ThomasNATION Reviews - Christmas Mountain

December 17, 2022

 

It seems in today's world that there are a lot of people who seem to have a problem with bringing a character with a physical difference to the center of attention even if it is only for less than a minute and those same people will say that it is 'disrespectful to kids with special needs and it's offensive'. Okay, frankly shouldn't hiding a character that's different from everyone else be more offensive? Isn't censoring a character with a disability more disrespectful to people who actually might have similar issues? Those kids need representation too, those kids need a character to look up to just as much as any other kid perhaps even more so. There was a story about an autistic kid who looked up to Drax from 'Guardians of The Galaxy', he saw someone who acted like he did and was still a hero. Even Julia from 'Sesame Street', kids can see a character like her and say 'hey, she's just like me'. This kind of representation is important for kids especially kids who might already get bullied at school for being different, it gives validation to who they are and the struggles they go through. Here, Bruno is different: he loves schedules and timetables when everything goes to plan, he can flap his own ladders to tell you if he's upset or really excited, he can use his items to show you how he's feeling but he is also a very relaxed character who uses his comedy to get past situations sometimes so the possibility of people censoring Bruno because he happens to look and act different from the other engines could actually be seen as worse than just leaving him be. Do you really believe that Mattel of all companies would be malicious like this? In the end, it's a sad testament to the power of words but it's important to bring up when speaking about Bruno. But enough of talking about Bruno, let's get on with the show!

But speaking of Bruno and celebrating Christmas on the Island of Sodor, that brings us to this week's festive episode which not only marks as the reboot's first winter themed episode but also acts as All Engines Go's first Christmas special, and after so many years of memorable Christmas specials from the original Thomas & Friends television series-some of which are ones that I've already covered in previous reviews, was this return to an annual tradition for this franchise like opening the perfect gift on Christmas morning or was it like finding a lump of coal in your stocking? 

You know how I love Christmas, and Christmas has always been a big part of Thomas The Tank Engine in both The Railway Series and the television series, but when you get down to the nitty-gritty of the story for this episode when it comes to Bruno learning to accept new holiday traditions when things are not going according to plan, it really did remind me of Season 21's 'Daisy's Perfect Christmas' with how Daisy who was so used to her own Christmas traditions learned thanks to her friend Ryan as well as Judy and Jerome that maybe it wasn't better or worse than usual but just different and maybe even a new kind of perfect. It was a very mature moral for anyone who struggles with accepting change especially when this was one of the last episodes before big change came on the horizon for the original series.
Now, I know it sounds like I'm hating on this episode just because it's not like those from the original series but I'm not since I still believe that 'Christmas Mountain' is still a very good episode to help get you in the mood for the Christmas season especially after the last several episodes we've had which have ranged from being average to okay at best. Apart from the story becoming slightly predictable in my opinion around the halfway mark since you can easily figure out how the engines will find a replacement Christmas tree, there was just the right amount of creativity in Thomas' funnel of ideas to still make this a very worthwhile episode to come back to every Christmas and that is why I'm giving 'Christmas Mountain' a rating of a 3.5 out of 5.

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