Paddington is a character that really does need no introduction and yet due to the fact that not alot of people know of his animated series. Alot of people just assume that his piece of media was the 2014 film with the episode that i'm going to be talking to you all about today being a good example of just how good hearted and well meaning that Paddington is as a character something does stand out about him and helped to make him a charming character in his own right and so then join me as I review the episode that sees Mr. Curry foolishly let Paddington try to make a magazine rack with the episode in question being called simply just "Do-It-Yourself" enjoy.
The plot of this episode is after a reading a magazine article about how to build a magazine rack Paddington decides to have a go himself even offering to make one for Mr. Curry. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty not that bad. The episodes plot is best described in one word and that word is simple as that's exactly what it is in all of the best ways possible it's a simple plot that has a short premise that allows you to fully enjoy the character of Paddington just getting himself into trouble. Not all plots of any show regardless of whom they are made for need to be dark and complex in order for them to work as sometimes all you need to have is just a sweet ad simple premise and that's exactly what we got in this episode a plot that is very easy to follow along with and that doesn't require you to think that much about it as part of what makes the plot for this episode work is Paddington himself as here he is allowed to be his usual charming and just be fun and that is something that wouldn't be able to happen if the plot to this episode was dark and complex as the episode would need to cut out alot of what makes this plot work to make it complex in the first place and whilst yes granted this episodes plot could have been helped if it was in a longer episode but for this show and for this episode it works just fine with the plot of this episode also being really rather entertaining and as well as being really rather engaging as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Starring in this episode is of Sir Michael Hordern who is just so likable in this episode as he is in all of other episodes of this show. With him bringing his own unique charm to the show and given the fact that I've seen alot of the episodes both for the purposes of reviewing them and for my own genuine entertainment as the show is just that I good I feel safe in saying that he was the right person for the role of the narrator much like how Sir Ringo Starr was at that time the right person to bring Thomas And Friends to life as Sir Michael does have a really calming almost relaxing voice which is something that does make him right for this show as this is a show that is meant to be more relaxing in nature think of something like Camberwick Green but with a bear. As the leading character and you get the tone of the show, therefor you do need a voice that does reflect that more calming nature heck with even the fact that he does put on some small voices for the characters is something that does help to make the characters stand out as with Mrs. Bird there is a small Scottish accent and with Mr. Curry he always sounds like he's one bad day from having a complete and total breakdown with this being something that is perfect for that character as Mr. Curry is meant to be this always angry character who always wants something for nothing and that's something that does require him having a more gruff voice and with Paddington his voice is more soft almost polite which again is something that really does require a more soft spoken kind of voice with Sir Michael giving all of the characters voices that suit them perfectly something which if they had someone else doing the narration for his show really might have been lost.
Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty not that bad. With this episode continuing the trend that is set by the rest of this show by having really good acting it with Sir Michael Hordern really proving why he was the right to be the sole actor for this show as while granted he was never to be on the same level of say Mel Blanc but for a kids TV show where the episodes are a little under five minuets each he does do a really good job of capturing all of the characters voices down perfectly. With the best and only actor in this episode being Sir Michael Hordern with it being more obvious the more that this show is on why he was knighted in the first place as he is just so good not only in this episode but in this show as a whole with it being obvious that he does have a deep level of love for these characters weather that be due to the fact that he read those stories himself or if he read them to either his own kids or any younger relatives of his and that's why he loves these characters so much either way that love is clear as day in not only this episode but in the show as a whole with it being something that does come through in his performance in this very episode. With the acting that's in this very episode really being helped by the fact that this episodes script is just so good that all this episodes actor really has to do is just the lines as they are written and a good performance will come out of them naturally which is something that really does help to raise the overall quality of the acting that's in this very episode.
