It's safe to say that i've taken a bit of a liking to reviewing classic episodes of Thomas The Tank Engine And Friends and what's not to like about this show as it's just so charming. With the episode that i'm going to be talking to you all about today being one that was actually a remake of the shows pilot episode with this episode being an improvement over the pilot in some respects but not in others and so then join me as I review the episode that finally sees Thomas and Gordon become friends with the episode in question being called simply just "Down The Mine" enjoy.
The plot of this episode is when Thomas makes fun of Gordon after he fell into a ditch Thomas soon finds out that he might be needing Gordon's help to get himself out of trouble. 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 personally thought / felt that the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty not that bad as while the episodes plot was simple and very easy to follow that's all it needed to be as all the episodes of this show ever really need is just the basic setup and premise for the episode and that's really it and while yes it would have been nice if this episode did have a more slightly complicated plot as this is afterall still a show that's aimed at toddlers that would also go against not only the book as the books also had really simply plots to them as well but it would also stop the characters from being there fun and charming selves as the episode would have to explain more thigs about the plot for the shows target demographic where as with this episodes plot it doesn't and really shouldn't do any of that as part of what makes this show and what made it work for almost thirty plus years was the fact that the stories were simple and easy to follow along with and while this episode might not be the best example of that as it does cap of the series long story arc of Thomas and Gordon finally becoming friends it is a good example of how to do a simple story that both kids and adults alike can understand and like with the plot of this episode also being really rather entertaining and as well as being really rather engaging as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
With this and all future Thomas reviews being based off of the UK dub of the episode where ever possible that does mean that starring in this episode is Ringo Starr as the episodes narrator. To be frank this is an episode that really could have benefitted from having maybe one other person doing the voices for the characters as it does get hard to tell during this episode who is talking between Annie and Clarabel as they both do look the exact same and therefor giving them each a different voice would have helped to make it easier to tell just who is talking at any given time with the same thing being true for when Gordon and The Fat Controller are talking just because of the fact that Ringo does put on the same authoritative kind of voice for both characters which is something that does fit both of those characters but at the same time it does make it harder to tell just who is meant to be talking alot of the time not that the voices he uses for either character is bad it's just that it would have helped to tell them both apart if there was another voice actor in the episodes and while he's story telling skills are on point as the man does have this silky smooth voice that is just nothing more then pure comfort to the ears it would have helped the episode if he did have other actors there just to bounce off of as that is something that might have made the episode alot more better to watch then what it already is even if it's just to have voices in the background something which would have made alot of the scenes where you can quite clearly see alot of the people in this episode feel more real and the world of the show more real as well but in saying that tho having just one person doing all of the voices for the show is something that was kind of a tradition for alot of the kids shows over here in the UK and to the episodes credit Ringo Starr does have a great voice to be telling us these kinds of stories in the first place. with it also being helped by the fact that he is perhaps the most famous person to ever be a story teller on this show as well.
Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting 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 acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty really good. With it being clear as day that Ringo really does have a love and passion for not only these characters but these stories and while he can't really turn that good of a performance as he's not a trained actor he's a musician he does turn in a a performance that was more fitting for the show at this point in time as while the latter episodes of the show went out of there way to hire trained actors for roles in either the show or movies here they didn't do that and instead went for name recognition above all else and this is a case where it really did work as it put more eyes on the show with those those eyes then staying with the show due to how good the stories were with Ringo Starr himself being both the episodes best and worst actor as he was of course the episodes only actor with something that would have helped him performance wise was if he gave say Gordon for example a more posher sounding voice instead of just using his ordinary voice like he does for all of the characters as that is something that would have been more fitting for that character as would giving Thomas a little bit more of a youthful sounding voice but that might not have been possible given that he was forty five years old in 1985 with the acting that's in this episode really being helped by the fact that this episodes script was just so good that all this episodes actor has to do is just say the lines as they are written and a good performance will com out of him naturally which is something that really does help to raise the overall quality of the acting that's in this very episode.
