Can we fix it? Yes we can!
Bob the Builder is a British children's animated series that aired from 1998 in the UK (2001 in the US) to 2012. The 2015 series started in 2015 and it's created by Keith Chapman (who also created other cartoons for the UK, and one made Canadian cartoon for Nickelodeon called PAW Patrol). The franchise is currently on its last episode of the third season of the 2015 series and in December 2022, the admin on the Bob the Builder Wiki said that a new titled Bob the Builder reboot series is in development. It was probably because Mattel Television and WildBrain both quietly started developing it and it is set to be announced and revealed sometime in 2024.
Why It Can Fix It[]
- Much like Fireman Sam and Postman Pat, it takes a simple concept of a man having a profession and seeing them do their regular job while interacting with the people around him and it manages to take that concept very well and tries to be more unique and different when compared to those shows.
- Unlike the shows mentioned above, it also takes the concept of having a builder have his own talking machines, which works very well and manages to not be simplistic and generic.
- The stop-motion animation from HOT Animation is beautifully done and is wonderful for 1998 standards, it also improved significantly in the later seasons of the original series and in Project Build It.
- The theme song is very catchy and fun to listen to.
- Despite being cartoony, the show does try to keep the construction and building safety realistic and it normalises it for children, by having each episode involve Bob doing a construction job and it shows how they are usually done.
- Even though the show's target demographic is mainly for preschoolers, the show tries to be not only enjoyable to just young children, but also older kids and even adults alike, by adding some elements that adults watching the show can identify with.
- The voice acting is great and is very pleasant to listen to, especially in the United Kingdom version.
- Rob Rackstraw and Neil Morrissey both do very good jobs at voicing the characters, it is also pretty impressive how they play most of the male characters in the United Kingdom version of the show.
- Some of the characters' voices are rather cute to listen to as well, such as Lofty's voice and Dizzy's voice.
- There are a handful of likeable and enjoyable characters such as Bob himself, Wendy, Scoop, Roley, Muck, Dizzy, Lofty, Pilchard and Travis and some really funny ones like Spud the Scarecrow.
- Bob himself is a likable protagonist who is always passionate about getting jobs done and is also a good role model for the children.
- Wendy is very likeable too, as she has a great relationship with the machines and most especially Bob, who both have a cute romantic relationship with each other.
- All of the machines have different and unique personalities to each other:
- Scoop is portrayed as a sensible, reliable and trustworthy digger who is sometimes left in charge by Bob and Wendy.
- Muck is portrayed as a silly, but reliable dump truck who loves getting mucky.
- Dizzy is portrayed as a crazy, energetic, know-it-all cement mixer who loves playing with her football and listening to music with her headphones.
- Roley is portrayed as a smooth and calm steamroller who loves to "rock and roll" and to create his own songs.
- Lofty is portrayed as a friendly and shy crane who has a fear of heights and mice.
- Spud is a very funny comic relief character who despite getting into trouble a lot, is pretty enjoyable and is also a fan favourite amongst fans of the show.
- Pilchard is a very cute and adorable pet character, she's also quite likeable too.
- It teaches children about construction safety and how building projects work.
- This show has a cartoony style, which works really well.
- The character designs for the machines are pretty cute and appealing to look at and it manages to avoid coming across as generic like most kids shows with the practise of sentient vehicles in them.
- Project Build It is a very good continuation of the original show, and is arguably just as good as the original, it also has a story about Bob and the Can-Do Crew working together to build an entire city for Sunset Valley by constructing different buildings for each episode, which is an awesome concept.
- The CGI in Ready, Steady, Build! was also pretty good and takes an interesting approach by making the CGI imitate the look of the models rather than do what shows like Thomas & Friends did with redesigning the characters and buildings into CGI.
- Lots of episodes provides great morals for kids, such as working together.
- Rob Rackstraw doing a lot of voices in the UK dub for other characters in the series is really impressive.
- The album version of "Can We Fix It?" is catchy as the original theme song, and it reached Christmas #1 in 2000 during its major success in the United Kingdom.
- Similarly, their cover of Mambo No.5 became number one in UK Singles Charts in 2001.
- The show has very enjoyable and heartfelt specials, like:
- "A Christmas To Remember"
- "The Live Show"
- "The Knights of Can-a-lot"
- "Snowed Under: The Bobblesberg Winter Games" (despite Scoop's unlikable behavior)
- "When Bob Became a Builder"
- "Built to Be Wild"
- "Scrambler to the Rescue"
- "Race to the Finish"
- "The Legend of The Golden Hammer"
- "The Big Dino Dig"
- Elton John even made a guest appearance in A Christmas to Remember.
- Each episode of the series are well thought out and it tries to not be generic, preachy and done in a way where it is only enjoyable to small children. In a similar way to Thomas the Tank Engine (especially the Allcroft era), they're usually written in a way where the show doesn't try to hard pander to just young children and tries to appeal to children of all ages.
