ThomasNATION Classic Reviews - Henry Spots Trouble
June 19, 2021
Well...we've certainly been through quite a crazy year of events, haven't we? Little did I or anyone else know that 2020 would become one of if not possibly the most chaotic year of our lives! Seriously...all in one year, we had: massive wildfires, giant killer bees, the public obsessed over a lunatic on Netflix and worst of all a deadly pandemic that conquered the world and put many people's lives to an immediate standstill. You could see why a lot of people hate this year. But thankfully, 2021 is proving to be the redemption year as we are finally seeing a light at the end of the tunnel in regards to this pandemic. But for now, it looks like Henry is still on high risk alert as an outbreak of chickenpox has swept across the Island Of Sodor. Is there worse to come for our big green engine or are things not always what they seem, let's find out...this is 'Henry Spots Trouble'!
HENRY SPOTS TROUBLE: After he sees Sir Topham Hatt's grandchildren with chickenpox, Henry worries about catching the disease himself.
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This might be controversial especially considering how this episode was banned by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, but I pretty much have come to terms that this is one of the best Henry episodes that we had from this era...shocking, yes but let me provide you with some context. In the past, we had some episodes of Henry being a worrier over such things like with Season 14's 'Henry's Magic Box' and Season 16's 'Percy And The Monster Of Brendam' in the past but those episodes were pretty much bad. Now I didn't pick Season 14's 'Henry's Health And Safety' as an example because I felt Henry was in the right to be concerned about that, but it still doesn't make the episode good with its writing and all.
Anyway, what I like about this episode is how something unknown can be something frightening as we all go through that at some point in our lives no matter how old we are...and if you look at the episode in the perspective of Henry with the chickenpox scare, he's an engine-not a human in a train suit, so how would he know of it? I feel that while Henry's fright was a bit extreme especially when racing backwards along the mainline in the climax, I think it was more natural because it was unknown to him and he doesn't know much of the risks of certain diseases (diseasels if you will) and won't know if engines can get it like humans. It also made me think that if they had done more episodes with this Henry and the situation he was in, perhaps Mattel might've kept him in the Steam Team as it made him stand out and more relatable to kids. I mean if you're going to make any of the main cast the timid character, Henry is the logical choice as he's been portrayed as worried in the past like Season 3's 'Henry's Forest' and Season 4's 'Henry And The Elephant'. And with his history of misfortunes and breaking down and steaming problems he's had in the past, I don't blame him for being paranoid.
As much as I like Henry, his persona was just all over the place in the past: after he got his new shape in the Railway Series books and the first two seasons of the television series, he became more like Gordon and James put together...and when the television show waned itself away from the books, he was given a pretty bland soft side and was then reverted back to his grumpy persona around Season 5 before he was given this persona which makes me wish that the production team had tried to balance his persona. Perhaps if this works, you can have Henry being this arrogant engine thinking he never gets scared only to find out that secretly he is...perhaps that could work since the ending kinda shows that as there are very different types of diseases: I understand that it sounds like Gordon still but with Gordon, he never had kept his scaredy side a secret to the others since he just gets scared naturally. But despite that with his cowardly persona, Henry really makes him stand out among James and Gordon yet it just should've been executed properly in the last few years: say what you want but I like this episode, maybe even much better than Season 20's 'Henry Gets The Express'.
Now after all that in regards to my thoughts on the episode, I still it's great to watch the episode in the perspective of Henry being an engine but there was also that scene of the painter knocking over the can of red paint and there was no dialogue whatsoever in the scene: only the action was telling us visually and I thought it was a funny and clever way of telling that scene without the narrator telling us. I understand that this episode got banned because the episode says that 'chickenpox is nothing to be scared of' however I don't think the writers are trying to showcase an 'anti-vaccination' message and to those people who believe they are, all I can say is "stop being stupid and actually listen to people who know better!" I believe if parents are concerned if their child thinks it's nothing to be scared of, it's up to them to tell them that there are vaccinations to prevent kids from getting them and not just on television plus children are smarter than we take them credit for since they do know their rights and wrongs.
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In the end to me, 'Henry Spots Trouble' is one of the best Henry episodes from the CG-animated era of 'Thomas & Friends' and I felt that the flack this episode got back in 2015 from older fans who still refuse to take off their Railway Series nostalgia goggles on top of getting banned in Australia over misunderstanding the episode's moral was unfair...if you view this episode through the eyes of our big green engine, you might see that there's more to this episode than what you may think and that is why 'Henry Spots Trouble' gets a rating of a 4.5 out of 5.
Final Rating: 4.5/5
About the Author: True Blue
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