ThomasNATION Classic Reviews - The Early Bird
July 17, 2021
At night when the other engines are tucked away in their sheds, you can still hear the faraway call of an engine's whistle and the clickety-clack of train wheels turning...this is the sound of the mail train and everyone remembers the story of how Thomas and Percy showed everyone that the mail train truly is the pride of the line after being threatened by Harold The Helicopter as their replacement when a mail ship from the mainland was delayed. But apart from the times that we have seen other engines carry the mail throughout the years in the series such as James and Edward and even Oliver, the one who has always made sure that the mail train runs on time ever since that day has always been Percy especially considering it's his favorite job...and with the news of Percy having popped a piston, it looks like Thomas may finally get his chance at delivering the mail train again after so many years. But will he be really useful and do a good job or does he still have a lot to learn, let's find out because it's time to wake up 'The Early Bird'!
THE EARLY BIRD: While Percy is at the Steamworks for repairs, Thomas must pull the mail but he does not want to ask for his advice.
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To get straight to the point, I'm honestly split on this one: while I do enjoy this episode and while I do consider this as another favorite from what was easily one of the worst seasons of 'Thomas & Friends' ever made, but it's not a huge favorite for me compared to other episodes we saw not just in this season but in future seasons as well. Like any episode of the series, there are a few flaws with the biggest one that comes to mind is when the narrator says that Thomas had never delivered the mail before and yet he has done so in numerous seasons whether in the Classic Series like Season 3's 'Thomas, Percy And The Mail Train' and Season 4's 'Fish' or in the Hit Era like in Season 11's 'Thomas And The Spaceship' and he has even delivered the mail in 'Thomas And The Magic Railroad' as well-if anything, this episode may have been foreshadowing Season 16's 'Express Coming Through' which dealt with a similar concept this whole time and we just never realized it! But then again, that's just a theory and I'm not saying it's true.
Apart from the concept for the plot that throws the franchise's continuity out of the window like a lot episodes during Hit Entertainment's tenure did, the plot itself is like a repeat of Season 11's 'Edward And The Mail' while also falling victim to both the typical 'three strikes' formula accompanied by Thomas' usual shtick of thinking he knows everything...looks like blue engines not knowing how to deliver the mail runs in the North Western Railway family-how does he not know how to pull the mail train by this point in the series, shouldn't be that difficult! Comparing this episode to 'Edward And The Mail', I cannot believe I'm saying this but I think I prefer 'The Early Bird' because...when looking back at Edward's experience with delivering the mail, what the hell gave everyone on the island that idea that Edward is a perfect engine-not in this era, he ain't! What didn't help is that the parcels look exactly the same, so how was Edward supposed to know what parcels go to where? That's right, you should have asked but you didn't because you didn't want to look silly...is anyone else sick and tired of this plot by now? If you don't know how to do something, just ask-it isn't that hard!
Along with Thomas not knowing how to deliver the mail all of a sudden which I know will piss off the hardcore and long-time fans of the series, what I can't understand is Thomas being reprimanded for using his whistle to let everyone know that the mail had arrived while making too much noise. But, like, of course it's going to be loud, they're there to warn people that they're coming or going! So overall, I do kinda like this episode but not in an enthusiastic way and this episode should've done with some tweaking...it was awesome to see Thomas pulling the mail again, but that alone doesn't automatically make it a great episode, but I'm gonna be nice and give 'The Early Bird' a rating of a 3 out of 5.
Final Rating: 3/5
About the Author: True Blue
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