| Bob the Builder | |
|---|---|
| Created by | Keith Chapman |
| Directed by | Liz Whitaker (Ep 1) Sarah Ball Brian Little |
| Voices of | Neil Morrissey Rob Rackstraw Kate Harbour Rupert Degas Colin McFarlane Maria Darling Emma Tate Richard Briers June Whitfield Richard Herman Wayne Forester[1] |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Language(s) | English |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Kate Fawkes Theresa Plummer-Andrews |
| Producer(s) | Jackie Cockle |
| Camera setup | Single camera (1999–2004), Multi-camera (2004–present) |
| Running time | 11 |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | CBBC |
| Original run | 13 January 1999 – present |
| Chronology | |
| Related shows | Handy Manny |
Bob the Builder is a British children's stop motion television character created by Keith Chapman. Bob appears as a building contractor specialising in masonry in a stop motion animated programme with his colleague Wendy, various neighbours and friends, and their gang of anthropomorphised work-vehicles and equipment (all made of clay). The show is broadcast in many countries, but originates from the United Kingdom where Bob is voiced by British actor Neil Morrissey. The show was later created using CGI animation starting with the spin-off series Ready Steady Build.
In each episode, Bob and his gang help with renovations, construction, and repairs and with other projects as needed. The show emphasizes conflict resolution, co-operation, socialization and various learning skills. Bob's catchphrase is "Can we fix it?", to which the other characters respond with "Yes we can!". This phrase is also the title of the show's theme song, which was a million-selling number one hit in the UK.
In the second season, a sort of spin-off series was created titled "Project: Build-It". Bob hears of a contest to build a new community in a remote area called Sunflower Valley, outside of Bobsville. He moves from Bobsville (supposedly temporarily) with Wendy and the team and builds a new yard there. Bob convinces his father, Robert, to come out of retirement and take over the Bobsville building business. It is not known whether Bob will return to Bobsville or not.
For the US version of the Project Build-It series, different actors were found to do the voices for many of the human characters, including casting Greg Proops as the new voice of Bob, and Neil Morrissey, who played the original Bob, to be the voices of Spud the Scarecrow and Mr. Bentley. The show also added recycling and being environmentally friendly to its lessons, emphasising the phrase "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle".
The third spin-off has been revealed as Bob The Builder: Ready Steady Build The gang has now moved to a place called Harbor Town and the show is animated in full CGI animation.
Bob the Builder is shown in more than thirty countries, and versions are available in English, French, Spanish, Slovenian, German, Italian, Dutch, Hebrew, Hindi and Croatian, among other languages. It is shown on CBeebies on BBC television in the UK. Voice actors who have contributed to the original British version include Neil Morrissey, Rob Rackstraw, Kate Harbour, Rupert Degas, Colin McFarlane, Maria Darling, Emma Tate, Richard Briers, June Whitfield, Richard Herman, Wayne Forester
Bob the Builder is shown with the ABC Kids programming in Australia.[2]
"Bob, o Construtor" is aired in Brazil on Discovery Kids.[3]
Treehouse TV and TVOntario air Bob the Builder in Canada, and it was shown on Nick Jr. from 2001 to 2005 in the United States until the 2005–06 season when it was offered as part of PBS Kids lineup, and currently airs on the PBS Kids Sprout cable network. The show also aired in the US on CBS between 2001 and 2002 as part of the "Nick Jr. on CBS" E/I lineup.
The Northern American version of the show uses the original British footage, but dubs the voices in local accents and slang—for example, the word "soccer" is used instead of "football" to avoid confusion with the gridiron forms of the game (though sometimes this is done haphazardly; in one episode, a "soccer field" is referred to but later it talks about "football tricks"). The original North American voice of Bob (and Farmer Pickles/Mr. Beasley/Mr. Sabatini) was William Dufris, however, he was replaced with comedian Greg Proops. More recently, Bob's US voice has been provided by Marc Silk[4] - an English voice actor from Birmingham.[5]
In the province of Quebec, the series is entitled "Bob le Bricoleur" and airs on Télé-Québec.
"Bořek stavitel" is aired on Česká televize, the national public television.
"Puuha-Pete" is aired in Finland on Nelonen every week from Monday to Friday at 7.50 AM (in June 2010).
Beginning 22 October 2005, "Bob le Bricoleur" has been airing on France 5 in France. This is the second season (called "Project: Build It" in English): "Mission Nature".[6]
Beginning 2 February 2001, "Bob der Baumeister" has been airing on Super RTL in Germany. Since then, 157 episodes have been aired.
In 2007, beginning 20 November until the end of the year, “Bob, a mester” was aired every weekday (from 16:15) on Channel m1 of Hungarian Television.[7] The names of the characters are either translated in a more or less literal way (Farmer Pickles,[8] Pilchard,[9] Lofty, Roley[10]), left untranslated (Bob, Wendy[11]), or replaced to a phonetically similar word (Muck became Muki,[9] this similar-sounding word is semantically unrelated); in some cases, entirely new names were given, unrelated to the original ones both semantically and phonetically (Dizzy has become Trixi,[10] Scoop has become Márkus,[11] and Spud has become Piff,[12] neither of these new names has any meaning in Hungarian). Bird is given a new name as well,[10][13] a word meaning “short” in a countryside dialect (infiltrated into youth slang as well);[14] but the choice may be motivated also by its onomatopoetic sounding. Not only the broadcast episodes have been translated, but also the 2006 Annual.[15]
The name is still "Bob the Builder" and it is broadcast on Zee TV. It is dubbed in Hindi.
