ThomasNATION Classic Reviews - The Smelly Kipper

August 03, 2024

 

Ah yes, the Flying Kipper, aka Sodor's least lucky job. Think about it, every time we see this train be pulled by Henry, it never ends well. Some days, he'll crash right into a brakevan, others he'll plunge into the sea. In fact, even I did a story about the Flying Kipper going awry with "A Fishy Situation". I'll leave a link to that below if you wanna check it out. But now that we're looking into James' first trip with the Kipper, will it be another fishy mess for him? Let's begin.

After James gets boastful about his bravery, Henry dares him to take the Flying Kipper. But in typical James fashion, he tries everything he could to get out of it.

This episode's a weird one because it starts off like the main conflict was gonna be between James and Percy, but that quickly gets dropped in favor of a plot between James and Henry. Honestly, they kinda made the right call here, since not only did the James and Percy conflict peak in Tale of the Brave (which ironically also has James pull the Kipper), but it would've made no sense here since...well, what would Percy have to do with the Flying Kipper? So I have to commend it for doing that.

Other than that, there's not a whole lot to report with this one. Don't get me wrong, the episode's still enjoyable even if the story's a little stock-standard, but the comedy is still pretty solid and the pacing really works. My one real issue is that James doesn't really have any character development. James at the end of the story feels like the same James at the start - he doesn't really grow as a character when there was a good bit of potential there.

Other than that, The Smelly Kipper is a pretty solid one. It may not have everything in place, but thanks to its decent sense of humor and solid pacing, it makes for an enjoyable time. It's not a high priority watch, but I'll recommend it if you're curious. It's not the best episode with the Kipper, but it's solid enough to land itself a 3.5/5.

Final Score: 3.5/5

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