Bob The Builder - Bob's Big Plan Special (DVD)

...comes to Harry's television viewing, Bob the Builder still remains a good faithful to plonk on for him when I desperately need to get on with the dinner and Harry's trying to "help" me. We have a small collection of Bob DVD'S courtesy of Harry's Nanny, and this is one he does like to watch pretty regularly, and I must say it is a fun watch, even for me who has seen it god knows how many times!

Bob the Builder is a hit children's ...
...this one, Bob's Big Plan. Bob lives and works in Sunflower Valley with fellow builder Wendy and their crew of helpful machines. The funny stories, talking machines and lovely sets and characters make for great viewing for children of all ages, and is still as captivating as it was back in 1999 when it was first broadcast on the BBC!

Bob's Big Plan is one of the newer DVD's released of the Project: Build It series, and features one ... more

Although we have somewhat moved onto pastures new (Noddy and Peppa Pig) when it comes to Harry's television viewing, Bob the Builder still remains a good faithful to plonk on for him when I desperately need to get on with the dinner and Harry's trying to "help" me. We have a small collection of Bob DVD'S courtesy of Harry's Nanny, and this is one he does like to watch pretty regularly, and I must say it is a fun watch, even for me who has seen it god knows how many times!

Bob the Builder is a hit children's television show currently being shown on Nick Jnr and Nick Jnr 2 throughout the day. The show is also widely available on DVD, from all of the televised series, as well as specials which were created specially for DVD such as this one, Bob's Big Plan. Bob lives and works in Sunflower Valley with fellow builder Wendy and their crew of helpful machines. The funny stories, talking machines and lovely sets and characters make for great viewing for children of all ages, and is still as captivating as it was back in 1999 when it was first broadcast on the BBC!

Bob's Big Plan is one of the newer DVD's released of the Project: Build It series, and features one longer length episode, and 3 normal length episodes, all of which are brand new not shown on TV ones, so you're getting some pretty good Bob viewing for your money on this DVD. The main feature, Bob's Big Plan, is 25 minutes long, and the 3 episodes are 10 minutes each. The 3 episodes are actually the first 3 episodes of the Project: Build It series so set the scene for the rest of the later episodes of this series.

The extended episode is really fun to watch, and does manage to keep Harry's attention for the whole 25 minutes, which is a miracle in itself, believe me! It starts off in Bobsville where Bob is doing a job with his machines and finds out that there is a building competition to redesign neighbouring Sunflower Valley, somewhere Bob loved to play when he was a young lad. He meets an architect and when he finds out about his plan to turn the valley into a bustling City, Bob is inspired to create his own plan for Sunflower Valley. But will Bob and the team be able to come up with a good enough plan to persuade the Bobsville council to choose him?

The other 3 episodes on the disk are actually really good to watch as well, and follow on nicely from the main feature episode. Firstly, there is Bob's Fresh Start, which shows us Bob moving away from Bobsville over to Sunflower Valley, complete with a new trailer and a new machine, Scrambler. "Lofty's Shelter" follows the team building a brand new shelter to live in in Sunflower Valley, but this time Lofty wants to be able to sleep inside it rather than out in the cold! Meanwhile, Muck and Spud manage to get lost in the big forest and Muck gets scared. Will they make it back with the firewood for the campfire to keep everyone warm and to cook the dinner?!

The last main episode on the disk is "Dizzy and the Talkie Talkie". Bob and Wendy give each of the machines a brand-new talkie talkie so that they can't get lost in Sunflower Valley anymore. Dizzy has to lead Muck to a pile of rocks via the talkie talkie but she manages to get him lost. Dizzy and Scrambler rush to find him, before Bob can't build his water tank! But my favourite thing about this disk is the bonus episode you can watch after you've played "Bob's Game" in the Extras section. You have to answer 3 easy questions correctly, making a bit of fun for you and your child, and then a new episode is played! It's called "Mr. Ellis' Exhibition" and is an episode set back in Bobsville. Mr Ellis wants to hold an art exhibition so challenges all of the machines and Spud to come up with exhibits. Bob is sent to rebuild the museum while Spud sets about creating his own "masterpiece". But Spud ends up "borrowing" things for his exhibit which make like difficult for Bob..will Spud win the competition or just end up in trouble again?!

The animated menus within this DVD just go to show how much effort the makers go to make these DVDs really enjoyable for the children to watch. Whenever you access a new section of the disk, one of the machines comes across on the screen to change screens, and Harry always likes to shout out the name of the machine on screen! The extra "hidden" episode is a really good addition, and I like to pop this one on for Harry as a reward as he loves doing the quiz with me! And as with all the Bob episodes, there are some good hidden morals throughout teaching children right from wrong as they watch, without them knowing. It's a gentle show, but definitely one of the best out there in my opinion, not just for entertainment but for overall quality and content. For the money, this is a great DVD for any Bob the Builder fan, and is a must for any collector. 1 feature length episode and 4 10-minute episodes give a nice variety for toddlers, with fun stories, familiar characters and excellent quality programming.

The DVD is available on Amazon for £4.97, although my mum got this in Morrisons for just £2.99, a complete bargain! Released by Hit Entertainment in 2005. Featuring the voice talents of Neil Morrisey and Kate Harbour. Running time: 64 minutes.

Thank you for reading. 

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