Doing the animation for this episode is the legends and the greats that really are currently over at FilmFair. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual animation that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual animation that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty not that bad. This episodes animation was quite frankly alot more better then what it really could have been as all of these episodes where all animated by the shows director Ivor Wood on his own and yet there is still a high bar of animation set for each episode with none of the episodes having animation that is bad persay. As there will of course be episodes that are better animation then others such is the case with this episode as while the quality of the animation isn't bad it's just that there are other episodes in this series that are better animated with this episode still having some good animation that does make make you wonder how they pulled it off as if the case with Paddington falling off of Mr. Curry's table or Mr. Curry opening the hole in The Brown's garden for Paddington to cross over into his own garden there are alot of scenes like this in this episode and while today you could very easily chalk this is up to them being in done in CGI and call it a day back in the seventies that was never an option and therefor the makers of this episode did have to get creative in how they pulled such things off, with Paddington himself having some really nice and fluid movements to him with the thing that does let the animation in this episode down being the fact that none of the 2D characters get to move all that and there are times where you can tell that it is stop motion animation which is something that does pull you out of the episode.
If you want a good episode that shows of just how kind and thoughtful that Paddington is then you really should look at this episode. As without question he decides to make The Browns a magazine rack just because it's a nice thing to do and without him getting anything in return for his troubles he offers to do the same for Mr. Curry which is something that he didn't have to do given the fact that Mr. Curry up until this point in the show has been quite grumpy towards Paddington often wanting something for nothing and yet Paddington is still kind to him trying to win him over as that's just the sort of bear that he is he sees the best in everyone even when they can't see it in themselves and part of that does include being kind to people who don't like him all that much at the best of times. This however might not be the best episode to show of just how helpful that the character is as he does end up causing a big mess in Mr. Curry's kitchen and then running out on him when he realises that he's in trouble which is great for a joke but it doesn't show of just how helpful that Paddington is as we know from other episodes of the show that he is the first one to offer his help when someone needs it and yet here he doesn't offer to t clean up Mr. Curry's kitchen which granted was something that he really didn't need to do but given the fact that he is meant to be this kind hearted bear it is something that he perhaps might have done, Paddington tho still does get a chance to be helpful as you could argue that him offering to make something not only for The Browns but also Mr. Curry is still him being helpful as he's making them something that for all we know they don't have.
Speaking of Mr. Curry even tho he plays a bi role in the plot of the episode he barely appears in the episode itself. With him only appearing near the start of the episode and that's it whilst granted he does speak near the end of the episode we don't see him after he lets Paddington into his own house which is a bit odd given the fact that he is a main character in this episode but it's also pretty par the course for this show as this show does have episodes where other main characters outside of Paddington don't appear all that much heck Mr. Brown isn't in the episode at all and yet the episode really isn't hurt by not having Mr. Curry be in the episode all that much as there is only so much that you could do with that character in the first place. Still tho it would have been nice to see more of him in the episode as having him interacting with Paddington whilst Paddington is working is something that could have been very comical to see and heck maybe it could have been Mr. Curry distracting Paddington and that causes Paddington to saw Mr. Curry's table in half in the first place thus adding a touch of irony to the episode but in all fairness tho we do come to this show to see Paddington and not his supporting characters and while it would have been fun to see them interacting more as there interactions in this show are usually comedy gold having Mr. Curry be in this episode more would have taken away from the show main and title character ad there is a good chance that as like all of the stories in this first series this is based on one of the Paddington books that might have been done the same way in the book and the makers of this show are just trying to be as faithful to the books as they could have done but in saying this tho seeing them interact together is alot more fun.
The very idea of having this bear that is known for causing trouble even tho he doesn't realise it is a good idea. With the idea alone opening itself up for alot of fun scenes with both Paddington and his supporting characters and to be fair to this episode this episode does take as full advantage of that as it possibly could have done as the episode does go into great detail not only about the book that he is reading but also how it inspired him to build the magazine rack in the first place and while this episode was never going to be as good as the other episodes in this series due to the fact that the episode is lighter then usual on both plot and character this is something that does well enough to the episodes advantage that you do end forgiving it for that in the first place. While the episode would have worked by having one of The Browns at the start of the episode have a chat with Paddington before saying something like "uh-oh" when they realise what he's going to do as he is this accident prone bear that doesn't really know any better it would still be pointless to have a scene like that in the episode as well the audience know full well then that he's going to be getting to into some trouble with the fun instead coming from working out how big the trouble will be and having any member of The Browns sign post that would be shoving it down our throats and would make the part where he does get intro trouble alot less fun to watch even tho it would still give The Browns alot more to do in the episode outside of just appearing at the end of the episode, heck the episode could have found a funnier way to have Paddington avoid Mr. Curry outside of just finding out at home however in all fairness this is still a really fun episode with the idea alone being more then enough to carry the episode as the idea of this kind but clumsy bear offering to do some DIY for his neighbour really is a good enough idea in it's own right.
