It seems in today's world that there are a lot of people who seem to have a problem with bringing a character with a physical difference to the center of attention even if it is only for less than a minute and those same people will say that it is 'disrespectful to kids with special needs and it's offensive'. Okay, frankly shouldn't hiding a character that's different from everyone else be more offensive? Isn't censoring a character with a disability more disrespectful to people who actually might have similar issues? Those kids need representation too, those kids need a character to look up to just as much as any other kid perhaps even more so. There was a story about an autistic kid who looked up to Drax from 'Guardians of the Galaxy', he saw someone who acted like he did and was still a hero. Even Julia from 'Sesame Street', kids can see a character like her and say 'hey, she's just like me'. This kind of representation is important for kids especially kids who might already get bullied at school for being different, it gives validation to who they are and the struggles they go through. Here, Bruno is different: he loves schedules and timetables when everything goes to plan, he can flap his own ladders to tell you if he's upset or really excited, he can use his items to show you how he's feeling but he is also a very relaxed character who uses his comedy to get past situations sometimes so the possibility of people censoring Bruno because he happens to look and act different from the other engines could actually be seen as worse than just leaving him be. Do you really believe that Mattel of all companies would be malicious like this? In the end, it's a sad testament to the power of words but it's important to bring up when talking about Bruno. But enough of talking about Bruno, let's get on with the show!
If you were to ask any longtime fan of Thomas what their thoughts were on the original television series as a whole, they would more often than not tell you that Diesel became a nuisance in the CGI seasons. When he was first introduced in Season 2's 'Pop Goes the Diesel', he was very devious and maniacal, a 'pulls the strings behind the curtains' type of character, the type of guy that would flip any situation in his favor and win it if he put his mind to it. But as the show went on, he just turned into a brute reduced to nothing but a selfish bully who picks on others just because he does what he does. He was a shell of his former self. Many longtime fans of Thomas including myself didn't particularly like modern day Diesel since we thought an episode with him can be very entertaining when he was paired with a good character foil like Paxton or even Thomas himself, but Diesel himself? We don't like since he was incredibly one-dimensional. Whenever he screws up and is subsequently forgiven, it never feels earned because we know he hasn't changed and he never will. He never progresses, to think it took Daisy - a character that used to be arguably just as rude and selfish as Diesel himself when she first arrived on Sodor - to give him the kick in the pants he needed to start changing his ways in Season 21's 'Springtime for Diesel' and it speaks volumes about how far she has grown as a character.
So as you can imagine, there were a lot of fans, including myself, who didn't like the concept of Diesel being presented as just one of the guys. But with this in mind considering that Diesel is sharing the spotlight with Bruno for this episode, it shouldn't really come as a surprise to any fan of Thomas The Tank Engine young or old that 'Shake, Rattle and Bruno' when looking past the very well-handled representation of autism with Bruno himself is pretty standard fare when it comes to Diesel's character in terms of him being a dumb brood as usual with not listening to Bruno's advice of avoiding going through Crumble Canyon with their heavy delivery of a new light for Vicarstown Lighthouse which I'm just as shocked as you are that it was somehow by sheer coincidence safely delivered in one piece despite going through avalanche territory.
But regardless of any flaws I have with the episode and while Diesel may never truly learn from his mistakes, I still think that 'Shake, Rattle and Bruno' was a pretty decent way to start this new season off right with some of the best autistic representation that I've seen in children's entertainment in a long time thus I'm gonna give 'Shake, Rattle And Bruno' a rating of a 4/5.
