and it adds a nice bit of railway accuracy, eh? So despite that railway practice is not going to be used at times, its not entirely thrown out of the window. Although I do still see the potential of educating kids about different railway operations in different countries.

We even see characters that were once in 'The Great Race' such as Yong Bao, as of course Mattel want to increase Thomas' popularity over in China since it was broadcasted over there 10 years ago. Another little fun fact is that steam engines from China are still in commercial use in China, although Yong Bao's basis had been withdrawn and most of the remaining Chinese steam engines work in mines.

The trailer had also shown some unrealistic stuff. Now I know a few years ago I had criticised past episodes that were unrealistic, but over the years my mood over that issue had started to decrease and I'm becoming more accepting to this stuff. Sure some people will say that Rev.W.Awdry would not like this movie and I can see that as he didn't like 'Henry's Forest'. But there are some episodes and movies that I like that are unrealistic such as 'Thomas the Jet Engine', 'Tale of the Brave' and 'Sodor's Legend of the Lost Treasure'. The 360 degree scene though is ridiculous yes and I have a feeling it would be like the bridge jump in 'The Great Race'. Not just because it's unrealistic but because it could be pointless filler.

One thing that I love from the trailer is how amazing the lighting is! I know this is an unpopular opinion as most older fans don't like it, my belief way it looks bright and saturated is to make it more appealing to younger kids, studies show that young kids do get attracted by the bright colours. The sun setting in Africa looks spectacular too. Considering that this is Jam Filled's first Thomas special that they've entirely animated, it shows. 'Journey Beyond Sodor' was produced by Arc Productions until they were bankrupted thanks to 'Blazing Saddles', don't believe everything you hear on the internet, like how TGR was the cause of Arc's downfall.

Although the new changes may not appeal to some of the older fans, I have a feeling that this special might be a hit as Mattel are going all out on this special to meet with the toy sales  

BIG WORLD BIG ADVENTURES: THE MOVIE

IN UK CINEMAS JULY 2018

COMING SOON TO NICK JR USA
 IN FALL 2018

COMING SOON TO DVD 
IN AUTUMN 2018

UK TRAILER

DVD Review: On the Go With Thomas

Usually around this time of the year we would've been given the usual episode exclusive Spring DVD releases which are the last remaining six episodes to fulfil the overall season. But it had been canned to make way for the development of the new series and movie 'Big World Big Adventure'. Plus it was no surprise considering how there was hardly any tie-in-toy products announced of any upcoming Spring DVD and usually the latter of last year would've shown something by now ready for the next year.

Now that we had three S21 DVDs starting from 'Christmas on Sodor' last year, this concludes S21 on the episodic releases, before we await the usual series collection around 2020 once S19 and 20 are out of the road this year and next year. But first let's review the last S21 episodic DVD: 

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

ON THE GO WITH THOMAS

Written by
Helen Farrall
Lee Pressman

Episodes
The Fastest Red Engine on Sodor
A Shed for Edward
Dowager Hatt's Busy Day
Runaway Engines
P.A Problems
Hasty Hannah
Unscheduled Stops

Special Features
Little Engines - Sing-a-long
Down at The Station - Power of the Railway
Learn with Thomas - Doing Too Much
The Earl's Quiz
Who's That Engine?

Directed by
Dianna Basso

Produced by
Micaela Winters
Tracy Blagdon

Release Date

12/03/18 

Distributed by

Mattel Creations/HIT Entertainment (UK)

EPISODES

After the UK airing of 'A Shed for Edward' there had been plenty of reports on the internet that the episode had narration in it. It all started in Canada around early 2018 and it had been broadcasted in other countries like Japan and Australia. Here is the episode in its UK dub that had been broadcasted in Japan earlier this year, Japan broadcasts Thomas bilingually:

When the episode debuted in the UK last year, Mark Moraghan's only speaking role was the title and that was it, the rest of the episode was all narrationless. But when the episode aired in Canada, Japan and Australia, the whole episode had narration. The US dub was only a short clip that I saw on twitter back in January, as the US dub is yet to be shown in full on Nick Jr. To me I think the episode works fine without Mark Moraghan's narration as the animation can do all of the storytelling. The scene that shows Edward being sleep deprived at Knapford works well as a show-don't-tell scene, we know that Edward is tired and there was no need of a storyteller to tell us what was right in front of us. My guess it was intended as something for the test audience to see how they responded to an episode of Thomas without narration for BWBA considering now that Thomas will be the narrator at the start and end of those episodes starting this year. In the end though, the UK are finally given the narrated version of the episode itself.

