Tobias and the Arcane Merchant

Going into this i was somewhat interested on seeing how it would turn out seeing that I thought the first one was pretty alright......... oh boy this was sure an expierence.

-the good things

• the animation from the first and even in the general is just peak animation, especially for trainz.

• Henrietta feels more developed as a character than she did in the first especially her dynamic with daisy
• The writing is pretty good for the most part and the voice acting is up the charts for fan films
• Toby is still a good character trying to make everything right

-the bad things-

• Oliver as the quote on quote villain/not villain is not great and is definitely weaker than Montague and he sometimes feels like to much of a baby which I guess makes sense because of his sad back story, which is wild itself, but its not very compelling, but I do like how he sticks up for himself against the real villain at the end

-James being a villain of some sort feels very undeveloped. His plot about hating diesels isn't really brought up that much to justify it being there and while his ranting does add to the story by showing of Toby's powers, it feels very much like an afterthought until the cliffhanger ending, while leaves stakes, doesn't add to the climax against the real villain.

-Tobias as the real villain is very funny, but not in a good way and that really has to do with the performance. At first I actually was intrigued on how he was being portrayed by being a dipsh#t of a person to Oliver and he reminded somewhat of a mob boss of sorts, especially with the deep voice, but then he starts becoming worse and thats a mixture of the writing and voice acting. The dialogue written for Tobias isn't bad, but when the voice performance starts becoming more cartoony it just loses it for me and the stakes of the story feel way less threatened than the first movie and he becomes much less of threat for me, less than Montague.

Overall I had a fine experience watching this film. The first act is pretty interesting, the second act is kind of mid especially when it focuses on characters that I don't like that much, the third act has great visuals but the villain is too goofy. A great effort, I still like the first one better but i'm sure many fans will love this if they love the first.

Out of all the Thomas fan films that surprise or amaze me, Tobias and the Arcane Merchant is, what I call, a great "Empire Strikes Back level" of a sequel that not only expands the world of Half-Pariah, but eclipses it. The story is amazingly well-written, especially with its bold choices; the animation is greatly improved with better lighting and color choices (for a Trainz film), the characters are interestingly complex and memorable, and the score is a fantastic symphony of music. This Thomas fan film is an absolute must-watch that I highly recommend, and I hope to see this amazing story conclude in Birch Cathedral. I give this great Thomas fan film sequel a 9/10 rating.

List of Ratings for each category

Story - 9/10

Animation - 9/10

Characters - 10/10

Score/Music - 10/10

Final Rating - 9/10.