When we think of Thomas & Friends we don't usually think of episodes that feature the character of Henry. As why would we the show isn't named after him yet he has been apart some of the more darker and more thrilling storylines in the show such as the episode that i'm going to be talking to you all about today and so then join me as I review the episode that sees Henry gain a new shape with the episode in question being called simply just "The Flying Kipper" enjoy.
The plot of this episode is when Henry gets told he is pull a train full of fish he is all excited as it could mean one day pulling The Express that is until there is a major accident on the line. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual plot 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 plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty really good. With the episodes plot being one that does conclude a somewhat arc as Henry does gain a new shape that means that he will no longer be needing his special coal as the episodes plot does explain this is in a way that does make alot of sense with this being something that makes these early series Thomas episodes stand out as they treated it's target kid audience with respect as they take the time to explain things to them about not only how trains work but also why these changes are taking place in the first place with this being something that is all over this episodes plot and while yes granted this episodes plot could have been alot more stronger then what it was as there are times where it was hard to tell just what the amin plot of the episode was meant to be alot of the time but when the episode does focus on it's plot that's when we get to see just how strong of an episode that this episode really is as while the plot is simple as is often the case with these Thomas episodes it's also one that is fun to watch 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.
Starring in this episode is Sir Ringo Starr as The Narrator with him doing a really good of telling this story. With this being something that couldn't have been easy to do due to the fact that he does have spout alot of technical things in this episode about why the train is called "The Flying Kipper" and what it's main purpose is and he has to do all of that whilst also making it easy for little kids to understand. As we do often forget that Thomas & Friends is first and foremost a kids show with the main target audience essentially being toddlers and there not going to understand things that are told in a really complicated way with that meaning that without dumbing the episode down the makers of this episode had to explain things in a way that kids would understand with both them and Sir Ringo doing a really good job of doing that as by keeping the episode as close to the book that's its based off of it does mean that the episode can be somethin that doesn't talk down to kids and nor does it talk up to them either as it talks them on the same level as it would do any adult watching the show with this being something that Sir Ringo Starr has to get across using only his voice and while the visuals will of course help in this matter it's his voice that's got to get your attention and has got to keep your attention. With him once again proving why he has a good voice for this show as his voice is silky smooth with him having the kind of voice that you could very easily picture yourself falling asleep to as it has an almost dream like quality to it as his voice is just that relaxing to listen to and while that might be odds with what happens later on in the episode it is still something that should be discussed due to the fact that he wasn't that well known for his voice when this episode was first being made.
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. The fact that this episodes acting is as good as it is isn't really something that's all that surprising due to the fact that alot of the acting in these early Thomas episodes is generally really good and while people will often argue about which dub is better the American or the UK given the fact that this show was made with UK kids in mind it does make sense that the UK dub would be the better one in this case as the makers of the show went out of there way to not only cast a big name in Sir Ringo Starr but also cast someone who has a great voice that perfectly matches the tone of this first season of the show and while he would get replaced in series 3 by the much more better Michael Angelis Sir Ringo gave the makers of this show a good starting off point with the best actor in this episode of course being Sir Ringo Starr as while he doesn't give any of the characters any unique voices as he wouldn't start doing that until series 2 he is really charming in this episode with it being clear as day that he is having a blast in making this show with the acting that's in this very episode really being helped by the fact that the script for this episode is just so good that all this episodes actor has to do is just say the lines as they are written and a good performance will out of him naturally which s something that really does help to raise the overall quality of the acting that's in this very episode.
Henry in this episode is perhaps done as well as he could have been done in this first series of the show as a whole. As while the CGI series would turn the character into someone who is nearly always worried about something here in the model era he was someone that was on par with Gordon with the amount of big jobs that he would do with there only being one episode in this entire first series where he was worried about something with the episode being "The Sad Story Of Henry" and even then he was punished or how over the top he was acting. With him in this episode kind of being worried about what The Fat Controller will say to him but here it's more understandable due to the fact that he's just been in a major accident which unbeknownst to Henry wasn't his fault with the character being just as lovable as he is in the rest of the show with the only thing that does kind of let him down in this episode being the fact that we don't get to see him interacting with any of the other engines in this episode as there's no scene at the start or the end of the episode. Where we get to see Henry talking to let's say Gordon for example this is of course due to the fact that the episode mainly takes place at night with there only being the one scene at the end of the episode that takes place in the day light and that is a shame as it would have given us a chance to explore some of Henry's personality a bit more like maybe he's really excited about pulling The Flying Kipper or maybe he doesn't want to do it at first but gets talked into it by his driver both 0f those things are things that would have added something to Henry's character and while the episode isn't harmed by not including these things they are things that if they were added would hade made this already really good episode be all the more better because of it.
For those of you that perhaps don't know this is the episode where Henry gets the shape that would stay with him for the rest of the show. With there not really being differences that I personally can ever see but what we do know from the episodes dialog is that he now has a larger smoke box which does mean that he won't be needing the coal that they spent the entire last episode building up which now makes the entire last episode pointless in the grand scheme of things as they don't do anything with the special coal idea and disregard it the very first chance that they get. Granted this is something that could have also have been true in the book that that both this episode , the previous episode and the next episode which if that is the case then fair enough as it means that there being true to the books but at the same time tho given the fact the show does make small changes to the books it makes you wonder why they didn't do the same thing here as they spent the whole of the last episode building up the fact that Henry needs this special coal in order to run properly and yet here in this episode after Henry has his accident they get rid of it. The episode does explain why Henry needed a new shape as he got into a pretty nasty accident with a break van and some trucks which caused him to derail which was a smart thing to do as even tho that crash was again in the book that this episodes takes it story from it goes along way in showing that Rev. W. Awdry did treat his audience with respect as yes his stories involved talking trains but there stories were all based in some form of reality albeit a very loose one which does mean that the episodes in these first few series did have episodes where they treated there audience with respect by explaining things like why a character now looking different in a way that does make sense in the context of how this world works.
