ThomasNATION Reviews - Nia's Bright Idea
December 12, 2020
Ever since she first joined Thomas The Tank Engine on his international adventure to become the first railway engine to go all the way around the world much to his dismay due to following Ace The Rally Car, Nia has proven herself to be a very clever engine in times of trouble: from making a funnel out of leaves to catch rainwater to fill Thomas' tanks after running out on their delivery of coffee to San Francisco from Brazil to helping sort out the muddle of trucks at Brendam Docks for the engines and the cranes to finding a relatable way of getting a new elephant to trust her in taking her to the animal park, there seems to be no problem that Nia can't solve...and with stormy weather on the horizon for Sir Robert Norramby's annual Christmas fair, it's gonna take a ray of hope to shine through in celebrating the most wonderful time of the year. Let's go go go on a big adventure as we light the way for some festive Christmas cheer with 'Nia's Bright Idea'!
NIA'S BRIGHT IDEA: Nia uses what she learns about lighthouses to suggest covering a big wheel in Christmas lights so that Harold can see where he's going in a storm.
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PROS:
I had originally thought that ABC Australia would be holding back on both this episode and 'Cleo's First Snow' for December as part of their festive lineup being that they're winter themed like they did with Season 22's 'Kangaroo Christmas' back in 2018 although I think with Season 24 airing around June and July that it would be a while since December was nearly five months away at the time of this episode's release, so you can imagine I was a bit surprised at this decision...but anyway with the episode itself, I think it was good that Nia was learning new things about Sodor ever since she first arrived on the railway from joining Thomas on his big world adventure like about the lighthouse at Arlesburgh Harbor which was awesome to see for the first time in a wintry setting especially with the nicely added touch of Captain Joe's snowman and how the lighthouse is used to help guide ships into the harbor safely at night or in a storm with its bright light being used as a beacon for ships to see where they're going yet I have seen some people within the community wish that Nia went through some conflict into helping Harold such as maybe having her go through with an idea that wasn't so clever in the end until she came up with a clever one which is using the Earl Of Sodor's giant wheel as a light beacon especially since the episode recapped Season 20's 'Blown Away' as an example of the moral that the episode was giving but Skiff had actually went through conflict which is him feeling belittled by Duck and Oliver unintentionally of course for being small thus many feel that Nia needs to go through some conflict since 'Nia And The Unfriendly Elephant' from earlier this season was a good example of that because she's a good character in many people's opinions with her cleverness but they feel that more is needed to make her well rounded.
While I can see why some people in the community would make that complaint especially since Rebecca seems to be the more developed newbie among our main cast versus Nia ever since their debuts into the series. I, for one, ask that they take a moment to chill out (ba dum tsh) and remember that not every character introduced into the series is gonna be as fully developed as, say, Judge Frollo from Disney's 'The Hunchback Of Notre Dame' since it's better to judge enjoy the adventure being presented instead of obsessing over the little things since I personally really enjoyed this episode because we haven't seen a Christmas special in the series of this intense tone since the days of the Brenaissance (as certain fans call it) with episodes such as Season 18's 'Last Train For Christmas' or Season 21's 'Terence Breaks The Ice' and to finally have another festive episode after we hardly had any during the previous season is always welcome especially when not only teaching the viewers the importance of lighthouses in stormy weather but also in helping to further develop one of the Island Of Sodor's newest and most popular arrivals on the railway, even if the fandom doesn't exactly approve of her character.
CONS:
- N/A
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Nia may not be the most interesting of characters in the series with how little development she has received so far but that doesn't mean that her episodes don't shine brightly when they do...while it's easy to see that there may have been some lost opportunity with 'Nia's Bright Idea' in putting her through some sort of conflict like some fans hoped she would be, the intense tone of the story overall along with the wonderfully wintry visuals and cast off characters more than made up the viewing experience for me and that is why I'm giving this episode a rating of a 4.5 out of 5. Happy holidays!
Final Rating: 4.5/5
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