Counting Cows

**"Counting Cows"** is the twelfth episode of the first series of *Thomas & Friends: All Engines Go*.

## Plot

Thomas and Percy volunteer to deliver a herd of cows, but the cows keep wandering off on their own adventures.

## Synopsis

Thomas and Percy are sitting on the tracks near a cow field, mooing, telling cow related jokes, and having a fun time when Gordon shows up. The big engine tells them that all of the cows need to be taken to McColl's Farm today and asks if they would like to take them. Excited, Thomas and Percy accept and herd the cows into the livestock car as Gordon counts them all. But the two friends are too busy making more cow jokes to listen to Gordon's counting and instructions. Gordon warns Thomas and Percy to stop playing games and pay attention, which the little blue engine makes a ‘Thomas Promise’ to do so. But soon after Thomas and Percy leave, they get distracted and have to stop abruptly at the level crossing, jiggling the latch on the car loose accidentally. As the two friends wait for James and his train to pass, two cows escape from the open livestock car, but Thomas and Percy are none the wiser.

When Thomas and Percy arrive, they have a little trouble backing the livestock car into position. As they unload the cows, they count them and are horrified to find that they only have eight. Thomas and Percy rush off to find the missing two, not noticing that they had accidentally broken the gate to the field and three more cows escape. Thomas and Percy search up and down, but they are having trouble finding them until they come up with the idea of turning it into a game to look for spots, as cows are spotty. They manage to find the two cows with ease after that. Returning to McColl Farm, they count the cows again and now there are only seven in the field, so they go searching for the missing three. They search in a seaside town full of people and turn the search into a game of My Eye Spy to help them focus better. Soon enough, they find all three cows and chug back to the farm.

But when they arrive, Thomas and Percy are extremely shocked to find that now all the cows in the field are gone, meaning while they have three in their car, seven cows are now missing. They also realize that the field gate is open and they need to call Sandy to come and fix it. Thomas and Percy set out searching once again and come up with another game to keep them focused. They realize that making mooing sounds might lure out the cows, so they moo their hardest and manage to find the seven missing cows. With all ten cows accounted for once more, they head back to the farm, where Sandy is finishing up repairing the gate. They unload all ten cows into the field just as Gordon arrives. He congratulates Thomas and Percy, saying they must have really paid attention. Thomas corrects the big engine by saying that they ‘played attention’ as in played games that helped them pay attention. Gordon is impressed and even joins in singing "Old McColl Had A Farm" with Thomas, Percy and Sandy on the way home...just minus any lyrics about cows.

## Cast

* Meesha Contreras as Thomas
* Neil Crone as Gordon
* Luke Marty as James
* Charlie Zeltzer as Percy
* Glee Dango as Sandy

Sir Topham Hatt has no lines in this episode. Carly and Farmer McColl also have no lines, although they were mentioned.

## Music

 **‣** ? *[Title card]*

 **‣** ? *[Opening]*

 **‣** ? *[Thomas explains space on the Island of Sodor]*

 **‣** ? *["It's just for one night. What's the worst that could happen?"]*

 **‣** ? *[Kana touches all of Thomas' stuff]*

 **‣** Mexican Chase - John Rowcroft *[Kana plays Lucha libre with Thomas]*

 **‣** Fiesta Fever - Kully B, Angus Clark *[Kana wins Lucha libre]*

 **‣** ? *[Kana toots]*

 **‣** ? *[Thomas talks with Percy]*

 **‣** Funeral Procession (a) - Dick Walter *[Thomas reads a poem]*

 **‣** Mexican Chase - John Rowcroft *[Thomas gets back at Kana for Lucha libre]*

 **‣** Fiesta Fever - Kully B, Angus Clark *[Thomas wins Lucha libre]*

 **‣** ? *[Thomas toots]*

 **‣** ? *[Kana leaves]*

 **‣** Setting The Trap - Dick Walter *[Thomas sees Kenji throwing a ball against the wall]*

 **‣** ? *[Thomas wondering]*

 **‣** ? *[Thomas talks with Percy]*

 **‣** ? *["After school. Right."]*

 **‣** Top Banana - John Powell *[Thomas putting notes in places Kenji and Kana would find them]*

 **‣** ? *[Music playing in Kana and Kenji's room]*

 **‣** ? *[Everyone exits their rooms]*

 **‣** ? *[The buildup to a food fight]*

 **‣** Pop Punk - Doug Rockwell *[The food fight]*

 **‣** ? *[Kana and Kenji hug]*

 **‣** ? *[Thomas explains space on the Island of Sodor again]*

 **‣** ? *[Thomas puts a Lucha libre mask on]*

 **‣** ? *[Ending]*

## Physical distribution

This episode is available on the "Time For Teamwork!" DVD.

## Trivia

* This episode was released early on Cartoon Network's Video on Demand services on 13th September 2021.
* The plot is similar to the original series episode, Very Important Sheep.
* The title of the episode is a possible reference to the 1991 rock band, "Counting Crows".

## International edits

* When Kana mentions a lack of balls in Thomas' room, she mentions soccer, American football, and baseball. This scene has been localized for several foreign versions likely because American football is popular only in the United States:
	+ In the French dub, she mentions volleyball, soccer, and baseball.
	+ In the Hebrew dub, she mentions basketball instead of football.
	+ In the Polish dub, she mentions soccer, volleyball, and tennis.
	+ In the European Spanish dub, she mentions soccer (dubbed as football), rugby, and basketball.
* In the United Kingdom, the pause between Kana telling Thomas about the "lack of balls" and listing different types of balls, along with Thomas' reaction towards Kana and the camera are cut. His face is also edited to not change when Kana tells him about the lack of balls to reduce the aforementioned innuendo.

## References

* ***Counting Cows*** - The title is a parody of the 1978 video game *Space Invaders*; the title card also parodies the gameplay.
	+ Because of this reference, even the music that plays on the title card sounds like an 8-bit video game.
* ***Star Trek*** - Thomas' line "Space, the final frontier..." is a line from the opening narration of this TV series.
* ***Skylanders: Trap Team*** - The music that plays when Thomas and Kana were luchadore fighting is the same as the piece used in Chef Pepper Jack's boss fight and villain theme.

## Errors

* When James greets Thomas and Percy, his lamp is on the wrong side of his running board.
* There are two vocal errors in the US dub:
	+ When Thomas and Percy react to losing two cows initially, only Percy's voice is heard when the two of them yell.
	+ Sandy's last lines in the episode sounded a bit differently to Thomas' or Percy's.
* On the RTÉ Player, the episode image was of the episode Gordon Gets the Giggles, and the '2506b' was beside the episode title. This was also the case with the episodes, Music is Everywhere, Backwards Day, and Chasing Rainbows.

## Merchandise

* Push Along
* Motorized