All Engines Go! Reveiw - S2 Ep.40 - Bad Luck Boxcar

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

BAD LUCK BOXCAR

Written by

Eva Konstantopoulous

Directed by

Campbell Bryer

Produced by

Suzie Gallo

Air Date

8/07/23 - CAN

4/09/23 - USA

19/09/23 - UK

10/08/23 - AUS

Plot

When Thomas and Percy must transport an unlucky boxcar of bananas, Thomas seems to have bad luck. Percy's positive attitude helps Thomas see the luck in each scenario, breaking the myth of the curse for a successful delivery.

This is basically 'Thomas' Not-so-Lucky Day', at least that one was more interesting given that it was teaching kids about Italy's own way of dealing with supersition. Here it is just a bland, everything bad happens to Thomas and all it just is is that he was having an off day along with bad, annoying, uncreative puns and another boulder run from the canyon. One of these days, Mattel would have to change up this sort of humor they want because these will be getting old for viewers I believe, if they want this iteration of Thomas to be a running success. 

I'd research to see if Banana's can bring bad luck, as I did for Skiff's land sickness, and Banana's can be part of supersitions but on boats and it got me thinking, why not make the episode for Salty, Bulstrode and Thomas? Let's say Vicarstown bridge was closed due to it being damaged in a storm and Thomas and Salty were to deliver some banana's on the mainland. But Salty thinks the Bananas are what caused the bridge's damage but Bulstrode, being the adult, think Salty was just being silly and told Thomas not to listen to him and offered to take him and Salty to the mainland. As they crossed the ocean towards the mainland things were going wrong and Bulstrode began to think maybe Salty was right but it all turns out that the things going wrong were all caused by the aftermath of the storm. 

It would be the same episode but at least it would be interesting to see Bulstrode with a story and it could give us a different dynamic between him and Salty. I personally hate it when the adult characters are dumb to believe something like supersitious tales, they are suppose to be adults!   

Series Rating:

Fast Friends - 1/10

Percy Disappear - 5/10

Ashima's Amazing Arrival - 3/10

Tri-and-a-Half-a-Lon - 3/10

Carly's Magnificant Magnet - 5/10

New Mail Engine In Town - 4/10

Hot Air Percy - 2/10

Carly's Screechy Squeak - 1/10

Shake, Rattle & Bruno - 8/10

Blackout - 2/10

Brand New Track - 5/10

Stink Monster - 3/10

Christmas Mountain - 7/10

Whiteout! - 4/10

Good as New - 4/10

More Than a Pretty Engine - 9/10

Snowplough Struttin' - 4/10

Thomas In Charge - 3/10

Kana Recharges - 3/10

The Big Skunk Funk - 3/10

Off The Rails - 1/10

Diesel's Dilemma - 5/10

Bring It On Beresford - 2/10

What's in a Name? - 1/10

Sheep Shenanigans - 4/10

Tunnel Troubles - 4/10

The Case of the Missing Crane - 1/10

Not-So-Secret Mission - 5/10

A Very Percy Valentine - 3/10

Valentine's Hearts - 2/10

Speedster Sandy - 7/10

For All the Marble - 9/10

Salty's Sea Shanty - 8/10

Retrieve the Kraken - 5/10

Rocket's Fall - 4/10

Details? What Details? - 3/10

Blue Engine Blues - 7/10

Hay Fort Frenzy - 4/10

Percy in the Middle - 1/10

Bad Luck Boxcar - 3/10

Overall Rating (So far):

160/410

All Engines Go! Reveiw - S2 Ep.39 - Percy in the Middle

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

PERCY IN THE MIDDLE

Written by

Jordan Gershowitz

Directed by

Campbell Bryer

Produced by

Suzie Gallo

Air Date

8/07/23 - CAN

28/08/23 - USA

18/09/23 - UK

9/08/23 - AUS

Plot

After Gordon tells all the young engines that they have a day off to relax, Thomas and Diesel insist on a teamed relay race through the obstacle course. Percy is the only one who isn't interested in playing, so Thomas asks him to referee instead. He reluctantly agrees and the race is on! Coming to a split-second finish, Percy determines Thomas' team wins, but Diesel doesn't accept and calls for a rematch. Once again the teams race and Diesel wins after accidentally causing an oil spill. Both teams become so angry with each other, they're too distracted when Percy runs off to chase butterflies. Thomas, Diesel, and friends finally notice Percy's absence and speed after him, but they'll need to learn their lesson about sportsmanship if they want to ensure this day off is a success.

