ThomasNATION Classic Reviews - Rosie is Red
February 06, 2021
Ever since Rosie first arrived on the Island Of Sodor, she has wanted to be just like her 'really useful' idol Thomas...unfortunately, this originally resulted in her trying to copy Thomas from the way he wheeshed to the way he whistled which annoyed Thomas to no end. But after Rosie rescued Thomas from a landslide when he was delivering presents to his friend Alice at High Farm, the two engines have been good friends ever since...but could it be possible that they're more than just friends?! Let's go go go on a big adventure because love is in the air with 'Rosie Is Red'!
It's Valentine's Day and after the other engines tease Thomas about Rosie being his 'special friend', he acts meanly towards her while the two of them help Sir Topham Hatt organize a surprise for Lady Hatt
It's Valentine's Day and after the other engines tease Thomas about Rosie being his 'special friend', he acts meanly towards her while the two of them help Sir Topham Hatt organize a surprise for Lady Hatt
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When this episode first debuted on the Italian children's channel Cartoonito long before Season 22 made its official debut in the U.K. or Australia, the fandom hated it for a multitude of reasons (which I will address when we get into the actual review) whereas I was excited by the fact that we were finally getting our very first Valentine's Day episode in the series. But is love truly in the air on the North Western Railway this Valentine's Day or did Cupid misfire his arrows on this season again?
PROS:
The story-not only do we get a really nice explanation from Edward as to what the holiday of Valentine's Day is all about, but the story itself was the most infamous part of the episode among a majority of the fandom, so let me go over why I don't get where these criticisms are stemming from.
I genuinely don't understand why fans constantly bring this up nowadays considering how the Rev. W. Awdry was mocked endlessly when footage of him lambasting the heavily praised episode 'Henry's Forest' from Season 3 thus resulting in thousands of memes with him saying 'no' or 'Rule 55'...yet now when you find an episode that you don't like, you decide to bring him into the mix? This truly shows a sense of hypocrisy that fans are willing to put up with when they watch an Allcroft episode vs. a Mattel Creations episode, both are meant to be heartwarming and sweet but yet one gets overwhelmingly positive recognition.
I've heard people say that the engines aren't made to love, but if you remember correctly from the story of 'Thomas And The Guard' when the narrator is talking about Annie and Clarabel, he says the following: 'they are both old and need new paint, but Thomas loves them very much'...where am I going with this, you ask? From singing little songs to each other to Thomas' coaches being worried about his safety to Thomas literally trying to chase down two of the fastest engines solely to get them back, this has been shown throughout the series...if that's not love, I don't know what is. Also, the engines are allowed to feel every single emotion that humans can and love should be one of them. It also doesn't mean that love equals sex, those two things are not linked to each other...plus, considering the engines don't have the *ahem* appropriate parts, I think that was a given. And besides, this doesn't stop anyone from creating those ships with Thomas characters, like Thomas and Ashima, James and Emily, and weirdly enough, Thomas and Twilight Sparkle.
One major argument I've seen circulating against this episode is 'It doesn't belong in a preschool show, it's inappropriate!'. This is in the same episode where Sir Topham Hatt gives his wife a cat as a Valentine's Day present, right? I mean, how is that alright for kids and not Thomas' dynamic with Rosie that ends up teaching kids that it's perfectly fine to be friends with someone of the opposite gender? We're also talking about a show that has included things like death and slavery as well as another engine stalking another and being in the right for doing so...with the same two characters, no less. All that people needed to say was that they don't like romance stories between trains and all would've been fine, but nah.
CONS:
- N/A
Overall, I get the feeling that 'Rosie Is Red' is gonna become the 'Hearts And Hooves Day' of the Thomas & Friends universe - a controversial episode that very few people like while a majority of people in the community hates it ranging from just indifferent to 'please make it stop'. What I love the most about 'Rosie Is Red' is how it takes a lot of the romantic clichƩs found in children's programming and mocks them-whether or not you find it funny is depending upon your perspective. I personally like to think 'Rosie Is Red' called out the shipping community and their antics, plus the moral is something that I feel both children and adults can relate to when it comes to relationships...but in the end, 'Rosie Is Red' is still an episode that is bursting with so much to love about it and I'm proud to give it a rating of a perfect 5 out of 5.
Final Score: 5/5
About the Author: True Blue
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