We all had that one favorite show that we always used to watch when we were kids and alot of the times that one show sticks with us when were adults. So much so that we occasionally find ourselfs checking out then show again for one reason or another well that's the case with the episode that i'm going to review for you all today as it's from a show that I used to watch growing up and still find myself going back to it all of these many years later and so then join me as I review the episode that kick started a rather solid kids TV programme with the episode in question being called simply just "Thomas And Gordon" enjoy.
The plot of this episode is when a young tank engine named Thomas upsets an older engine Gordon once to often Gordon decides to teach Thomas a lesson. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty thought / felt that the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was simple but enjoyably simple as that's the kind of plot lines that you expect from this show as the shows target auidence is very little kids which means that giving each episode a deep , dark and though provoking plotline just wouldn't work as they wouldn't understand it and yet it's by giving this episode a rather simple plot that the actual plot itself is allowed to shine it's brightest and really just be pure fun to watch in this episode with the plot also being really rather entertaining and as well as being really rather engaging as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
This era of the shows very long history famously didn't have a full complete cast list with there being only one person voicing all of the characters and telling us the story with that person in this case being Ringo Starr. Of course this would change depending on where you grew up watching the show as the show would change it's Narrator for every country that bought it but it was a shock to hear that a world famous musician had lent his voice to a kids TV show and not only that he would also reprise his role for a batch of episodes in America as part of the show "Shining Time Station" where he would also have an on camera role as well and while for one reason or another the show would loose Ringo Starr during it;s third series it is great to see hear him in this episode as this might also have given him and thus The Beatles some new fans as well all thanks to this one little show.
Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured / [resented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty really good. With the episodes only cast member doing a solid job of telling the story the only real issue is tho is that he doesn't give all of their characters their own voices with the only character to somewhat get his unique voice is Gordon the big engine with Thomas just getting the same voice that he uses when he's telling the story which is odd as in series two Ringo would start to give other characters there own voices even playing around with regional dialects a bit on some of the characters with the acting in this episode really being helped by the fact that the script for this episode is just so good that all the cast for this episode for this episode have to do is really just the lines as they are written and a good performance will come of them alot more naturally.
This show at least for it's early years famously used live action sets for the backgrounds and the sets and model trains for the characters and little wooden people for the human cast. With this being the style that the show would go with for the first several series only becoming part CGI animated around series 12 and fully CGI animated at series 13 with this style being alot better as it adds alot of charm to the show something which is lost when the show becomes fully animated as the show despite looking cheaply made somehow looks better and timeless then the more polished CGI seasons ever will as CGI is always moving forward and will always be dated a few years after it comes out where as this more practical approach to making the show will always be timeless as nothing will ever beat doing something for real.
What alot of you might not know is that this episode isn't technically the first adaptation of The Railway Series stories. As the books did get an adaptation in a failed pilot in 1953 which suffered from numerous technical problems the chief amongst which being that when that shows version of Henry came off the track when it wasn't meant to a hand came into shot and set it right however there was a pilot around thirty years later which was the pilot to this show with the pilot being called "Thomas Down The Mine" with that pilot episode being so successful that the series as we knew it was green lit there and then and the pilot episode was re-filmed as "Down The Mine" and aired later on in the shows first season which just goes to show you that sometimes you just need the right person in charge to make the show as good as it was.
In a rather surprising move we do actually get cameos from other main characters before there official debut in the show. With both Henry and James making silent appearances in this episode sometime before there official debut stories which is fine if your just watching on it's own but when you take the rest of the series into account it really doesn't make sense as they never mention the events of this episode when either Thomas or Gordon are acting up when as we see in other episodes that is something that they would have done as this first series especially is really heavy on continuity with episodes frequently mentioning the events of other episodes and while it is understandable why they added James as he was only added just to fill up the set there was no reason to add in Henry as he doesn't do anything that's important to the plot of the episode and if your a fan of either character it can be distracting seeing them in this episode when neither of them are really the focus point of this very episode.
As someone who grew up with this show it was nice seeing where the Thomas character started off as he starts of as this cheeky little engine who is always pulling jokes on other engines. Yet due to the events of this episode and the events of this first several episodes he becomes a bit more mature and almost like a teacher of sorts to other engines which is a rather interesting take for this character as he's essentially the main audience and yet they have him still act like a prankster of sorts in several episodes which just goes to show that while the team behind this show are usually really good with making sure that the characters stick on there path of character progression take a step back from time to time as it's not something that's in this series nature and teaching kids to essentially respect your elders is always a really good lesson to learn and it's on that we adults could also really do with re-learning from time to time but there's only so long that you can have the same character relearn the exact same lesson before it gets really boring to watch.
Now then this episode has / had an exact grand total running time of exactly five minuets and thirty three seconds. Which is pretty much the bogstanderd running time for these early season episodes and to this episodes credit it really does make the most of that running time as the episode really doesn't have a whole lot of plot to cover a longer running time as the episode is adapting the plot of the book in which Thomas first makes his debut appearance "Thomas The Tank Engine" and while it would have been nice if the episode had a much more longer running time as that would have allowed them to get across the characters personalities alot more better it also would have had the knock on effect of hammering home the episodes central message and it would also be really stretching the episodes plot really fairly thin but I will admit that this episode really does have some truly wonderful pacing to it tho.
So now then as this is a comedy that means that I have to actually talk about the actual comedy that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual comedy that's actually featured / presented t us in this very episode was in all honesty not that bad. However that's also the issue as there really wasn't any laugh out loud moments in this episode which does make sense as these two characters really don't allow themselves to have some truly funny moments and while we do get some cute jokes to be found in this movie they are few and far between with the episode having alot more bad jokes in it however the shows main target audience might find this episode to be really funny but it would have been great if there were alot more actually funny moments to be found in this episode in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Overall this was a really cute debut episode for the show and it's not hard to see why this show became as big as it was as alot of what people love about the show is right here in this episode in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now then i've talked about all of the good and as well as all of the bad things that are in this very episode in this very review and as such that really does mean that this very episode really does earn itself a grand old score of exactly an 8 out of 10 from me.
Now then as for where I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review well then boys and girls and as well as ladies and gentlemen I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review from the official Thomas The Tank Engine fandom wiki page and Google Images. With my personally preferred website to use to get the images from these very episode that I used in this very review being the official Thomas The Tank Engine fandom wiki page really simply just due to the fact that really alot of the images that are on the official Thomas The Tank Engine fandom wiki page are all really fairly high in quality and as well as them all really being really fairly freaking high in definition.