ThomasNATION Classic Reviews - Thomas' Animal Ark

December 04, 2021

 

Noah's Ark-one of the most famous religious stories of all time in which God spares Noah and his family along with a remnant of all the world's animals from a world-engulfing flood that lasted for forty days and forty nights.  Over the years, there have been many different movies and television shows that have adapted or satirized this classic story from 'Fantasia 2000' with Donald Duck to 'Evan Almighty' with Steve Carell and Morgan Freeman...but what could Thomas The Tank Engine and his friends bring to the table with a festive re-telling of this classic tale?  Let's go go go on a big adventure and find out, let's deck the halls with 'Thomas' Animal Ark'!
It's Christmas Eve on Sodor and the boiler that keeps the animals warm at the animal park has broken, but the ship carrying the new one can not arrive because of bad weather...so Thomas and his friends give the animals shelter at Tidmouth Sheds.

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For quite a long time in the Thomas & Friends franchise ever since Hit Entertainment took over, the episodes that had to do with animals always sucked; prime examples being 'Thomas And The Pigs' from Season 13 and 'Percy's New Friends' from Season 15.  But when Mattel bought out Hit Entertainment, the animal episodes suddenly became among some of the best of the entire series with one of the best examples being Season 17's "Luke's New Friend".  With the show staff adapting one of the most famous religious stories of all time while giving it a festive twist, would this be a match made in heaven or did Season 22 go straight to hell?

PROS:
Ever since Jam Filled took over from Arc Productions to animate the episodes and specials in the 'Thomas & Friends' franchise when their studio, they've not only done just as good as Arc but I think that they have also surpassed them on quite a number of occasions especially when it comes to the winter/Christmas episodes from the snowy landscapes to the festive decorations all around Knapford Station and Tidmouth Sheds. This truly helps to capture the magic of the holiday season!
This was also a pretty big episode for the animals to truly shine on screen and boy, did they ever as each of the animals all got time to showcase their special talents or play a part in the overall story such as the elephants who helped to push Thomas' train of animals through the snowdrift or when the mother ostrich lays an egg on James' snowplow and James becomes family to the newborn child...in fact, I think that the animals were the real stars of the episode rather than the engines were!
With the fantasy sequences now being one of the major selling points for the series, this sequence of the animals from the animal park all bundled up for the wintry weather from elephants wearing earmuffs to monkeys drinking hot cocoa to ostriches wearing socks around the fireplace was really cute in my opinion and it would make for a great Christmas e-card for any local zoo. All we're missing is a bunch of polar bears wearing scarves and drinking bottles of Coca Cola with some dancing penguins!
Since the humor is now being emphasised as another one of the major selling points for the series, this episode had plenty of laughs scattered throughout mostly coming from the animals themselves with scenes like Sir Topham Hatt putting the star on the Christmas tree only to be startled by the sound of Thomas' whistle or when the ostrich picks up Sir Topham Hatt's top hat...even the other engines all got some funny material to work with throughout the episode as well!

CONS:
  • N/A
Overall...for the first television series adaptation of one of the most famous religious stories of all time, 'Thomas' Animal Ark' was just the miracle that Season 22 needed in order to get back on track and I am proud to give it a rating of a perfect 5 out of 5.


Final Rating: 5/5

About the Author: True Blue

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