The Other Side of The Mountain (Thomas & Friends)
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| "The Other Side of The Mountain" | ||||||||||||||||
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 Sadly though, not even the other side of the Brenner Era of Thomas is safe from stinkers like this one.
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"The Other Side of the Mountain" is the twenty-third episode of the nineteenth season. The episode aired early on January 17th, 2016 in Japan with the official UK dub airing the episode first instead of the usual Japanese dub just before the official UK TV debut on March 7th, 2017. The episode was released on the US DVD, "Ultimate Friendship Adventures" on November 8th, 2016, and was released on American TV on May 16th, 2018 on Nickelodeon.
This episode is produced in 2015
Plot
Thomas finds out that Bertie has been rerouted to the other side of the mountain, sparking his curiosity about what lies there.
Why It Sucks In The Other Side of The Mountain
- The primary issue with this episode is that it essentially rehashes "Thomas' Shortcut" from Season 17, but lacks the original episode's charm.
- Thomas is cross with Bertie about something and talks with Percy about it. Unlike "Thomas' Shortcut", everyone convinces Thomas to say that Bertie was making it up, even though it wasn't really made up when you get to the later half of the episode.
- Another example being that Thomas ends up in an accident the next day, and gets into trouble with the Fat Controller. Unlike here, Thomas is repaired after the events of the episode instead of being fully repaired later on like in "Thomas' Shortcut".
- To add insult to injury: This episode was released three years after "Thomas' Shortcut", making the episode be a pointless rehash episode with nothing all that interesting. Of course, this episode is written by the same guy who wrote said episode (as well as other episodes before and after "Thomas' Shortcut"), but if you can compare the two, you could tell that here, it felt like Andrew Brenner was out of ideas and had to come up with a different story quickly.
- Thomas comes across as somewhat unlikable in this episode, though not to the extent of his behavior in Seasons 12-16 or certain episodes of Season 10, such as "Thomas' Tricky Tree" or "Follow That Flour," where he was notably jerkish. His unlikability stems from his overreaction to Bertie being rerouted to a different location and getting cross with Bertie. This is a new development for his character. Additionally, he blows a single tease from Bertie out of proportion, displaying pettiness rather than outright malice.
- The pacing is obviously really sluggish, which makes the episode look less interesting and more boring and underwhelming as the pacing in some scenes is just characters talking until we get to the point after a good solid minute and a half or a good solid 2 minutes. Even after getting to the point, the amount of filler still pads in there, making the story become really worthless.
- This episode is a prime example of how not to employ the classic Awdry formula. Other episodes such as "Dirty Objects"/"James in a Mess", "Down the Mine", "Duck and the Slip Coaches", "Thomas, Percy, and the Squeak", "The Sad Story of Henry"/"Come Out, Henry!", "Woolly Bear", "Gordon Takes a Tumble", "Edward the Really Useful Engine", "The Runaway Elephant", "A Better View for Gordon", "Respect for Gordon", "Ghost Train"/"Percy's Ghostly Trick", "Percy and the Signal", "Thomas and the Birthday Mail", and "Duncan's Bluff" have executed it much more effectively. In contrast, this one seems underdeveloped, ultimately failing and falling short of expectations, akin to a poorly conducted experiment.
- The fantasy sequence is a rip-off of the fantasy sequence from "Sticky Toffee Thomas"/"Sticky Taffy Thomas", and is only made as an excuse to sell more merchandise to give HiT and Mattel a run for their respective money than entertain the audience.
- The episode evidently lacks a moral, as it is essentially a retelling of "Thomas' Shortcut." While it's not inherently negative for a Thomas episode to be without a moral, in this case, it seems to be absent in a rather underdeveloped way.
- The purpose of the sign is a completely pointless plot twist, even if it served as a plot twist, it's still pointless and comes off as a really stupid joke than a so-called "plot twist" that it claims to be.
- Side note: The episode's title not only makes the episode itself look completely ironic and pointless, but it's also misleading because the only thing that is part of the other side of the mountain is (SPOILER ALERT!) a billboard sign all along and that was it. How does that make the episode interesting?
- Aside of the really unappealing fantasy sequence that looks like a solid 20 second commercial than a fantasy sequence, the last two minutes (the whole ending in general) feels like a botched to hell filler ending that goes nowhere. That's really it, the episode just stops.
Redeeming Qualities
- The first few minutes of the episode are actually really good.
- There was a bit of Bertie's original theme used in the beginning.
- The continuity from "Thomas and Bertie" with Thomas and Bertie racing each other is a nice touch.
- We get to see Jack doing work on a main episode once again.
- The crash in the episode, despite being used for rehashing "Thomas' Shortcut", maybe crazy and wild, but really cool to watch.
- The animation, narration by Mark Moraghan, music by Robert Hartshorne, and voice acting (in both dubs) are still great.
- There are some funny moments here and there. Like when Annie and Clarabel tease Thomas about how he can't view the other side of the mountain.
Trivia
- As stated in RQ#1, Bertie's theme originally composed by Mike O'Donnell and Junior Campbell can be heard near the beginning of the episode.
- This is the first episode since the twelfth season episode, "Percy and the Bandstand", where a member of the Sodor Construction Company, in this instance Jack, appears in an episode in the main television series. It is also his only appearance in the nineteenth season.
- This episode was paired with "Who's Geoffrey?" on the Nick Jr. US airing.
- The episode's Japanese title (「やまのむこうがわ」; "Yamanomukougawa") is the same title as the English title, and also one of the few episodes in the Japanese dub that the episode's title is the same as in English despite being translated to Japanese.
- This episode marks Butch's last speaking role to date.
- The fantasy for this episode would later be refurbished for the twenty-second season episode, "Cyclone Thomas".
- This is the second time Thomas is carried by a road vehicle since the Pack episode, "Percy Helps Out". However, if Railway Series stories were counted, this would be the third occasion, the first being "Not the Ticket" from 1991's "Thomas and the Great Railway Show".
- This episode's title shares the same name as the 1975 movie, The Other Side of the Mountain.
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