Bob the Builder (2015–2018) User Reviews

Mattel ruined the show

[patddfan88 · 1/10 · 11 September 2021]

When Mattel purchased HIT entertainment, they pulled Thomas from PBS, and moved it to Nick Jr. After the creation of the CGI Bob flopped, the entire series was pulled from PBS. Qubo aired it during their final year of operation (each episode was 10 minutes instead of 30).

The original Bob was much better than the reboot. Mattel only made one season, then abandoned HIT entertainment's entire library completely.

There was supposed to be a reboot of Barney, but that hasn't happened yet.

Personally, I hope Bob, Barney, and Thomas are sold to another company so they can come back again.

Bad.

[kinguger · 2/10 · 20 October 2021]

It's a bad series that has little to hardly no connection with the original show at all. The new animation style just feels odd and the comedy is terrible (if there is any at all...) the reboot is even worse than TTG, Powerpuff Girls 2016, and the Ben 10 reboot (despite me liking it nowadays). My point is don't watch this new series stick to the older one instead.

Vomit Inducing!

[zzombie-75883 · 1/10 · 24 October 2021]

Just got finished watching my recording of this show and it's terrible! What have they done to my childhood! Mattel needs to seriously get their heads checked because this show is simply that terrible in my opinion and I'm pretty sure everyone else's! Judging by the current IMDB rating aswell. The animation is extremely lazy and nauseating to look at that I actually started to become sick when watching, the CGI looks even worse than Fanboy & Chum Chum, which says quite a bit about the animation in this dumpster fire. The new voice acting is very annoying and unoriginal its also an obvious downgrade from the original series. The characters are now dumber than ever before that all pretty much personalities are pretty much the same making it harder to tear them apart without their own designs, some of these characters even got horrible redesigns! Overall this series is just another lowbrow reboot just made to cash-in on the franchise!

1/10

[arielsiere · 1/10 · 21 May 2022]

The worst reboot ever made in 2015-2018, they even ruined the original Bob The Builder which is way better i never watched his movie called mega machines which is the worst movie from 2017 along with The Emoji Movie. I would rather watch The Ducktales reboot from 2017 better than this unnecesary reboot made by Mattel along with Thomas And Friends All Engines Go. I would prefer to watch The original Bob The Builder and Thomas And Friends better than this trash.

Boring.

[braydenpoole · 2/10 · 14 January 2022]

The OG show was alright, but this reboot is just nothing but a waste of 11 minutes and money. I begrudgingly binged all of Season 1 and it was awful it didn't even feel like the original at all, the reboot has dumb comedy, boring story's and set-ups, and lackluster music including the theme song. Mattel turned Bob the Builder into a snore-fest.

The humans look like they belong in attack on titan. DO NOT WATCH

[harrisonsmith-36086 · 1/10 · 15 November 2023]

Where do I begin: o yes, the designs

• scoop has the same locomotion but feels extremely bendy somehow, unpleasant to look at
• muck is even clunkier than his stop motion version
• rolly is just more awkward to look at
• lofty lacks the expressions he's famous for
• dizzy lacks the energy but moves even more
• the humans look like they belong on attack on titan, with pure white, almost triangular looking teeth, microscopic eyes, and tacky looking skin (with the exception of Leo, due to the DARKNESS OF HIS SKIN preventing it from being an eyesore. It's very concerning when this is the case)

Now for their personality:

• the machines are absolute BAFOONS
• lofty goes from nervous to cringey
• Bob seems addicted to schedules
• the rest of the cast are self absorbed brats, refusing to pay the crew, even though they often RISK THEIR LIVES for the sake of production

The story of every episode feels boring, even if the idea is unique (which it very rarely is) Mattel screwed up with this one. Fireman Sam is ok, spawning some average movies, whereas Thomas and friends is tolerable compared to what they latter decided to do to it (oh god I'd give that -5 starts) I'd give this -3 stars if I could.

Bob the Builder, Can we fix it, Mmmm, maybe not (cause Mattel likes ruining franchises)

[CadenTheGWR1500ClassEngine · 1/10 · 1 June 2022]

I did a review on this on my YouTube channel. But Mattel decides to be idiots ruining my other favorite show alongside Thomas & Friends, making it realistic, detailed and creepy looking.

This reboot has TONS of problems, with it being, well, realistic and detailed and it went on for bad episodes, There are some characters (mostly the Can-Do-It Crew except Dizzy) who were flanderized horribly.

Scoop went from a trustworthy and a sensible leader into an unreliable, overexcited, mistake making goofball with a high pitched annoying voice.

Muck went from a silly, yet reliable benefactor into an even stupider idiot who equally screws up everything just like Scoop.

Lofty went from a shy coward, yet friendly at the same time into being, sarcastic, cynical and intelligent and is no longer even scared of anything that much anymore.

Roley has gone from being a chilled-out music lover into an extremely fussy perfectionist making sure everything is smooth and flat.

Mr. Bentley has been reduced into being a bumbling buffoon and is no longer a building inspector anymore, instead, he is Mayor Madison's assistant.

The voice acting for the most part is not very good and they don't capture the same charm as the voices in the original show, they sometimes range from average, to annoying and unfitting for the characters.

