ThomasNATION Classic Reviews - Percy and the Monster of Brendam
October 28, 2023
Anyone who has ever traveled along Thomas' Branch Line and met Percy knows that he can be a rather cheeky but kind engine who normally behaves well but yet also gets himself in trouble by jumping into situations without adequately thinking them through first. He loves teasing other engines especially bigger ones such as Gordon and James who he holds a grudge against while they see the little engine as an easy target for teasing in return especially whenever he has an accident or when he is afraid of something, but is always brought down to earth in due course by anyone who gives him the moral to learn especially Sir Topham Hatt. This shows that when nonsense goes too far, Percy will not stand for it and seek help to settle the matter for good even if he faces a reprimanding from Sir Topham Hatt for it. He can also be somewhat timid as well as questionable and naive to certain difficult words. Percy is incredibly accident-prone and has made his share of accidents, sometimes due to his own silliness or his tricks backfiring and he holds the dubious record of the most accidents in one series: five, all of which happened in the second season of the original Thomas & Friends television series. Despite this, he always tries to do his best as well as learns from his mistakes and get his jobs done which is a loyalty which Sir Topham Hatt as praised him for on many occasions. But in today's review as an eerie fog rolls across Sodor, it's time to go on a hunt for a monster with "Percy and the Monster of Brendam"!
PERCY AND THE MONSTER OF BRENDAM: Percy believes one of Salty's tales and looks for "the Monster of Brendam".
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Now, for those who don't remember, I actually did a RiffTrax-style commentary of this episode for my 'Thomas the Riffed Engine & Friends' series back in 2015 with my friend Trackmaniamatt. So, for this time around now that nearly ten years have gone by since we first saw this episode, let's see how things have changed since then and...yeah, I hate to say it, but I only like this episode for the stunning CGI and even the use of brake vans on Stanley and Edward's trains. For a moment, I thought Edward was hauling Toad since you get to see a small glimpse of the back but yet it looked smaller than Toad was. On top of that, it was actually great that there were new styles of brake vans on Stanley's train which looked like the LMS 20T Brake Van and a LBSCR Stroudley 20T Brake Van which is the brake van that Edward hauled. Weird reason to like an episode, I know, but everyone has their niche.
However, the personalities of Edward as well as Henry and Toby have been lost. Instead of having them as wise engines, we have them as wimps because they're afraid of the "monster" but yet it's okay because it turns out the monster was someone else instead and won't be saying who it is for those who haven't seen this episode yet. However, I will say that the story was okay since the shadows of the fog were funny to look at mainly with Butch's bit. But the best bit of all was that Thomas didn't even get a role in this episode. Don't get me wrong, I still do like Thomas as a character despite the personality they gave him yet I'm glad we are getting more variety in terms of character roles.
So overall, if there was a vote between this episode and 'Percy's New Friends' from Season 15, I would choose this episode in a heartbeat even with all of the problems that it had and that is why I'm being nice and giving "Percy and the Monster of Brendam" a rating of a 3/5.
Final Rating: 3/5
About the Author: True Blue
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