ThomasNATION Classic Reviews - Thomas and the Birthday Picnic
April 03, 2021
I think we can all agree that the biggest thing that took a nosedive during the Hit Era of 'Thomas & Friends' was the writing since the episodes became intentionally dumber and drawn out while the characters became much more childlike and the writing got lazier as the 'three strikes, you're out' formula came into prominence in this era. While it is true that this was of course a result of lazy writing, but I also think it's a result of the new longer run time since classic Thomas & Friends episodes always stuck to a four minute-and-thirty second format and that short length was perfect: it was short and digestible, so kids could watch full episodes before losing attention and it also made the older episodes a lot more snappy...there was never time to waste, so the pace scene was always moving: there was no dawdling to pat out time.
HiT Entertainment changed the run time to seven minutes because they wanted to reformat Thomas & Friends to fit better in half-hour blocks for PBS and Nick Jr airings: two seven minute episodes, a five minute old episode in the middle plus three minutes of learning segments, the Engine Roll Call and the credits and you got twenty-five minutes of material with five minutes left for ads. You would think that seven minutes is a good thing, that means two and a half more minutes of Thomas & Friends content...and in a perfect world, yeah that would be great and it can be done-see the Brenner era where they use nine minutes to tell entertaining stories. But it's not a good thing here because so little happens in these Hit Era episodes since less world building and plot occurs in a Hit episode than in a Classic one, it's basically taking less plot than before and just stretching it out.
Take an episode like 'Thomas And The Birthday Picnic' for example, where the majority of the run time is just the 'three strikes' formula-heck, it's the episode that started the format to begin with: Thomas makes a mistake three times and on his third time realizes he messed up...did that mistake have to happen three times for this story to work, no-it's a waste of time. That's why these episodes come off as so boring because nothing happens, I honestly think the majority of the Hit episodes would be more enjoyable if they were cut down to a four minute-and-thirty second run time like the Classics: if you need an example of how this could be done, ThomasMediaFan2002 did an edit of Season 8's 'Fish' to a four minute-and-thirty second run time and I honestly didn't notice a difference between it and the original...that just goes to show how much time these episodes waste and what little purpose the longer seven minute run time serves.
But getting back to 'Thomas And The Birthday Picnic' itself, you may think that I'm immediately calling it boring because of the 'three strikes' formula...but I'm not because in my opinion, this is one brilliant gem of an episode that uses its seven minutes to its full advantage in crafting the best story it could to the point where it actually ended up becoming my personal favorite episode from the ninth season of the original television series. While I know that many people would argue with me and say an episode like 'Respect For Gordon' is more deserving of that praise than this episode ever does, allow me to explain because the reason as to why might surprise you...on the surface, this episode seems fairly generic and starts off like any other: engines are doing their jobs in preparation for Dowager Hatt's birthday visit, yada yada, typical Hit episode intro. Sir Topham Hatt tells Thomas that he wants to take his mother on a birthday picnic and Thomas is to take them to the perfect spot yet every one of his ideas backfires on him from plowed fields to a closed castle...but when it looks like Dowager Hatt is going to have the worst birthday ever, Thomas and the other engines give the Hatts a special surprise by having the birthday picnic at Knapford Station thus making it 'Thomas' best idea yet' as Sir Topham Hatt says when the episode ends.
Like I said, sounds like a pretty generic episode from this era of the television series...so why do I still enjoy it to the point where it became my personal favorite episode from the ninth season? Well, it turns out that this very episode and its concept of a birthday picnic with family was what inspired me to make what has become an annual tradition on my birthday for the past fifteen years: a birthday train ride at the Strasburg Railroad along 'the road to paradise' as they call it and having a picnic at the station whether it be food that we bought from the grocery store on the way or ordering take-out from a fast food restaurant like Burger King before arriving-heck, I even got to see Thomas himself getting maintenance work done one year while visiting for my birthday when we had our picnic onboard the dining car and that is something that you're never supposed to see when he isn't used for 'Day Out With Thomas' events! While it is true that I wasn't able to go during the actual month of my birthday last year due to the global pandemic, my family treated me to a belated birthday celebration by having a birthday train ride aboard Thomas during the Strasburg Railroad's limited-time 'Ride With Thomas And His Friends' days that they offered during their summer/fall season...this annual tradition has been something that I have enjoyed doing for almost two decades and it wouldn't have been possible if I hadn't been inspired to do so by this episode in particular.
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So in conclusion, I think that 'Thomas And The Birthday Picnic' is a standout episode that I think is on par with the likes of the Classic Series. It's not the only Hit episode that I think is worthy of praise either: 'Dream On' is also an awesome episode as is 'You Can Do It, Toby' and also 'Sticky Toffee Thomas' and...huh-you know, I'm sensing a pattern here at least in terms of what I consider my personal favorites. The Hit Era did a bad job overall of using the new format to its advantage and it just paved way to even lazier storytelling in the years following, I don't defend this era as it truly did f--k over Thomas' reputation to the general public as 'just another brainless show for babies' but it still had its moments. I don't champion a season good at all if only like two or three of the twenty-six episodes are gems, but it does make those gems shine a little bit brighter than the rest...truly 'Thomas And The Birthday Picnic' is a diamond in the rough and that is why it earns a rating of a 4.5 out of 5.
Final Rating: 4.5/5
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