Scoop's voice is very annoying to listen to because he sounds way too high pitched and younger, as he sounds like Norman Price from season 6 of Fireman Sam but without a Welsh accent. He even has the exact same voice given for the US dub, rather than a different voice actor.

Muck's new voice is pretty annoying and it makes him sound a lot dumber than he was originally, similar to the new voice that was given to Elvis Cridlington in Season 6 of Fireman Sam.

Roley's new voice sounds way too high pitched to the point it sounds like he sucked out some helium from a balloon inflator.

Lofty seems to have a Cornish accent in the UK dub for some reason.

Dizzy's US voice sounds far too high pitched and comes off as just grating.

The CGI in Seasons 1-2 were alright (minus the realistic tone before it got even worse in Season 3 when DHX Media took over

The characters redesigns look weird, unappealing and creepy looking Bob's redesign is terrible and it looks absolutely nothing like his character design in the original show, as he seems to be way younger than he was before and he clearly looks like a teenager cosplaying as Bob the Builder.

Wendy's redesign is also bad too, because much like Bob, she looks way younger than her original counterpart and she looks absolutely nothing like her design in the original show.

The designs for the machines in particular look very lazy and generic compared to their designs in the original series, and they feel a lot more emotionless and are very creepy to look at unlike their original designs.

Continuing on with the designs of the machines, they feel like they are trying way too hard to make the machines have similar character designs as the ones in Thomas & Friends, but it doesn't work at all because even though the designs in Thomas & Friends work because that show was initially meant to be taken as realistically as possible, the designs for the machines in this reboot do not fit with the realistic character designs as they were never supposed to look realistic in the original show.

Pilchard's redesign doesn't really work well due to her out-of-place blue colour, even though she was blue in the original show, her blue colour in the reboot looks out of place due to the realistic approach the reboot tries to take.

The reboot misunderstands everything that made the original TV series a classic and its grasp on the original source material is pretty much non-existence and it has absolutely nothing in common with the original show; Bob, Wendy and the machines no longer live in a little quiet town like Bobsville anymore, and instead now live in a giant busy city named Spring City, Bob, Scoop and Wendy all seem to be a lot younger than they were in the original show, nearly all of the characters bare little-to-no resemblance to how they looked in the original show and many of the past characters from the original series like Spud (the fan favorite), Travis, Scrambler, Benny, Scratch, Gripper and Grabber, Scruffty and plenty of other characters were either replaced or just removed entirely for no reason whatsoever.

The reboot also never tries to bring back any of the aforementioned characters, the only character that comes close to being brought back was Farmer Pickles in "Barn Building Bedlam" (but even then, he only gets a small cameo and he isn't even voiced by his original voice actor, despite Rob Rackstraw coming back to the cast to voice him).

The new characters appear out of nowhere with no explanation to where they all came from, and no introductory episode whatsoever. Not to mention a good majority of the new characters introduced in this reboot are just clones of characters from the older series.

"Two-Tonne is Packer and Tumbler".

"Tread is Scrambler".

"Shifter is Trix".

"Thud is Rubble".

"Rocky is Scratch and Benny".

"Picksy is Flex".

"Stretch is Gripper/Grabber".

Roley and Dizzy are now moved as side characters without any reason in placement of Leo and Two-Tonne, two characters that are already pointless to the series. While it's great that Dizzy and Roley weren't forgotten entirely by HiT Entertainment or Mattel (unlike Spud), it's still not the same.

It is quite similar to how Edward and Henry from Thomas & Friends were moved as side characters during the Big World! Big Adventures! Era, which wasn't the best decision just because both engines moved out of Tidmouth Sheds for the sake of Nia and Rebecca living over, but at least they had their reasons why they moved out of Tidmouth Sheds (mainly Edward's case), and at least both characters appeared sporadically. With Roley and Dizzy, however, it's mostly likely that both Mattel and HiT Entertainment had little to no care for them.

Each plot for the episodes are very generic and predictable, to the point where it you know exactly what is going to happen in every episode; It starts off with the team being set out on a job, then they start to build, the focus character of the episode comes with an idea that screws everything up and the project collapses, the character responsible for the mistake apologizes, and then they rebuild it all over again. Most of the time, it gets extremely repetitive and makes the episodes feel like the same exact thing. Even if they are not using the same formula over and over again, either make the episode have no story whatsoever, make the episode use the infamous three-strike formula that was already repetitive in other shows (mainly in Seasons 12-16 of Thomas & Friends), or they rehash an episode from the original series, as mentioned earlier.

