ThomasNATION Reviews - Sheep Shenanigans
July 12, 2025
If you were to ask me the best way to describe CGI Diesel, it would be...annoying. 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. But come the CGI era, he was a shell of his former self. Many fans of Thomas 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 was 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, to think it took Daisy of all characters to give him the kick in the pants he needed to start changing his ways in Season 21's 'Springtime for Diesel' and it speaks volumes about how far she has grown as a character. Man, what a good episode.
But we all know how he was updated in All Engines Go! and how that had people up in arms, so with that in mind, would this fall into the same category as other Diesel episodes that we've gotten in the reboot so far or was this episode 'full of surprises' (sorry, I had to)? The answer is...well, while Diesel sure brought the razzle dazzle to the yard, I don't think he brought enough of it. While it is true that this episode does bare some similarities to Season 20's 'Diesel and the Ducklings' with Diesel trying to hide the fact that he has a soft side for animals while getting on with his work and the fact that he never pieces together until the last quarter of the episode that his delivery to McColl's Farm is a new heater to keep the sheep warm can make the episode feel a bit frustrating to watch, that's not to say that this episode didn't have some good things at all such as the moral of how it's always important to take care of yourself as much as you care for others as well as the 'Peep Peep, We're Counting Sheep' song sequence where Thomas basically becomes Sodor's answer to The Pied Piper which does give me an idea for a parody video in the future...soooooo, stay tuned for that.
So while there were plenty of 'Sheep Shenanigans' to be found in this episode, it turned out to be an adventure which while not baa-rilliant (okay, I'll stop) by any means was still an adorable one and that is why I'm giving this episode a rating of a 3.5/5.
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