Just another generic Thomas and Diesel being competitive episode but it's a team race so they can have repetitive filler to fill in time, nothing more and nothing else. Yes it was about Percy being in the middle but it just felt less about him and more about Thomas, Diesel and the others. Why not let it be Percy having a hard time to know who was the winner and couldn't face the arguments because it was pressurising and began to cry, it would at least make sense with that good sports song. God I hate these Thomas and Diesel competitive episodes so much.

Series Rating:

Fast Friends - 1/10

Percy Disappear - 5/10

Ashima's Amazing Arrival - 3/10

Tri-and-a-Half-a-Lon - 3/10

Carly's Magnificant Magnet - 5/10

New Mail Engine In Town - 4/10

Hot Air Percy - 2/10

Carly's Screechy Squeak - 1/10

Shake, Rattle & Bruno - 8/10

Blackout - 2/10

Brand New Track - 5/10

Stink Monster - 3/10

Christmas Mountain - 7/10

Whiteout! - 4/10

Good as New - 4/10

More Than a Pretty Engine - 9/10

Snowplough Struttin' - 4/10

Thomas In Charge - 3/10

Kana Recharges - 3/10

The Big Skunk Funk - 3/10

Off The Rails - 1/10

Diesel's Dilemma - 5/10

Bring It On Beresford - 2/10

What's in a Name? - 1/10

Sheep Shenanigans - 4/10

Tunnel Troubles - 4/10

The Case of the Missing Crane - 1/10

Not-So-Secret Mission - 5/10

A Very Percy Valentine - 3/10

Valentine's Hearts - 2/10

Speedster Sandy - 7/10

For All the Marble - 9/10

Salty's Sea Shanty - 8/10

Retrieve the Kraken - 5/10

Rocket's Fall - 4/10

Details? What Details? - 3/10

Blue Engine Blues - 7/10

Hay Fort Frenzy - 4/10

Percy in the Middle - 1/10

Overall Rating (So far):

157/400

All Engines Go! Reveiw - S2 Ep.38 - Hay Fort Frenzy

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

HAY FORT FRENZY

Written by

Susan Kim

Directed by

Campbell Bryer

Produced by

Suzie Gallo

Air Date

1/07/23 - CAN

31/05/23 - USA

15/09/23 - UK

8/08/23 - AUS

Plot

Thomas gets help from Terence the Tractor and Carly to assemble all hay bales. Carly and Terence manage to get everything together quickly, but soon Terence purposefully crashes into the hay bales sending loose hay all over the place! Carly is shocked and confused. They turn the hay-bale stacking into a game, forming all kinds of structures Terence can crash into. Thomas worries they won't have enough time to complete the delivery.

And so we have the debut episode for Terence in the AEG universe and while the show is its own show, I don't like Terence being a child character since when compare to the original, Terence was assertive and would show just how useful he could be, as he shows in in the 1st season of the original series after Thomas got stuck in the snow. He's proud of his work and would always give a lending hand to an engine that are in need like him shunting trucks while Percy was away at the harbour during 'Toby, Trucks and Trouble'. I think he would've worked better as an adult character and maybe create a new tractor who is like Terence in AEG. 

