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)
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)
Tell Your Friends