This episode is based of the based of the story of the same name from the book Henry The Green Engine. After glancing at the books page on the Thomas wiki it doesn't appear as if there was alot changed in this adaptation of the story altho given just how short the wiki page entry is for that story there very well could have been changes made to the story either way this does seem like a really good story to adapt as while there's not really all that much there interms of plot in this story there is alot of atmosphere something which the episodes take as full advantage of as it possibly could have done as the episode does feature alot of snow and some light fog all of which are enough to make us the audience somewhat aware that this isn't a normal episode of the show. With it even acting as foreshadowing as well as now we know that there's snow in play it does mean that the odds of Henry getting into an accident are quite high. This episode even has something that alot of the first series episodes also have and it's something that is very sadly missing from the rest of these model seasons and that's the fact that this episode does have alot of attention to detail as while we don't get to see all that much happening in the foreground if you look in the background forever of certain we do get to see workmen just going about there day to day lives helping to load up The Flying Kipper and getting it ready for Henry to pull which was a nice little touch and was something that the makers of this episode really doesn't have to include as we would have been able to piece together from all of the sounds that we here during that part of the episode what the workmen are doing and yet the makers of this episode went ahead and included it anyway.
As this episode does feature a pretty big crash it does make sense to talk about it as the crash is both the best and worst thing about the episode. It's the worst thing in that the episode does drop video quality when showing the crash thus pretty much confirming that either they did a reshoot of the crash on a different camera or the makers of the episode used a camera that would have allowed them to make the crash look more cinematic either one isn't the issue as the issue is the drop in noticeable drop in picture quality with the crash becoming so fuzzy that it's hard to see what's just happened which is something that does take us the audience out of the episode when at that point in the episode they should have been keeping us in. Yet it's also the best thing about the episode as it's the very thing that the episode and Henry's arc for this season had been building towards with the crash itself looking just as good as it could have been with all of the models looking very very highly detailed and while yes it would have been nice if they used the same cameras that they used to film the rest of the episode as then we'd be able to see the action unfolding the fact that they try for this more cinematic looking moment does show us the audience that the makers of this show were more then ready to give us the slightly more high octene action that we would get in later series of this show with it being clear as day that they learned alot from this episode and then applied it to those other action packed episodes and while we are barely able to see alot of the crash in this episode what we do get to see is something that does look really good.
Now then this episode has / had an exact grand total running tie of exactly five minuets and thirty three seconds. Which is pretty much the bogstanderd running time for this show during the early model era episodes of the show with the episode even having just about the right amount of plot there to cover that amount of running time as while this episode doesn't really need a long running time in order to do it's plot justice it still would have been nice if this episode was slightly longer due to the fact that it is paying of a character arc. Yet the episode really doesn't use it's running time all that wisely due to the fact that the episode really doesn't fully develop it's plot which granted is something that would have been hard to do given the fact that it's a little over five minuet and thirty seconds long but if the Paddington show could have more fully developed plots in a very similar time frame then this episode could have done the same as we don't even get to find out why it has to be Henry that has to pull The Flying Kipper in the first place he just gets told it by his driver at the start of the episode and that's it and while the episode also doesn't fully develop it's characters this is something that is kind of excusable due to the fact that it both could be argued that Henry got his character development in other episodes and therefor it wasn't needed all that much in this episode and the fact that this episode is closing of his character arc for this series. However it still would have been nice if we did get to see some character development even if it's just something small like Henry learning that it doesn't matter what your job is on the railway as along as you do it well which yes is a generic thing but it's something that would have worked for his character but I really will admit that this episode really does have some really good pacing to it tho.
So now the 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 not that bad. While the episode doesn't have alot of jokes in it with this being more due to the episodes more serious tone yet at the same time that doesn't mean that the episode is devoid of humor as the episode does sneak in some jokes here and there like for example The Narrator says that Gordon is jealous of Henry when he gets to pull the express which is not only a funny line but does also serve as good foreshadowing for the next episode. With the best joke in the whole entire episode being when a member of the other engines crew says that he won't leave the break van due to the fact that the coco that he's drinking is really good with this being where the book and episode does somewhat diverge as in the book they openly show the same member of the crew yelling at Henry for spilling his drink after he's crashed which is something that would have been a really funny addition to have in this episode but it is also something that would taken away from the more serious nature of the episode this is despite the fat that the joke itself is one that does work really well as it's a joke that's just silly enough for it to be funny without taking away from the more serious nature of the episode and if the episode did add in that extra bit then it would have made the episode be a bit more cartoonish in a sense. Therefor having just the one side of the joke is one that does work all the more better due to the fact that it is something that we could see the railway staff doing alot of the time with the joke itself being really good in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Overall whilst it's hard to say on if this episode is a fan favorite episode or not what can be said is that this episode is a good example of just good a Henry led episode of the show could be as it has all of the charm that you expect from this show with good does of kind hearted humor and lots of action all of which are things that combine to make a really fun episode of this show 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 this 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 7 out of 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 Amazon . Co . Uk and Google Images. With my personally preferred website to use to get the images from this very episode that I used in this very post being the really great Google Images 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 really being really better quality then what you'd really think of and all of the images are really of course up and really on Google Images really are also really all fairly high in quality and as well as them all being really fairly freaking high in definition.
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