Wednesday 20 March 2013

S8 Ep.26: Percy and The Magic Carpet+Overall

THESE ARE SOLEY MY OPINION AND NOT FROM THE THOMAS & FRIENDS FAN BASE

PERCY AND THE MAGIC CARPET
Written by
Abi Grant

Directed by
Steve Asquith 

Air Date:
24/10/04

Plot:
A carpet is to be delivered to the opening of the 'Sodor Flower Show' as Alicia Botti, the world famous opera singer, is coming to give the prize to the winner. However, Percy thought the carpet could be magical, thanks to Salty, as the wind blew it away. Percy chased after it but it landed on Murdoch's goods train, Toby's roof and blocking the line for Thomas! 

PRO:
- Gordon bringing one coach for Alicia Botti

CON:
- Percy's stupidity
- Why can't the carpet be tied down to Percy's flatbed in the first place?! 

I find this episode bad, first off it's Percy's stupidity. How come Percy has to act stupid into believing that a carpet can fly? And its also stupid how it was not tied down in the first place, then I think we would not have any plot for this episode :P But I do like visually that they gave Gordon one coach to pull for a special instead of a dozen coaches for one passenger unlike 'Paint Pots and Queens'. But this episode is bad and its not worth watching again. 

Rating: 1/5

OVERALL 

Over the years everyone is saying that this is a bad season, but in my eyes, this is one underrated season. Sure there are good and bad episodes and character personalities being stupid, but at least they're not as bad as the ones from S9-16 and despite the errors in this season, the writers had actually tried their best to write good quality episodes unlike the lazily written episodes from S13-16. The episodes are filled with great morals that kids can easily understand and not in a confusing way like the the rest of the series under HIT. With the narration, Michael Angelis does sound like he has some enthusiasm for the narration and his character voices are spot on. As of Brandon, well, I've bought some US videos back in '04 but his narration is all nasally and goofy and some of the characters like the tuba player sounds like a robot. Young fans at the time would enjoy the narration, but he got better when the show turned to CGI. 

Yes, I understand that Duck was not in the series or in any of HIT's episodes until S12, minus the S10 music video. But when fans say 'Emily replaced Duck', I find that pathetic. Duck is a good character, but Emily is too, with her S7 persona. One other thing is that not a new character was made for this season and is just the focus of the 'Steam Team' characters. The music, I don't mind it all and at the time, I enjoyed the new theme song but it gets annoying when you hear it all the time. The music is enjoyable and give the refurbished series a new breath of fresh air, but I still like the Mike O' Donnell and Junior Campbell music, but I do think HIT shouldn't use the new music on the S7 episodes for the US and UK episodes as they have the archival tape of their music according to Mike O' Donnell.

Series eight is underrated and I do find the series to be enjoyable. Now on with Series 9. 

OVERALL RATING:
88.5/100