Bob The Builder - Feast Of Fun (DVD)

...***The Background***

Bob and friends have been around for quite some time now and you can sometimes see him on Cbeebies although I don't think he is on at the moment. You can join him for fun and games though on the Cbeebies website as well as on the Hit Entertainment site, where you can play games, learn about the characters and print out pictures for your child to colour in.

Neil Morrisey is the voice of Bob and of ...
...***The Characters***

Bob - He is a builder who solves everyone's problems for them in his home town of Bobsville.

Wendy - She is his builder's mate who is always ready to lend a hand whether it's with answering phones or building fences.

Pilchard - Bob's cat that often ends up helping him with one thing or another.

Spud - The lovable troublemaker likes to help but his mischievous side always ... more

Can We Fix It? - Yes We Can!!!

Yes we've all heard the words of the title song and how annoying it can get when your child wants to watch the DVD over and over again.

***The Background***

Bob and friends have been around for quite some time now and you can sometimes see him on Cbeebies although I don't think he is on at the moment. You can join him for fun and games though on the Cbeebies website as well as on the Hit Entertainment site, where you can play games, learn about the characters and print out pictures for your child to colour in.

Neil Morrisey is the voice of Bob and of course you'll probably recognise him from Men Behaving Badly as well as a host of other shows he has appeared in.

***The Characters***

Bob - He is a builder who solves everyone's problems for them in his home town of Bobsville.

Wendy - She is his builder's mate who is always ready to lend a hand whether it's with answering phones or building fences.

Pilchard - Bob's cat that often ends up helping him with one thing or another.

Spud - The lovable troublemaker likes to help but his mischievous side always ends up getting him into bother and often puts a spanner in the works of Bob and his team.

Bird - Twitters around the vehicles, keeping them amused with her tunes.

Lofty - He is a crane but isn't always very big on confidence and needs encouragement.

Scoop - The useful digger is very good at coming up with ideas to help them get the job done and is a bit of a leader around the builder's yard.

Dizzy - The cement mixer is always very eager but often finds that rushing about sometimes ends up in disaster.

Roley - The steamroller is easily distracted by anything fun that is going on round him.

Muck - This digger/dumper truck loves nothing more than to get stuck into any job.

***The Episodes***

Lofty and the Giant Carrot

This first episode sees Bob and the gang building a roadside stall for Farmer Pickles and when Spud is sent to deliver a letter to Mr Ellis that had been wrongly delivered, he finds a magic set that he can't resist having fun with. He soon loses the rabbit from the hat though, and asks for Lofty's help to find it by using a giant carrot as a lure. Things go a bit wrong though when lots of rabbits start chasing it, but will they find the right bunny before Mr Ellis returns and finds his things missing?

Mr Sabatini's Smashing Day

There are things getting broken all over the place in the second episode as Mr Sabatini accidentally kicks his football through his shop window. Meanwhile Spud has plenty of fun playing with a stopwatch that he finds on the road, but when he times Trix, there is an accident and the tiles end up getting broken. All is not lost though when they decide to make a mosaic out of the bits to decorate Mr Sabatini's shop and Bob is rewarded with a lovely big pizza.

Spud Minds His Manners

This is a short where Bob is busy in the kitchen baking for when Wendy comes for tea. Spud is invited but he is warned to mind his manners and not make a mess. Unfortunately things go a little bit wrong and Spud ends up very messy.

Lofty's Long Load

Mr Bentley is getting a through-lounge built and there is a big delay because Lofty has a bit of an accident along the way from the builder's yard. He is taking things nice and steady all the way until Dizzy and Trix get in his way and he knocks some bricks out from a bridge. Dizzy and Trix are sure they can manage to put it right but of course brick laying isn't as easy as Bob makes it look and they all get in a bit of a mess. Everything gets sorted out eventually when Wendy and Skip come to the rescue.

Spud Gets Packing

This is another short episode where Spud is helping to fit all the boxes of fruit and vegetables into the truck. He can't get them all to fit but with a little bit of help from Squawk he realises that there is a way after all.

