Debuting on 2 March 2002[4] and originally ending on 1 November 2004, the first series, featuring 52 episodes in total, was originally broadcast on ITV at a Saturday night slot. In October 2004, the sitcom left the Saturday night slot and was instead broadcast daily on CITV due to the show's popularity with younger audiences.
In July 2013, Studio-43 were brought to the light of Tiger-Aspect for the idea of a new animated series so that they could animate the series, but it wasn't until January 2014 that CITV publicly announced that a new animated series would be made, with Rowan Atkinson once again providing his voice for the role. 52 new episodes began airing on 16 February 2015 on CITV.[5]
On 6 February 2018, Tiger Aspect served up for the third series, began airing on 9 April 2019 on CITV in the UK, and across international markets on Boomerang and other Turner Kids channels in select markets.[6]
On 4 January 2024, it was announced that the series has been commissioned for a fourth run, produced by Tiger Aspect Kids & Family, in partnership with Warner Bros., Discovery and ITVX, through deals agreed by Banijay Rights.[7]
Cast and characters
Main
The show's characters and props. From left to right: Mr. Bean, Teddy, Mrs. Wicket, Scrapper, Miss Wince, Irma Gobb, and Mr. Bean's Mini.
Mr. Bean (voiced by Rowan Atkinson) – The title character. He is a childish, self-absorbed and extremely competitive individual living in London who is almost always dressed in his trademark tweed jacket and a thin red tie, and often brings various abnormal schemes and contrivances to everyday tasks (like his live-action counterpart). Despite this, he is depicted in the animated series as more competent and less buffoonish than his live-action counterpart. In addition, he often talks in complete sentences (particularly in the later series) compared to his live-action counterpart, who rarely spoke a few mumbled words that are all in a comically low-pitched voice.
Teddy – Mr. Bean's personal teddy bear and lifelong best friend. Despite being inanimate, Bean pretends that Teddy is alive (like in the original live-action sitcom).
Irma Gobb (voiced by Matilda Ziegler) – Mr. Bean's long-suffering girlfriend, who debuted in the live action version's episode The Curse of Mr. Bean. Like her original live-action counterpart, Irma is depicted as more intelligent and significantly less buffoonish than Bean, which often results in her having an often-strained relationship with the latter. She is also depicted as a worker at a local library.
Mrs. Julia Wicket (voiced by Sally Grace) – Mr. Bean's elderly and grouchy landlady, who often despises Bean and his antics, though deep down, she does have a soft spot for him (which becomes more prominent in the later series). Running gags include her screaming loudly during bad situations, often scaring birds outside the flat, and slamming Bean's door causing glass-framed pictures and other objects hung on the wall to fall and break. As revealed in the episode "Young Bean", the reason she hates Bean is that, when he was young, he accidentally ruined her wedding by riding his go-kart down a hill and crashing into her and her groom. In the first series, she often plays an antagonistic role, but acts much nicer beginning in the second series.
Scrapper – Mrs. Wicket's vicious, ill-tempered one-eyed pet cat who, much like his owner, despises Mr. Bean.
Miss Mary Wince – Mrs. Wicket's best friend, who often stops by her flat for tea and watches wrestling with her. She is called Mary in the episode "A Royal Makeover".
Mr. Bean's Mini – Mr. Bean's personal vehicle, a citron-green Mini with a matte black bonnet. As a running gag, Bean keeps it locked with a bolt-latch and padlock rather than the lock fitted to the car (like in the original live-action sitcom). Unlike in the live-action sitcom where the Mini's registration number is "SLW 287R", the registration number in the animated series is "STE 952R".
Reliant Regal – A light-blue and three-wheeled car which, as another running gag, is always getting turned over or crashed out of its parking space or into anywhere by Mr. Bean in his Mini, who is usually oblivious to the results (like in the original live-action sitcom). However, in the episode "Car Wars", Mr. Bean finds himself in a conflict with the car in which he dedicates the episode to purposefully crashing it. Unlike in the live-action sitcom where the Reliant's registration number is "GRA 26K", the registration number in the animated series is "DUW 742".
Supporting
Burglars – A duo of unnamed criminals (one large and the other small) who are masters of disguise and regularly go across London committing various crimes, only to nevertheless suffer defeat at the hands of Mr. Bean (mainly at times when he is their victim or witness), who then has the local police arrest them. The burglars serve as the antagonists, appearing in numerous episodes.
Bruiser family – Mr. Bean and Mrs. Wicket's next-door neighbours, a working class overweight family who sometimes act as Bean's adversaries. The characters were unnamed in the first two series until their revelation in "Halloween". While appearing as a whole family in the episodes "Neighbourly Bean", "Scaredy Bean", "Home Movie", "Litterbugs", "Super Spy" and "Dig This", the Bruisers are depicted as father and son for the majority of the series.
Queen Elizabeth II – The queen regnant of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth, of whom Mr. Bean is a fan.
Traffic Warden – An unnamed parking enforcement officer, who originally appeared in the live-action episode "The Trouble with Mr. Bean" and locates and tickets illegally-parked cars across London. As Mr. Bean habitually parks his Mini in the wrong places, she promptly gets in his way which puts him at odds with her. She is very committed at her duty, even to the point of ticketing a police vehicle once.
Librarian – The boss of the library where Irma works.
Lottie – Irma Gobb's teddy bear who looks identical to Teddy, except she has eyelashes, a red bow and a skirt. She is portrayed as Teddy's girlfriend, but Mr. Bean disapproves of this relationship.
Billy Wicket[8] – Billy Wicket is the nephew of Mrs. Wicket.[9] He is usually seen playing video games at his aunt's flat.
