The Magic Roundabout

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.

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 production hits the buttons at all levels. For the younger kids who will enjoy it as they would any new animation; the tweenagers who will enjoy the story and the action; and the teens & twenty somethings for all the many references to movies over the last 10 - 15 years. And for the rest of us, the vague sense of nostalgia - don't rush out before the end of the credits, just for that famous phrase you are waiting to hear! Robbie is excellent as Dougal, with Baker, McKellen and Broadbent not far behind. The other "famous" artists were out of my realisation until I read the credits and thought - "so it was". It's not what you watched just before the BBC news, but still worth the ticket, with or without a pre-schooler in tow.

On entering the cinema, I did have my doubts. I'd watched the original Magic Roundabout from a very young age, and one false step could have ruined both versions for good.

However, the filmmakers managed to make a perfect balance of "old" and "new" to bring out a whole new film, featuring characters that reminded me of the originals, but didn't try to take their places.

The storyline was fun, bearing in mind that it was aimed at young children, and included the token jokes (aimed at both children and adults), teary moments and interesting yet predictable twists. The graphics were excellent, and most of the older viewers were "Ahhh"ing throughout at the sight of the big, sweet eyes. Looking around, I could tell that the young 'uns were enjoying it too, and that's what really matters in a film like this.

Overall, a brilliant transition from a simple, sweet television show to an enormous, exciting movie.

'The Magic Roundabout' is a cute and fun family-flick. What really makes it so enjoyable are the lovable characters brilliantly 'played' by the voice artists that include numerous British talents (such as Bill Nighy, Sir Ian Mckellan, Ray Winstone and Joanna Lumley) and Australian beauty Kylie Minogue (what a beautiful voice!). Robbie Williams as Dougal is a little too whiny at times. The various vivacious characters include a gentle-snail, a shaggy dog, a singing cow, a guitarist rabbit, a small train and a half-spring character who are all on a quest in search of three diamonds to rescue the land from freezing over. The plot may not be seen as anything new and the CGI may not be of Pixar animation quality but that didn't hinder my liking for the film. I found it to be very adventurous and there were several funny and endearing moments. I also liked the creative use of different colours and the soundtrack is brilliant. My memory of the classic (from which the film was inspired) remains very blur. Hence, I cannot comment on how true it stayed to the original but as a film itself, it's good family entertainment.