When you think of things that are British institutions you might very well think of Doctor Who or football or as the Americans call is soccer. However what you might not think of or what might come to mind at first is a TV show about a little tank engine and all of his friends and well it's one of those episodes that i'm going to be talking about today and so then join me as I review the episode that sees Henry the green engine get some new coal with the episode in question being called simply just "Coal" enjoy.
The plot of this episode is when The Fat Controller finally has enough with Henry being ill all of the time he decides to take a ride on him and find out what's wrong with him once and or all. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty really good with it being a really simply and very easy to follow plot and for a show that's made with very little kids in mind that is the kind of plot that you want but at the same time tho this episodes plot is alot more better then alot of the plots that you see in modern kids media today as it doesn't talk down to the audience rather it instead talks to them on a level with the episodes plot doing something that alot of early episodes of Thomas The Tank Engine And Friends did and that's explain how trains work which was a nice little touch as it's something that does make it easier for us the audience to work out just why Henry was so ill alot of the time in these early episodes with the plot of this episode even being alot more fun then what it's initial premise would suggest as just by the premise alone you'd think that this was quite a scary episode but no it's one that knows when to be fun and is instead more focused on giving us a good and solid story and whilst it's debatable on if this one that alot of the die hard Thomas fans love or not it is an episode that has a really well done plot with it's plot getting alot of the focus of the episode with the plot of this episode also being really rather entertaining and as well as being really rather engaging as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
The main storyteller for this episode is Sir Ringo Starr with his voice in this episode being oddly soothing and relaxing. While this isn't something new for the show as the whole first season of this show has this very calm quality to it it's not something that you'd expect from the former drummer for The Beatles and yet it's something that does oddly work for this episode with the only thing that does let his narration down being the fact that he doesn't use any voices for this entire first season which might have been because of the fact that the makers of the show wanted the adult audience to know that they've got a famous face in the show which is fair enough but at the same time it does it hard to tell just which of the characters are speaking at any given moment and while he would slowly introduce character voices in the shows second season it is something that could have been done in this episode just due to how many characters talk in the episode but at the same time tho given that they do start to have Ringo do different voices for the characters in the shows second season it does say that the makers of this show realized that it was getting harder and harder to tell just which characters were meant to be talking and so they had him give there characters some different accents in the second season of the show just to make it a little bit more easier for people to work out just who is talking at any given moment but his narration skills are still pretty top notch as you can tell just from he delivers his lines that he really was a fan of the franchise before it became a TV show and as such he wanted to give it his all so much so that when Shining Time started in America he flew over there to join that show as Mr. Conductor for it's first season and even redub the episodes as well for various reasons.
Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty really good. With Ringo Star really starting to come into hos own as the series narrator and while he might be not be good as alot of the other UK narrators he does have his own charm that makes the role his own and to many myself included he was the first narrator that they were introduced to be it as a like kid or a toddler however tho with that being said he still does need to improve his skills a little bit like showing alot more emotion during certain scenes and knowing when to hold back on the emotion as with this show the narrator has to do all of the leg work for the characters as the characters faces can only show some vague expressions and that's really it and therefor it's up to the narrator to get across just what that character is thinking and feeling and that's something that Ringo just doesn't do in this episode this is despite him being the episodes best actor by default of him being the shows only actor at this point in time as he still does add some charm to the episode be it for the nostalgia factor of seeing something that you grew up with again or for the more laid back and relaxing voice that he naturally has there's just something about his performance as the narrator that works really well within this episode with the acting that's in this episode really being helped by the fact that this episodes script is just so good that all this episodes only actors has to do is just say the lines as they are written and a good performance will come out f him naturally which is something that really does help to raise the overall quality of the acting that's in this very episode.
