ThomasNATION Reviews - Overnight Stop
November 19, 2022
Thomas the Tank Engine has always had a very specific vision and has always been a part of a very specific world, it was always and has always done its own thing and that's why we like it. And that's why it has such a big fan following because it's a unique world that is very much its own thing with a lot of lore and a lot of world building. It's escapism, but here's the pattern I see and this goes as far back as the Railway Series: the Railway Series was so popular because Awdry's vision of what this was supposed to be was very unique, it was unlike anything else in kids' books or kids' media at the time. The concept of a talking train was nothing new, but it was what Awdry did with it. It was a very realistic world: the trains didn't jump off the tracks and sniff flowers or whatever, they were real trains in a real world and he allowed real life to seep into that, very different than every other piece of kids' media that you saw back in the days, look up like kids' books from the 50's and the 60's and you'll see Thomas even back then was very different from that. I look at the Classic Series in the 80's and again I see something that stood out against the competition: when I think of 80's television shows especially in America, I think of 'He-Man' and 'ThunderCats' and 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' - you know, fast-paced kind of actiony cartoons, stuff like that and then here comes this little stop-motion live-action show of a model train on these very real world sets in a slow pace setting. Obviously it's gonna stand out because it's nothing like the competition: now I know stop-motion was a thing for British television shows, but that's not where Thomas was the most successful. Thomas was the most successful in America and Japan and all these other big countries that it went to because audiences in those countries did not have something like this, so it stood out and people cling to it-it's Economics 101, guys.
WHY ARE YOU GOING TO THE MAINLAND IN AN AMERICANIZED REBOOT OF WHAT WAS ONCE A BRITISH PROPERTY, IT IS ASININE.
Looking past the fact that Mattel basically went back on their word in regards to their plans for this controversial reboot yet again, what do I honestly think about 'Overnight Stop'? Well despite understanding what they were going for in terms of relating to those kids as well as all of the man-children who have never gone on a camping trip away from home before and being away from the things they love the most, this episode is unfortunately riding that line of being okay and being average: while the other episodes in the okay category from the first season of this reboot like 'A Thomas Promise' and 'Nia's Balloon Blunder' didn't have the best quality in terms of their stories, at least there was something worth remembering about them that made me want to possibly come back and rewatch them again. 'Overnight Stop' however with the way that it contradicts the vision that the reboot planned for the franchise and how Percy acts like he's never been to the mainland before even though he did in the original series, it really brought this episode down for this longtime fan of Thomas, thus I am gonna have to give 'Overnight Stop' a rating of a 3 out of 5. Final Rating: 3/5
About the Author: True Blue
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