Series 16, Episode 14 Review: Emily's Winter Party Special

ARRRGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WINTER HOLIDAYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Why is it still being said, after what all the PC groups, and the Awdry family themselves said last year?, you were able to change it for Salty’s Surprise, and we’re getting The Christmas Express at the appropriate time, so why was Christmas still airbrushed out of today’s episode?

The episode was just Topped Off Thomas and Keeping Up with James put together with Emily as engine X, the fact that she doesn’t find The Fat Controller’s hat, yet thinks because she’s tried to find it, while the other engines have been working, she can pull the present train, and for all Thomas and Emily knew, that top hat on the snowman could have been just a hat that looks like The Fat Controller’s, I mean they must sell them somewhere, and after how many he went throw in the classic series, he must have more than one. Over all, this episode was once again, bad enough to be one from Series 15, and it just reminds me why we’re all glad that Sharon Miller’s reign of terror is nearly over.

Believe it or not, yes, the CGI was excellent, and was I the only one who thought the light from Emily’s fairy lights, made her face look a little bit more like her model one? I think it’s a real shame that after how bad Series 15 was, many fans haven’t been following Series 16, for it is Nitrogen’s last series, and we all respect them for  their dedication towards our number one engine, and bringing him into the brave new world of CGI animation, I know probably all of us will see Blue Mountain Mystery when it comes out, but please, to show your thanks to Nitrogen for what they’ve done for Thomas, please watch the last week of Series 16 if you can, thank you!

Have a nice night!

Jacob

Links

Emily's Winter Party Special on TTTE Wikia

Roll Along Thomas' Review

Series 16, Episode 13 Review: Sodor Surprise Day

Today’s episode, in my opinion, was one of the worst in Thomas history. it was actually bad enough to be of series 15. First of all, Sodor Surprise Day, what?! How many special days do they have on the Island of Sodor? But I suppose, everyday’s a special day on Sodor, but why couldn’t it have been April fool’s Day, or is that not PC? Once again, it’s just Thomas, concentrating on something ridicules, instead of his work. Gordon would have probably seen Thomas all them times he was hiding, for as said before, we’ve seen this many times in previous episodes, but for some reason, Sharon Miller’s team thinks the children of today are stupid enough to believe what they are writing for them.

Of course, many were saying last year that the CGI series is sending quite the opposite of good lesions to children,  that they were sending such messages as: you should give into peer-pressure, playing  around in dangerous places is ok, and there’s nothing wrong in generalising a group of people. But despite these criticisms, with many thinking it was the reason why Sharon Miller “had stepped down,” we saw no change in today’s episode, because Thomas’s inappropriate whistling at the docks, caused Cranky to drop the crate of fireworks, making them go off, we all know how dangerous the situation was, and all The Fat Controller said was that Thomas had caused confusion and delay, and that there wouldn’t be any entertainment for the party, if this had ever happened in the classic Thomas (of which it wouldn’t have), engine X would have known the seriousness of what he had made happen.

Despite how much I’m against this whole culture of making sure everything  your children watch is good for them, and every little bit of everything on Cbeebies or the Channel 5 Milkshake hour has to be PC,  the telly can’t always be considered a good babysitter, and I’m sorry to say it’s not safe letting them watch the current version of my number 1 engine,  we should all point the finger at HiT, if this Guy Fawkes Day, you hear of children mucking about with fireworks, for it could happen because they saw this episode of Thomas & Friends, for I remember when Peppa Pig was forced to wear a seat belt after children refused to after Peppa didn’t, she of course, got over it, and I’m glad she did so, for my little cousin’s sake, but it proves that children think what they see their friends do on TV is ok,  hence why many believe we should make what HiT are doing (or have done) with Thomas, all the more known.

The CGI was, yes, brilliant as normal, and once again, and certainly does put the script writing to shame, but not even Nitrogen can get the writing team out of this one, and I advise all who read my blog to do what I told you to do, in my Ho Ho Snowman review, for Thomas doesn’t deserve the treatment he has gotten, and the children of today deserve more.