This episode much like alot of the early episodes of the show that have Henry in them do a good job of making you feel sorry for the character. With alot of the early episodes frequently showing him not really working as well as not only he but his crew as ell know that he can do with it being in this episode that we get to find why he's always so unwell as it's due to the fact that he has a small firebox and therefor needs special coal which is a great idea as it does show then even some of the larger engines have troubles as well with some of them being more severe then others like when James originally had wooden brakes that caught fire playing a part in him crashing but here with Henry it worked more because of the fact that we the audience had seen more of the character prior to him taking on of his very few starring roles in this episode and therefor we had gotten to know him as a character and heck it could even be argued that finding out what it was that made him so unwell all the time does mark the end of a major storyline for the character even if it's one that was being told more in the background as alot of the other stories featuring the character in a major role all focused on different aspects of his character with next to none of them having to do with the fact that he has a small firebox and while the fact that he needed special coal and possibly having a small firebox lasted all of one episode it's the fact that the makers of this show included those aspects in the first place that does show that they cared more about the shows characters and doing them well then what the later showrunners of the show did in the first place.
For some odd reason the makers of this episode gave Thomas a really creepy face which wouldn't be a bad thing except that it's the face that ends the entire episode. With even Edwards eyes glitching out a little bit in one scene which makes you wonder why the makers of this episode didn't take steps to fix these issues as while you very easily could have cut to the credits alot sooner with Thomas's creepy face you also could have taken measures to fix the glitch in Edwards eyes as when he's reversing to collect Henry's train his eyes move from left to right awkwardly with that being something that you could have fixed and then reshot that portion of the scene and while this first season of the show was made on a shoestring budget and therefor they most likely didn't have it in the budget to do much in the way of reshoots and second takes given the fact that they don't even hide those mistakes by say for example cutting to a close up of Henry's face and then cutting back to Edward when he takes off with the train it oddly makes what was an expensive show to produce somehow seem cheap but at the same time tho the models used for both Thomas and Edward do look really good as do all of the models for that matter but it's the fact that the makers of this episode saw these issues with the faces and still thought that they were OK to include in the episode that just feels wrong somehow as fair enough they might not have had it in the budget to reshoot these scenes with less glitchy and less creepy faces but there's always a work around for these kinds of issues but in saying that tho series one is filled to the brim with these kinds of technical issues as the makers of the show were still trying to work out how they were going to actually make the show and therefor this isn't an issue that's just relevant to this episode as it's one that could also be relevant to several other episodes in this season as well.
What could have made this episode all the more better was if we got to see Henry really struggle to not only pull coaches but also pulling and possibly even shunting trucks as well. As this would then really hit home just how badly unwell Henry is and while it might be seen as being a bit of overkill it is something that also could have worked for this episode as well as while showing him struggle to pull one set of coaches is more then enough to hit home that he's really not that strong of an engine right now what would have helped to sell that even more would be if we got to see him struggle to do all of the other things that all of the engines can do very easily as this would home the fact that there's something not quite right with Henry even if his crew haven't quite worked it out yet but at the saying time tho apart from being told that he got new paint in The Sad Story Of Henry constantly showing how he's not as strong as the other engines right now might also seem out of place as it might make it seem like the fact that he's unwell all of the time is his only character trait when that's just simply not the case at all and therefor going the less is more route with this character and this episode as a whole for matter does work really well as it is as we don't need to constantly be told that he's not really feeling all that well and is unable to pull coaches alot of the time we just need to see it the once and the sad music and Henry's sad face and lack of steam would be more then enough to tell us the audience that he's not his best right now and that's really it with that being something that would work for the episode as it would also feel more in line with the book that this episode is based off of called "Henry The Green Engine" which to fair also took a very similar less is more approach to tings as well.