This episode was OK at best to me. While I think the message was fine I think it would've been better if Terence understood the importance of the work from Thomas' point of view. There is nothing wrong with having fun but too much fun can cause a delay and a delay means no shipment. I also wish that Carly had gone through something in the episode, have her like Thomas wanting the job to be done on time but gives into Terence's demand because she doesn't want to hurt his feelings but then realises the job is important and that for her she could learn that it's OK to say no sometimes and Terence learns to understand other people's pov.

Series Rating:

Fast Friends - 1/10

Percy Disappear - 5/10

Ashima's Amazing Arrival - 3/10

Tri-and-a-Half-a-Lon - 3/10

Carly's Magnificant Magnet - 5/10

New Mail Engine In Town - 4/10

Hot Air Percy - 2/10

Carly's Screechy Squeak - 1/10

Shake, Rattle & Bruno - 8/10

Blackout - 2/10

Brand New Track - 5/10

Stink Monster - 3/10

Christmas Mountain - 7/10

Whiteout! - 4/10

Good as New - 4/10

More Than a Pretty Engine - 9/10

Snowplough Struttin' - 4/10

Thomas In Charge - 3/10

Kana Recharges - 3/10

The Big Skunk Funk - 3/10

Off The Rails - 1/10

Diesel's Dilemma - 5/10

Bring It On Beresford - 2/10

What's in a Name? - 1/10

Sheep Shenanigans - 4/10

Tunnel Troubles - 4/10

The Case of the Missing Crane - 1/10

Not-So-Secret Mission - 5/10

A Very Percy Valentine - 3/10

Valentine's Hearts - 2/10

Speedster Sandy - 7/10

For All the Marble - 9/10

Salty's Sea Shanty - 8/10

Retrieve the Kraken - 5/10

Rocket's Fall - 4/10

Details? What Details? - 3/10

Blue Engine Blues - 7/10

Hay Fort Frenzy - 4/10

Overall Rating (So far):

156/390

All Engines Go! Reveiw - S2 Ep.37 - Blue Engine Blues

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

BLUE ENGINE BLUES

Written by

Tracy Nicoletti

Directed by

Campbell Bryer

Produced by

Suzie Gallo

Air Date

1/07/23 - CAN

30/05/23 - USA

14/09/23 - UK

7/08/23 - AUS

Plot

A rough night's sleep and a canceled beach day puts Thomas in the grumpiest of moods. Encountering Riff and Jiff with their usual happy-go-lucky attitudes, Thomas comes to the conclusion that he'll only be liked when he appears happy. He puts on a fake smile for the rest of the day, but his words don't match his demeanor and everyone can see right through him. Finally, Thomas comes across Riff and Jiff again, who reveal they're also upset about the cruddy day!

Thomas' forced happy face is just creepy to look at and some members of the general public say that the model faces look creepy, the latter look more normal and that face. I know this was done for comedy but it doesn't feel funny it was just borderline creepy to look at. Apart from the horrific face, the rest of the episode was fine. It's nice to see an episode that focuses on something that isn't always happy or chirpy or an episode that focuses too much on wacky side of things in order to create more filler. It is something relevant that not just for children but also for adults too when we were looking forward to something and that we can't always be happy all the time and that it's fine. The episode was a fine one though it could work without the song since we'd already got the message. 

Series Rating:

Fast Friends - 1/10

Percy Disappear - 5/10

Ashima's Amazing Arrival - 3/10

Tri-and-a-Half-a-Lon - 3/10

Carly's Magnificant Magnet - 5/10

New Mail Engine In Town - 4/10

Hot Air Percy - 2/10

Carly's Screechy Squeak - 1/10

Shake, Rattle & Bruno - 8/10

Blackout - 2/10

Brand New Track - 5/10

Stink Monster - 3/10

Christmas Mountain - 7/10

Whiteout! - 4/10

Good as New - 4/10

More Than a Pretty Engine - 9/10

Snowplough Struttin' - 4/10

Thomas In Charge - 3/10

Kana Recharges - 3/10

The Big Skunk Funk - 3/10

Off The Rails - 1/10

Diesel's Dilemma - 5/10

Bring It On Beresford - 2/10

What's in a Name? - 1/10

Sheep Shenanigans - 4/10

Tunnel Troubles - 4/10

The Case of the Missing Crane - 1/10

Not-So-Secret Mission - 5/10

A Very Percy Valentine - 3/10

Valentine's Hearts - 2/10

Speedster Sandy - 7/10

For All the Marble - 9/10

Salty's Sea Shanty - 8/10

Retrieve the Kraken - 5/10

Rocket's Fall - 4/10

Details? What Details? - 3/10

Blue Engine Blues - 7/10

Overall Rating (So far):

152/380

All Engines Go! Reveiw - S2 Ep.36 - Details? What Details?

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

DETAILS? WHAT DETAILS?

Written by

Brent Piaskoski

Directed by

Campbell Bryer

Produced by

Suzie Gallo

Air Date

24/06/23 - CAN

29/05/23 - USA

13/09/23 - UK

4/08/23 - AUS

Plot

After Sir Topham Hatt messes up his instructions for Kenji's passenger delivery, Thomas is asked to set things right! However, as Thomas follows Kenji's trail, he repeatedly forgets to ask his friends for specific directions, preventing him from catching up to the speedy electric engine. Realizing he has to pay more attention to details, Thomas uses his wits, listening skills, and the help of his friends to make it to Kenji and get the passengers to their destinations on time.

This episode was boring to sit through. It's pretty much just a standard episode where someone went wrong and an engine has to fix it but things were getting in the way until the matter had been solved while hammering down the message that little detail is important. You might say it's like 'Bertie's Chase' from the original series but at least that was entertaining to watch and while it stated the message it didn't feel forced down and flowed naturally in the dialouge. 

While I'm glad that we are seeing some episodes with the Fat Controller acting like an authorative figure I hate how AEG is like any kids show where the adults are stupid. We've seen that in Peppa Pig, Paw Patrol, Ben & Holly and the bargin bin Bluey show 'Chip Chilla' by alt-right group Daily Wire. Why is this a trend in kids shows? They should take a leaf out of Bluey's book where the adults act like actual parents helping out their kids in trouble while making their own mistakes. Mattel should stop looking at trends and try and make Thomas stand on its own feet.  

Series Rating:

Fast Friends - 1/10

Percy Disappear - 5/10

Ashima's Amazing Arrival - 3/10

Tri-and-a-Half-a-Lon - 3/10

Carly's Magnificant Magnet - 5/10

New Mail Engine In Town - 4/10

Hot Air Percy - 2/10

Carly's Screechy Squeak - 1/10

Shake, Rattle & Bruno - 8/10

Blackout - 2/10

Brand New Track - 5/10

Stink Monster - 3/10

Christmas Mountain - 7/10

Whiteout! - 4/10

Good as New - 4/10

More Than a Pretty Engine - 9/10

Snowplough Struttin' - 4/10

Thomas In Charge - 3/10

Kana Recharges - 3/10

The Big Skunk Funk - 3/10

Off The Rails - 1/10

Diesel's Dilemma - 5/10

Bring It On Beresford - 2/10

What's in a Name? - 1/10

Sheep Shenanigans - 4/10

Tunnel Troubles - 4/10

The Case of the Missing Crane - 1/10

Not-So-Secret Mission - 5/10

A Very Percy Valentine - 3/10

Valentine's Hearts - 2/10

Speedster Sandy - 7/10

For All the Marble - 9/10

Salty's Sea Shanty - 8/10

Retrieve the Kraken - 5/10

Rocket's Fall - 4/10

Details? What Details? - 3/10

Overall Rating (So far):

145/370

All Engines Go! Reveiw - S2 Ep.35 - Rocket's Fall

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

ROCKET'S FALL

Written by

Peter Gaffney

Directed by

Campbell Bryer

Produced by

Suzie Gallo

Air Date

24/06/23 - CAN

24/05/23 - USA

12/09/23 - UK

3/08/23 - AUS

Plot

Thomas learns that the rocket he helped deliver is finally falling back to Earth, into the ocean outside Sodor. Bulstrode, Carly, and their team of retrieval experts are on the job to fish the rocket out of the water, and Thomas wants to help!

