Bob The Builder - Speedy Skip DVD > Reviews > Bob's Back!

Author's product rating:   

Did you enjoy it?	Loved it
Story	Good
Characters / Performances	Good
Special Effects	Good
How does it compare to similar films?	Good

Advantages:	Will keep children entertained
Disadvantages:	None

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

My son really loves Bob the Builder, so today we decided to watch 'Speedy Skip'.

The DVD comes in a normal yellow plastic DVD case. The cover has the title on and a picture of Bob, JJ and skip.

Upon opening the case, the disc is on the right hand side. It is red with the title on and has a picture of skip on. The disc also has pictures of tools in the background coloured orange.

On the left side of the case is a small booklet which explains how to use the DVD and hints on careful handling of the disc.

The DVD is produced by Hit Entertainment and runs for sixty eight minutes. The rating of this is U, which means it is suitable for everyone, and it was made in 2003. When I bought this for my son I paid £7.99 for it, although I'm sure if you look around now, you may pick it up cheaper.

The DVD has five episodes on it - 'Speedy Skip', 'Trix's Tiles', 'Spud's Big Splash', 'Trix And The Otters', and 'Mr Beasley's New Friends'. Each of these episodes plays for almost ten minutes. There are also three mini adventures included on the DVD - 'Scoop's Shapes', 'Spud Goes Apple Picking', and 'Scruffty's Bath time'. Each of these episodes plays for just under five minutes and have never been seen on television (at the time the DVD was brought out)

For those of you who have never seen Bob the Builder, I will just explain a little about it. It is set in Sunflower Valley. Bob owns a builders yard and has a crew who help him with his jobs, made up of Wendy and the vehicles. The characters that normally feature in episodes are as follows;
Bob the Builder - Bob (voiced by the brilliant Neil Morrissey from 'Men Behaving Badly') wears a yellow hard hat, a yellow and orange checked shirt and light blue dungarees. Around his waist he wears his tool belt, which goes everywhere with him. Likes to say 'Can we fix it?' an awful lot.
Wendy - Bobs co worker. She wears a blue hard hat, green top and blue trousers. She also has a tool belt, which she always wears. Likes to can 'Can we build it?'
Pilchard - Bobs cat. She is blue and likes to say 'Meow'!
Dizzy - An orange cement mixer. She sometimes likes to listen to music. Is Dizzy by name and dizzy by nature.
Roley - Green roller. His favourite saying is 'Rock and roll'.
Scoop - Yellow JCB. He likes helping Bob and Wendy.
Muck - Red digger. He likes getting really dirty.
Lofty - Blue crane. He is very nervous and indecisive. His favourite saying is 'Um, yeah I think so!'
Travis - Green tractor owned by Farmer Pickles.
Skip - A light green truck with a yellow skip on. Is owned by JJ.
Trix - A purple forklift who is owned by JJ.
JJ - Owns the materials yard where Bob buys all his equipment.
Mollie - JJ's daughter.
Farmer Pickles - Owns the farm in Sunflower Valley.
Scruffty - Farmers Pickles' Dog.
Spud - Farmers Pickles scarecrow. Things always seem to go wrong for him. His favourite saying is 'Spuds on the job'.
Bird - Blue bird with red feathers. Is friends with everyone.
Mr Bentley - He is something like the Mayor, it never actually says quite what he is.
Mr Beasley - Is a bit accident prone. Is hopeless at DIY.
Mrs Potts - Loves making and drinking lots of tea. Has been known to take five sugars.
Mr Dixon - The Postman
Mrs Percival - Teacher at the School

The Episodes

~Speedy Skip~
In this episode Bob and the gang are taking down Mr Beasleys's potting shed and building a new one. In the old potting shed Mr Beasley finds an old chest which no one wants, so he throws it out. In the meantime JJ has really important documents in an old chest. Mollie decides to swap the chests over, and put the old one in the skip. Will someone be able to get the old chest before it goes to the dump………..

