Thomas The Tank Engine as a show had been going on since the eighties with it only ending in 2021 and while many do rightfully think that the last episode of season 24 was the shows final episode; The fact it that's not true as the last episode to be produced wasn't an episode of the show it really was a special made to celebrate the franchises seventy fifth anniversary and that's that very special that i'm going to be talking to you all about today and so then join me as I review the special that marked the end of the franchise with the special in question being called simply just "Thomas And The Royal Engine" enjoy.
The plot of this special is The Fat Controller and Thomas are invited to a special ceremony in London by none other then the then Queen of England herself. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very special 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 special was in all honesty not that bad. With the specials plot being a decent plot that does do a good job of setting itself apart from when the last few series of the show were all about just by sticking to what worked in the show as while there is mention of Thomas going abroad in the special the special mainly focused on the UK setting. This is something that does work in the specials favor as that's what the fans of the show would want to see in Thomas episode and while yes it would have been nice if the plot did include characters from Thomas's adventures on the whole as this is meant to celebrate seventy five years of the franchise as a whole it's not something that was needed and while it does make from a marketing point of view for Thomas to be the centre of the plot given that it this special was meant to celebrate seventy five years since the release of the first book it would made just as much sense for Gordon , Henry and Edward to take centre stage with the specials plot admittedly being a bit on the thin side as there is nothing to the episodes plot that makes it worthy of being a full blown special in it's own right 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.
Starring in this episode is John Hasler as Thomas , Keith Wickham as Henry and Gordon and Nigel Pilkington as Percy. Also starring in this episode is Teresa Gallagher as Emily , Rob Rackstraw as James , The Thin Clergyman and the Mainland Engine Cleaners , Rachael Miller as Rebecca and Prince Charles , Rosamund Pike as Duchess , Colin McFarlane as Bulgy and Beresford , Keith Wickham as The Fat Controller , Dowager Hatt , Thomas' Crew and the Mainland Stationmaster and Sharon Miller as Queen Elizabeth II.
Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very special 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 special was in all honesty not that bad. All of the series regular actors do indeed do a really good job of voicing their characters for what would be the final time in the show with them all getting a small amount of time to show us just why they were good in the show to begin with and as is tradition with Thomas we do have a celebrity voicing a one off character with us having the delightful Rosamund Pike as Duchess with her doing a really good job in the episode as a whole. With the best actor in the whole entire episode being John Hasler as Thomas which granted might be something of a cliche thing to say as he is playing the main character of the show but it's also something that is true as he does get alot to do as the character outside of him of just spouting a few catchphrases with John having a good voice for Thomas as it does capture both his more youthful nature and how wise he is at the same time with this being something that wouldn't have worked if the character had a voice that made him sound to young with John even having some really good charm and charisma that really does shine through in his performance in this special. With the acting that's in this very special really being helped by the fact that the script for this special is just so good that all this specials actors have to do is just say the lines as they are written and a good performance will come out of them naturally which is something that really does help to raise the overall quality of the acting that's in this very special.
Doing the animation for this special is the legends and the greats that are currently over at Jam Filled Toronto. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual animation that's actually featured / presented to us in this very special well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual animation that's actually featured / presented to us in this very special was in all honesty not that bad. The specials animation was quite frankly alot more better then what it really had any right to be as by all rights the animation in this special should have been really bad as the animation in season 24 was pretty bad but no infact it's actually alot more better then that as you can tell the makers of this special did put alot of thought and effort in to making the specials animation look as good as it could have been. As while yes the backgrounds do lack alot of detail which does make it hard to work out on if the characters are meant to be on the mainland or on Sodor but on the plus side the characters don't bounce as much when there talking this time around with the characters remaining still which is very pleasant to see and while this specials animation was never going to as good as the animation in a feature film would for the fact that it is a made for TV special there is alot more thought and effort gone into the animation then say something from Paw Patrol as you can see all of the love for the show that the animators have in each and every frame however tho the thing that lets down this specials animation is the fact that we don't get to see alot of different types of environments in the specials as alot of it is set in the country side which does get a bit boring to look at after a while and it would have given the animators the chance to show of more backgrounds if they did give us a more a variety of backgrounds it also would have helped if the specials animation had more of a chance to do some really creative things that show of just how good the animation is.
As was mentioned at the start of this review whilst the series itself did technically end with season 24 this was the last special to be fully developed. Therefor this is the shows technical final episode as the series would be rebooted with that dreadful All Engines Go right after this special came out with it being weird that after thirty to forty years on the air that the show would come to an end as the Thomas TV series is just one of those shows that you think would never go away as the people that grew up watching it and liking could become fans of it and therefor write episodes for the show and thus inspiring the next generation of kids to do the exact same thing and yet someone possibly and Mattel decided that kids weren't enjoying this show when truth be told they weren't enjoying the bad stories that made up season 22 to 24. With this episode not even feeling like a finale episode as there's no sense of this is the end for the characters that you typically get when your watching the final episode of a show and heck not even all of the characters in the show show up for this special therefor they don't get that big send off moment that alot of the other characters in the special get which is something that makes you wonder if the the choice to cancel the show was made after this special was made as you know that the makers of the special would have gone out of there way to make it feel like a true finale if that was choice was made prior to the special being made but either way it was a bit sad to see this truly iconic show end knowing what comes after it isn't going to save the franchise but is rather going to do more harm to it then good, with the only way for Mattel to fix the mistakes that they made to be just to give us decent stories and that audience that you've lost would have come back as the show and the format wasn't broken.
