The Thomas and Friends Review Station

Thursday, 23 February 2023

All Engines Go! Review - S1 Ep.18: Mystery Boxcars

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

MYSTERY BOXCARS

Written by
Phil Molloy

Directed by
Campbell Bryer

Produced by
Rick Suvalle
Suzie Gallo

Air Date
25/10/21 - USA
23/10/21 - CAN
16/02/22 - UK
20/01/22 - AUS

Plot

Kana is upset when she keeps running out of power, but a mystery scavenger hunt is just the thing to cheer her up.

MY VIEWS

This episode was alright but I was mostly interested in Gordon's characterisation in this episode. It's good to see something different to his character that isn't an overexaggerated version of his boastful character that we'd seen since the Miller/Barlow days, yes I know people would point out the Brenner/McCue era but if you look back even further it all started there or heck maybe even during the late classic series era since Sam Barlow said once in his SiF interview that they'd inherited from the Gullane era of the show. But in this episode, Gordon's character really comes up either like a father or a grandfather as he wants Kana to be happy. If Mattel or the production were allowed to develop the characters, we could've seen something more fresh with the characters instead of just being their flanderised selves but I believe the latter was done in order to make more stories that deal with conlfict.

The rest of the episode was alright and not really bad to sit through but the best thing that came out of it was Gordon.

Series Rating:

A Thomas Promise - 4/10

Thomas Blast Off - 4/10

License to Deliver - 5/10

Rules of the Game - 6/10

A Quiet Delivery - 3/10

Kana Goes Slow - 3/10

Dragon Run - 1/10

The Biggest Adventure Club - 7/10

Percy's Lucky Bell - 5/10

Sandy's Sandy Shipment - 6/10

A Wide Delivery - 4/10

Counting Cows - 3/10

Music Is Everywhere - 6/10

Backwards Day - 4/10

Chasing Rainbows - 2/10

Nia's Balloon Blunder - 7/10

Capture the Flag - 8/10

Mystery Boxcars - 6/10

Overall rating (So far):

82/180

Wednesday, 22 February 2023

All Engines Go! Review - S1 Ep.17: Capture the Flag

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

CAPTURE THE FLAG

Written by
Denise Downer

Directed by
Josh Groh

Produced by
Rick Suvalle
Suzie Gallo

Air Date
18/10/21 - USA
23/10/21 - CAN
15/02/22 - UK
19/01/22 - AUS

Plot

When Percy loses Nia's parade flag before the big parade, Thomas helps them search for it before the event begins.

MY VIEWS

For an episode that has a song added into it, since I had criticised episodes that had them as a way to chew up time and add unnecessary stuff along the way, this episode was actually good. It had confliction with Thomas and the other trying to get Nia's flag and them chasing the flag may look like filler but it was actually integral to the story instead. I actually enjoyed the episode and don't see any other problem, except for the episode telling the moral of the story instead of letting the audience to understand it themselves.

Series Rating:

A Thomas Promise - 4/10

Thomas Blast Off - 4/10

License to Deliver - 5/10

Rules of the Game - 6/10

A Quiet Delivery - 3/10

Kana Goes Slow - 3/10

Dragon Run - 1/10

The Biggest Adventure Club - 7/10

Percy's Lucky Bell - 5/10

Sandy's Sandy Shipment - 6/10

A Wide Delivery - 4/10

Counting Cows - 3/10

Music Is Everywhere - 6/10

Backwards Day - 4/10

Chasing Rainbows - 2/10

Nia's Balloon Blunder - 7/10

Capture the Flag - 8/10

Overall rating (So far):

76/170

Tuesday, 21 February 2023

All Engines Go! Review - S1 Ep.16: Nia's Balloon Blunder

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

NIA'S BALLOON BLUNDER

Written by
Patrick Reiger

Directed by
Josh Groh

Produced by
Rick Suvalle
Suzie Gallo

Air Date
11/10/21 - USA
16/10/21 - CAN
14/02/22 - UK
18/01/22 - AUS

Plot

When a parade balloon Nia is set to deliver flies away, Thomas helps Nia adjust her plans to get it back.

MY VIEWS

While I'll always love 'Nia and the Unfriendly Elephant', this episode did shine more of Nia as a clever engine but not every idea she has wasn't going to be a clever one. If Mattel at least had given Ian McCue and his production team another chance for BWBA, Nia could've slowly turned into a great character instead of being lambasted by the older fandom. If it was this episode it would've changed dramatically considering that the CGI era had made the character a bit like convential steam locomotives, minus the bouncing.

The episode was actually another good one in my opinion and one where the moral hadn't been told to the audience, which is that a plan can improvised if things go wrong. Sure this episode has a three strikes formula but it works here without being repetitive.

Series Rating:

A Thomas Promise - 4/10

Thomas Blast Off - 4/10

License to Deliver - 5/10

Rules of the Game - 6/10

A Quiet Delivery - 3/10

Kana Goes Slow - 3/10

Dragon Run - 1/10

The Biggest Adventure Club - 7/10

Percy's Lucky Bell - 5/10

Sandy's Sandy Shipment - 6/10

A Wide Delivery - 4/10

Counting Cows - 3/10

Music Is Everywhere - 6/10

Backwards Day - 4/10

Chasing Rainbows - 2/10

Nia's Balloon Blunder - 7/10

Overall rating (So far):

68/160

Monday, 20 February 2023

All Engines Go! Review - S1 Ep.15: Chasing Rainbows

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

CHASING RAINBOWS

Written by
Brandon Violette

Directed by
Campbell Bryer

Produced by
Rick Suvalle
Suzie Gallo

Air Date
27/09/21 - USA
9/10/22 - CAN
25/11/21 - UK
16/01/22 - AUS

Plot

Thomas and Kana journey across Sodor to find the prize at the end of the rainbow.

