THE OPINIONS, THOUGHTS AND MUSINGS IN THIS BLOG POST ARE SOLELY THOSE OF ZACK WANZER, NOT THE THOMAS FANDOM IN GENERAL
Episode 1: Who's Geoffrey?
Written by Lee Pressman
The first time since season 14 that Thomas got the premiere episode, and unlike that episode, Who's Geoffrey? proved to be absolutely brilliant. One day, he's running late for Brendam Docks; unfortunately, he runs into a couple of trucks and they bump into Salty, causing a crate of rubber balls to break open and bounce about the docks. I love how comical this is, especially when a ball lands in a workman's mug and knocks another workman's clipboard away. Oh, and we get to hear one truck speak by himself - genius! Thomas tries to leave, but Cranky catches him, and the tank engine says it was caused by Geoffrey, a big, mainland steam engine - yes, I know he said "steamie" and not "steam engine", but that's what I'm going for.
Later, when Thomas picks up Annie and Clarabel at the Steamworks, he tells Victor that Geoffrey is red. Out on the mainline, it turns out everyone wants to find out and see Geoffrey, much to Thomas' dismay. Also, I'm not quite sure why James would claim there are too many red engines on Sodor - if Thomas had said Geoffrey was green, that would've been understandable; look at how many green engines we have on Sodor! Examples: Henry, Percy, Duck, Oliver, Emily, Peter Sam, Luke, Rex, Paxton, BoCo, Daisy, Scruff, Whiff, Derek, etc. (I'm not counting Gator, Samson, and Sam as they're visiting engines; Bear is also excluded as he's RWS-exclusive for now.) Meanwhile, the red engines (or at least, engines in a variant of red) are James himself, Mike, Flynn, Skarloey, Rheneas, Arthur, Harvey, Salty, and Norman. That's nine red engines (ten if you count Glynn, although he's probably scrapped by now, but I digress) compared to about fifteen engines in green! (I'm not counting the rest of the Skarloey engines in their RWS liveries, for the record.) Of course, James might be acting vain and claiming he should be the only red engine on Sodor, or maybe I'm just overthinking things.
Back to the episode; the Fat Controller has caught wind of this "Geoffrey" character and wants to see him, although Thomas is most reluctant to present "Geoffrey" to his controller. Well, since he's made him up, Thomas has dug himself into a deeper pit (no, not that one) and he's continued to dig deeper. How? By lying that he's hiding in Henry's tunnel (after the big green engine whistles nearby with a train) and then runs off, with Percy in pursuit with the Fat Controller on board. By the way, Bertie is at the crossing gates half open and half closed - where do I begin with this? That scene is just outright ridiculous! Why would Bertie have the right of way at the level crossing? Trains do not stop on a dime! They should be the ones having the right of way until the track is clear! If there weren't any crossing gates, it would seem dangerous, but at least, it'd make sense! Meanwhile, there's a cutaway with Spencer crossing over the Vicarstown Bridge - remember that.
After many miles (I believe) Thomas stops inside Henry's tunnel. The Fat Controller calls out and asks if Geoffrey is in the tunnel with Thomas, and the tank engine pretends to be Geoffrey by changing his voice. This is awfully similar to Toy Story, isn't it? In the movie, Woody is stuck with Buzz's detached arm (and unlike Thomas, Woody has Buzz with him, but the toys don't know this) and uses it to fool them into thinking that Buzz is with him (which, again, he actually is). Oh, and the faces Thomas makes are funny. It manages to fool the Fat Controller, but Spencer approaches fast, causing Thomas, Annie and Clarabel (who are still with him; that I should have mentioned earlier) to race out of the tunnel, and when Spencer reveals he didn't see any Geoffrey, Thomas admits that he made him up to get out of trouble. The Fat Controller scolds him for causing chaos, and reminds him not to do something so silly like that in the near future - besides, everyone gets into accidents, even him (which we'll get to). The ending with Thomas crashing into... something... is a bit ridiculous, as is the ball bouncing near Spencer at the end.