Character wise this episode does fair really well even tho it only has less then a handful of characters in the whole entire episode. With the characters of Thomas and Gordon being handled the best out of all of them which is something that really does make alot of sense as they are meant to be the main characters of the episode with characters like The Fat Controller and Annie And Clarabel basically having nothing more then cameo roles in the episode which is fine as that what the episode really called for them to have but at the same time given just how important that both sets of characters are to the other characters it would have been nice to have seen them interacting with both Thomas and Gordon alot more then what end up doing in the final episode with the episode really focusing more on the characters of Thomas and Gordon with Thomas basically being the annoying kid little brother to Gordon's big brother even down to the fact that Thomas teases him for crashing into ditch water in the previous episode which is something that does feel like something that this early version of Thomas would do whereas now due to the events of this episode he'd be willing to help whoever crashed out a little bit with Gordon basically being ashamed of his accident and not being the older more wiser engine that he would eventually become with both characters being handled really well in this episode as it would have been really easy for the makers of this episode to get the characters wrong given the fact that this episode was produced in the shows first season but the fact that they didn't shows that they have great respect for not only the original source material but also the characters themselves.
For those of you that don't know this episode is actually the second time that this story was made for the show. As back in 1983 it was adapted into the shows pilot episode which was done no doubt because of it's small cast of characters and limited number if sets and while the pilot was thought to be lost for decades now and only a few shots and bits of footage surviving with alot of that footage even being used in this episode it wasn't until this year that the full pilot episode was not only found but also pieced back together and officially released by the current owners of the Thomas & Friends franchise Mattel and well to say that the pilot is rough around the edges would be like saying WCW in the year 2000 was bad as while the episode does have the same amount of charm as this one it also gives Thomas some really creepy faces with the models even looking like toys alot of the time but in saying that tho this pilot episode does also give us a truly wonderful Ringo Starr performance near the end episode and the mine collapse scene is done better in the pilot then it is here but yeah watching these two is like night and day as while this one might be the better version of the two this one only turned out so good because of the fact that the makers of this episode worked out what worked and what doesn't work during the production of the pilot with them ditching the creepy looking smiling Thomas faces and making the models a little bit more bigger then what they were in the pilot version of the episode with this episode even having the added benefit of continuity as Thomas's line about Gordon smelling like ditch water now makes alot of sense due to it taking place after the previous episode where as in the pilot we don't have that added context to go off of.
It is genuinely hard to say if this episode is better then the pilot version or not because while the pilot version is very rough around the edges the one thing that it got better then this cut of the episode was the big crash scene. As in the pilot episode you get to see the ground slowly start to give way while Thomas is on the tracks so there's a nice bit of build up being done before the accident happens with there even being several shots as well all before Thomas finally does fall down the mine where as here he just falls through the mine with there being no build up to it and so it does come out of nowhere and heck even the narrator for this episode doesn't even explain all that much about why it's dangerous for Thomas to be here and why he shouldn't go past the board in the first place with him going into more detail about both of those things in the pilot episode and heck even when Thomas does fall down the mine it just looks like he fell into a hole and doesn't look like the big accident that the episode is making it out to be and while this might be more true to the books that is only something that could have worked in the books as then you have your imagination to fill in all of the blanks where as here you don't really have that as an excuse and as such more of an effort should have gone into making the accident be all the more big and dramatic as the episode clearly wants it to be like not to the point where it starts to scare little kids but to the point where you believe that Thomas has really gotten himself into trouble with this being something that was more handled well in the original pilot and while the makers of the show had a good reason to re-filming all of this episode due to the fact that they use different models when compared to those used in the pilot episode they still could have redone the big crash scene as that's a big plot point in the story and yet it feels more like an afterthought.
