ThomasNATION Classic Reviews - Best Friends
May 08, 2021
Ever since Percy first came to the Island Of Sodor to help out Edward when the other big engines went on strike, he has made so many great friends whether they ride the rails and roads or hover in the air...but his best friend on the North Western Railway has always been the Number One Engine himself, Thomas. Sure, they may get into disagreements from time to time, but they always find a way to strengthen their friendship in the end with a happy toot of their 'best friends whistle' as they tell each other everything. And nowhere did that manage to hit closer to home for the both of them than the time that the Sodor Brass Band nearly ended their friendship on a sour note, let's find out whether Thomas and Percy really are meant for each other 'cause this is 'Best Friends'!
BEST FRIENDS: Thomas tries to avoid telling Percy he has been given a job Percy wants to do
---
I think it's safe to say that the twelfth season of the television series was a very divisive one among fans and while I do give the production team props for trying something new by sticking with the live-action model animation but adding in CG-animation for things like the engines' faces as well as for people and animals, it just looked really awkward to where you shouldn't have both. But then again, the animation was still in its early stages and they were trying to make it like the models' faces: while it wasn't a hundred percent perfect, they did manage to get the hearts of many Thomas The Tank Engine fans when the show went full CGI since 2009. I'll be honest, the models were getting to be a bore from Seasons 10 through 12 but I'm not saying that they're bad-heck, I have loved the models since when I was a kid and I had mixed emotions about the whole change but I've accepted it and moved on. The models had done an outstanding job for the past twenty-four years and were a great part of everyone in the fandom's childhood. The dedicated people on the show like Steve Asquith, Terry Permane and David Eves had done great work with people who came and went like Britt Allcroft, David Mitton, Ringo Starr and Pierce Brosnan among others to make Thomas the Tank Engine an entertaining show...they deserve full credit into making the show that are part of people's childhoods or lives, they've done wonders bringing the Awdry characters to life as well as some non-Awdry characters and I wish them all the best in what they've chose after Thomas.
With the episodes that we received, there are some good and some bad but that doesn't mean its a horrid season. As for the narration by the late Michael Angelis, it was brilliant but I can see why they decided to have a voice cast as one narrator with CGI material being used does get off putting and some of the models of the new characters did look good. But as for my thoughts on the episode that brought the era of the models to an end, I think it is a nice sendoff to the season as well as the end of an era since the episode shows a nice and understanding moral of friendship through Thomas and Percy and showing that Thomas doesn't want to hurt Percy's feelings that he was to pull the Sodor Brass Band to Great Waterton but ended up getting caught anyway seeing how he didn't tell Percy about it but made up when Thomas offered the job to Percy by taking the Sodor Brass Band members to the docks. It was also nice to see Neville having a few more lines despite it being for one second and having his appearance to be a bit pointless, but its better then his other episode in which he debuted back in the ninth season of the original series. The episode brings such a heartwarming story that it feels like a happy ending to the model era of the show, I'm glad that they've ended the era with a good story and that it brings a nice watch for anyone and that is why it earns a rating of an 4 out of 5.
Final Rating: 4/5
0 comments