The reboot has a share load of bad episodes, such as: "Sky-High Scoop" (which started the series on a sour note) "Milkshake Mix-Up" "Kitchen Whizz" "Where's Pilchard?" "Bob's Band" "Bob's First Build" "Grid Block" "Lofty Lets Loose" "Scoop's Big Break" "Winter in Spring" "Muck on Ice" "Cats & Dogs" "Dino Park" "Lights! Camera! Leo!" "Ballroom Blitz" "The Big Bang" "Wendy's Big Surprise" "Crane Pain" "Dino Coaster" "Roley's Speech" "End of the Line" "Car Wash" "Fly Away Ghost" (which ended Season 1 on a sour note) "Drive Thru Disaster" "Super Scoop" "Apples Everywhere" "TV or Not TV" "Shifter's New Garage" "Bobcat Bridge" "Speedway Scoop" "Lofty's Playground Problem" "Dog Disaster" "Scoop's Big Oops" "Canal Chaos" "Bridge Over Trouble" "What's Opera, Muck?" (which is the most infamous episode and is considered to be the worst of the third season)

Muck is now male in US dub of the show, even though this can be considered a good quality because Muck was originally male in the UK dub, which meant that Mattel finally corrected his gender for viewers in the US. However, the main problem with this is that Muck was female in the US dub of the original show. Because of this, it will probably confuse fans (like me since I'm from the US) who grew with the US dub of the original show who remember Muck for being a female character.

So what's good about this god-awful reboot series.

Despite the realistic approach it tries to take, the reboot at least still focuses on its main premise about construction and building, which is notable by the fact that the building montages are still present in the reboot, unlike Thomas & Friends: All Engines Go!, which tried to be as different as possible from its original premise.

The theme song remix (while not as good as the original theme song) is kind of catchy.

Wendy, Dizzy and Bob himself, despite their terrible redesigns, are still likable characters.

On that topic, the flanderized characters (Scoop, Muck, Lofty, Roley, and Mr. Bentley) can still be tolerable sometimes.

While most of the voice acting is poor, some of it can come off as decent or tolerable, such as the voices for Bob, Wendy, Dizzy, and a few other characters.

On top of that, Scoop and Muck at least look closer to their original designs than the rest of the machines do.

Some episodes can be considered decent or even good, such as: "New Years Spectacular" (which ended the reboot on a high note, as another new Bob the Builder reboot with the return of the original designs from 1998 is yet to be announced and could save the franchise) "Can't Runaway Runway" "Fitness Frenzy" (depending on your view)

Overall, This New Bob The Builder CGI 2015 Reboot was terrible, at least they cancelled it with Season 3 Score: 0.5/10 (even though IMDb makes me give it a 1/10)

Can they fix it no they can't

[vyztzn · 1/10 · 2 January 2024]

Mattel I hope you're doing terrible like stop ruining everyone's favourite tv shows like thomas or fireman Sam or that this year you are going to bring back Barney or Bob the builder or should I say bill the braker what's next roary the racing car like every episode it's the same thing every episode that one episode we're it talks about how Bob becomes a builder it is an old episode not to mention the looks of the building trucks and others construction vehicles are ugly as so Mattel the lesson that you learn is IF IT ANT BROKE DON'T FIX IT!!!! And if is broke DON'T FIX IT BRO DON'T FIX IT STOP.

One of the worst reboots

[rooosterrory · 1/10 · 2 October 2023]

Where do I even begin, this reboot is horrible. One of my biggest complaints is the changes to the character's personalities, they got rid of lofty's shy personality and replaced it with a normal personality, that shy personality was what made lofty lofty! Scoops personality was changed into a little kid, nothing like the original series, all the characters are now immature brats as well. I hate the new voice actors, they sound nothing like the characters in the original show. Let's not forget that Dizzy and Roley aren't main characters anymore and are now supporting characters that pop up once in a while, dizzy poured the cement and Roley rolled it, how do the buildings have floors! Dizzy and Roley are also excluded from the theme song, they are very important machines, they just had this stupid truck named two tonne take their place. I hate Leo, not because he's black, but because he's just generally a bad character. Then all of a sudden the animation turned cheap in season 3, the animation in season 3 looks like they ran out of money. Mattel ruined Bob the Builder, shame on them.

This reboot is bad

[marshna · 1/10 · 20 April 2024]

Where do I start with this garbage? The redesign on The vehicles are horrendous. Though you look too realistic. The episode Are toooo Repetitive. Some of them are good. But Most of them are bad. Bob's redesign, he looks like a 15-year-old. And When did a check bought the franchise? He looks like he was 12. The machines don't squash and stretch like in the original and When d h x bought the franchise they made it too cartoony while still keeping the realistic stuff I'll say I would like to mention like piltered. Silk blue so you have a blue cat roaming around a realistic setting And being chased by a realistic looking dog Also I like to mention that the human designs look kind of creepy Also, the new characters are pointless. And most of them are rip-offs of previous characters.

Decent reboot, actually

[lighteningdoc · 6/10 · 16 January 2023]

Nobody listen to the haters of the 2015 Bob the Builder reboot series!

I actually watched the reboot of Bob the Builder throughout the majority of the year 2015. It's a really fun cartoon, but not as much as the original Bob the Builder series.

Bob, Wendy, and the Machines are all there, accompanied by some newer characters named Leo, Two Tonne, Stretch, Shifter, Tread, Thud, Crunch, and Ace, the latter three are known as the Mega Machines.

Despite the fact that this reboot series got panned by critics, audiences, and Bob the Builder fans alike, I gave it a mixed to positive review, because instead, I found it entertaining.

I give the 2015 Bob the Builder reboot a C.