My review on Fireman Sam

I am going to review my favoruite TV show of all time:

No. Not a reboot of a discontinued series.

Not a continuation to a discontinued series.

And not a spinoff of an already existing series either.

Yes. I am going to be reviewing about of an ongoing series. The series I am referring to is......

Oh!

I don't want to watch Season 12 of Fireman Sam! I really don't!

"You have to! You've been talking about how bad the season is since 2021!"

Well, I don't want to.

"You have to! If you don't, the worst will come! Now do it! Do it! DO IT NOW!"

Fine! I will do it!

Fireman Sam is a Welsh animated children's show, created by Rob Lee, Dave Gingell, and Dave Jones, three men who were firemen. Their job inspired them to make a children's show based on their job.

The show began in 1987, and used stop-motion animation, produced by Bumper Films, which was also known for later animating Joshua Jones and Starhill Ponies.

Every time there's an emergency, the fire brigade is sent out to deal with that emergency, especially if it's a fire, but if it's not a fire, then they go to rescue people who are stuck.

Enter the Pontypandy Fire Service; Fireman Elvis Cridlington, Auxiliary Fireman Trevor Evans the Bus, Station Officer Basil Steele, and, impossible to ignore, Fireman Sam. And on occasion, hailing from Newtown, Firefighter Penny Morris.

The show originally ran for 3 seasons. The first (1987) with 8 episodes, the second (1988) with 7 episodes and a 20 minute long Christmas special, Snow Business, and the third (1990) with 9 episodes. One of them being a Halloween special.

The animation from these 3 seasons wasn't perfect, but that's mainly because of how the puppets were built. But there are other minor flaws with the animation. But then again, whatever negative things there are about the animation can easily be ignored because of everything else going on.

The show had a very charming sense of humour.

The music was catchy and fun to listen to.

The dialogue was witty, and the voice acting was fantastic. One thing that made the voice acting fantastic is the fact that all the characters were voiced by one person.

Yep. John Alderton voiced all the characters in this series. Even Bella Lasagna, Trevor the Bus, Dilys Price, and Firefighter Penny Morris. When you take his voice acting from the 80s Little Miss series into account, that's very impressive. except for one thing.

In season 3. is Penny a transgender or something?

After a 4 year hiatus, Fireman Sam came back for a 4th season with 8 episodes.

The visuals were brighter, crisper, and more colourful. The animation was smoother, cleaner, more fluid, and overall, better.

Also, the stories were darker and more interesting. In addition, the characters got a little development.

The voice acting was still the same, the music was still the same, the humour was still the same, but the set dressings looked better.

Starting with Season 5, more than 10 years after Season 4 ended, the series started to go with another kids TV show. I will get to this later.

First of all, let's go over 2005 series. Starting off with the first thing. I've decided to call this my favourite season

The series to me begun well with season 5 starting with the episode of Season 5, Birthday Surprise. Here are the reasons:

Fireman Sam's birthday is celebrated on November 17 [where the show begun].

Norman didn't cause the fire.

The fire brigade were called out and put the fire out.

At the end, as a job well done, Sam enjoys his birthday party.

If they'd begun the series right here, it would be actual crazy

and I thought Joshua Jones continued into the season 5 style and CGI Series style

BUT NO!

Some people at HiT Entertainment thought....

Okay, lads and lasses. I think more children would rather watch more Fireman Sam than Joshua Jones, we need to do something with Joshua Jones, you lads got any ideas?

*"How about.... Cancel Joshua Jones?"*

"alright then, that means I'm Keeping Fireman Sam."

Where do I start on Season 5? Let me say my thoughts on the basics.

The theme song remix: It's cool, but it's fantastic as the original. My problem: Why did they change Cameron Stewart to Oliver Davis? Did they change them to fit in The CGI Series?

The animation: Is brilliant, it almost looks like a CGI Animation.

The voice acting: the voices i like are; Sam, Penny, Station Officer Steele, Trevor, Bella, Dilys, Sarah, James, and Norman. Though there are a couple of voices I have to question. Why does Sarah sound so cute in this series? And is it just me, or did John Sparkes always have a cold when voicing Elvis?

The mouth movements: I think some of them look welsh because this season was made in welsh.

