ThomasNATION Reviews - Nia's Balloon Blunder

September 10, 2022

If you were to ask any longtime fan of Thomas the Tank Engine what some of the worst episodes from the original series would be, one example in particular that practically every fan would mention is Season 15's 'Up, Up and Away', and while I could seriously rant on about how horrible that episode was and ramble about how much you all hated Hit Entertainment, I know what you all really came here to see. So to keep it short and simple, 'Up, Up and Away' was just bad on plenty levels: it was boring, it was degrading and it made no sense. Rather it be how we're supposed to believe that Mr. Bubbles blew up all four of those balloons by himself (which by the way need helium to float and even then would've popped by the hot ashes from the engines' funnels) or how the writing makes Thomas and Percy act like the biggest idiots that the Island of Sodor has ever seen while forcing the fact that they're best friends down our throats, this was one of many examples of how the franchise had reached an all new low in the eyes of many longtime fans to the point where they couldn't even finish an episode before turning it off, things really were that dour by this point in the franchise.

Now, you might be wondering why am I talking about 'Up, Up and Away' when I should be talking about 'Nia's Balloon Blunder'. Well, prepare to blown away!


Not to give anything away. but I found 'Counting Cows' as one of the better rewrites from Season 15's 'Wonky Whistle' from the original Thomas & Friends series. And it seemed like it was only a matter of time before this reboot would go on to rehash the second commonly hated episode from the horrendously awful fifteenth season and I know I'm gonna get a ton of flack from the fandom for saying this but I actually found 'Nia's Balloon Blunder' to be slightly better than 'Up, Up And Away' which actually isn't the only episode to be rehashes here since it also copies Season 12's 'Duncan And The Hot Air Balloon' as well. Before you all start coming at with pitchforks and torches in the comment section, allow me to explain: while it is true that 'Nia's Balloon Blunder' isn't much better compared to 'Up, Up And Away especially when it comes to the way that the special balloon deliveries are being transported while fully inflated or how the main characters behave in either of these three episodes whether trying to sabotage the balloon or taking it through various places where the balloon could easily pop, the big difference with 'Nia's Balloon Blunder' is that the balloon being transported compared to helium balloons or hot air balloons is actually a parade balloon like the ones you'd see in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade which as you may know pose a much bigger challenge in terms of being handling properly since they have had their fair share of misadventures over the years mostly from being popped in very windy conditions rather it be Sonic the Hedgehog or even Barney the Dinosaur.

While I know that a majority of longtime Thomas the Tank Engine fans would perceive this as the production team as well as Mattel simply not giving a damn about the quality of the franchise anymore, you have to remember to look at the reboot as its own standalone series and canon instead of a continuation of what came before and go into it completely blind since only then will you might actually enjoy it to some degree. Even when having a writer who used to work for Thomas' former arch-rival competitor 'Chuggington', I'm actually surprised at how 'Nia's Balloon Blunder' managed to just slightly rectify the many wrongs that both 'Up, Up and Away' and 'Duncan and the Hot Air Balloon' presented, and while it may not be among this reboot's best episodes due to rehashing concepts found in two commonly hated episodes from the original series, I wouldn't say that it's a complete failure to launch since it did manage to get slightly off the ground and into the okay category of episodes from this first season thus I'm gonna give 'Nia's Balloon Blunder' a rating of a 3 out of 5. Phew...what a crazy rush this episode was, I think we all need a warning flag to help slow things back down for this reboot again.

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