Thank you for reading as normal, if you don’t, I hate you! (Just kidding.)

Jacob

Links

 

Sodor Surprise Day on TTTE Wikia

 

Roll Along Thomas' Review

Series 16, Episode 12 Review: Salty's Surprise

Finally, after what happened last year, it was CHRISTMAS on the Island of Sodor, and the first time it had officially been since 1991, (as we all know back in Thomas and Percy’s Christmas Adventure) but the writers were a little reluctant in saying so, for it was the Christmas holiday session, but it’s better to many than hearing the words ‘winter holidays.’

But despite this, it was Sharon Miller’s usual, sleazily, sugar-coated, but not as politically correct as normal, writing. For it revolved around something we fans have been complaining about for a whole decade now, I’m talking about Edward’s persona, everyone knows Edward is meant to the wise old engine we knew from the books and the version of the show from our childhood, yet today, he left his work to find presents for Salty, and brings back things that we all know Salty won’t want, as someone has already said, Edward decides to give Salty, Thomas’s funnel from Slippy Sodor, just because Kevin says it’s fancy, oh, forget the fact that Salty is a diesel engine, the funnel is fancy, yes, that makes all the difference. Salty’s stories themselves weren’t very much about the sea, and any fan could go into great detail on how bad the first story was, for one, as everyone knows, many of the Thomas characters are painted green, or is it their terrible excuse for Duck, Oliver and Boco not being in the series? Two, if this did happen when Salty was on Sodor, Edward must have known about it, and three, if all the red paint had ran out, we would have still seen Salty’s buffers, and his yellow and black front and behind, but of course, Nitrogen have to support the rubbish that they have to work with.

I know I start almost every 2^nd paragraph of my reviews by saying the CGI was to its normal brilliant standard, but it’s true. I thought the bit when seeing the Christmas tree rotting away, was very well done. As said before, despite loving the Thomas models to bits, and not wanting to change anything about the classics,  it’s great seeing the benefits of CGI in the new Thomas series,  and when used, are seen to be far more creative than the writing.

Anyway, thank you for reading, and good night!

Jacob

Links

Salty's Surprise on TTTE Wikia

Roll Along Thomas' Review

Series 16, Episode 11 Review: Thomas and the Sounds of Sodor

Like every fan, I can go into every detail that was wrong with this episode, but like usual, I’ll just keep this review as short as possible. This episode was basically Percy and the Oil Painting, rewritten for the CGI series, meaning they’ve made it all the more awful. Thomas, once again, was only doing what he thought was right, he never asked the composer what he wanted to hear or where he wanted to go, and Thomas seems to think he’s above the other engines, for  no one else was allowed in the quarry, but he was. Today, in the famous composer, saw the first ever Russian character on the Island of Sodor, being ironic it should happen a day after the Russian presidential elections, and by the way, if you are reading, congratulations on your landslide victory, comrad Putin! But anyway, back onto today’s episode, for if I was a communist dictator, and willing someday I will be, I would make everyone watch nothing but series 1 to 5 of Thomas the Tank Engine, and anyone who was ever on the writing team for HiT’s version of the show would be silenced.

The CGI was it it’s normal excellence, and I have already seen the next few episodes of the series, and I feel we are going to see some of Nitrogen’s best work in their final episodes, and it’s really going to put the writing for them to shame.

So basically, today’s episode was avavidge, meaning  it was bad, but not the worst we’ve ever seen, I would rather watch this than Ol' Wheezy Wobbles, but it was still pretty bad.

But anyway, enjoy your evening,

Jacob

Series 16, Episode 10 Review: Percy and the Calliope

To think, not only have we seen Thomas being written as all the more stupid, the same has happened to Percy. Chasing animals in the woods, hoping they would play with him is one thing, but today’s episode was another level, Percy thought he could make the calliope work by putting water and coal down it’s pipes, and running with it down the line, if the writers haven’t made Percy hit a new low in this episode, I don’t know what would.

