Paper Plane Down (Fireman Sam)

"Paper Plane Down"
Witness the episode that marked the beginning of Fireman Sam's decline!
Series: Fireman Sam Part of Season: 6 Episode Number: 1 Air Date: November 24, 2008 (UK) August 5, 2014 (US) Writer: Andrew Brenner Director: Margo Marchant Lesley Sawl Previous episode: Let It Snow Next episode: Hot and Cold Running Sniffer Dog

Paper Plane Down is the first episode in the sixth season of Fireman Sam. This was the first episode to use CGI animation instead of stop-motion animation.

Why It Went Down

1. Addressing the obvious, this episode marked the beginning of the series' decline, being the inaugural episode of Season 6 and the CGI era. Regrettably, the series has not recovered from this downturn to date.
2. This episode marked the beginning of the flanderization of Norman, Elvis, and Station Officer Steele.
   • Norman's conduct is rather disconcerting as he throws paper planes at everyone, apparently to showcase his skill in making them. Additionally, his pranks have taken a turn from being innocuous and light-hearted to mean-spirited and excessive.
     • He threw a paper plane into his mother, Dilys' store causing it to get stuck in her hair and her getting scared mistaking it for a bat.
     • He threw a paper plane in Mike's shed causing him to hurt his thumb.
     • He threw a paper plane in the fire station kitchen, which leads to a fire.
   • Elvis acts foolishly when he notices a fire in the fire station kitchen; instead of using a fire extinguisher, he calls the fire department, despite being a firefighter himself.
   • Station Officer Steele is also unlikable in this episode, as instead of telling off Norman, he instead plays with paper planes.
3. As has become typical for this era, the CGI animation is extremely unattractive, of low quality, and represents a significant decline from the stop-motion animation used in Seasons 1-5. In fact, this episode marks the first use of this particularly poor CGI animation.
4. The United Kingdom dub is painful to listen to.
5. Animation Error: This episode contained the infamous animation error where Station Officer Steele was not moving his mouth when he said "Come here!" at Norman, and for some reason, this animation error only happens in the United Kingdom dub.
6. Norman doesn't get punished for his actions, making him a Karma Houdini.
7. Bad Ending: Instead of telling his Dilys about what he did, Station Officer Steele instead plays with paper planes along with Norman.

Redeeming Qualities

1. Sam, Mike, and Dilys are likable in this episode.
2. At least Station Officer Steele told Elvis off for what he did.
3. The animation error that was mentioned above was fixed in the United States dub.
4. The United States dub is more tolerable to listen to.

Reception

It currently has a 4.8/10 on IMDb.

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