ThomasNATION Reviews - Yong Bao and the Tiger
July 10, 2020
You guys have no idea how excited I am for today's very special episode...a kind and faithful tender engine from China who pulls passenger coaches, Yong Bao may not be the biggest tender engine or the strongest but he once cleverly diverted an accident saving hundreds of passengers which was then rewarded by being decorated for his bravery and painted bright red which is a color that symbolizes celebration and happiness in China while an emblem of a tiger which incites a sense of awe and admiration was painted on his tender. Like Yong Bao, the tiger is full of life and embodies the spirit of being driven to achieve and make progress of which these qualities make Yong Bao a Really Useful Engine...it's finally time for China's hero of the rails to share his tale, let's go, go, go on a big world adventure as we learn the story of 'Yong Bao And The Tiger'!
YONG BAO AND THE TIGER: Yong Bao tells Thomas the story of how he came to have a magnificent tiger emblem on his tender.
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PROS:
Back in 2016, China had a specially made animated short video to coincide the release of 'The Great Race' where we were given a special backstory of Yong Bao since of course he's based on the RM class of China Railways...and while the short was shown on the internet although I don't know what website it was from, it unfortunately wouldn't be YouTube since China had banned the website in their country.
But back onto the short itself, it had actually peaked a lot of interest from older fans including me especially since Yong Bao had hardly anything to do in the series from his debut in 'The Great Race' until he was re-introduced as part of the new 'Big World, Big Adventures' era and hoped that it would become an episode someday...and after four years had passed, we are finally given an official episode and not only do I find this the best episode of Season 24 but probably one of the best episodes among the show, since the story was strong and Yong Bao's character development was great since he was bullied by the mean engines as they were called in the end credits for shunting trucks but soon grew his confidence after seeing a tiger from the mountains since tigers are a symbol in Chinese culture of bravery and happiness and power as I stated previously which was shown from Yong Bao after he had saved one of the engines who had bullied him.
Also in regards to Yong Bao, I was also surprised that Yong Bao had been re-casted even his original voice actor Dan Li was in the episode too as the railway inspector...but although that I had liked Dan Li's voice, I do like Chris Lee Kum Hoi's voice for Yong Bao since it was nice and pleasant to listen to.
CONS:
N/A
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You know, that old saying 'we've saved the best for last' really came into play this season in regards to the international episodes since they started off consistently good in Brazil and Italy and India only to be brought to a screeching halt when returning to Australia...but in comes our return to China for our final international episode of the season and it is the one that shines the brightest of the bunch, 'Yong Bao And The Tiger' to me was the best episode of the twenty-fourth season and I think both producer Ian McCue and head writer David Stoten are a great writing duo: if there ever is a twenty-fifth season depending on how long the upcoming hiatus lasts, I hope we see more from the two again because this was an excellent episode and I don't see anything wrong with it at all...I just hope that whenever we get a DVD release or an online release, we get the song 'He's So Brave' released as a music video which accompanied the animated short from 2016 as well in China but that's not gonna stop me from giving 'Yong Bao And The Tiger' a rating of a perfect 5/5!
Final Score: 5/5
About the Author: True Blue
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