ThomasNATION Classic Reviews - Disappearing Diesels
April 15, 2023
If you were to ask any long-time fan of Thomas the Tank Engine what their thoughts were on the original television series as a whole, they would more often than not tell you that Diesel became an incredibly annoying character as of the CGI seasons. When he was first introduced in Season 2's 'Pop Goes the Diesel', he was very devious and maniacal, a 'pulls the strings behind the curtains' type of character, the type of guy that would flip any situation in his favor and win it if he put his mind to it. But as the show went on, he just turned into a brute reduced to nothing but a selfish bully who picks on others just for the sake of it. He was a shell of his former self. Many long-time fans of Thomas the Tank Engine including myself didn't particularly like modern day Diesel since we thought an episode with him can be very entertaining when he was paired with a good character foil like Paxton as seen in Season 18's 'Disappearing Diesels'. But Diesel himself, we don't like since we all find him incredibly one-dimensional. Whenever he screws up and is subsequently forgiven, it never feels earned because we know he hasn't changed, and he never will. He never progresses. But before he would see the error of his ways at the end of the Brenner Era, he decided to play a little game on poor gullible Paxton that he likes to call "Disappearing Diesels"!
DISAPPEARING DIESELS: The diesels hide from Paxton as a joke, but Paxton takes the joke too seriously as he believes that all of them had disappeared.
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It's nice to see an episode focusing on the diesel engines especially with this one being centred around Paxton and I'm also glad that it was not a "steam versus diesel" rivalry plot as we pretty much all had enough of those plots. I don't know if I'm alone in making this statement, but I love the line of 'some engines on The Island of Sodor give diesels a bad reputation' as it implies that diesels are engines too even if some can be tricky and devious where it gives a bad reputation from the other engines since it pretty much sums up the differences between Paxton and Diesel's personality. Diesel's the devious trickster while Paxton is nice but gullible.
Also, I've just gotta say that the mind of Paxton is hilarious with one example is him misunderstanding Diesel's hiding place. While some people and even some longtime fans might think that Paxton can be quite goofy, the way they made their characters 'goofy' in the Sharon Miller era is very childish and annoying like Charlie's jokes during that era for an example whereas Paxton's gullible mind is quite humorous. On top of that, I love the impression of Diesel's Reg voice and the funny quote of 'I'm a truckload of sausages' (that's what she said!) as these little lines can give a little chuckle for both kids and parents. Also, the episode had about two morals: don't take jokes too far or people might misunderstand it and that anyone can be a friend, all while this whole episode showcases that Paxton who is a nice and simple engine thinks of Diesel as a friend even though Diesel teases him.
However even with all of the positives that I have for this episode, there are two cons I have with one that I'm sure we can all agree on being the scene of the children watching Pax and the Deez racing backwards while standing on the level crossing gates which leads me to think that the show may get some criticism from parents that it implies to children it's okay to stand on level crossing gates when it really results into tragic accidents and it really makes me wish that Andrew Brenner or any writer from the original television series had made an episode about railway safety so that Thomas & Friends would not get a bad reputation of their own. Also, minor nitpick here but I never liked Dart saying constant 'What he means is.' lines since I think that they're just too repetitive and annoying as I'm sure that kids would know what Den is saying yet that could be part of his character trait. But in the end and despite that level crossing scene which is sure to still cause fire among many long-time fans, "Disappearing Diesels" is still a nice episode that I'm happy to give a 4.5 out of 5.
Final Rating: 4.5/5
About the Author: True Blue
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