ThomasNATION Classic Reviews - Happy Birthday, Sir!
April 24, 2021
2012 was definitely an interesting year for 'Thomas & Friends', wasn't it? Not only did it mark the final season and special of Nitrogen Studios' tenure as animators for the series as well as Sharon Miller's final season as the head writer before she became the voice director while Andrew Brenner took the reins in her place, but it was also around this time that Mattel had bought Hit Entertainment thus giving Thomas a new place to call home in children's entertainment...and while I could go on about how Mattel has supposedly 'destroyed the franchise' as many fans believe they've done, that's not what I'm here to talk about because we're here to continue this month's double feature of birthday reviews by looking into what happened on the day that Thomas and Winston gave Sir Topham Hatt quite a blast from the past on his birthday. So without further ado, let's take a look at 'Happy Birthday Sir'!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY SIR: Thomas and Winston look for an open-top carriage for the Sir Topham Hatt's birthday.
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Now for those of you who may remember from the early days of my channel when I used to be called 'My Little Engine Productions', I actually did a riff commentary on this very episode five years ago with my friend Johnny (aka Thomas & Alphablocks Studios) for the second season of my 'Thomas The Riffed Engine & Friends' series thus some of you may already know what my thoughts are on the episode overall just from that video alone...but for those who may have missed out on seeing that video before I took the entire series down due to copyright, I'll do my best to get you caught up to speed thus I think it's best that we start at the beginning with the exposition of Sir Topham Hatt being very proud of his engines - at least that's what he wants the audience to believe because quite frankly, I don't think he can stand their guts for making dumb decisions at times.
After the intro, we find Thomas making a delivery to Brendam Docks where Salty and Edward are waiting before Sir Topham Hatt arrives in Winston informing him that it is his birthday and he is to go shopping with Lady Hatt and Dowager Hatt...yeah, because don't you hate when it's your special day and your family makes it a day about them instead? Anyways, Sir Topham Hatt instructs Thomas to take Winston on his jobs that day since Winston is new to Sodor and it's important that he sees what it is to be really useful...considering that this episode premiered before Winston's official debut in 'Blue Mountain Mystery', yeeeah. After Sir Topham Hatt leaves, Salty remembers a story that Edward told him about a birthday surprise for Sir Topham Hatt when he was just a young man...and after being asked by Thomas, Salty tells the story to everyone which explains how Sir Topham Hatt would visit all of the stations on the railway in an open-top carriage based from the Liverpool & Manchester Railway while Edward remembers how much Sir Topham Hatt smiled while on his travels but sadly nobody has seen that carriage for years.
After Salty tells his story while Thomas and Winston set off on their jobs, the little track inspection car is too busy thinking about Sir Topham Hatt's birthday and thus it is here that we once again begin the overused 'three strikes, you're out' formula but I will admit that it's not as bad as other times that this formula was used especially since we were nearing the end of Sharon Miller's tenure as head writer especially when we get the shocking surprise of Thomas actually taking his work seriously of which had many fans thinking they were dreaming...'looking for things is not being really useful', ya finally realize that now? That's all you've been doing for the past four seasons, kinda late to the party there, Thomas! But it's when Thomas is at the Whispering Woods picking up logs that he has had enough of Winston looking for things and thus asks Winston to go in front of him so that he doesn't lose him again...and even though Winston can't help but look around the woods, Thomas speeds up not realizing Winston has slowed down and bumps into the back of him where we get probably the dumbest line of the entire episode: luckily, no one was hurt...I know that this is an iconic line for many nostalgic fans of the series, but you can clearly see that Winston's driver ended up getting serious whiplash - at least nobody important was hurt!
But while Thomas is worried that Sir Topham Hatt will be cross that they will be late and that he hasn't taught Winston how to be really useful, Winston finally confesses that what he has been trying to find to make the controller of the railway very happy is the open-top carriage that Sir Topham Hatt used to ride in on his birthday...and wouldn't you know it, the carriage just happens to be right where they have stopped - should you really be surprised how long forgotten things were just so easily found in this era to give the kiddies their 'happy ending'? After they take the carriage to Victor to clean it up at the Steamworks, the pair finally arrive at the docks where Sir Topham Hatt is waiting and not too happy that they are late to meet him...but when Thomas offers to show him why they were late by going to Knapford Station, it is there where Sir Topham Hatt truly does receive the biggest birthday surprise ever as he is overcome with emotion when Edward pulls in with the newly restored carriage and thus thanks Thomas and Winston for their special surprise.
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As the final episode written by Sharon Miller that brings the 'Dark Age' of Thomas & Friends to a close, 'Happy Birthday Sir' is actually a really good episode if you look past the 'three strikes, you're out' formula and the controversial 'luckily, no one was hurt' scene...its concept was presented nicely, the visuals are still amazing and the characters are surprisingly well-portrayed whether they're old or new thus it makes for a great episode to watch whenever your birthday rolls around and that is why I'm giving 'Happy Birthday Sir' a rating of a 4.5 out of 5.
Final Rating: 4.5/5
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