ThomasNATION Classic Reviews - Thomas and the Rainbow

Anyone who's ever known Thomas the Tank Engine knows that he can be described as being a cheeky engine who is often getting into scrapes usually by being over-eager to do things best left to bigger and more sensible engines. But clouds never last long in Thomas' life and he is soon bustling about again, playing his part in the yard and on his very own branch line of which he is extremely proud. He loves teasing the others, especially the bigger engines such as Gordon and on occasion brags about his superiority but is always brought down to earth in due course by anyone willing to correct him especially Sir Topham Hatt and his two coaches Annie and Clarabel. A friend to all engines and a popular member of Sir Topham Hatt's railway, Thomas is Number One and does his best every day to live up to that through helping his friends and those that he cares about. He lives to be a Really Useful Engine and encourages everyone else to do the same - and it seems like he's gonna be the one in need of rescuing as we taste the rainbow for Pride Month with "Thomas and the Rainbow"!

THOMAS AND THE RAINBOW: Thomas finds a rainbow in the sky and tries to find what lies at the end of it.

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Now for those who don't remember, I had previously done a special Pride Month review for ThomasNATION Reviews on the All Engines Go episode "Chasing Rainbows" which, while debatable if it was similar to today's subject, actually turned out to be a pretty good episode with everyone in The Biggest Adventure Club playing a part in the adventure of discovering what was at the end of the rainbow, which led to them discovering the perfect new clubhouse for them while at the same time really making me appreciate the friends that I have in the fandom just a bit more.  But speaking of "Thomas and the Rainbow", what happens when you take everything that made "Chasing Rainbows" such an enjoyably heartwarming episode and do a complete one-eighty with it?  Well then, you get what is quite simply put a bad episode.

With all the rain and storms they have on the island. you'd think that Thomas would know what a rainbow is. On top of that, why would the workmen be at the docks since there are surely technicians on the island as well and not just from over on the mainland. Also, there was not even one mention of the workmen possibly being injured after the crash.  Also, I know I'm not the only one who feels this way, but the episode is a bit cheesy at the end in my opinion regarding the subject of friends, but it does have a nice moral by saying that friends are special. 

But even so, "Thomas and the Rainbow" is still a bad episode and not worth the watch. Clearly, this episode is more suited to the kiddies in the younger audiences as intended and it just makes me beg this question: why would I willingly rewatch this when I could just watch "Chasing Rainbows" again even if All Engines Go is also aimed at younger audiences like the Hit Era of the original series was? It's the rare case of All Engines Go doing an episode better than the original, and all that is why I'm gonna give "Thomas and the Rainbow" a rating of a 2/5. But either way, I cap this off by wishing you all a happy Pride Month and reminding all our LGBTQIA+ friends that you are loved, valid, and most importantly, a threat to no-one.

Final Rating: 2/5