When thinking back to my childhood, I can often remember Bob the builder, Wendy and their ensemble of machines. Specifically, I remember the feature length movies. One that stood out from my memory was The Knights of Fix-A-Lot. I recalled Bob’s dad coming to town and family drama. To see if I was right, I decided to revisit the movie.
Robert ‘Bob’, comes to town. He is Bob’s father and clearly favours Bob over his other son Tom. When he arrives, he walks straight into Bob’s workplace like he owns it. The next morning, Bob sees his Dad and is overjoyed to see him, doing the very British thing of having a cuppa tea to catch up. During this catch up, the phone rings and Robert answers it for his son. He pretends to be ‘Bob the builder’, much to his son’s frustration. They’ve been tasked with repairing an ancient castle. A few things to note here include how does no one know about this castle? Does Bob have no work on or dropped all his work to complete this project? Why is the condemned castle not been fenced off? We will never know.
Throughout the project, Bob gets frustrated with his Dad. He sends him off with Spud to distract him but that doesn’t work. He sends him to cut the hedges of the maze but that doesn’t work. Meanwhile, the machines are sitting around chatting about how they want to be knights and maids. Wendy is the only person getting on with the project and without her, things wouldn’t be getting done.
Whilst B plots such as Spud being a knight and the vehicles continue, Bob has had enough of being told what to do. He confides in a rabbit and then decides to tell his Dad how he feels. But this is when they get locked in the dungeon. During this potentially life threatening moment (the building is not the most stable), Bob tells his Dad how he feels. They get out of the dungeon and repair the castle: completing the story.
The movie is actually a lot more realistic than I thought it was. Looking past the vehicles and spud, these are everyday people going about their work. Bob’s family struggle is genuine and he doesn’t want to upset his father: making his story arch feel very relatable to others who have faced similar situations. Similarly, someone could relate to Robert’s feeling of uselessness and a need for something to do.
It was quite nostalgic watching this classic film back. I remembered a lot more than I originally thought I did. One big question I had whilst watching is the relationship between Bob and Wendy. During this movie specifically; they act like a married couple. It is very suspicious and interesting that the writers never committed to a relationship between the two.
Max
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