Well, this was sooner than anticipated.
After the end of All Engines Go! last year, a lot of fans, including myself, were asking themselves "then what?". Was that the end for Thomas? Is there more that the tank engine has to offer? Apparently not, since on January 27th of this year, we got our first look at what's next in store for the little blue guy. And yes, I know I'm a month late to this, but I was on vacation when the news dropped, so gimme a little leeway. So, after watching this and giving time to gather my thoughts...
...yeah, I guess I'm sold. It's hard to say a lot about it when all we have is promo art, toys and a six second clip compared to the full trailer that leaked for All Engines Go!, but in terms of the positives, this is arguably the best the franchise has looked since Sodor's Legend of the Lost Treasure. The animation in the clip looks gorgeous - Thomas himself is really detailed, with the little scuffs on his buffers and the sheen on his smokestack, and the backgrounds look like something straight out of a Pixar movie - I can easily see these backgrounds in something like Luca or Hoppers. They even kept the rivets from the later seasons of BWBA, but toned them down so it doesn't look like Thomas just has Skittles glued onto his body. If this is the animation quality the reboot is going to hold, then we're in for a visual treat. There's also reports that the series' main trio is going to consist of Thomas, Percy and Rosie, which is a pretty novel idea. That was something I thought they were gonna do when she got repainted in the original series and her presence as one of Thomas' best friends makes a lot more sense than having Diesel among them.
But there is one major drawback to the visuals, which are, to quote the words of English actress Rosemary Harris...
...those eyes. This is the one thing that the fandom has unanimously agreed upon with this - the faces look really rough. I've seen a lot of people say the key art is AI-generated, and while I couldn't find any legit sources for that, I would like to rule it out as it does demean the work the animators clearly put into it. These are clearly just early models. But yeah, the faces look really rough. The weird grins, the prominent eyelids, the overly thick irises, but I think the worst part of it is that little white triangle in the corner of their pupils. I know it's supposed to look like a sun reflection, but the fact that it's a physical part of their eye makes it really distracting. Frankly, the eyes would look so much better without them. The weird thing is, they recently released cover art from an upcoming book called "Thomas' Brave Adventure", and they look fine there. I know they're two completely different styles, but you get the picture. Some of the faces look fine, like with Percy or Henry, but there's two faces that I think got the worst of it. First is Rosie. I'm glad they kept the continuity with her red livery, but her face looks like it's better suited for Nia than it is Rosie. But that's nothing compared to, you guessed it...
...Harold. What in the everloving hell did they do to Harold? They kept the grey face, which already looked weird in All Engines Go!, but then they double down on the weird design by completely changing everything. Technically, they are also doing this with Annie and Clarabel by giving them grey faces, which will take some time getting used to, but the original design is still intact. The same, oddly enough, can even be said about Flynn, where he's redesigned to resemble a UK firetruck, which I will go up to bat for - he now actually looks like a firetruck Sodor would have. I can still look at him and say "that's Flynn" in a way that I can't with Harold. Changes to a character are fine, like with Jack's square face or Bill and Ben's red wheels, but there's gotta be a limit. As a result, Harold looks like a completely different character, which begs the question: why not just introduce a new helicopter character? Maybe they could call him Grant? Paul? Tim? Jemarious Jimmy John Jones? I dunno, but the point is he looks horrible. Also, this is a side note, but Charlie is a female character now? I'm a little surprised by that, but...okay, we stan a trans icon.
But once you look past that, this reboot doesn't look too shabby. It's got a lot to live up to, sure, but this is an okay first impression. I'll need to see a full trailer before I can really make up my mind on whether or not this will be for me, but so far, this could work.
