The Magic Roundabout
- 2005
- 1h 21m
IMDb RATING
5.2/10
3.8K
YOUR RATING
A group of friends embark on a dangerous journey in an effort to imprison their oppressor, the evil wizard Zeebad.A group of friends embark on a dangerous journey in an effort to imprison their oppressor, the evil wizard Zeebad.A group of friends embark on a dangerous journey in an effort to imprison their oppressor, the evil wizard Zeebad.
Robbie Williams
- Dougal
- (English version)
- (voice)
Ian McKellen
- Zebedee
- (English version)
- (voice)
Bill Nighy
- Dylan
- (English version)
- (voice)
Kylie Minogue
- Florence
- (voice)
Jim Broadbent
- Brian
- (English version)
- (voice)
Joanna Lumley
- Ermintrude
- (English version)
- (voice)
Ray Winstone
- Soldier Sam
- (English version)
- (voice)
Daniella Loftus
- Coral
- (English version)
- (voice)
Ediz Mahmut
- Basil
- (English version)
- (voice)
Jimmy Hibbert
- Additional Voices
- (English version)
- (voice)
Michel Galabru
- Zabadie
- (voice)
Valérie Lemercier
- Azalée
- (voice)
Elie Semoun
- Zébulon
- (voice)
Vanessa Paradis
- Margote
- (voice)
Eddy Mitchell
- Flappy
- (voice)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaMost of the character's lines were re-dubbed by American actors for the American release under the title Doogal (2006). Ian McKellen was the only cast member to retain his voice tracks for said release.
- GoofsWhen Dylan is supposed to be playing guitar for Ermintrude's concert, he nearly falls asleep before coming round and starting to play and sing 'You Really Got Me' by The Kinks however Dylan is playing an acoustic guitar whereas the music has clearly got an electric guitar and not an acoustic one playing, this is particularly noticeable during his solo at the start of the song.
- Crazy creditsThere are two post-credit scenes. One shows Zeebad imprisoned on a rock surrounded by lava. The other (only seen in the British and American versions) has Zebedee telling the audience "time for bed".
- Alternate versionsAt least five to ten minutes of footage is cut from the American edited version of the film known as Doogal (2006).
- ConnectionsAlternate-language version of Doogal (2006)
Featured review
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.
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.
- bob the moo
- Feb 12, 2005
- Permalink
- How long is The Magic Roundabout?Powered by Alexa
Details
Box office
- Budget
- $20,000,000 (estimated)
- Runtime1 hour 21 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content