The Magic Roundabout

When Dougal tries to steal a cartload of sweets, he accidentally crashes into the roundabout, releasing the evil ZeBadDee and scattering three diamonds across the land. Free after thousands of years, ZeBadDee plans to not only free the area but capture the diamonds and use them to freeze the sun. With Florence and her friends trapped in the frozen roundabout, Dougal, Brian, Ermintrude and Dylan set out to uncover the diamonds first and return things to normal.

First of all let me get rid of the "what have they done to the original" argument because, in my mind, this film bares so little in common with the original 5 minute TV show that it is unfair to really make this complaint. The characters may be the same in name and in visual presence but the film is totally different to the original series in terms of plot structure, intelligence, humour, animation and tone. So to me it is like a whole new film without any baggage and I tried to view it as such. As a colourful computer animated children's film it just about works and it did please the children that were in the audience who were mostly younger than seven. The plot is nothing more than a series of colourful adventures but they are noisy enough and funny enough to please this target audience even if it is hardly that good.

Adults who do manage to get over the fact that this is trampling on their memories will find little to keep them amused. The adult jokes are spread pretty thin and really aren't that clever – drug references are lazy, poorly delivered and just smack of a script trying to push the easy buttons – worse is that they are not funny. The film references include The Matrix Revolutions, Lord Of The Rings, Pulp Fiction and a few others but they are only amusing, not funny. A few lines here and there did make me laugh but they were the exception not the norm. The animation was of course going to be different from the original but I had hoped it would avoid the soulless sort of stuff that is kicked out for the Saturday morning schedules and in fairness it does look quite good but I would have preferred a bit more personality behind those computer-generated eyes than I could see. The voice talent is mixed and is sadly better in the smaller roles than in the main ones.

Robbie Williams is so different from the character of Dougal that I expected that I was sorely disappointed. He is just a cheeky chappy voice and he had no emotional range at all. Minogue is the same but luckily is in a very small role. Nighy is OK but I couldn't be sure if he sounded lazy because he had chose to be or if it was just because he wasn't putting much effort into it. Broadbent is better and suits Brian the snail and Lumley is pretty good as Ermintrude. Minor roles are must better (maybe for that very reason); Ray Winstone is expressive as Sam, Baker is great fun (and has plenty of good lines) as ZeBadDee, Lee Evans is funnier than he has been for a few years and McKellen was always going to be good with his voice.

Overall this is an OK film for kids under seven because it is noisy, a bit creepy, funny and colourful. However the jokes for adults mostly fall flat and I only laughed a couple of times. Those looking to compare it with the original series should just avoid it totally because there is no connection other than the name and vague appearance of the characters; as a version of the original it is a terrible travesty, but what did you expect? As a film in itself it is still not that good but will do for young children.

I admit, I did not like this movie first time, but when I saw it today for the first time in three years I was surprised. While bearing little resemblance to the 1960s show, which is just timeless, this is a decent and colourful contemporary tribute.

There are flaws still with the film. The plot is very thin, and sometimes is made up of disconnected scenes. The script has some knowing lines but there are parts where the jokes only come across as average. Also it is a little too short so while the characters still maintain their simple charm, they weren't developed properly.

That said there are a vast majority of things that compensate. For one thing, the visuals are absolutely striking and colourful. Then there is the brilliant soundtrack, that is sunny and really pleasant to the ears. But what made the movie was the film was the voice cast, with fun supporting turns from Jim Broadbent, Bill Nighy and Lee Evans(who I have found annoying in the past). Tom Baker is deliciously malevolent as ZeeBad and Ian McKellan is exceptional as always. But Robbie Williams's cheeky and charming performance as Doogal is the nicest surprise.

All in all, has its failings but it is decent and colourful. It is a shame really it was bastardised by its god awful American counterpart Doogal, which is little more than lame pop culture references and redeemed only by the quality of its animation and the in general talented voice cast(but Jon Stewart was completely wrong for ZeeBad) though they did deserve much better. 7/10 for Magic Roundabout. Bethany Cox

When I was a kid (in the 1960s) the Magic Roundabout was a charming 5-minute puppet show. Zebedee came on at the end and said "Boing! Time for Bed". And we did. This 2005 movie is a bombastic CGI spectacle that contains many of the same characters (sort of), a weak script, average jokes, and a plot that manages to be predictable as well as incoherent.

It is a measure of how tired this is that the character of Zebedee is very much like that of Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings films -- and that he's played by the selfsame Ian McKellen. The starry cast does what it can with a weak and cliché'd script -- Joanna Lumley as posh cow Ermintrude, Jim Broadbent as the charmingly fogeyish snail, Brian, with top honors going to Bill Nighy as stoner Dylan the Rabbit (using what sounded like out-takes from his role in Love Actually.) Kylie Minogue (there as a draw for the tweenagers) is passable as Florence, and Robbie Williams (ditto) is a surprisingly good Dougal the dog.

OK, it wasn't helped by the fact that the family behind us kicked our chairs and rustled their candies all the way through, but I give it 1/10. So why mark it as 5/10? Well, my kids (aged 6 and 4) loved it -- but they'd never seen the original. Are children these days so inured to spectacle that they can't watch a film without extreme fantasy landscapes, fx and explosions? Then again, how do you expand a 5-minute kids' programme into a feature? It has been done before, of course -- 'Dougal and the Blue Cat' was pretty weird, too. But this doesn't really make the grade.

This is very much aimed at younger children - I think those up to about 7 would enjoy it, but my 10-year-old was really too old. Quite a few adults went along on their own to the showing I attended, probably hoping for nostalgia - however this was in short supply, as the CGI versions of the characters look nothing like the much-loved TV show.

The film also doesn't have the wit and charm of the original. Although Sir Ian McKellen is wonderful as Zebedee and Tom Baker as his evil twin, to me it all seemed very thin. Also, with Robbie Williams and Kylie Minogue among the voice cast (Dougal and Florence respectively), it's rather a shame that the only person who does much singing is Joanna Lumley, warbling horribly as Ermintrude!

Years ago there was another Magic Roundabout film, Dougal versus the Blue Cat, which, as I remember, was much funnier than this offering.

OK, I loved it, and yet I was (slightly) disappointed too. Tom Baker voicing the part of the villainous Zeebad was absolute genius. His crazed, maniacal lines were wonderful. And Dylan was brilliant too - Bill Nighy was just the right choice. But I missed Dougal's cynical, world-weary quips from the original Magic Roundabout. And Ermintrude was disappointing too.

The animation is certainly very good, although again I missed the original 'cardboard cutout' feel of the garden backdrops. (It was very good, but just not like the original!) I'm glad they kept the train the same! The 70's soundtrack was very welcome. It's not entirely obvious what music would work well, but I think they got that right.

Generally, the original show's short format is not an easy task to expand upon, and I think they did pretty well really.