Arc Productions have upped the animation to 11; Spencer now has an express headcode (something Gordon should have too), and the renders look and feel like real locomotives. For the voice acting, I can now see that John Hasler does good as Thomas (I haven't seen the UK dub of The Adventure Begins; make of that if you will) for the UK. Joseph May is fine, and he does make Thomas sound suspiciously like a cross between Kermit the Frog and Peewee Herman. For Percy, Christopher Ragland now voices him for the US, and Nigel Pilkington for the UK (must be a bit of relief for Keith Wickham, I reckon). I like Percy's new US voice, but his new UK voice could take a while getting used to. As for James being voiced by Rob Rackstraw in the US, I really like it as his previous voice made him sound too old. (At some point, I should do a poll on which English voices you prefer.)
On whole, a good way start off the season.
Rating: 8 out of 10
Episode 2: The Truth About Toby
Written by Davey Moore
And speaking of good starts...!
Not really sure why we were given an introduction to Toby; we should be past this by now. Anyway, the story really begins with Henrietta expressing her concern when Toby's sideplates begin rattling and suggests that he go to the Steamworks, but Toby has too much work to do and doesn't bother having them checked; instead he takes his trucks of scrap to the scrapyards. Henrietta again nags him to fill up with coal, which, again, Toby dismisses. I love how Henrietta's portrayed; she's very much an overprotective wife (please don't take this the wrong way) because she cares for Toby's sake. Toby pays the price for not listening and runs out of coal at the scrapyards - once again, very relatable, men; don't listen your nagging wife (even when she's right) and you'll be sorry you didn't listen (please don't take this as the episode's moral).
Edward passes by, but Toby doesn't stop him to ask for some coal. When Thomas passes by, Toby calls out to him, but doesn't get a response - he thinks Thomas couldn't see him, so Reg moves some scrap out of the way. Edward passes by once again, and Toby calls out to him, but because of the noise Reg is making scrunching up scrap, Edward is unable to hear. I love this bit of dialogue: "Reg! Reg! REEEEEG!!" I swear, a lot of dialogue made me laugh - it was performed brilliantly. Reg decides to try and get an engine to stop by waving a piece of red scrap (he said brightly colored, but I'm going for red, as it was the color of the broken car) like a flag. Unfortunately, it slips, almost hitting Henry, who simply continues.
At the docks, Edward remarks that whenever he passes the scrapyard, Toby's still there. Salty then suggests that Toby is being scrapped, much to the engines' horror. Later, when Thomas passes by once more, Reg lifts up Toby, much to the tram engine's shock, but it fails badly and Thomas thinks Toby is going to be scrapped. Could he have stopped to help Toby? Well... he could've, but he has work to do, as did Edward and Henry. One of them could've simply mentioned this to the stationmaster at the next station (Crosby, Wellsworth or Maron, take your pick), who could've then told the Fat Controller in turn. By the way, if there's anything else I like, it's a healthy dose of dark humor, as it wasn't what is appeared to be when Reg lifted Toby...!
The news quickly spreads across Sodor (with lovely transitions to boot), but Henrietta denies this and insists that Toby is fine. Emily brings her to see Toby, and Henrietta scolds her engine for not taking on coal - could he have done so? Sure, and so could've his crew, but Toby's an older engine; I guess it's a case of old people forgetting to do something important, which, again, is relatable. Emily lends Toby some of her coal and the Fat Controller declares that Toby will never be scrapped, much to the engines' relief. One other thing though; why were the rattling sideplates never addressed again until now?
So Toby's got a new voice for the UK audience - Rob Rackstraw, who also voices James for the US market. Toby's new voice is fine; it may take a while to get used to. They could've done a bit more with the story, but on whole, I was content, especially as a lot of moments were pretty funny. I'd probably rank this about the same as the previous episode.
Rating: 8 out of 10
Episode 3: Lost Property
Written by Helen Farrall
At Knapford station, the Fat Controller tells Thomas that there will be an inspection of the railway first thing tomorrow - meanwhile, Annie and Clarabel have had their passengers leave stuff inside them, and the Fat Controller decides to bring them to the Lost Property Office, and plays with a paddle-ball until he hits himself in the eye by mistake. Ouch! I'll bet that had to suck for him; of course, this is slapstick, and as long as injuries are self-inflicted or actually played for a laugh (and not in a cringing way like, say, The Splinter), that's good enough for me. In the morning, the inspectors first ride with Thomas; as he's got a lot of jobs to do, Thomas is sure everything will go smoothly (he didn't exactly say that, but that's how I view his statement; take that as you will), but unfortunately for him (and the Fat Controller), anything that can go wrong, will go wrong, especially when he starts off a little too suddenly.