This episode was pretty meh, not bad but not great. Another basic story of Thomas wanting to help because of how good the job is and another episode that could work without the song being used as filler. That's all I have to say really.

Series Rating:

Fast Friends - 1/10

Percy Disappear - 5/10

Ashima's Amazing Arrival - 3/10

Tri-and-a-Half-a-Lon - 3/10

Carly's Magnificant Magnet - 5/10

New Mail Engine In Town - 4/10

Hot Air Percy - 2/10

Carly's Screechy Squeak - 1/10

Shake, Rattle & Bruno - 8/10

Blackout - 2/10

Brand New Track - 5/10

Stink Monster - 3/10

Christmas Mountain - 7/10

Whiteout! - 4/10

Good as New - 4/10

More Than a Pretty Engine - 9/10

Snowplough Struttin' - 4/10

Thomas In Charge - 3/10

Kana Recharges - 3/10

The Big Skunk Funk - 3/10

Off The Rails - 1/10

Diesel's Dilemma - 5/10

Bring It On Beresford - 2/10

What's in a Name? - 1/10

Sheep Shenanigans - 4/10

Tunnel Troubles - 4/10

The Case of the Missing Crane - 1/10

Not-So-Secret Mission - 5/10

A Very Percy Valentine - 3/10

Valentine's Hearts - 2/10

Speedster Sandy - 7/10

For All the Marble - 9/10

Salty's Sea Shanty - 8/10

Retrieve the Kraken - 5/10

Rocket's Fall - 4/10

Overall Rating (So far):

142/360

All Engines Go! Reveiw - S2 Ep.34 - Retrieve the Kraken

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

RETRIEVE THE KRAKEN

Written by

Aydrea Walden

Directed by

Campbell Bryer

Produced by

Suzie Gallo

Air Date

17/06/23 - CAN

23/05/23 - USA

11/09/23 - UK

2/08/23 - AUS

Plot

On a particularly blustery Balloon Festival day, Thomas is tasked with retrieving any balloons that start to drift away. When the Kraken-shaped balloon soars off, the chase is on!

This episode was alright it was a basic story which has the moral that you can't believe everything you hear and I'm kinda glad that the episode didn't resolve it outcome in the middle of the episode and added in filler of the engines running around trying to catch it. All in all a pretty decent episode.

Series Rating:

Fast Friends - 1/10

Percy Disappear - 5/10

Ashima's Amazing Arrival - 3/10

Tri-and-a-Half-a-Lon - 3/10

Carly's Magnificant Magnet - 5/10

New Mail Engine In Town - 4/10

Hot Air Percy - 2/10

Carly's Screechy Squeak - 1/10

Shake, Rattle & Bruno - 8/10

Blackout - 2/10

Brand New Track - 5/10

Stink Monster - 3/10

Christmas Mountain - 7/10

Whiteout! - 4/10

Good as New - 4/10

More Than a Pretty Engine - 9/10

Snowplough Struttin' - 4/10

Thomas In Charge - 3/10

Kana Recharges - 3/10

The Big Skunk Funk - 3/10

Off The Rails - 1/10

Diesel's Dilemma - 5/10

Bring It On Beresford - 2/10

What's in a Name? - 1/10

Sheep Shenanigans - 4/10

Tunnel Troubles - 4/10

The Case of the Missing Crane - 1/10

Not-So-Secret Mission - 5/10

A Very Percy Valentine - 3/10

Valentine's Hearts - 2/10

Speedster Sandy - 7/10

For All the Marble - 9/10

Salty's Sea Shanty - 8/10

Retrieve the Kraken - 5/10

Overall Rating (So far):

138/350