ThomasNATION Reviews - What's in a Name?

April 04, 2026

If you were to ask any longtime fan of Thomas how to describe Cranky the Crane, they'd tell you that he, as his own name would tell you, is extremely grumpy because he is initially kept working day and night without rest. Although nowadays he is able to sleep properly, he still maintains his cranky attitude. Cranky loves teasing the engines and has an intense dislike for Salty's stories as he rarely pays attention due to his perpetual bad temper.  However, Cranky has at times shown a bit of kindness and he has started to become friends with the engines working at the docks. Although Cranky is now easier to befriend, he still does not take criticism well but he has also shown despite his cynicism that he is able to have fun although he has a serious and typically unflinching demeanor.  However, he often attempts to hide signs that he is enjoying something to try and keep his grumpy image.  While these usually go fairly poorly, he actively chooses to join in the fun and not hide anything on numerous occasions.  But here's the thing, that's just the Cranky that us fans have known and loved from our days of watching the original television series since the Cranky we have now in the 'All Engines Go' series reboot can be considered one of the most consistent characters in the franchise's history.  From everything that we've seen so far, the 'All Engines Go' version of Cranky appears to stick to his personality from the original series with being grumpy and teasing the other engines. However, he is still a hard worker and knows what it means to be really useful. Despite his grouchy nature, Cranky has also been shown to have a soft spot for seagulls, which he doesn't like to show when others are around.  So now that you know who Cranky is, on with the show!

If there is one thing that many longtime fans who grew up watching the original television series will remember the most about Cranky himself as a character is that he is infamously known for being very overworked at times since he can work as hard as he can to the point of total exhaustion and yet the cargo just keeps on coming into the docks.  In times like this, it is often that Cranky tries to prove to the engines as well as Sir Topham Hatt that he can still be really useful even when a newcomer like Kevin back in Season 17's 'Kevin's Cranky Friend' or even Carly in Season 21's 'Cranky at the End of the Line" or "New Crane on the Dock' tries to offer him some help which always ends up causing even more confusion and delay.  But eventually, Cranky does come around to accept their help and even manages to make a new friend while also showing that under all that gruff beats a heart of gold.  So after reading the synopsis for this episode that has Cranky feeling very overworked at the docks yet again, I was expecting this to be another diet rehash from the original series to add to the reboot's ever-growing pile and...yeah, there are times when it feels that way but it doesn't mean that I didn't enjoy this episode.

Even if I've never been a fan of Riff and Jiff as far back as 'Race for the Sodor Cup' and while they seem to just show up out of nowhere like how Farona and Frederico did back in 'Off the Rails', at least they served a purpose to the story and that was to have their similar sounding names make Cranky mess up their deliveries while also seeing what other characters that are currently in the reboot which have 'iff' in their names they can use like Whiff who manages to gain an assistant of a pet at his recycling plant as well as Skiff who always got a chuckle out of me whenever he was on screen.  On top of that, the moral of how even grown-ups can make mistakes sometimes even when they don't want to admit it is actually a pretty good moral for kids to learn as well as it shows that nobody in life is ever perfect.  So while 'What's in a Name?' does bare some similarities to other stories about Cranky feeling overworked and needing help, at least this episode did something different to spice things up and that is certainly something worth remembering by as I am gonna be giving this episode a rating of a 3.5/5.

Final Rating: 3.5/5

About the Author: True Blue

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