![]() ![]() This is fun, because I love when one of the stereotypes Americans are given outside this country is that they’re attractive. It’s here that he gets called “Handsome Hank” in the episode by the narrator in passing. Part of that aforementioned Southern Hospitality, though, is taking people at their word, and so Thomas struggles on in a valiant attempt to win the Cutting Off Your Nose To Spite Your Face Award. Thomas doesn’t exchange his current train for the next as he was instructed and instead tries to do all of them together as Hank watches, offering each time to pull the train instead and getting turned down. He’s got that Southern Hospitality thing goin’ on!Īs these seasons adhere to a specific formula it doesn’t take a genius to see where this episode is going. The narration even tells us that Hank is merely trying to be helpful. And perhaps Hank is underestimating Thomas here, but on the other hand, to Hank it would be like offering to carry a child’s backpack. Hank sees the load of freight cars Thomas is set to haul to the factory and offers, quite magnanimously, to take them instead, setting Thomas off even more. He means… cute! But Thomas, being as he is, gets buttmad about it. And of course, Hank doesn’t mean “little” as an insult either. Thomas, being as he is, takes offense at being called “little”, disregarding of course that to Hank, the big fuckoff PRR K4 Pacific, every engine on Sodor is little. Hank arrives and immediately sets Thomas off by calling him “one of the finest little engines ever seen”. Sir Topham Hatt gives Thomas his 3 strikes jobs for the day, which he instructs Thomas to do while showing Hank around the island. Already we’re seeing some hometown pride from Thomas, indicating both that Hank is an outsider and that wherever he’s from, Thomas thinks Sodor is better. Thomas and Percy are both excited to meet this new special and strong engine, but Thomas expresses some doubt that he could be stronger than any of the engines on Sodor. The episode proper starts with Hank arriving on Sodor. (Hank actually gets a model face as opposed to a CGI one for this shot! This episode might have been planned for before the decision to switch to CGI faces had been finalized.) I’m not bringing this up in relation to Hank because I have a problem with this from a technical perspective, but because Hank being American is– I would argue– actually the crux of the whole episode and what makes it work. ![]() Most of these other engines are given British (or in the case of Caitlin and Connor, Irish for some reason) accents and their status as transplants isn’t really commented on in the canon. There are many American engines on Sodor (Rosie, Caitlin, Connor, Porter, Timothy, Victor) but Hank is the only one (aside from Victor, who I would consider a special case) who is shown to be Culturally American. I’m pointing this out primarily because it’s interesting on its own: the show never directly states that he is from America, but it’s made very clear to the audience that that is the case. Yes, the engine whose color scheme is red, white, and blue and who has a Texan accent (which Michael Angelis is attempting so, so bravely) is American. We know that he’s big, strong, gregarious, friendly, quick to compliment others, and– perhaps most importantly– American! Let’s talk about Hank and his episode, Heave Ho, Thomas.ĭespite appearing in only one episode, we know a lot about Hank’s character. Imagine my surprise, then, when Season 12 (of Steady Eddie infamy) delivered perhaps my favorite one-off character of the entire show, and a pretty good all-around episode in general. Who cares about Flora the steam tram? Not me, certainly. I also knew that these seasons added many one-off characters that the CGI would not end up carrying over, and which I had basically zero interest in. ![]() I had no special memories associated with them, and knew from prior research that the characterization and writing was… shall we say, less than stellar. I was not looking forward to watching Seasons 7-12. This watch order left a gap, Seasons 7-12. Once that had been done, however, and I still wanted more trains, I skipped directly to season 17 (to see Duck) and then proceeded to watch the rest of the CGI (backtracking to season 13) and then all the movies and specials. When I started this train misadventure with I personally had no plans to watch beyond Season 6, which was the last season that I remembered watching as a child and so the last season I had any personal attachment to. So to preface this I think some context is required. ![]()
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