Battle of the Bobs

 
Bob the Builder: Project Build It
Season 13, Episode 10: "The Bob House" (2006) (10 minutes)
UK: Hit Entertainment Plc
CBeebies, Saturday 10 May 2014, 7am (watched via Box of Broadcasts)


Bob the Builder: Project Build It
Season 19, Episode 6: "Bob the Brave" (2015) (15 minutes)
UK / Canada: Mainframe
Channel 5, Sunday 29 October 2017, 7.15am (watched via Box of Broadcasts)

Apologies for the long absence! Hopefully I will be flooding this blog soon with all sorts of information about what I have been up to over the past few months. In the meantime, however, I would like to talk about the two different incarnations of Bob the Builder.

Both series have a similar premise: Bob undertakes a new building or repair job every episode, with the assistance of his girlfriend Wendy and a team of sentient construction machines. However, I found that not only did the visual style vary greatly between the two, but the content, delivery and quality did too.

Simple life lessons

In the 2005 episode "The Bob House," Bob has decided to manufacture pre-fab houses in order to cater for the number of people who want to move to Sunflower Valley. The concept is explained in very simple terms, and the phrase "it all just clips together" is repeated several times. Bob explains that there are three steps to the process: first he builds the individual pieces in his workshop, then one of the machines transports them to the building site, and then Bob's dad puts the pieces together. This process is illustrated several times throughout the episode.

Later in the day, Bob's boss, Mr Bentley arrives at the site, and explains to Bob's dad that his wife is doing a survey to see what features people like in their houses, and sending him the results one at a time. The concept of a survey is clearly explained in simple language.

A scenario repeats several times: Mr Bentley suggests a change to the design of the pre-fab (which is illustrated on his laptop), Bob has to create new pieces, the machines have to deliver the new pieces, and Bob's dad has to start putting the house together again from scratch. The problem with this process is clearly spelled out: Bob wants to keep his customers happy, but everyone is so busy making changes, they can't get the job finished.

At the end of the episode, Mrs Bentley appears with a huge folder full of survey results. Bob realizes that everyone wants a different house, so you can't make one house that pleases everyone. Bob's dad suggests that they make lots of different pieces, which people can put together however they please. Everyone pitches in with making a large variety of pieces, and finally we see three very different houses.

The episode is very well put together, and explains concepts unfamiliar to toddlers in a simplified way that they can understand. It also contains several skills that can be transferred to real life: breaking down a process into several individual steps, appreciating the needs of others, understanding that you can't always please everyone, and finding a solution to a problem. These abstract skills are central to a child's development and to the Key Stage 1 curriculum.

A complicated mess

In contrast, however, the 2015 episode "Bob the Brave" is clearly written by someone who has never met a child. The mayor of the town (mummy, what is a mayor?) is planning to hold a medieval fair (mummy, what does medieval mean? What is a fair?) at a castle (mummy, what is a castle?). However, the castle is missing a portcullis, so she commissions Bob to build a new one. We are eventually shown what a portcullis is, but this is long after the word is introduced. Children will not understand what the central problem of the episode is.

It's noted that the drawbridge is rotten, so the machines cannot drive onto it, but this point is immediately dropped. Instead Bob and his team erect the portcullis in a brief montage with an awful "rock" soundtrack. He explains that two people are needed to winch up the portcullis, and it then needs to be secured on both sides. However, his apprentice Leo fails to secure his side, because he is too busy imagining that he is a knight (mummy, what is a knight?). Therefore, the portcullis crashes down, nearly killing him, and trapping him alone inside the grounds of the castle. He can't raise the drawbridge by himself, so he tries to find a way out of the castle. Then he hears a noise that sounds like a ghost, gets scared, and runs away. He ends up getting his leg stuck between the planks of a bench. So Bob fixes the drawbridge, so that his digger Muck can drive on it, so that he can lift up the portcullis a little, so that Bob can crawl underneath. Once he gets inside, he hears the "ghost", which turns out to be Mr Bentley singing. Oh well. Bob untangles Leo from the bench, and the two of them raise and secure the portcullis. That night at the fair, the mayor, dressed as a queen, "knights" Bob for his services (mummy, what is she doing with the sword?), and Mr Bentley is embarrassed because he has to dress as a jester (mummy, what's a jester?)

It's an absolute mess of a plot, overcomplicated, and full of concepts that a pre-school child would not understand. If the dilemmas of the episode were simplified, and concepts more fully explained (show the audience what a castle is, who lived there, what a knight was) then it could have been full of educational value. The way it is, however, is just confusing and boring.

Visual changes

Stop-motion is expensive. CGI is cheap. So it's no surprise that the medium of animation had to change, in order to satisfy broadcasters' ever-shrinking budgets. However, the difference in visual quality is astounding, and surely must have an effect on the young audience's interest.

The original series is bright and colourful, and characters are simplified and cute-looking (albeit they all look very similar: I guess this is so that they could re-use puppets and just give them different wigs and outfits). The sets are beautifully creative, using miniature vehicles for long shots, and shortcuts like trees made from two intersecting flat pieces of foamboard still look effective. The characters look very tactile, and exactly like a child's toys come to life, which I am sure is very appealing to a child.

The new series is very uncanny valley. The characters are unpleasant to look at: they still have childish proportions, but much more realistic faces, which are quite unappealing. They also look very generic, in comparison to the stop-motion version, in which you could look at any character and immediately know what program they are from. The colours are washed out, and backgrounds are generic, and the animation is very un-dynamic: everything moves at the same pace, which makes it rather lifeless and boring. I imagine that it would be very unappealing for a child.

I understand the budgetary need for CGI, plus it allows for certain things that would not be feasible in stop-motion such as building a castle for the sake of one episode, but they really could have easily replicated the visual style of the original.

Diversity

In terms of diversity, I feel like the newer series does make a little more effort. The original series does show a wide range of ages in its characters, mostly focusing on adults. However, all human characters are white, and most are male (although it's hard to tell with the construction vehicles!) In particular the character of Wendy does not seem to have much personality of her own, she just seems to be there to help Bob with whatever job she is doing.  From what I've seen, Wendy doesn't have any more of a character in the CGI series, but it is positive to see a woman in a position of power in the mayor. We also see a black character in the regular cast in Bob's apprentice, Leo. Not a huge difference but some.

In conclusion, Old Bob good, New Bob bad!