This is possibly the first episode to show us The Fat Controller actively riding one of his trains after he's already brought them. With it in this case being to help to work out just what it is that's wrong with Henry in the first place with this being a very good idea as it does show that he does care about all of his engines and not just Thomas and it's something that the series could have done with showing us alot more as at times it does feel like that he only cares about Thomas due to the fact that it's his name that's the name of the TV show when it would make more sense to show him actually caring for all of his engines as well as that would then give each of them there own special bond with him something which do get to see in the episode "Toby & the Stout Gentleman" and again in the following episode "Thomas in Trouble" when we see that he had rode on Toby with his grandkids whilst they were on holiday to Toby's old railways line and brought him when Thomas got in trouble with an angry policeman thus giving Toby his own special connection to The Fat Controller as he saved Toby and his coach Henrietta from being locked up for a long time and from being tuned into a chicken coup in the case of Henrietta and in this episode it could be argued that Henry gets his own special connection to him as he willingly pays for the more expensive Welsh coal in order to give Henry a fighting chance at showing all of the the engines just what it is that he can really do as a steam engine and it is something that does work for both the show and for the character as well as now Henry does have a reason to keep on working for him as he believed in him when none of the other engines would do.
Now then this episode has / had an exact grad total running time of exactly five minuets and thirty three seconds. Which is pretty much the exact grand total running time for alot of the very early episodes of this show and to this episodes credit it really does have the right amount of plot there to really cover that amount of running time as this show doesn't really need longer running times to tell simple stories like this one and while the fact that it doesn't really develop it's plot would normally be seen as being a bad thing here it's really not as the plot is so simple in the first place that it doesn't really need developing all that much in the first place as all we need to know is what the basic premise of the episode is and that's really it and therefor we don't need the plot to be that well developed but in saying that tho it would have been nice of the plot was a bit more developed however tho the other way that this episode doesn't really use it's running time all that wisely is in it's characters as it doesn't really develop it's characters all that well but much like with the plot the episode doesn't really need to develop it's characters all that well due to the fact that alot of the characters in this episode appear in other episodes of the show and therefor it could be argued that they get there development in those episodes but with that being said tho it would have helped this episode out quite alot if we did get more developed characters as we don't get to find out why The Fat Controller is willing to take a ride on Henry in the first place especially when Henry's crew could and do tell him exactly what the problem is with Henry but I really will admit that this episode really does have some really good pacing to it tho.
So now then as this is a comedy that really does mean that I have to actually talk about the actual comedy that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual comedy that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty. As while there not that many laugh out loud moments in this episode the episode is filled to the brim with moments that are cute and funny as a result of it with this episode putting of an effort into it's more dramatic elements which in this episode is something that does make alot of sense as the episode is all about trying to work out why Henry is so unwell in the first place and that kind of premise doesn't really allow itself for laugh out loud funny moments but in saying that tho it would have been nice if near the start and the end of the episode we did get a few moments that were funny as those moments would have told us the audience that it's OK for us to laugh with the best and only funny moment in the episode being near the end of the episode where it's revealed that Henry's driver will now have to hold Henry back from going to fast instead of forcing him to go fast which is something that was a cute funny moment and it's something that works for that character due to the fact that he's spent the past several episodes being ill on and off and therefor it would make sense that his driver and The Fat Controller would have that little joke together as they would make that kind of a joke knowing full well that Henry now has a fair chance when it comes to working with all of the other engines in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Overall while "The Sad Story Of Henry" and "Edward, Gordon & Henry" might be the best Henry centric episodes of this season due to how dark "The Sad Story Of Henry" could possibly be this is still a really good in it's own right as it does show us just how good of a character that Henry could be in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now then i've talked about all of the good and as well as all of the bad things that are in this very episode in this very review and as such that really does mean that this very episode really does earn itself a grand old score of exactly a 6.5 out 10 from me.
Now then as for where I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review well then boys and girls and as well as ladies and gentlemen I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review from the official Thomas The Tank Engine fandom wiki page and Google Images. With my personally preferred website to use to get the images from this very episode that I used in this very review being the really great the official Thomas The Tank Engine fandom wiki page really simply just due to the fact that really alot of if not really all of the images that are all really from this very episode with alot of them being better quality then what you'd really think of and all of the images are really of course up and really on the official Thomas The Tank Engine fandom wiki page are also really all fairly high in quality and as well as them all being really fairly freaking high in definition.