As was stated at the very start of this review this episode concludes the entire first series character arc for both Thomas and Gordon with them now becoming friends. Something which they very firmly weren't even at the end of the shows very first episode where at best they were just acquaintances and that's really it however due to them helping each other out over the course of this series they do start to become more like friends and while they will never be the best of friends as there personalities are just to different for that to happen and yet even tho he was most likely ordered to come and help Thomas out by The Fat Controller when he did get there Gordon didn't make fun of Thomas and didn't tease him like Thomas had teased him earlier on in the episode he instead tried to emphasize with him by saying that even he was in disgrace Thomas did still make him feel better when he teased about smelling like ditch water because he made him laugh and now Thomas like him was also in disgrace with that being the thing that really does bond them both together as friends who are more then willing to help each other out something which they do promise to do at the end of the episode and it's that very thing that does proof that those two characters do make for good friends as friends will always be willing to help each other be it by making them laugh and feel better about something or in this case helping them when they fall down a mine and not tease them about it but in saying that tho there friendship could have done with a better build up as while it could be argued that the previous episode and this episode are kind of similar as they show the other engine getting into trouble with it only being this episode that shows someone actively pulling them out we don't really get to see much of them talking nicely to each other all throughout this first series with this being something that really could have helped with there growth as characters.
Now then this episode has / had an exact grand total running time of exactly five minuets and thirty two seconds. Which to be fair to this episode is pretty much the exact grand total running time that you'd expects alot of these early Thomas episodes to have and to be fair to this episode this episode really does have the right amount of plot there to really cover that amount of running time in the first place with the episode even making as good a use of its running time as it possibly could have done with the episodes plot being as well developed as it possibly could have done given the episodes running time which does mean that every single scene has to be about pushing the plot forward and developing the plot of the episode as well and while somethings like why Thomas isn't allowed to go past a certain point could have been better explained as it does feel like that it was added in there jus at the last minuet to help to explain somethings in the episode it really doesn't explain why Thomas can't go past and yet a heavier train like Gordon can be on the same tracks that Thomas was one and pull him out of the mine but that is at best a very minor issue with the episode with the episode even having some pretty decent character development in it as well as it's due to the events of this episode that both Thomas and Gordon do start to become more friendly to each other and while that was more due to the fact that it was there character arc for this series it was something that was payed off in this episode and was done in way that felt true to there characters at this point in time but I really will admit that this episode really does have some really good pacing to it tho.
So now then as this is a comedy that really does mean that I have to actually talk about the actual comedy that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual comedy that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty not that bad. As the episode much like the rest of the show does have some really cute jokes in it all of which are things that do work really well as they feel true the characters and therefor do come across very character driven and while the episodes jokes can seem pretty child like and childish that is something that does work really well for the show as these characters are meant to be very child like and at times childish in nature as well with the episodes best joke being one Thomas spends a good amount of time just teasing Gordon about him falling him into ditch water only for Annie And Clarabel to tell Thomas to stop teasing him as they have alot of respect for Gordon however tho oddly enough the pilot version of the episode has a much more better joke at the end of the episode where Thomas struggles to pronounce the allegiance something which is oddly cut out of this version of the episode which is odd as it would have been a really solid joke to end the episode on and yet the episode instead just fades to black after Thomas is rescued by Gordon but credit it were it's due the joke about Gordon smelling of ditch water is a really good joke and it's also a really good call back the previous episode as well with that episode called Off The Rails and is a good example of this show not only having some really good continuity but also telling some really good jokes as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Overall this is a really fun episode that does do a decent enough job of fixing alot of the issues that people didn't know that they had with the recently released pilot as the episode does show the characters being there fun and charming selves which is more then enough to stop what could have been seen as being a really dull and boring episode and make it something that's also really fun to watch as well 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 thigs 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 a 7.5 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 this very episode that I used in this very review being the really great the official Thomas The Tank Engine fandom wiki page really simply just due to the fact that really alot of if not really all of the images that are all really from this very episode with alot of them being better quality then what you'd really think of and all of the images are really of course up and really on the official Thomas The Tank Engine fandom wiki page are also really all fairly high in quality and as well as them all being really fairly freaking high in definition.
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