The new designs for the characters: The characters look so amazing, the firefighter's uniforms are the exact same as the original series, just the coats are a different colour, and Sarah, I wish they's keep your previous design in the CGI series.

The new characters: Mike, Mandy, and Helen Flood, Tom Thomas, and Dusty. They're fantastic. Tom being Australian, and always making references to Australia. It's nice to have a handyman, a nurse, and a helicopter rescue pilot in the series, as well as a dog. I'll say that.

Mandy was good in season 5

but why the heck did they change her personality in the CGI Series?.

But the writing in the 2005 series is so brilliant, you could write your own fireman Sam story in no time. Most of the stories are my type, for example, throwing a surprise birthday party, which I will give credit to since the original series never tried that, pretending to be an alien, installing a new pizza oven, wasting water on a scorching hot day during a drought, even keeping a woolly lamb as a pet.

when the 2005 series tries to use continuity, it's spot on.

Now, there is one thing I need to question about the 2005 series. It's Sam himself and Trevor Evans. Why isn't he inventing stuff more often? Well, he did jam himself in his shed, but he isn't inventing more often in this series.

Am I missing something? Did HiT Entertainment make an episode that takes place after Season 4 that explains why Trevor's not an auxiliary fireman anymore?

Hold it! I made the explanation!

Sam saw Toodles and Quoodles sad when Pete interupted them Via Jupiter's dashboard, he says to Trevor he's going to activate the fire alarm. The Trevor said no need for that, making Toodles think everyone's forgotten about him and making him say "Poor Toodles." And Sam gets absolutely furious with Trevor, and at the end he probably might have fired Trevor as an auxiliary fireman without Station Officer Steele's consent.

Oh ho. If you think you've seen the best the show has to offer, you ain't seen nothin' yet. This is nowhere near the best thing related to Fireman Sam.

In 2007, HiT Entertainment announced that Fireman Sam would be returning for a 6th season. Apparently, that 6th season never came to be. In 2008, a news report revealed that Fireman Sam would be getting CGi animation for season 6 with good CGi animation, brilliant characters, creatible stories, some good character designs, and awsome..... well, visuals as well!

The reason I call this Season 6 onward, and not "a reboot" is because it feels like the exact show!

The characters look different [execpt for the firefighters Trevor the bus and Norman Price, But still act the same.

The setting is different [But some of it looks like Season 1-5].

The visuals are a little different. And the feel is ***THE SAME!***

Let's talk about the basic stuff in regards to this season.

The animation: The animation and visuals are very good. This seems as though there's some gaps! Now, remember when I said since season 5 the series started to go with another kids TV show, well that show is, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. This makes Joshua Jones go with Sooty's Amazing Adventures.... and that's saying a lot! If Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Season 2 and Fireman Sam Season 5-onwards can go together, then HiT Entertainent really needs to Bring Joshua Jones back and have it go with Sooty's Amazing Adventures, or have Bob The Builder go With Special Agent Oso.

The voice acting: The new voices for Sam, Trevor, Station Officer Steele, Mike, Helen, Dilys, Penny, Elvis, Norman Sarah James and Tom, are acceptable. But the voice for "Mandy" is just unbearable! Sarah and James sound like Mickey and Minnie but with Welsh Accents [though it didn't happen until season 8] and Mandy sounds just terrible.

But hahahahaha, you haven't seen the worst

In season 2 for little einstens, Disney gave Annie a new dress, and guess what, ***IT'S THE EXACT SAME DRESS THAT SARAH WORE IN SEASON 1-4 OF FIREMAN SAM!***

I never thought I would say any of this, but I'm going to give credit to the 2005 series! At least the people who made that season knew Pontypandy's true location! And also, at least they didn't get rid of any characters from the original series! But in this series, they got rid of Bella Lasagna,for no reason! No hold on! Bella did return. In Season 10. As it turns out, Bella moved to Newtown before the events of Season 6. But why? Bella was clearly around in Season 5 still running a Cafe, installing a pizza oven, and showing no signs of ever thinking *"**Oh Mamma Mia Norman Price is a Driving a me a round a the country, hmm, maybe i a should move my bussiness over to a newtown."***

The woman wearing pink glasses looks nothing like Dilys Price! [though she did say that she didn't always wears the outfit, in season 10] And the spiky haired girl looks absolutely NOTHING like Mandy Flood she doesn't even acts like Mandy either, she just gets Norman into trouble.

