Pollux: édition Américaine

After coming fresh off of a pretty good movie with Hoodwinked, something fell totally apart when it came to this movie. This is the first movie in a LONG time where I was constantly checking my watch to see if it was almost over. And at a short 85 minutes, that is pretty sad.

Let me say a couple good things about the movie. The pre-movie cartoon was really funny. The animation kept the cute, and simplistic CGI style found in Hoodwinked.

Unfortunately, there was a lot of bad parts to the movie. The thing that bothered me the most were the number of puns and pop references. I think it is good when they are used, but they went overboard. They didn't always even fit in with the situation. I would have to say, they were almost forced. Then the references would be above most of the 'target' audience. Another problem is that I don't care much for 'fart' jokes. Unfortunately, about the only time I really heard any laughter from the kids in the audience was when a flatulent character was on screen. Even the story was pretty weak.

It was a shame considering that this movie had such a great cast. But I would have to recommend avoiding this movie unless there is absolutely nothing left to watch that you can take a kid to.

AAARGH!!! Nobody told me that this U.S. version had been re-recorded WITH AN American CAST!!!!! Lines were definitely changed. The American cast always said "Carousel" instead of "Roundabout". I think that some references to "sugar" were changed to "candy" or "caramels".

The actors kept from the UK version of this movie (released under the title "THE MAGIC ROUNDABOUT") were Judi Dench as the narrator, Ian McKellen as Zebedee and Kylie Minogue as Florence. All the other roles were substituted with the voices of American actors.

The kid who speaks Doogal (why did they change the spelling of this from "Dougal"?) is high pitched and annoying. Substituting the voice of Whoopi Goldberg for the voice of Joanna Lumley (Ermintrude the cow) was a bit strange. But what I thought was unforgivable was substituting the voice of Jon Stewart ("The Daily Show") for that of Tom Baker ("Doctor Who" (and many other roles)). This was the role of "Zeebad" the villainous enemy of Zebedee. There's even a scene where Zeebad and Zebedee have a wizardly duel, like Saruman and Gandalf in Lord of the Rings. But instead of Tom Baker facing Ian McKellen, it's Jon "The Daily Show" Stewart!!! Find a way to see the version with the British cast. Skip the one with the American cast.

Karl

Rip-off plot was not funny at all. The dog was completely selfish and unlikeable. The voices(including the English ones left in the film after the dubbing) have no inflection and tone. The talent of Whoopi Goldberg was completely wasted on this "dog" of a movie. You know that the movie is bad when as an adult the only thing mildly amusing is a moose passing gas. There is no fun in this movie, my kids (age 4 and 7) were bored and they are not picky. Valient was a five star masterpiece compared to this schlock. It was an hour and a half of my life I will never get back! I will not go to another Weinstein animated film unless it has topped the charts for weeks - this is not even straight to video quality. Do not waste your hard earned money on this. Even if the kids are dying to see it, wait until it hits video stores next week and put it on while you are vacuuming.

if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all, right? well...I have ONE nice thing to say...some of the pop culture references in this movie were fun.

Beyond that. This movie is atrocious. I was hoping for something fun; a good solid kids movie, complete with solid moral grounding.

All my son learned from this movie is, "if you make a mistake...LIE. take other people with you to solve your problem and let THEM do all the work (while you lounge around), make things harder for them, and then YOU take all the credit for their hard work."

I dislike SharkBoy and Lavagirl, but through all its eye-jarring visuals and mind-numbing plot...at least it has some morally redeeming qualities, and my kid walks away having learned a little something about doing the right thing, no matter how hard.

Doogal has NONE of that....

lazy movie. lazy plotting. lazy acting. lazy script. lazy thought.

If I never see this movie again, my life will be better for it.

I have been seeing films in theaters for over 50 years and this is only the second time I actually walked out during the movie. I am a big fan of quality animated films, from the early Disney up to the more recent Ice Age, Hoodwinked, Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, etc., and the wonderful Miyazaki films. I thought, with this cast it has to be good. I mean it has Dame Judy Dench, William H. Macy, Whoopie Goldberg. All actors I greatly admire. Unfortunately, the film has absolutely no redeeming qualities whatsoever. There is no humor, adventure, interesting characters or anything else that would keep one interested. I kept saying to myself, it has to get better, but it never did. I finally had enough and walked out. I was not the only one to do so.