In Italy the show is named "Bob Aggiustatutto" and is being aired on RaiSat Yoyo.
When being exported to Japan, it was reported that characters of Bob the Builder would be doctored to have five fingers instead of the original four. This was because of a practice among the Yakuza, the famed Japanese mafia, where members would "cut off their little fingers as a sign they can be trusted and have strength of character, and will stay through.".[16]
In the Spanish speaking part of Latin America, the show is called "Bob, el Constructor" (literal translation of the title) and is aired by several public TV channels as well as by Discovery Kids. It was dubbed in México and some of the voice actors are: 'Arturo Mercado' (Bob), 'María Fernanda Morales' (Wendy) and 'Jesús "Chucho" Barrero' (Spud).
The name of the program remains unchanged, however the program has been dubbed into Malay by Filem Karya Nusa. The programme originally premiered on TV3 in January 2000. Shortly after, Astro picked it up for its Astro Ria in-house channel. The version aired on Astro Ria is dubbed into Malay, with the original British English soundtrack is also available by using the audio language button on the satellite decoder's remote. TV3 stopped airing the programme in 2003, however resumed in 2006 for a short period of time. Shortly after, TV9 picked up the programme for a short period of time in original version. As of January 2010, Astro Ceria no longer broadcast this programme. It is now airing on NTV7 with new episodes.
Soon after the BBC started airing, Fox Kids and later Jetix aired the episodes of "Bob de Bouwer" in the Netherlands. Main voices are done by Bram Bart (Bob, Spud, Mr. Dickson, Mr. Ellis, Bennie), Caroline Mout (Wendy, Dizzie, Scrambler) and Fred Meyer (Scoop, Lofty, Mr. Beasley, Mr. Bentley, Mr. Fothergill, Pogo ), Laus Steenbeeke (Farmer Pickles, Jake, Mr. Adams, Mr. Sabatini, Mr. Stevens, Robert the Builder, Scip, Tom the Builder, Tony, Travis, Zoomer), Marjolein Algera (Aunt Doris, Charlene, Del, Dot the Builder, Jana von Strudel, Jenny, Marjorie Mayor, Molly, Mrs. Broadbent, Mrs. Percival, Mrs. Potts, Ms Barbara Bentley, Scoot, Trix) and Stan Limburg (Muck, Roley, JJ, Lenny Lazenby). Stan Limburg also is the Dutch voice-director.
In Norway the show is named "Byggmester Bob" and is being aired on TV2.
The name is still "Bob the Builder" and it is broadcast on TV5. It is dubbed in Tagalog.
"Bob Budowniczy" is aired on TVP1 7.00PM
"Мајстор Боб / Majstor Bob" is aired on Happy TV.
In Slovenia the show is named "Mojster Miha" and is being aired on RTV slovenija channel TV Slovenija 1.
"Bob y sus amigos" is aired in Spanish on Playhouse Disney. Bob always asks "¿Podemos hacerlo?" and his friends answer "¡Sí, podemos!". The show is also aired in Catalan on TV3, the regional public television of Catalonia as "Bob el Manetes". Bob always asks "Ens en sortirem?" and his friends answer "Si, i tant".
In Sweden the show is named "Byggare Bob" and is being aired on SVTs child times.
The Welsh language version is called "Bob Y Bildar" and began airing on S4C in October 2006, as part of the Planed Plant Bach lunchtime segment between 12:30 and 1:30pm. The show has been dubbed into the Welsh language by record label Sain, which had previously provided Welsh dialogue for children's series Thomas the Tank Engine.[17]
| Year | Album details | Peak positions | Certifications (sales threshold) |
||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UK [18] |
AUS [19] |
NZ [20] |
|||||||
| 2001 | Bob the Builder: The Album
|
4 | 1 | 32 |
|
||||
| 2008 | Never Mind the Breeze Blocks
|
87 | — | — | |||||
| "—" denotes releases that did not chart | |||||||||
| Year | Single | Peak chart positions |
Album | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UK [18] |
AUS [22] |
||||||||
| 2000 | "Can We Fix It?" | 1 | 1 | Bob the Builder: The Album | |||||
| 2001 | "Mambo No. 5" | 1 | 2 | ||||||
| 2008 | "Big Fish Little Fish" | 81 | — | Never Mind the Breeze Blocks | |||||
| "—" denotes releases that did not chart | |||||||||
Celebrities who have provided voices for the series (usually for one-off specials) include John Motson, Sue Barker, Kerry Fox, Ulrika Jonsson, Alison Steadman, Stephen Tompkinson, Elton John, Noddy Holder, and Chris Evans (Bobsville's resident rock star Lennie Lazenby).
Bob the Builder was recently parodied in the Robot Chicken episode "More Blood, More Chocolate" with Bob voiced by Jamie Kaler and Spud, Roley, and Scoop voiced by Seth Green.
Bob the Builder has also been parodied by Comedy Inc. as Bodgy Builder.
|
||||||||||||||||||||