Thomas & Friends took a new approach during the HiT Era, trying to be more educational. Did this work? Follow me on: Twitter: / rustynumber5 Instagram: / rustyno5
The learning segments are an absolute snooze fest, but they did at the very least give us the absolute masterpiece known as “Toby is surprised to see”, so it was all worthwhile in the end
You know I’m just glad that those segments weren’t introduced in Season 6 or 7, cause honestly I don’t think I can take Baldwin narrating the dot to dot or whatever these pointless segments have.
I mostly liked the learning segments for the cute cgi models they used sometimes, they are pretty nice and still hold up I think I agree with you, learning segments with little character studies like the Gordon one are really solid and relate to the show, versus the "Does this oval fit in this truck?" I think my top 3 Learning Segments from over the course of the series would be the difference between thomas and stanley, the thomas happy and sad game, and all of the coal dust games that covered a character in coal dust and it kinda feels like guess who, if these were playable as like a minigame collection they'd be way better
I think the thing I liked most about watching a hit era vhs tape with the learning segments, was actually the cgi transitions between episodes. It wasn't repetitive like the original name board transitions could get. I mean I love the og theme but in between every episode is a bit much. The actual learning segments I didn't like of course. When one showed up it was a connect the dots one first, and the second was henry carrying cargo that all started with the letter H I think because one was hats. I didn't even realized it was learning segments they were so dull. I mean obviously I'm a grown man watching Thomas the Tank Engine only in it early years it didn't talk down to children and I believe children can learn easier if you don't treat them like morons
Really a miss opportunity for HIT to use these learning segments for actual railroad safety procedures and knowledge, so it can be ACTUALLY educational and easily digestible for children. A bit like how the classic era is but this time in delves into more of the technical and/or operational side while still being fun. But nooooo, we have to get "nooooo the castle doesn't go on the wooden shed :(((((("
Tbh, in the Nitrogen era, they did do exactly that by showing live action segments of real british railways and engines, which was actually kind of neat considering the state of the CGI series back then.
The learning segments are dumb they treat the audience like they don't know who each engine are that's how young the audience is watching this it's so stupid really why you want to make a show for an audience that young that's stupid