- With that being said, there are a handful of very memorable and enjoyable episodes, such as:
- Scoop Saves The Day (which started the series on a high note in TV airing order)
- Pilchard in a Pickle (which started the series on a high note in production order)
- Bob's Big Plan (which started Project Build It on a high note)
- Wendy's Busy Day
- Spud the Spanner
- Dizzy's Birdwatch
- Mucky Muck
- Pilchard's Breakfast
- Muck's Monster
- Dizzy Goes Camping
- Dizzy's Statues
- Lofty the Artist
- Wendy's Big Game
- Muck's Convoy
- Dizzy in Charge (depending on your view)
- Scrambler Gets Clean
- Scoop Knows It All
- Tumbler and the Ice Rink
- Travis and the Tropical Fruits (depending on your view)
- The House that Lofty Built
- An Inspector Calls (which ended both Project Build It and the stop-motion era on a high note)
- Lofty's Shelter
- Benny's Back!
- Where's Robert?
- Lofty's Comet
- Spud Lends a Hand
- Magnetic Lofty
- Wendy's Party Plan
- Clocktower Bob (depending on your view)
- Runaway Roley
- Travis Paints the Town
- Bob's Birthday
- Bob's Day Off
- Bob's Boots
- Dizzy and the Talkie Talkie
- Here Comes Muck
- Wendy's Tennis Court
- Tea Set Travis
- Scary Spud
- Naughty Spud
- Travis and Scoop's Race Day (despite the bad and mean-spirited ending)
- Scoop Has Some Fun
- Dizzy's Crazy Paving
- Scoop The Artist
- High Tide For Lofty (depending on your view)
- Scratch Goes Solo
- Roley and The Seagull
- Rubble and The Seagull Surprise
- A Dinosaur for Scratch (which ended Ready Steady Build and the entire show as a whole on a high note)
- Not only did the show become one of the most popular shows in Britain, but it also became one HiT Entertainment's most popular shows and also one of the most popular preschool shows of all time, with the franchise grossing a total revenue of $5 billion in US dollars.[1]
Bad Qualities[]
- While Ready Steady Build is pretty good, the stories can get pretty formulaic and repetitive at times, this also applies to some episodes in the Project Build It series. Though the repetitiveness in those series nowhere near as bad as it is in the reboot.
- The US dub is (arguably) not as good the UK version, while the voices are okay, they don't seem to capture the same charm as the UK version does. Though, a lot of Americans loved the US dub of the show. Project Build It improved it a bit.
- While Project Build It’s US dub is an improvement to the dub from the Original Series, Greg Proops's voice for Bob in the US doesn't sound as good as the other US voice given by William Dufris. He also makes Bob sound too much like Fred from Scooby-Doo.
- Despite being male in the UK dub, Muck was changed to female in the US dub for some reason, it is very unnecessary to change him to a female as no one was complaining about the lack of females in this show, not to mention that it is also confusing for fans of both the UK and US dub (though the reboot changed him back to a male character).
- While the animation in Ready Steady Build is pretty good, it can be jarring how the machines talk with their grill mouths as it looks weird for some characters (mainly Roley and Travis).
- Due to the fact that Project Build It was canceled, a lot was unsolved.
- Spud (from your point of view) can be really unlikable.
- The franchise massively went downhill ever since the 2015 reboot. Similar to Seasons 6-present of Fireman Sam, the franchise went downhill with a truckload of problems:
- The redesign looks way more realistic, which takes away the charm of the original.
- Many characters like Spud, Travis, Scrambler, Benny, Scratch, Gripper and Grabber, Scruffty and plenty of other characters were not seen.
- Some of the main characters were flanderized.
- Scoop went from a sensible and reliable leader to a clumsy and careless goofball who messes everything up.
- Lofty went from a friendly, shy coward to a sarcastic, cynical, intelligent crane who isn’t scared of anything anymore.
- Muck went from being a funny but reliable vehicle, into a more dumber idiot who equally screws up like Scoop.
- It instructed kids NOTHING about how construction works and gave kids no morals at all.
- Some plots from each episode of the reboot were either rubbish, frustrating, boring, lackluster, repetitive, formulaic, or uninteresting.
- The Building Sequences are no longer fun to watch.
- Making things worse, they overuse the, "We Are A Team" Song all the time.
- Depending on your view, there are still quite a handful of bad or mediocre episodes even before the 2015 reboot, some examples include:
- Bob's Bugle (depending on your view)
- Roley Brings The House Down
- Breezy Bristle
- Tumbler and the Skate Park (depending on your view)
- Scoop's Big Job
- Scrambler's Best Idea (depending on your view)
- However, these episodes are nowhere near as bad as the episodes from the 2015 reboot or Seasons 12-16 of Thomas and Friends.