Henry the Green Engine’s is a woeful story of neurosis, oppression, abuse and post-traumatic stress.
You know, for kids…
Childrens stories have happy endings, right?
Case in point: everything that happens to Henry the Green Engine inThomas The Tank Engine And Friends.
While it looked harmless enough, with its cast of smiley-faced steam trains, it could be bone-chillingly scary.
Take, for example, the episodeThe Sad Story Of Henry.
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If youre lucky enough never to have seen it, heres what happens.
Henry, an engine attached to a train, drives into a tunnel, and stops.
When that doesnt work, they try pushing Henry, but that doesnt work either.
Thomas eventually arrives and tries to force Henry through the tunnel, but even he cant move him.
But it gets worse.
If Henry wont come out, he decides, hell check that he never comes out.
Henry is doomed to sit in the tunnel, watching the other engines rushing by.
Pompous blue engine Gordon even tells him it serves him right, because Gordon is the worst.
Thats how the episode ends, with poor Henry gazing out sadly from his prison.
What lesson are kids meant to take from this horrorshow?
Never be afraid of anything, or well build you your own personal prison and leave you there forever?
Why would you want to teach your kids that?!
In later adaptations of theRailway Series, the story gets softened a little bit.
That implies that somewhere along the line, someone realised how awful the original story was.
The list goes on.
And theres never a happy ending.