Declan – A friend of Irma Gobb, who is also a rival of Mr. Bean when it comes to winning her heart.
Mr. Paliwal – A new neighbour of Mr. Bean and Mrs. Wicket introduced in Series 4, living on the opposite side of the street, he also has a daughter named Divia.
Tiger Aspect Productions announced the series in October 2000. Valued at $15 million, the series was already pre-sold to ITV but did not have an animation studio tied into the production.[10] The following month, it was announced that Varga would handle animation production.[11] In February 2001, Entertainment Rights acquired all UK merchandising and licensing rights to the series[12]
Prior to the series' UK premiere in March 2002,[13]Fremantle International Distribution pre-sold the series in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Portugal, Cyprus and French-speaking Belgium, with Super RTL securing rights in Germany.[14] Fremantle held all rights except in the US, UK, Hungary and Japan.[15] Varga, who handled all Hungarian rights, pre-sold the series to RTL Klub and it premiered in April, a month after its UK premiere.[16] By December, the series was pre-sold in Sweden and Finland.[17]
In April 2003, the series made its debut in the United States through various public television stations, with A&E Home Video acquiring home media rights.[18] Sharpe, the North American license holder for the show, signed a deal with Toy Play to release a toyline based on the show for the US and Canadian markets in September.[19] In December, Fremantle International continued to pre-sell the series internationally while BBC Worldwide acquired Japanese licensing and home media rights.[20]
In February 2004, Tiger Aspect announced that they had pre-sold UK Pay-TV rights to the series to Nickelodeon UK to air on their Nicktoons TV channel for a three-year deal.[21]
After the Nickelodeon UK deal expired, in March 2010 Tiger Aspect Productions signed a new three-year deal with Turner Broadcasting System Europe to air the series on Boomerang from July 2010 onwards.[22]
Reception
The show was met with mostly positive reviews from television critics. Common Sense Media, an education and advocacy group that promotes safe technology and media for children, gave the show 3 stars and wrote that the "UK slapstick cartoon [is] geared toward older kids, adults."[23]
Home media
Mr. Bean: The Animated Series has been released on DVD by A&E Home Video in Region 1, and by Universal Pictures Home Entertainment in Regions 2 and 4. In the United States, the first series of the show were released in its entirety on six volumes, while in the United Kingdom and Australia, the six volumes only contained 47 out of all the 52 episodes, with the remaining episodes instead appearing as extra features on DVDs of the original live-action sitcom.
The reason for this was that when the five episodes were classified by the British Board of Film Classification in the United Kingdom, they were each given a PG certificate instead of a U certificate unlike the other episodes. It was then decided that all DVDs of the series should have a U certificate each, resulting in the five PG-rated episodes not being included.
In Region 4, the DVD Mr. Bean: The Animated Series: Series 2, Volume 3 – Racing Adventures was an exclusive product for Big W; nowadays, it is no longer available.[24]
Volume 7: Nine Tremendous Tales (Original release) / Home Movie and More Tremendous Tales! (2017 New Cover Re release): 7 September 2015 Episode(s) featured: "Home Movie" – "Valentine's Bean"Volume 8: Nine Splendid Stories (Original release) / Holiday For Teddy and More Tantalising Tales! (2017 New Cover Re release): 19 October 2015 Episode(s) featured: "All You Can Eat" – "Lord Bean"Volume 9: Racing Adventures and More Exciting Escapades!: 23 May 2016 Episode(s) featured: "Car Wars" – "Taxi Bean"Volume 10: Halloween and More Awesome Stories!: 3 October 2016 Episode(s) featured: "Muscle Bean" – "Halloween"Volume 11: SuperBean and Other Splendid Stories!: 30 January 2017 Episode(s) featured: "Wrestle Bean" – "Ice Cream"Egg and Bean and Other Springtime Surprises: 3 April 2017 Episode(s) featured: "Holiday for Teddy" • "Scout Bean" • "A New Friend" • "Ice Cream"Volume 12: Birthday Bean and Friends: 24 July 2017 Episode(s) featured: "Bean Painting" • "Birthday Party" – "Bean Shopping"On Thin Ice and Other Winter Wonders: 2 October 2017 Episode(s) featured: "Green Bean" • "Rat Trap" • "Viral Bean" • "Lord Bean" • "Jurassic Bean"
—
Volume 7: Nine Tremendous Tales: 24 September 2015 Episode(s) featured: "Home Movie" – "Valentine's Bean"Volume 8: Nine Splendid Stories: 24 September 2015 Episode(s) featured: "All You Can Eat" – "Lord Bean"Volume 9: Racing Adventures and More Exciting Escapades!: 16 June 2016[28] Episode(s) featured: "Car Wars" – "Taxi Bean"Volume 10: Halloween and More Awesome Stories!: 2017 Episode(s) featured: "Muscle Bean" – "Halloween"Volume 11: SuperBean and Other Splendid Stories!: 2017 Episode(s) featured: "Wrestle Bean" – "Ice Cream"
In other media
A third-personplatform video game based on the series was released in the late 2000s on multiple platforms. It was first released in PAL regions as Mr. Bean on the PlayStation 2, Nintendo DS, and Microsoft Windows. A Wiiport of the game, titled Mr. Bean's Wacky World, was also released shortly after those versions in the same regions, with a North American localisation of the port being available in 2011.
Multiple mobile games based on the series have been released such as Mr. Bean: Around the World,[29]Mr. Bean: Flying Teddy, Mr. Bean: Sandwich Stack,Mr. Bean: Special Delivery and more which are available globally on iOS, Android, and Amazon mobile devices.
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