The CGI was as brilliant as ever, and Robert Hartshorne’s music was to the good standard it normally is, and the theme being played while Percy and Diesel were going alone sounded very different, it sort of sounded like the music played to a steam train in a 1950s Pathe newsreel, but what we were all very, very trilled about in today’s episode, was that the very tune the calliope played was the classic Thomas theme song!!!!!!!! I was so, so glad to hear it again in the series, after all these years, and Mike O'Donnell and Junior Campbell were actually credited, even though, we all definitely know who they are.

So all in all, a lot of absolute brilliance in this episode, but the script writing was the total opposite.  Please HiT, it’s not just Thomas, we beg of you to make all the engines smart again, please! Hopefully, they will be under the new writting standard.

Thanks for reading as usual,

Jacob

2 new Take 'N' Play engines to add to the huge collection

Ahoy mateys! it's Salty, the pride of the seven seas, along with Percy, at the Dieselworks!

"I'm a very special visitor at the Dieselworks!"

Yes, I was allowed to get them, for Joseph went over the top on what he got for his birthday, a special special thank you to Mum for ordering them, they're great!

Despite being the first of the Thomas characters introduced since Series 6, fans of all ages have a special place in their hearts for Salty, and I've now got another Take Alone/Take 'N' Play Salty to add to my collection, for like many of the charecters, he has been put with many different playsets, but here he is, with his Catch of the Day train.

The box says it is "inspired by Salty's adventures," but they haven't yet had an episode about Salty and a lobster, or one of him delivering fish for market, but surpose it could have loosely been inspired by the series 8 episode, Fish, and the yellow boat could based on Henry and the Flagpole.

But anyway, he 3 trucks look great, and so of course, does Salty, another great thing about is that the boat rocks when the train is moving. Over all, it's really great to have in my huge collection.

And I also got, all the way, from the bad old USA, Talking Percy at the Dieselworks, and here he is at the Dieselworks.

As you can hear, he has his American voice, provided by Martin T Sherman. I've got the Take Along Lights and Sounds Percy and the Take 'N' Play Talking Percy with Keith Wickham's UK voice for Percy, but it's great having this one aswell, they also have done a Talking Flynn for Day of the Diesels, of which I'll get some day, but I usual just save up my money until I think I should buy a few Thomas trains with it, I'm sure by the Summer, we'll have Luke and Winston in the shops, and I'll certainly get them when they come out.

Thanks for reading,

Jacob 

Season 16, Episode 9 Review: Bust My Buffers

I really don’t know my feelings on this episode. It started better than usual, for Gordon was acting more like his old self, when he was saying that being painted yellow and stripy wasn’t grand, it reminded me a little bit of Fire-Engine, though I also thought what 16 and Victor would think of what Gordon said? The way Gordon literally bust his buffers was as unrealistic as usual, and why were they referring to his front set of buffers as a buffer, THEY'RE BUFFERS!!!!!!! None of the writing team ever bothers to look up the proper railway terminology, to think I learn most of mine from reading and watching the original Thomas stories, I also saw this error in the preview of the new Blue Mountain Mystery book yesterday, and to think this will probably be given out to kids visiting Thomas on a preserved railway , like the Ultimate Diesel Guide was last year.

And us fans are always talking about the continuity in the series, and it was just a few episodes ago in Ol’ Wheezy Wobbles,   that Den said that he and Dart don’t fix steam engines, yet they didn’t mind fixing Gordon. I’m sure Gordon with his diesel buffers will soon come out as a Take ‘n’ Play engine, (of which I can’t wait for) and it’s not the stupidest thing the writing team have ever put on an engine. It was the worst ever Thomas episode, but I feel that you should speak train if you are on the writing team for Thomas the Tank Engine.

The CGI was to the normal standard, and it’s great to see they haven’t forgotten about Paxton and Norman, for they had a cameo together when Gordon was coming into the Dieselworks, and it’s now turned out that Paxton’s playing a big role in BMM, so I guess he will be more than just a marketing tool.

Thanks for reading!

Jacob