Anyone who's ever traveled along Thomas' Branch Line can tell you that Percy can be a rather cheeky but kind engine who normally behaves well yet also gets himself in trouble quite often 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 at the same time, he 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 ends up facing 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 many accidents, sometimes due to his own silliness or his tricks backfiring and he even holds the dubious record of having 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 Sir Topham Hatt has praised him for many times. But while he loves to make Sir Topham Hatt proud of him, can Percy now find a way to please Sir Topham Hatt's mother on the day of her birthday? Well, seeing as this is the little green engine's first leading role in the CGI Era of the original series, let's find out as we now open up "Percy's Parcel"!
PERCY'S PARCEL: After Percy ruins Dowager Hatt's birthday parcel, he hides in a siding. When he overhears Mavis, he gets an idea of how to fix his mistake.
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Despite the flaws that this episode has, this episode is an okay watch for me. Percy may be acting like an idiot in this episode, but I attribute that to the "three strikes" formula which came into being in the HiT Era and it's not nearly as dreadful as it was in Season 15's "Percy's New Friends". I will admit that the red parcel Percy delivers in this episode was very colorful even though I have to question how that portrait of Dowager Hatt managed to still be in one piece after getting wet from the washdown and blasted by hot air at the Steamworks before being moved inside the red crate.
I will admit that the episode itself is trying to be good especially in an era as hated as the Nitrogen Era is in the eyes of us older fans, but I feel like it still needed some tweaking. For example, the line "Thomas was at Brendam" - why do we need to know that when they're already there? Children would already know that that particular engine is at the docks, they have eyes. There are ships and cranes there anyway. Also, it was a little pointless how Sir Topham Hatt told Thomas to bring the visitors from Brendam and then just walked away without giving Percy his job. He could've at least said what Thomas' job is and then tell Percy's his after Thomas had left. That being said, I attribute that to Sir Topham Hatt trying to make sure that his mother's birthday runs smoothly with no confusion and delay. After all, he did say in Season 15's "Stop That Bus" that his mother doesn't like to wait.
But overall, I just think that it was nice seeing Percy have an episode to himself and I have to say that the music played when Percy left the docks was well done as well of which I and many other adult fans hoped that Robert Hartshorne had more great music to come in future Thomas episodes during his tenure. So, while "Percy's Parcel" may not be the best Percy centered story in the CGI Series or even the original series in general, I still think it was an okay watch for the little green engine's first leading role in a new chapter of Thomas history that gave it a new look and that's why I'm going to give this episode a rating of a 3/5.