And Thomas' problems don't stop there; Annie's window is unable to open, some naughty children make fun of the Fat Controller in front of the inspectors, one of them pulls the emergency cable for fun, cows crossing the track, and presumably a bunch of stuff that occurred off-screen. The children acting like brats doesn't bother me as it's a common occurrence, I'm sure - plus, they added to Thomas' troubles and it motivated him to try to impress the inspectors despite his constant delays, all of which happened out of his (and the Fat Controller's) control. Eventually, Thomas' inspection is complete, and the Fat Controller joins the inspectors aboard Duck's train (why he isn't using the slip coaches, I'm not sure, but there you go) whilst Thomas goes off to do the rest of his jobs.
Later in the day, Annie and Clarabel have noticed that the inspector with the mustache has lost his pocket-watch and tell this to Thomas, who decides to return it to the inspector, afraid of the railway getting a worse report. Out on the mainline, they pass Gordon with the inspectors on board and chase after him. Luckily, Thomas manages to catch up to Gordon and his driver returns the pocket-watch, much to the inspector with the mustache's delight - it had been given to him for twenty years of working for the railway company. He thanks Thomas for returning it to him and promises that the railway will receive a glowing report. Thomas returns to his branchline and the inspectors leave on board Gordon, who starts too quickly and apologizes for it. And apparently, the Fat Controller didn't learn from his incident yesterday... "Ohhh, not again!" Poor Topham! XP
Out of the episodes we've seen so far, to me, this is the funniest. It's a pretty simple story, but it has a lot memorable moments to keep things interesting, mostly the comedy involving the Fat Controller - just goes to show there's a more buffoonish side to him other than being strict but fatherly. And the moral is also very strong; if something is lost, it's best to return it to its owner, which Thomas did. Also, the use of human interaction is utilized brilliantly - just a shame two certain people in an engine's cab didn't talk...! Something tells me the Fat Controller ought to stay away from paddle-balls in case he gets another black eye. :P
Rating: 9.5 out of 10
Yes, I know I've skipped Henry Spots Trouble - I'll get to it, just not here as I've another monkey to deal with. (If you're wondering, the episode's default rating is 3/10.)
Now, I have a lot of issues with how season 19's first week came down; the first is the fact that it took even three to four months to even air the first episode! It doesn't help by the fact that Sodor's Legend of the Lost Treasure takes place after season 19, and yet it airs before! Why is that? That is a similar problem I have to Friendship Games airing alongside the second half of season five. At least with Equestria Girls and Rainbow Rocks, they premiered AFTER their respective seasons, but to have the third movie air ALONGSIDE its season doesn't make much sense.
Then there's the fact that after Henry Spots Trouble, we get the season 17 episode The Afternoon Tea Express, and the Monday afterwards, season 16 has a rerun... and why?
With season 16, all episodes (including the winter-themed episodes) aired together except for The Christmas Tree Express, which was held back for December... which makes no sense when the other three aired alongside the other sixteen episodes! With season 17 in 2013, ten episodes aired in June (most likely to avoid spoilers surrounding King of the Railway), five more came in September/October, Too Many Fire Engines aired on November 5, and the four winter episodes aired in December. After that came the last six episodes on DVD in March 2014. With season 18 in 2014, however, the first sixteen aired together in August and September, leaving the four winter episodes in December, and the last six episodes on DVD in January 2015. Now, with season 19, we get four episodes this month, and after that, I imagine, a hiatus while we get reruns of bad episodes from the Nitrogen era.
And the big reason for this? It's poor scheduling on the distributors' part. I'm not going to be negative about season 19 just because it's taking so long to air; I'm going to blame it on the distributors for not planning ahead; if the season does poorly, then they'll have no one to blame but themselves.
Thomas and Friends Season 19 Scorecard:
1. Who's Geoffrey?: 8
2. The Truth About Toby: 8
3. Lost Property: 9.5
4. Henry Spots Trouble: 3
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