Flat Pack is the 11th episode of Season 4 of the Animated Series.
Synopsis[]
When Mr. Bean's bookcase collapses, he buys a new one in the furniture store, but is annoyed to learn that he has to assemble it himself. After assembling it, Bean realises that there is one screw missing, so he sneaks back into the store to steal a screw and finally assembles the bookcase.
Plot[]
Mr. Bean pulls out a bust from his parcel and places it on his bookcase, but it collapses with the load, so Bean removes the contents from it. Bean leaves his house to buy a new one. He goes to a hardware store named ÄCHE and parks in a parking space for parents and children. A mother tells Bean that spot is for parents with children, so Bean opens his car boot and dresses Teddy as a baby, so the mother thinks Bean has a baby. Bean goes inside the store and takes a trolley. He sees a map on a wall that is rather complicated to understand. Bean reads the map and leaves, only to return to the map, confusing him. So Bean removes the map from the wall so he can read it while he is walking. Bean arrives at the kitchen section and realises there is nobody there. People are complaining to the store manager because they are lost and the map is missing because Bean removed it. The store manager tells them to calm down and he will find the map.
Bean arrives at the furniture section and finds a bookcase that resembles his old bookcase, so he tests it by putting his objects there. Fortunately, it does not collapse, so Bean puts a sofa there and a cloth on the upper part, and sits on the sofa to compare it to his living room. Bean likes the bookcase, so he decides to take it. When Bean sees that there is no one there, he tries to call them and an employee arrives. The employee tells Bean to go downstairs, but Bean wants to buy the case that has already been assembled. Bean does not want to go downstairs and tells the employee he wants to buy the case that is already assembled. The employee tells Bean that it is not for sale, but Bean says it is. The manager finds the map in Bean's trolley and realised that Bean removed the map. But the employee tells the manager to show Bean downstairs which he reluctantly does so.
Bean removes his objects from the bookcase and he and the manager go to the warehouse which is filled with flat-packed furniture. The manager operates a forklift and lifts it up. Bean decides to play with the forklift by moving the lift up and down, annoying the manager who tells Bean to stop. The manager grabs the box containing the bookshelf from the upper part of the shelf and gives it to Bean. Bean is confused because it is not assembled, to which the manager tells him he has to build it himself. Annoyed but with no choice, Bean buys the bookcase and carries it home. After removing the pieces of the bookcase from the box, Bean struggles to open the plastic bag containing nuts, bolts, washers and screws causing them to be scattered all over the floor when he forcefully opens it. Bean starts assembling the bookcase and makes a dinosaur instead. Bean finds the catalogue and reads it on how to assemble it, and places it on the wall. Bean assembles the shelf one more time and he successfully assembles it, only to realise he is locked inside the cupboard.
Bean frees himself by opening the upper part of the cupboard but the shelf collapses, frustrating him. More pages of the catalogue is revealed and Bean realised that one screw is missing. Bean searches everywhere for the lost screw, but he cannot find it. So he returns to the store at night just as the manager closes it, annoying Bean. He uses a forklift to sneak into the store through an open window, and opens the boxes to get a screw. Bean climbs the shelf and hangs on the edge of a box. The store manager is relaxing in his office when he hears a loud banging noise, shocking him and making him spill his coffee. Realising there is an intruder, the manager leaves the room to investigate. While Bean is searching for a screw, the manager comes out and spots him, but he gets distracted when his feet gets poked by the screws, giving Bean time to run away. Bean runs upstairs and unscrews a screw from a table holding a TV, but it is the wrong screw which does not fit, so Bean throws it away. Bean continues looking for more screws while the manager pursues him. Bean finds the bookcase resembling his old shelf so he unscrews one screw just as the manager reaches him; Bean hides the screw behind his back. The shelf collapses because of the missing screw, causing all the other adjacent shelves to fall over like dominoes. Furious, the manager attacks Bean but a shelf collapses on him, trapping him. Bean runs away from the guard and he returns home. Now that he finally has a screw, Bean uses it to finally assemble his new bookcase. With the bookcase now complete, Bean puts his objects there and sits on the chair. Bean then finds a screw on his chair, and he realises that it was the missing screw.
Characters[]
Starring[]
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- The furniture store seen in this episode called ÄCHE is a visible parody of IKEA. Its name might have been inspired by ACME from Looney Tunes.
- The colours of the ÄCHE store are green and red, whilst IKEA main colours are blue and yellow. The main colours of the ÄCHE store were most likely chosen to be those two so it won't resemble IKEA way too much.
IKEA References[]
- When Mr. Bean enters the store, he looks on the map and thinks he knows where to go but then later he returns to the map again. It is a reference to real life IKEA stores being large and it's easy to get lost in them.
- The bookcase Mr. Bean wants to buy is called "BÖOKKASE" with the letter "o" being modified with an umlaut or diaeresis. It is a reference to IKEA items and furniture having their own, unique names that sometimes mean something in Swedish or are a fun play on words.
- When a worker approaches Mr. Bean to assist him when he wants to buy the bookcase, he tells him to go downstairs, to the warehouse, but Bean denies when the actual bookcase is just next to him and he wants to buy this exact one, what he doesn't know is that it's just for display and you have to go to the warehouse downstairs to take a package with the unbuilt furniture, which you have to build by yourself.
- The store manager/security guard takes Mr. Bean to the warehouse by a lift to give him the package with the bookcase but when Bean sees just a small package, and not an already built bookcase he is confused and the manager tells him that he has to build it and Bean tells him: "At that price!" but decides to buy the bookcase whatsoever because he needs it. It's a reference to real life IKEA stores having furniture you have to build, instead of having already built furniture for sale, most likely to save money and space.
In Other Languages[]
| Language | Title |
|---|---|
| French | Mr Bean bricoleur |
| German | Das neue Regal |
| Italian | Una libreria da montare (TV) Tutto compreso (DVD) |
| Polish | Montaż |
| Romanian | Dulapul |
| Slovenian | Sestavljanje omare |
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