ThomasNATION Classic Reviews - Chucklesome Trucks

Rebecca is tasked with pulling troublesome trucks over to Vicarstown, but the rest of the Steam Team warn her about their antics. But when she pulls the trucks, she actually finds herself having a good time...and that's it.

One of the biggest problems with this episode is that nothing really happens. Rebecca's told to take the trucks, she delivers the trucks, and...that's just it. Not only is there nothing interesting going on in the episode, but nobody really learns anything by the end. In fact, the weird thing is that little section with Thomas at the end says the moral is, quote, "if you go looking for trouble, you'll find it". When did that happen? Rebecca didn't go in expecting the trucks to derail her. If she had an accident from having too much fun, then maybe that'd work, but no, she's just...pulling trucks. The only interesting thing that happened was a few flashbacks to past episodes like Dirty Objects and Percy Takes the Plunge, but even then, they don't affect the story.

Another problem I had with the episode is how they portray Rebecca herself. Like I said, Rebecca was always established as insecure about herself and accident-prone, but still kind. Here, she's portrayed as completely flawless. In fact, a little too flawless. I try to shy away from the term "Mary Sue" since it might be an outdated term to debate against a character, but it doesn't help that the episode ends with everyone praising Rebecca for getting her job done while everyone else caused a mess. It's not an interesting portrayal and, again, she doesn't learn anything by the end.

Overall, I'd call Chucklesome Trucks Rebecca's weakest episode purely because nothing of value can be taken away from what happened. There's no moral, there's nothing interesting happening in the episode, it's probably the most 'nothing' episode of the whole BWBA era. I mean, at least Thomas' Not So Lucky Day and A New Arrival, two other boring BWBA era episodes, at least tried something new. As a result, I have to give this a 2/5. As much as I like this character, I've forgotten everything that happened in this episode by the time I finished this review, and chances are so have you.