Name: Thomas & Friends All Engines Go - Creepy Crawly Courage
Duration: 10 min 40 s

See the exact scores

The review is yours to read. Create a free account to reveal the exact SlowScreen score and every pillar score.

This program is stimulating. It actively demands attention and can feel intense. For the recommended age, this may be on the more intense side. The pacing is fast. Images follow each other quickly, leaving little time to pause and take in what is happening. The sound is intense and continuously present. The visuals are calm and well-organized.

One clear thread carries the episode: Yong Bao is afraid of bugs while he and Carly deliver apple crates to the harvest festival, after a short opening about hay towers. Events follow in order with a recognisable beginning, middle and end, and actions lead to sensible outcomes, such as Thomas trying to shove a hay stack and getting buried by it. The stream of bug facts and quick exchanges packs a fair amount into each scene, a little more than a three year old settles into easily. Cause and effect stays easy to follow throughout.

The tone between the engines is warm and supportive, with Carly repeatedly reassuring Yong Bao that everyone is afraid of something, and a song built around liking a friend just as they are. That warmth is offset by several sharp fear spikes, most of all the spider web moment where Yong Bao panics and cries out over and over before calming down. Comfort and resolution do arrive after each scare, usually within the same or the next scene, but the jumps from calm to alarm land abruptly for the youngest viewers. No character is mocked or belittled, which keeps the emotional world safe underneath the jolts.

Characters do take the lead on their own problems: Carly offers to watch the route for bugs, and Yong Bao eventually uses his tiger roar to scare the apple stealing skunks away. The thinking tends to be quick rather than worked through in visible steps, with solutions like closing his eyes or roaring arriving in one or two beats. There is genuine cause and effect on show, since the skunks flee because they fear the tiger sound, giving a small logic the child can grasp. It leans more on a sudden fix than a patient try, fail and adjust sequence.

The dialogue is mostly clear and correctly used, with friendly full sentences and some real vocabulary about insects, naming centipedes, ladybugs, lightning bugs and potato bugs and what they do. Words are stable and meaningful in context, and the speech comes through cleanly. Set against that are long stretches of expressive shouting during the fear moments, a run of repeated cries that carries feeling but no information. For a three year old the delivery is a touch fast and busy, though the core sentences stay understandable.

The world is one of talking engines and cranes running an island railway, so the physical actions of hauling crates and zooming hay are not things a child can copy off screen. What does carry over is the emotional and social core: naming a fear, being reassured that everyone fears something, and accepting that friends can like different things. Real bugs, skunks and a farm harvest give a thread of recognisable nature, but the fantasy frame keeps most of the doing inside the show. The friendship dynamics and helping each other reflect patterns a young child will recognise from their own life.

More information

The cast is made up entirely of engines and machines, so the story carries no real range of people, families or everyday human settings, though a few townsfolk appear far in the background. Some breadth comes from the character designs themselves, including Yong Bao, a red engine drawn with tiger and dragon motifs that nod to a Chinese cultural background. Where the episode is stronger is in how it hands out roles and feelings: bravery, fear, expertise and helpfulness are spread across both the male and female engines rather than fixed to one type. The clear message that everyone is afraid of something, and that differences make friends stronger, keeps the characters from falling into narrow patterns.

The world of Sodor mixes very recognizable everyday life, a farm, apple crates, hay bales and a harvest festival, with its central conceit of trains, cranes and a tractor that talk and have feelings. There is no villain anywhere in the story; the tension comes entirely from Yong Bao's fear of bugs and how his friends help him with it. The fantasy stays consistent throughout, with the engines always behaving by the same logic. The talking-machine premise leans a little more imaginative than a two-year-old strictly needs, but the grounded farm setting and gentle friendship theme keep it relatable for a preschooler.

This episode is pitched squarely at its youngest viewers, with an accepting-differences story that follows a clear line but holds few surprises for a grown-up in the room. There is little here aimed at adult co-viewers, though the craft is clean and the palette is bright without being harsh. The main test on adult patience is the extended spider panic, a long stretch of high-pitched shrieking, plus a friendship song whose refrain repeats. Overall it is a watchable background presence rather than something an adult would choose to follow.

Themes

Overcoming fear

Central

Yong Bao is afraid of bugs and by the end faces skunks with his tiger roar to save the apples.

Friendship

Central

Carly and Yong Bao work together and a song plays about liking a friend as they truly are.

Courage

Central

Yong Bao is repeatedly called the bravest engine and finds courage to scare the skunks.

Individuality

Recurring

Carly loves bugs and Yong Bao loves fuzzy striped animals, and they agree 'we just like different things'.

Helping others

Creepy Crawly Courage

Sensory Calm

Focus & Storyline

Emotional Safety

Autonomy & Problem Solving

Meaningful Language

Developmental Value

Representation & Diversity

Realism vs Fantasy

Parental Fun

Themes

Activities

Emotions

Behaviour

Social lessons

Season 4

Thomas & Friends All Engines Go

Thomas & Friends All Engines Go

Thomas & Friends All Engines Go

Thomas & Friends All Engines Go

Thomas & Friends All Engines Go

Related media

Curious George

Carl the Collector

Kiya & the Kimoja Heroes

Phoebe & Jay

Explore more

Just launched: free lifetime premium for the first 1,000 members to activate their account.