ThomasNATION Reviews - Thomas' Animal Friends
July 24, 2020
I know this season technically isn't 100% covered, but man, this twenty-fourth season of 'Thomas & Friends' has been quite an eventful one: from heroic rescues of fellow engines to exploring the world of technology with the help of an inventive new friend to going on more big adventures around the world including going to London to meet the queen herself for a special celebration, this season is quickly shaping up to be the best one of the entire 'Big World, Big Adventures' era and has proven to be quite a celebration for Thomas' seventy-fifth anniversary this year with everything we've seen...but like anything in life and while we await the news of a twenty-fifth season or a new animation studio to pick the series up, all good things must come to an end and thus we must bring another fun-filled season of adventures on the Island Of Sodor to a close by taking a walk on the wild side and getting into some serious monkey business down at the animal park. Let's go go go on a big adventure as we monkey around on the railway and take a walk on the wild side as we meet 'Thomas' Animal Friends'!
THOMAS' ANIMAL FRIENDS: Thomas is asked to help at the animal park for the day and realizes there's more to the job than he first thought.
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PROS:
I remember when a coloring page was shown on the official Thomas & Friends website months before this episode's official release and once when it had gone on Twitter, it was yet again in typical entitled fashion expected from the older Thomas & Friends fandom that they would be going all out anti-furry on it because the engines dressed up as animals even though the target demographic of the brand's audience dress up as animals too for fun thus resulting in the fandom having their usual tantrums and attacking the show staff online for no reason whatsoever adding fuel to the fire with our trusting relationship...and this was before the episode was even released by the way which sadly shows that things can be judged before even seeing it although how the engines act in front of Thomas towards his monkey costume are like some members of the fandom who let the morals of the series go completely over their heads and are too busy both mapping out the world and busting a nut over 'fan service' characters like Duck or the Scottish Twins as they so often tend to do.
To be honest, I originally thought this episode would've involved Thomas and his friends dressing up as animals for a party at the Animal Park or something...but after seeing this episode, I think it was nice since it had a nice use of the Steam Team characters which to me is quite fitting for it to be the last episode for quite some time and I also like how Rebecca treats Thomas as well of which I know that many were hoping that Skarloey would've been the one to deliver the honestly nice moral of sliding the teasing off your back with the engines' laughing and berating to Thomas since he made a cameo at Crovan's Gate which would've been cool but at the same time works better for someone like Rebecca in my opinion since she is known for laughing off any teasing she gets from other engines or even the Troublesome Trucks as we saw last season with 'Chucklesome Trucks' and the use of the fantasy sequence was nice with Rebecca thinking up ideas of what animals the engines can be fits in well with the story although I wonder why Nia was forgotten...maybe because an elephant would've been too obvious for her considering what we saw from earlier in the season?
While some would say that this episode feels like a rehash of the universally hated Season 13 episode 'Slippy Sodor' in regards to the other engines laughing at Thomas for wearing something silly yet the children approving of it of which I can totally understand that complaint, I'd happily take this episode over that abomination any day since it has a much better story with a much better concept and overall much more memorable in its humor since I actually found myself three times out of four quoting a number of episodes from SpongeBob Squarepants like the 'big doofus convention' quote from Bossy Boots or 'hot Squilliam' bit from Squilliam Returns plus I love how relatable the moral of imagining your audience as animals is basically a metaphor for the old 'stage fright' theater tradition of imaging the audience in their underwear or completely naked in order to help you relax in order to give the best performance that you can...so yeah, I honestly love this!
CONS:
N/A
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This episode truly feels like the end of an era for many reasons: the final episode from the twenty-fourth season of the television series, the final episode to be animated by Jam Filled Toronto after picking up from Arc Productions during the twentieth season, the final episode of the 'Big World, Big Adventures' era for the time being and what could very well be the final episode of the entire series unless we hear news of a twenty-fifth season in commission or if a new animation studio has picked the series up...but it's like Thomas said in 'A Shed For Edward': we'll just have to wait and see because in the meantime while 'Thomas' Animal Friends' gives off some vibes of commonly hated episodes in the series on the outside, this was a shining example of how the current team know what they're doing in making one of the most universally hated episodes of the series into something truly amazing with a unique concept along with amazing visuals and memorable characters that have stood the test of time and that is why I'm giving 'Thomas' Animal Friends' a rating of a 4.5 out of 5. Feel free to disagree with me on that, but that's just my honest opinion. With that said, I'm True Blue and until we meet again for more big world adventures, the world's just a train ride away. As Thomas always says, 'see you next time'!
Final Score: 4.5/5
About the Author: True Blue
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