~Trix's Tiles~
In this episode Bob has to put tiles on a cottage roof. Bob collects the tiles from JJ's yard, but there are not enough. JJ tells him a delivery in due in later in the day and will have the rest delivered to where Bob is working. When the tiles are delivered to JJ, Trix's decides to help by taking them to Bob. The only problem is that they are not quite the same…….

~Spud's Big Splash~
In this episode Bob has been asked to build a duck water feature in Mrs Pott's garden from bricks. Meanwhile Wendy has to knock down a wall for Farmer Pickles and take the old bricks to the dump. Unfortunately there is a mix up…..

~Trix And The Otters~
In this episode Farmer Pickles needs a new fence around his compost heap. Trix takes the new fence over to the field whilst Mollie is going nature watching. Trix wants to go nature watching with Mollie, but Trix is too big and shiny and scares away the wildlife. How can Trix watch the wildlife without scaring everything away….

~Mr Beasley's New Friends~
In this episode Mr Dixon has some pigeons which he can no longer look after so he gives them to Mr Beasley. Meanwhile Bob has to fix a leaking water tank for Mrs Percival. Unfortunately when Bob goes into the school attic to fix it, he finds some bats. He can't fix the water tank until they find a new home for the bats……..

The Mini Adventures

~Scoop's Shapes~
In this episode Scoop, Lofty and Dizzy decide to help Bob by laying some slabs for him. This is a good episode for children as the slabs are different shapes and they have to find the correctly shaped slab to fit in the space. This will help children to learn different shapes.

~Spud Goes Apple Picking~
In this episode Spud has to pick six apples for Farmer Pickles and as usual things don't go according to plan for Spud. This again is a very good episode for children as it helps them with counting. Spud counts the apples as he put them in his basket.

~Scruffty's Bath time~
In this episode Scruffty's been digging the garden trying to find his bone and is now dirty. Farmer Pickles decides Scruffty needs a bath, but Scruffty has other ideas ……

Extras

~Book: Scruffty Works It Out~
This is a story which you have to read out to your child. The words are on the left hand side of the screen and photos on the right. You press the enter button on your remote control to 'turn' the page.

~Photo Gallery~
Shows pictures from the Episodes on the DVD.

~Your Child And Bob~
Basically this explains that Bob's 'super positive' attitude helps children to work and play together, and how much they can learn from watching Bob the Builder.

~Subtitles~
Allows you to toggle between on and off. This is good if your child is learning to read as you can switch it on and your child can read along.

~Bob's Website~
This gives the website address for Bob the Builder. If you put the DVD into your PC then you can access the link through it.

As well as the Extras option on the main menu, there was another option called 'The Hit Parade'. This had the title songs for; 'Angelina Ballerina', 'Kipper', 'The Magic Key', 'Percy the Park Keeper', 'Barney', 'Oswald', 'Pingu', 'Bob the Builder', 'Rubbadubbers' and 'Yoko! Jakamoko! Toto!'. As I had watched this on the previous DVD I reviewed, I did not learn anything new this time.

~My Opinion~
This is a very good DVD. Not only will it keep your children entertained with the stories, it is also educational. For example in the episode 'Trix and the Otters' Dizzy asks Farmer Pickles what a compost heap is, so he explains it to her. Also in 'Mr Beasley's new friends' Bob explains to his team that bats are endangered species.

The mini adventures are also educational as they introduce children to shapes and colours. I could count along with Spud and his apples and in turn my son would join in as well.

All the characters are brightly coloured so they are eye catching to children and will hold their attention.

The dialogue is easy to follow and my son could tell me what was happening in each episode, as it was simple enough for him to follow and grasp the words that were being said.

Also if you switch on the subtitles your child can follow the words and this I think would aid their learning.

I was a bit disappointed with the extras again. As with the previous Bob DVD I recently reviewed, when I put the extras on, my son lost interest and went on to do something else.

The Hit Parade is also the same as the previous DVD I wrote about, so I didn't learn anything new this time, but it was still nice to watch.

As I said earlier, I paid £7.99 for this and I think that it was good value for money.

I would definitely recommend this product.