Sam le pompier

Fireman Sam is a two-sided affair. On the one hand, because the first 4 seasons are a long way from the later ones, but above all because the switch from stop-motion to CGI animations has given the series an extreme kink. In addition, the stories are designed to be more superficial and less value-oriented. So you can rate the first seasons with a very good 9 stars, the later with a lucky 3 stars, so that in the end (unfortunately) an overall rating of 6 points comes out; and that's still benevolent, because the CGI era is much more extensive than that of classic stop motion.

Previously, the show had likeable characters, good animation, and good episodes. But the CGI series/seasons are just plain awful and one of the worst children's cartoons, Note: I will only be reviewing the CGI series/seasons.

For example, now Dilys (Norman's mother) has been completely redesigned! She looks almost nothing like her original design!

The only connections to previous seasons are: the names of the characters, the show still being set in Pontypandy (albeit with a different layout), the theme music, some of the character designs bearing a slight resemblance to how they looked in Season 5, and Sam still using his "Great Fires of London" !" catchphrase in seasons 6 and 7, but that's pretty much it.

This tries very hard to modernize Fireman Sam/Sam Tân.

CGI animation looks jagged, robotic, weird, scary, ugly, outdated, weak, etc.

Animation errors exist in these seasons as well, like in the episode "Floating Cart" where Norman, Mike, Helen and their van disappear for a very short time, but still. This has been fixed (at least in the US version) Another example is in the episode "Sticky Situation", where right at the beginning of the episode, you can see a literal red line (probably used to make the animation) on the right side of the screen. How did no one in the animation department notice this until James A Williams did?!

Also, many characters have had their personalities switched.

Norman Price is the worst example, and the only one I'm going to give, he has become annoying, selfish, idiotic, whiny, obnoxious, obnoxious, stupid, bratty, and arrogant who does horrible things for little reason.

The voice acting is sometimes painful to listen to.

For example, children (UK only) sound terrible, as they don't sound like children, but like adults with high-pitched voices.

The worst example is Norman Price, as Steve Kymann does a terrible job voicing him, and his voice in the UK is just unbearable, as it sounds like a cross between Carl Wheezer and JarJar Binks, with a Welsh accent.

I could say a lot more, but I think this quote says it all: "And I can easily agree that CGI Fireman Sam is definitely one of those bad reboots! Why do I call this a reboot instead of just Season 6 onwards? Because Season 6 seriously feels like I'm watching a completely different show! The characters look and act different, the setting is different, the animation is different, the feel is different. One of the best things about Season 5 was because even though it was made a few years after the original series ended, that season felt like a sequel season to the show. Kind of like Samurai Jack Season 5. The characters were the same, the setting was the same, the humor was the same, and some elements from the original seasons were present in this season. But Season 6 has basically nothing connected to the fifth season, or the other four seasons, except for, Sam's catchphrase of "Great Fires of London!", the characters' names and theme song. That's basically it!"

• James A. Williams, from his "CGI Fireman Sam" rant video

Once he TIED JAMES TO A CHAIR AND GLUED A DOOR SO POOR JAMES WAS STUCK IN THERE!

It doesn't help that he spends a lot of screen time in many episodes of these seasons, even when he's not the main focus. The writers seem to have the motto: "When in doubt, always put Norman into the scene"

This programme has a lot of nice elements. The dreamy village setting is nice, the messages of guidance are clear and the story lines easy to follow. Our young children like it a lot. Which means I end up watching it a lot, too :-) If I could, I'd change a few things. The utter hero-worship of Sam, modest though he is, is too much; the kids always end up wanting to be him. Also, he's a rescue service of every kind, if a fuse went in the telly they'd "ring Fireman Sam". But toughest is Norman's harshly horrible voice which is the most unpleasant kid's voice you've ever know mixed with the most OTT caricature of Welsh.

None of these things are crimes and the good of the show very much outweighs the bad. It's just when you've watched twenty or thirty of them in a summer, they start to grate just a tiny bit...!

I watched most episodes of this show with my son when he was 3 and 4 years old. While I loved the earlier stop motion version of Fireman Sam, my son roundly rejected it, instead preferring the shiny computer animated episodes. I think the computer animation lacks a little soul, but my son loved them.

My son was very interested in firefighting, and this is one of the few shows for little kids on the topic. So he loved watching it. The show was fairly entertaining for me.

Norman Price is the world's worst role model for a little kid. That said, he's so awful that my kids mostly griped about what an awful kid he is. That gave us a good starting point to talk about behavior.

I recently watched a few episodes of Fireman Sam with my brother, and honestly, I was a bit disappointed. While I appreciate the effort to teach kids about safety and teamwork, the stories felt pretty repetitive. It seemed like every episode revolved around the same issues, with Sam always saving the day in similar ways.

The animation style is nice enough, but it doesn't really stand out compared to other children's shows. The characters are charming, but they lack depth, making it hard for my kids to really connect with them. The humor felt rather flat, and I found myself checking the time more often than I'd like.

Overall, Fireman Sam just didn't capture our attention the way we hoped. It might appeal more to younger kids, but for my family, it's just missing something. I'd give it a 3 out of 10-I can see the potential, but it didn't quite deliver for us.