There is a part of this episode that is shall we say quite infamous as it does feature someone who was then a member of the royal family but not long after recording his opening for the episode would start to distance himself from his family. Look to be fair having a member of the royal family open the episode is a good way to start the episode of as it is about Thomas going to meet them but it is something that hasn't aged all that well given what happens in real life therefor it would have made more sense if they got someone who was still in the royal family to do the opening like maybe Charles of William or maybe even Kate to do it as they are still quite high up in the royal family or maybe one of the lesser known royals as it's not really something that would have required a more well known family member to do it in the first place. Another issue with the episode is that it spends so much time in building up London and yet we spend a a grand total of around two minuets there at the end of the episode with the rest of the episode bein spent on showing the characters going to London which does make you wonder why they chose to shout out London by name and have the characters go there as they could have had the royal party go to Sodor and nothing would need to be changed plot wise and yet by shifting the location to London and not really showing us alot of the location it does make that whole idea feel like the waste of a good idea as it would have been fun to see how the makers of this show interpret something like the London Underground for example or even showing The Fat Controller being driven to Buckingham Palace for his meeting with Thomas being carried by lorry which is something that would have allowed the makers of the episode to give us a few shots of the characters going around other famous London landmarks bottom line being there is alot that they could have done with the London location and yet they don't do it all for no good reason.
Duchess as a new character was pretty fun as she is basically just a female version of Spencer with the thing being that she is forgetful. With her always forgetting something which in the case of this special was forgetting to have her safety valve checked and yet she's also always in a rush and worrying about several different things at once which does make her kind of a fun character and one that if the show did indeed continue you could very easily see her coming back into the show on a semi-regular basis as there are stories that you could tell with her character that don't involve the royal family being there and yet the character only shows up about four times in the whole special this is something that does go to show you that the makers of tis special did know what they doing. As with just four scenes they manage to create a character that does leave an impression on us the audience and while OK fair enough she's not the best written character however this is something that could also be said for alot of the new characters in the latter episodes of the show with Rebecca being a very good example of this as the show barely used her after they set her up as a character and yet here wit Duchess they do have the basis of a good character and yet the character never really appears after this special when it would have been super fun to see her again even in All Engines Go which given how they did the characters on that show would have been where she might have fit in the best. The character is one that did have lots of potential in the show to be a really good character as while she doesn't get alot of screen time in this special the time that she does get does make you want to see her more and see what her interactions with say Gordon would be like or given the fact that she's a female more kinder version of Spencer why not show us what there interactions are like and with the new Thomas reboot coming out in a few weeks why not have or a version of her be apart of the cast for that show and show us more of what her personality is.
Now then this episode has / had an exact grand total running time of exactly twenty two minuets and thirty six seconds. Which was a pretty solid running time for this special to have but at the same time tho this special really could have done with being alot longer then that just to make sure that all of the main characters from the show not only got there chance to say goodbye to the audience but also allow the characters more time in London as you very easily could have gotten this specials running time up to about thirty or forty minuets and with that added screen time it would have allowed for the plot to breathe alot more as with it's actual running time it does feel like that the special is just rushing from one plot point to the next with the special having more then enough plot there to cover that amount of running time in the first place. Yet even with the episode being as long as it is it still doesn't use its running time all that wisely as while the specials plot is as well developed as it was ever going to be the plot still does feel underbaked with this mainly due to the fact that it is now the official series finale as the special does spend alot of time with just The Fat Controller and Thomas and not enough time on adding things to the plot that make it feel more developed with the makers oft his special being more focused on showing us alot of the countryside then it is in giving us a well developed plot. This is something that is also kind of true for the specials character development as while both The Fat Controller and Thomas don't really need any kind of character development due ton them having gotten it in the previous episodes of the show characters like Duchess and Beresford don't get any kind of character development and while it's understandable as to why Beresford doesn't get any as he's only in the one scene Duchess is meant to be a main character and yet she doesn't get any kind of character development with the makers of this special being more focused on giving us references to past episodes then they are in giving the characters some character development but I really will admit that this special really does have some really bad pacing to it tho.
So now then as this is a comedy special that really does mean that I have to actually talk about the actual comedy that's actually featured / presented to us in this very special 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 special was in all honesty really good. With alot of the comedy in this special being more cute then anything else which is by no means a bad things as that is the type of comedy that this show did do best be it Bulgy saying that the mail would have arrived n time if it had been delivered by bus which is very true to his character or Duchess being convinced that Thomas has her coaches bottom line being there are alot of cute and funny moments here in the special. With the best joke in the whole special being when The Fat Controller is getting dressed in the morning and he opens his wardrobe and we see that the only hats he has are the same ones that he wears everyday and yet to top it of even his new hat is just the same hat that joke it just a cute joke that whilst yes you can see it coming as other films and TV shows have done that exact same joke before now it is still a funny joke and it is sone that is oddly befitting for his character as we can imagine him just having rows and rows of the same top hat all over the place and therefor picturing him trying to choose one to wear not just for meeting the Queen but also just for going to work on a daily basis is a pretty funny idea in it's own right and seeing the Thomas team put there own stamp on that joke is something that does make the joke feel kind of new all over again with the rest of the specials jokes being just as good as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Overall as a series finale this special isn't all that good as it doesn't wrap the show up at all but as an anniversary special then it does do it's job of reminding us all of why we fell n love with Thomas in the first place as the special does feel like a special that was written for the fans by the fans in my freaking pinions 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 special in this very review and a such tat really does mean that this very special really does earn itself a grand old score of exactly a 7 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 Amazon . Co . UK and Google Images. With my personally preferred website to use to get the images from this very special that I used in this very post being the really great Google Images 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 special with alot of them really being really better quality then what you'd really think of and all of the images are really of course up and really on Google Images really are also really all fairly high in quality and as well as them all being really fairly freaking high in definition.
No comments:
Post a Comment