Bob and the Badgers

Bob needs to build a fence to keep the rabbits from getting into Farmer Pickle's vegetable patch. Spud tries to help but he ends up falling asleep and in the morning he finds that the fence has been knocked down by something big. Wendy and Mr Pickles go off to look for the creatures that have made some big footprints and they find the culprits in the form of badgers. Luckily the new supports for the fence stop any more damage being caused and Bob is able to get on with the important job of making Pilchard's cat flap while realising that a badger flap is needed to help the badgers get through to the nearby stream.

Sing-a-Long Bird

In this short episode Roley and Dizzy have lots of fun copying Bird's song and they all end up singing together.

Pilchard's Pets

Bob is asked by the mayor to build a pet's corner in the park and there is mad mayhem when all the animals escape before it is ready. It's no surprise that Spud had something to do with that one. Pilchard is on hand to help get them all back together, including a cheeky chinchilla that escapes from everyone all the time and they finally get put into their new home where everyone can see them.

***Rubbadubbers Special Episode***

Tubb the Frog Prince

We are treated to this special extra at the end of the Bob episodes and find that Tubb says the magic words "If Only" and ends up being a prince to escape the daily run of the mill jobs he usually undertakes. He goes on a quest to save Winona from a bubble-breathing dragon. The bubbles turn you into a statue but with the Fearless Finbar's help, Tubb the Frog Prince battles through puzzles and mazes to finally save her. He realises though that being himself isn't so bad and that the daydream is harder than he first thought.

***Other Extras***

There are only a couple of extras on this DVD but both are quite good.

Firstly there is a book called Scoop's Stegosaurus that lets you recite the story of how Scoop finds some big bones that turn out to be a Stegosaurus skeleton. Spud tricks Scoop into letting his look at them and when they are taken to the museum to be made up they find there are some missing. Spud is soon found with them though and the whole skeleton is put together for all to see.

Secondly there is a photo gallery that has stills in it from the episodes on this DVD. There are also captions underneath each one and some ask you to count items in the pictures.

There are interactive menus and the chance to pick a certain episode to play or whether just to play them all.

***My Thoughts***

My son has always liked Bob, but it's only recently he's asked to keep watching the DVD's as one at a time on Cbeebies used to be enough for him. His favourite episodes on here are Lofty and The Giant Carrot and Bob and the Badgers. He has a bit of a liking for rabbits so I think this is probably the reason as there are lots of bunnies in both of them.

Bob is a little bit boring for me and although I don't mind watching the odd one, I do get a bit fed up sitting watching them all over and over again. One of the annoying things about it is the theme tune getting played each time between episodes as I end up singing it everywhere I go for the rest of the day.

The characters are good though and Neil Morrisey is brilliant as the voice of Bob. It's great to see a female helper too in these days of equality and of course all the different vehicles have great personalities with Dizzy the cement mixer rushing everywhere and Lofty the crane being unsure of everything he does.

I love the idea of putting a bonus episode of a different show on the DVD as this then introduces us to something a bit different. Rubbadubbers does make me laugh and in the episode included there are plenty of little jokes that small children probably won't realise to start with. There are also good little puzzles for your child to help Tubb solve as he goes along the quest.

The shorts on the DVD are a bit of a waste of time as they don't really have much bearing on anything really although the manners one is useful for toddlers to learn.

The story on the extras is quite good fun although I would have liked to have seen an option on it where the story is read out as well as just written. I have seen this on some other kids DVDs and think the highlighting of words as they are spoken is great for kids who are learning to read by themselves. On the other hand it is a good way of getting parents to actually participate with their children.

Whether or not you're a big fan of Bob yourself, you can guarantee that this DVD will be a big hit for any small boy and probably a few girls too.

***Price and Availability***

This DVD is available for only £5.99 from www.dvd.co.uk or from www.blahdvd.com with no extras for postage from either site.
 

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