MY VIEWS

To me this episode feels like the Spongebob Atlantis special that Nickelodeon had aired back in 2007 where the song has basically held the story. All it just is is Thomas and the others going about singing about what's at the end of the rainbow until they found Lookout Mountain. How I think the story should work is if the engines were all wondering what's at the end of the rainbow and they all argued about what they think which is what they want but in the end they found the old station and nothing else and realise they could have it as their clubhouse. So like the episode itself but with confliction from the characters. The episode was so bland and uninteresting and the only good thing coming out from it was Lookout Mountain. Plus, as I said in the previous review, the engines have the power to jump and do other things so why couldn't they jump over the buffers leading to the mountain instead of getting Sandy and Carly to fix the tracks leading towards the mountain?

There was really no need because it can still work for the story unlike Nia in the 'Music is Everywhere' episode. This episode is boring, bland and unimpressive. It does have a nice moral about sharing but the story could've been much better if their was no song and add more confliction from the engines instead which would make the moral more stronger. Honestly I would rather watch 'Thomas and the Rainbow' from S9 than this!

Series Rating:
A Thomas Promise - 4/10
Thomas Blast Off - 4/10
License to Deliver - 5/10
Rules of the Game - 6/10
A Quiet Delivery - 3/10
Kana Goes Slow - 3/10
Dragon Run - 1/10
The Biggest Adventure Club - 7/10
Percy's Lucky Bell - 5/10
Sandy's Sandy Shipment - 6/10
A Wide Delivery - 4/10
Counting Cows - 3/10
Music Is Everywhere - 6/10
Backwards Day - 4/10
Chasing Rainbows - 2/10

Overall rating (So far):
61/150

Sunday, 19 February 2023

All Engines Go! Review - S1 Ep.14: Backwards Day

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

BACKWARDS DAY

Written by

Craig Carlisle

Directed by

Campbell Bryer

Produced by

Rick Suvalle

Suzie Gallo

Air Date

4/10/21 - USA

16/10/22 - CAN

26/11/21 - UK

17/01/22 - AUS

Plot

Thomas misunderstands the Backwards Day game and accidentally delivers the wrong cargo to the wrong places.

MY VIEWS

I will say the most annoying part of this episode was Thomas and Percy constantly saying 'Backwards day!' throughout the episode. I don't know if the writer intended this to be a running gag to make it funny but it was more annoying than funny and the audience doesn't need to be constantly reminded of it because we can see what's going on and hear them saying things backwards. Although I think this is more of a nitpick but with Thomas and Percy worried about the switch, I don't know why Thomas could just use his wheel?

There wasn't any need for something else to work with the plot like with Nia being stuck on the otherside of the bridge in the previous episode, that worked because it added confliction to story to make Nia miss out on the concert and have the engines to give her their own concert to makeup for the one she'd missed out on. The switch scene was done to make the tree go back up but that didn't need to happen. You can still use Thomas' wheel and make him stop to put the tree back up anyway.

I know that might sound petty but it just feels annoying looking at that.

Though I will say Gordon was a bit of a mood in this episode with how silly the idea backwards day is. The rest of the episode was meh and it reminds me so much of a Miller/Barlow era script with the three strikes formula.

Saturday, 18 February 2023

All Engines Go! Review - S1 Ep.13: Music Is Everywhere

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

MUSIC IS EVERYWHERE

Written by

Adam Beechen

Directed by

Josh Groh

Produced by

Rick Suvalle

Suzie Gallo

Air Date

30/08/21 - Mex

20/09/21 - USA

9/10/22 - CAN

24/11/21 - UK

115/01/22 - AUS

Plot

When music-lover Nia gets stranded before a big concert she's been waiting to see, Thomas brings the concert to her.

MY VIEWS

I will say it was interesting that the writers from AEG had given something more to Nia than her just being a clever engine from South Africa. They gave her a love for music and if the production team back when the show was CGI had the chance to explore more of her personality traits I think it would've worked in that. The episode was alright and although the engines have the power to jump off the rails with no damage done to them, Nia being stuck on the otherside of the bridge was there to help give confliction to the story. Yes it make sense to do the former but then we'll just have another bland plot. Though I will say the engines saying 'The show must go on!' a few times does get really annoying as if they were ramming down the message of the whole episode, much worse than them telling the moral of the episode for the audience as if they have the attention span of a goldfish.

The episode was alright with them showing the episode that anything can be a musical instrument as well. Although I think the episode does work without the song which was meh at best. That's all I have to say about this episode.

Friday, 17 February 2023

All Engines Go! Review - S1 Ep.12: Counting Cows

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

COUNTING COWS

Written by

Niki Lytton

Directed by

Campbell Bryer

Produced by

Rick Suvalle

Suzie Gallo

Air Date

27/08/21 - Mex

17/09/21 - USA

3/10/22 - CAN

23/11/21 - UK

14/01/22 - AUS

Plot

Thomas and Percy volunteer to deliver a herd of cows, but the cows keep wandering off on their own adventures.

MY VIEWS

I'll get this out of the way, the cow puns they are not funny and not creative. Puns are just overdone, uncreative cheap jokes. Yes there were some during the Brenner/McCue era but they were very rare to my memory since the only ones I could think of was Thomas' one in KOTR and Sailor John's one in Lost Treasure and didn't need to have them in an entire episode or special. This episode will still be the same without them. The rest of the episode pretty much reminds me of a Miller/Barlow era script with the three strikes formula with exception of someone having a spare the whole time but left it behind for some reason. Because instead of doing the latter, Thomas and Percy put things right by trying to find the cows. But despite that this episode in my opinion wasn't great based on the puns and the repetition of Thomas and Percy finding the missing cows.