James the Red Engine or simply known as James is the tritagonist of Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends.
He is very proud of his shiny, scarlet red paintwork, and always thinks of himself as the most brightest and shiniest engine on Sodor. He hates pulling freight cars, and thinks he should do work suitable for him. Apparently, his arrogance can often get him into trouble.
He does have antagonistic roles such as in James and the Coaches, Dirty Objects, Duck Takes Charge, No Joke for James, and the full-length movie Tale of the Brave.
Personality[]
James is very proud of his splendid red paintwork. He hates pulling trucks, and believes that he should only pull coaches. He thinks himself superior to the others, but often lets it go into his head. He is vain, boastful, selfish, rude, greedy, arrogant, self-centered, and disrespectful to other engines (especially Phillip).
He will usually act rude to other engines and rub victory in their faces, but he will get into an unlikely accident such as breaking a hole in his coaches, crashing into tar wagons, and being covered in fish, and will eventually become humiliated and learning his lesson in the end.
Despite being a jerk, James can be nice at times such as taking Mrs. Kyndley to the carnival, helping Thomas, Percy, and Emily with their jobs to see him be the star of the show, and joining Toby to help other engines, and is a responsible, reliable, and hard-working engine on Sir Topham Hatt's railway.
Antagonistic Roles[]
- In James and the Coaches, He sprays steam all over Sir Topham Hatt's Top Hat and bumps the coaches he was pulling causing a leak in a coach's brake pipe.
- In Trouble in the Shed, He, along with Gordon and Henry refuse to fetch their coaches or shunt in sidings and stay in the shed all day long which leads to them being shut up in the sheds for several days.
- In Dirty Objects, He rudely calls Toby and Henrietta "Dirty Objects", which leads to his comeuppance at the end when the Troublesome Trucks push him causing him to crash in some tar wagons.
- In Duck Takes Charge, He, along with Gordon and Henry tease Duck when he is doing work which leads to Percy and Duck blocking the engines from entering in the sheds.
- In No Joke for James, He tricks Thomas into giving him the express (that Gordon is meant to pull) and giving Gordon the trucks which leads to him being stuck in the sheds as punishment.
- In James Goes Too Far, He acts like a selfish jerk and refuses to wait in line for a few engines taking water and refuses to help Edward with his goods train which leads to him running out of water in the middle of the track.
- In Keeping Up with James, He refuses to listen to Sir Topham Hatt's orders to "slow down, and take care" on icy tracks and slides on them while going fast with Edward being his back engine ultimately leading to him coming off the rails and crashing into snow.
- In James the Second Best, He tries to replace Edward as the poster engine by doing things Edward does such as shunting trucks softly and doing dirty work, and tries to get his passengers before Edward by getting ahead of him on the line, which leads to Edward accidentally pushing him into the poster.
- In Tale of the Brave, He scares Percy with a scrap-looking monster so he would be teased instead of him.
- He becomes a bully to Phillip by teasing him, and not apologizing to him for his mishaps until he and Phillip and the other engines get stuck on a bridge.
- In Pouty James, He shows-off while pulling his coaches by going fast and stopping sharply at the wrong time missing the platform and saying "Here's James!", which leads to Sir Topham Hatt taking his coaches away until he changes his attitude, but still acts grumpy and rude.
Heroic Acts[]
- He takes Mrs. Kyndley to the carnival in the end of Make Someone Happy.
- In James and the Red Balloon, He helps the tourists in the deflated red balloon by wheeshing steam, making it fly up again.
- In James Goes Too Far, He helps Diesel who was broken down to the repair yards to get repaired.
- He helps Edward get to the seaside to collect more children by being his back engine in the end of James the Second Best.
- He helps Thomas, Percy, and Emily with their jobs so they can see him be the star of the show in the end of Dirty Work.
- He, along with Toby helps other engines who have broken down in James to the Rescue.
- He became much nicer to other engines in the end of Pouty James.
Trivia[]
- His engine ID number is 5.
- In the My First Thomas books and toys, James' wheels are red instead of black. Just the My First Thomas toys of James have a black bufferbeam/footplate instead of his usual red one.
- A large-scale working replica of James, along with replicas of Thomas, Percy, Harold, and Jack, was created by BBC Visual Effects for a tour in 2003. The battery powered locomotive is listed in the 2004 Guinness Book of Records as the largest model railway engine ever built, at 2.64 x 1.5 x 6.52 metres.
- In Toby's New Whistle, James revealed that he once had a three-chimed whistle.
- Michael Angelis originally voiced James in Thomas and the Magic Railroad, but he was cut from the movie and was replaced by Susan Roman.
Gallery[]
External Links[]
- James the Red Engine on [1]