At the end of the episode, Mark Moraghan gave the final line saying, 'But that's a story for another day.' that definetly shows that this is the last episode of the season and while it's a lovely line, it too works as a show-don't-tell moment. So while yes the episode that was broadcasted in the UK was not edited properly, it was good that it was narrationless. But another thing about the episode is the contiuity of it. This is the season that is set before 'Journey Beyond Sodor' and yet Edward is seen the shed in the special despite it happening before the movie, you might say ''Edward must've been visiting!'' but there's nothing stating that, he was just there. This is one of things that I am glad that 'Big World Big Adventure' is reverting, the idea of the series before special idea was great at the time in theory. But in practice, it didn't do much. S19 was set before 'Sodor's Legend of the Lost Treasure' and when the season aired after the movie, there wasn't any build up towards it at all. It feels confusing without any sort of hint.

BWBA is reverting back to the day what S13-S18 did when it comes to the yearly specials, it is set after the special. I liked the idea, series before special, by the production team at first but it shows in the episodes that it really wasn't a great idea in execution, no disrespect to them though.

As of the episode itself, I think it is one of the good ones coming from this season and given the reason why Edward left the core cast, the steam team, to stay at Wellsworth instead, pretty much makes sense in a creative POV as mentioned in one of SiF's blogs about 'Big World! Big Adventure!' it's also what I have said in my series overall for S21, Edward doesn't really add anything new when it comes to a Edward focused episode (e.g - 'Old Reliable Edward') we have him more as a plot device for Gordon or James to learn their lessons from while Edward was more of the wise, peace keeping engine that he is originally. He works more better as a secondary character in my opinion to give out wise advice to the other engines when things go wrong. If we want more episodes with Edward outside of his original persona, it would be bad because we might have episodes that are more in likes of 'Edward Strikes Out' or 'Steady Eddie'. I always pictured that if we want to see more of Edward, we should focus on his past self during his Furness Railway days and he should have his own mentor from the Furness Railway (which should be Furness Railway No.20 considering they are thirty-three years apart, No.20 was built in 1863 and Edward, according to the Wikia, was built in 1896) that way it would add to the continuity of 'The Adventure Begins' with Edward rubbing his own wisdom and advice to Thomas and Philip.

I still feel that fans had been cheated by Mattel when it came to Rosie's character progression. Fans had been demanding for Rosie's return to the spotlight for years and as we finally got that with her being painted red, Mattel cut back another episode of hers due to them wanting more room for BWBA's production. Hopefully the cut back episodes would see a light of day in BWBA. Overall though 'The Fastest Red Engine on Sodor' was a pretty good episode too with James being more snooty. Although I don't know why they added brake fluid to James as steam engines aren't fitted with such thing. It could've worked better if James' brakes were damaged from the heavy braking he had always done while running fast. It would still work with James being a runaway. The idea of brake fluid just seem so bizarre.

For more of my opinions on the episodes from this DVD, please click the links provided above under the title, 'episodes'.

I have a little bit of criticism when it comes to the DVD cover, what was wrong with the original? The one that is shown above is the finished product and Thomas' face looks so jarring compare to the original idea. Plus despite them being in both version, Rosie's positioning looks a bit off as well. Also the logo is angled a bit different on the final version, but that's not really anything to complain about.

The other episodes, while some have there faults, they are pretty much a good bundle to watch through. 

SPECIAL FEATURES

One of the highlights of this DVD was a CGI music video makeover of one of Mike O'Donnell and Junior Campbell's songs which is 'Little Engines' and another song that was released for the first time on home video in the UK. It was a good remake despite it being shorten and it had used quite a good amount of clips from the little engines of Sodor, despite that Stepney was mentioned and yeah I don't think this any sort of hint that Stepney is coming back, I'm sure he is on the cards of returning characters to be brought back into the series but to me these are just coincidences. 

This is not from the DVD

We have another 'Down at the Station' segment with the late Mr. Perkins and I quite like it how he was teaching kids about the different powers of locomotives from steam to electric, heck I was amazed that they showed an electric engine, a Virgin Pendolino, on of my favourite electric engines, in a show where it might be set in the 50's/60's given the old look that they show had over the years (e.g - lack of modern technology).

'Learn With Thomas' is the usual moral life lesson of a certain episode that was shown at the end of a PBS broadcast, or should I say Nick. Jr now? It's good for kids to learn about the moral of a particular episode but maybe have kids digest the moral on their own? 

'The Earl's Quiz' is still the same old segment with episodes 'Thomas' Shortcut' and 'Too Many Fire Engines' being the questions. Good for kids and their thinking skills. 

We saw the return of 'Who's That Engine' once again and this time it's James with the episode 'Muddy Matters' which was seen on the 'Thomas' Christmas Carol' DVD in the US. I do miss these segments, they were fun when they first started doing these with Arc Productions. Although I believe they are now moving on from them I do wish we see more of these with different characters instead such as Duck, Toad, Donald and Douglas. 

Overall Rating: 9/10

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That's all of the S21 DVDs reviewed considering how many episodes were broadcasted. My next review will be an editorial of the upcoming 'Big World Big Adventures' trailer that would be out next month and after that would be my review of the S19 DVD that comes out in the UK in July, I might keep that one until August though. So after May, I won't be reviewing anything else until August.

Thank you for reading!