The CGi designs for the characters: The CGi designs for the characters look really brilliant. It's mainly the faces. in season 10- onwards for Sam they at least use the designs from the original series or the 2005 series as reference?.

The music: It's sounds different, i will admit, but to me it sounds great, but it sounded bland in season 12. 'eck! Even the iconic rescue theme is boring in season 12!

The rescue theme in the original series and the 2005 series:

The rescue theme in the original series is catchy, fun to listen to, and it makes you excited to see the fire brigade in action.

The rescue theme is a remix that came from Station Officer Steele's song from the Fireman Sam cassette that was released in the late 80s. It makes you want to root for the fire brigade.

The rescue theme in 12:

This rescue theme is bland. The theme in season 12 was not in the original. It's unlistenable.

Elvis in Season 6: In the original series, Elvis was viewed as an airhead. The airhead of the fire service. But he was never airheaded to the point where a grown man who decided to be a firefighter would be scared out of being in a harness.

And whenever Elvis did something wrong, whether it be break a water tap, breaking a drum, or miscooking mashed potato, it was either because he was trying to do the right thing, but it went wrong, or because he was distracted by his love of music (especially whenever he sings to the tune of the Happy Days theme song). to the point where he feeds Radar the Fire Dog chocolate, mistaking it for doggy treats I think Elvis didn't watch any dog care programmes.

One thing I find very questionable about the series.

in season 12 where Penny had longer hair, why did I think she was going to be voiced by John Alderton again, or why isn't it the other way round, why isn't John Alderton in the show anymore?

But the one thing that explains the reason why I think Fireman Sam Goes with Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, is Norman. ***NORMAN SLEEPING ROSE MAKING PRICE!***

In the original series, Norman was just an imp who played tricks on everyone, but even he knew when there was an emergency, like when Trevor was suffering toxic gas, and when Sarah and James were stuck on a frozen pond.

But in Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, he's mentioned in different problems!

This is another thing I'll give the series. Norman wasn't like this in Fireman Sam!

Most of the things Norman did were harmless.

Like, a clockwork mouse, drawing red spots on people's faces to make it look as though they have chicken pox, letting off stink bombs, and dressing up as an alien!

But MMC, he causes most of the problems!

In Sleeping Minnie, I suspect that Norman was responsible for making Minnie fall into a 100 year sleep.

In Donald The Genie, I suspect that Norman deliberately made Mickey's feet not stop tap dancing just so he could be the star of the show!

Okay, there is a difference between being mischievous, and being a mickey mouse clubhouse cameo!

Also, Norman is the one who usually causes the problems in the CGi series.

In the original series, Norman didn't usually cause these emergencies.

And most of the time, Norman wasn't even involved in the emergencies..... at all!

But in Season 6, Norman causes most of the problems!

Whenever Norman did do something wrong in the original series and the 2005 series, he either got punished with doing chores to teach him a lesson, or had something embarrassing happen to him.

But in season 6, the fire brigade give him a warning, something he'll forget later on!

you know what I would do in this situation. I would change Norman's personallity and have him and Dilys *[Because she's his mum]* appear in less episodes. That way, the fire brigade will have a long deserved break.

But wait, I'm not stopping yet, The Police were mentioned in season 2 by Dilys, and in season 5 by James, but they never appear until Season 12.

Oh, and guess what?

Norman makes more cameos in Minnie's bow toons party palace pals

when in 2021 season 13 was in production and in 2022 season 14 is in production.

so I'm telling you

Pontypandy would be a much safer place with Mickey Minnie and their friends

So there you go. That was my review on Fireman Sam.

It should have starting airing in the America on Disney Junior after Qubo ended, and if it did, Disney should have launched a Fireman Sam related episode of either Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Minnie's Bow Toons Mickey Mouse Mixed Up Adventures Minnie's Bow Toons Party Palace Pals, or Mickey Mouse Funhouse, and should be called Clubhouse-man Sam or Funhouse-man Sam , and it should be having a crossover show.