The Magic Roundabout (released in North America as Doogal) is a film based on the television series of the same name. The film was released on 11 February, 2005 in the United Kingdom and France, and on February 24, 2006 in North America.

Plot

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The film begins with a shaggy, candy-loving dog named Dougal ("Doogal" in North American version) trying to steal candy from the sweets cart. He goes so far as to place a tack in the road to pop its tire. After tricking the driver to leave, Dougal accidentally starts the cart up again and manages to crash it into the titluar magic roundabout at the center of the village. A blue jack-in-the-box-like creature emerges from the top and flies away, snatching a decorative Foot Guard figurine from the roundabout before leaving. The roundabout freezes over, trapping repairman Mr. Rusty, Dougal's owner Florence, and two other children named Basil and Coral within.

The villagers, natually, are horrified by this development, and call upon the resident wizard, Zebedee, for help. He explains that the roundabout acted as a mystical prison for the evil ice wizard Zeebad and by wrecking it Zeebad is free to work his magic on the world again (it is implied he started the first ice age). The only way to return Zeebad to his prison is to place three magic diamonds in the roundabout, or else the world will slowly freeze over again. Zebedee sends Dougal, Brian the cynical snail, Ermintrude the opera-singing cow, Dylan the hippie rabbit, and the magic train named Train.

Zeebad is not without his followers either. He animates the Foot Guard figurine, Sargeant Sam, and enlists him to find the enchanted diamonds first, for with them Zeebad can freeze the sun itself. Meanwhile, Zebedee's fellowship makes camp in the icy mountains near Zeebad's old lair. It's not long before Dougal wanders off and gets himself captured by Zeebad and taken to his lair, where he's "tortured" by Sam. Ermintrude breaks him out, and after a short chase, Zebedee shows up to battle his evil counterpart. Zeebad quickly gains the upper hand and overpowers Zebedee, freezing him and colapsing the cliff he's standing on ("Zeb's dead, baby; Zeb's dead," Dylan slurs). The fellowship runs off, disheartened but determined to find the diamonds and save the world.

British reception

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The Magic Roundabout gained generally favourable reviews from critics in Britain, for retaining its charm from the original television series and its superb animation. While some critics questioned the update for today's children and its subtle drug references, the reviews were mostly positive. The public also supported the film, and while some were disappointed on the nostalgia factor, their praise earned this film a total gross of 5.8 million pounds at the box office, as of April 2005.

American reception

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As of March 16, 2006, the film grossed a total of 7.2 million dollars in the United States box office, which is considered low by CGI animated film standards (the film that held the record before Doogal was Valiant in 2005). In the North American version of the film, the majority of original British voices have been replaced by celebrities more familiar to the American public, and the script rewritten to accommodate pop culture references and flatulence jokes, neither of which were present in the original release. The reviews were ragingly bad; it got a 5% from Rotten Tomatoes and was named one of the worst animated films ever. As of May 2006 it has been rated 2.4 by IMDb users and is on the bottom 100 on No. 43. After its short era of advertising it pretty much wasn't heard of again.

Voice artists

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British character	British actor	French character	French actor	American character	American actor
Florence	Kylie Minogue	Margote	Vanessa Paradis	Florence	Kylie Minogue
Ermintrude	Joanna Lumley	Azalée	Valérie Lemercier	Ermintrude	Whoopi Goldberg
Dougal	Robbie Williams	Pollux	Henri Salvador	Doogal	Daniel Tay
Brian	Jim Broadbent	Ambroise	Dany Boon	Brian	William H. Macy
Dylan	Bill Nighy	Flappy	Eddy Mitchell	Dylan	Jimmy Fallon
Zebedee	Sir Ian McKellen	Zébulon	Elie Semoun	Zebedee	Sir Ian McKellen
ZeeBad	Tom Baker	Zeebad	Michel Galabru	ZeeBad	Jon Stewart
Solider Sam	Ray Winstone	Sam	Gerard Jugnot	Soldier Sam	Bill Hader
The Train	Lee Evans			The Train	Chevy Chase
				Moose	Kevin Smith
				Narrator	Judi Dench

See also

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• List of animated feature films

External links

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• The Magic Roundabout official website
• Doogal official website

2005 films | Computer-animated films | Kylie Minogue films | The Weinstein Company films