Now then this episode has / had an exact grand total running time of exactly four minuets and fifty seconds. This is kind of the bogstanderd running time not only for this episode and show but for alot of kids animated TV shows that were airing around the same time and to be this episode did kind of need to be this long as the episode whilst it doesn't have a big enough plot to speak off it's idea is one that does need to be set up and explained in a way that does make sense and the episode does need to have alot of time just to show the amount of ways that Paddington could possibly screw things up and make Mr. Curry unhappy with him and while the episode could have gotten away with having a shorter running time it does work just as well with it's current running time with the episode having the right amount of plot there to cover that amount of running time in the first place. Yet even so the episode doesn't fully use its running tike all that wisely as the episode doesn't take the time to fully develop it's plot as it's never really explained in the episode why Paddington has this sudden interest in building things himself and it's not explained why he wants to make something for The Browns with the only thing that we the audience can mind of make out is the reason why Mr. Curry wants a magazine rack as he found that Paddington was making one and therefor he saw a chance t get something for free however it is made clear as day that the makers of this episode did put alot more thought and effort into giving some creative animated shots then they did into giving us a well developed plot. This is something that does also effects the episodes characters development which fair enough is something that was always going to be hard given the series very short running time and while this episode doesn't really call for it it still would have been nice to see something literally anything added tho these character with the makers of this episode being more focused on giving us alot of scene with Paddington using his saw then they were in giving character development but I really will admit that this episode really does have some really good pacing to it tho.
So now then as this is a comedy that really does mean that I have to actually talk about the actual comedy that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual comedy that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty really good. The episodes comedy was to be frank really cute as it will never not be funny seeing all of the ways that Paddington tries to clean up a mess that he himself created only to end up making things much more worse for himself as that is something that will always be comedy gold as you have an unlimited amount of ways in which that will always be funny as there will always be different characters that he interacts with in an episode to make that idea funny and while he doesn't interact with Mr. Curry all that much in this episode seeing them bounce off of each is still comedy gold. With the best joke in the whole entire episode being when Paddington puts down the the sheet that he intends to use to create Mr. Curry's magazine rack on top of his own table and then starts sawing through both the sheet and unknowingly the table as well with Paddington only finding out when he does to take a sit down and the table collapses under Paddingtons weight, the comedy doesn't stop there tho rather it keeps on building and building with there being alot of small jokes in this one bigger joke and there all funny as they all feel true to who Paddington is as he never meant to cause all this damage but due to how naive he is he ended up doing so anyway with the rest of the episodes jokes being just as good as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Overall whilst yes there are much more better episodes of this show out there this is by no means a bad episode but when your judging with the rest of this really good good show that does need alot more love and care from Paddington fans then it does come really short this is despite it being a really good episode in it's own right in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now the i've talked about all of the good and as well as all of the bad things that are in his very episode in this very review and as such that really does mean that this very episode really does earn itself a grand old score of exactly a 7.5 out of 10 from me.
Now then as for where I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review well then boys and girls and as well as ladies and gentlemen I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review from Amazon . Co . Uk and Google Images. With my personally preferred website to use to get the images from this very episode that I used in this very post being the really great Google Images really simply just due to the fact that really alot of if not really all of the images that are all really from this very episode with alot of them really being really better quality then what you'd really think of and all of the images are really of course up and really on Google Images really are also really all fairly high in quality and as well as them all being really fairly freaking high in definition.