The Magic Roundabout

Plot synopsis:
The film begins as the wizard Zebedee, a red jack-in-the-box-like creature, is having a nightmare about being chased by a rampaging blue jack-in-the-box creature.
The film then starts with Dougal sneaking around the carousel. He goes so far as to place a tack in the road to pop a sweet cart's tyre, thinking to be rewarded for watching the cart. After convincing the driver, Mr. Grimsdale to leave, Dougal accidentally starts the cart up again and causes it to crash into the titular magic roundabout at the centre of the village. A blue jack-in-the-box creature named Zeebad (the same one from Zebedee's nightmare) emerges from the top and flies away, followed shortly after by a Foot Guard figurine that is thrown off the roundabout. The roundabout freezes over, trapping repairman Mr. Rusty, Dougal's young owner Florence, and two other children named Basil and Coral within an icy cell.
The villagers, who are all animals, are horrified by this development, and call upon Zebedee for help. He explains that the roundabout acted as a mystical prison for the evil ice wizard Zeebad. With it broken, Zeebad is free to work his magic on the world again (it is implied he started the first ice age). The only way to stop Zeebad's freedom from freezing the world again is by collecting three magic diamonds (one of which is supposed to be hidden on the roundabout, while the other two are hidden at separate locations far beyond the village); placing all three diamonds in their respective slots on the roundabout will re-imprison Zeebad and undo his magic, but if Zeebad retrieves them first then their power will allow him to freeze the Sun itself. Zebedee sends Dougal the well-meaning cheeky chappy but slacker dog, Brian the cynical snail, Ermintrude the opera-singing cow and Dylan the hippie rabbit, to accomplish this mission along with a magic train who can be summoned by a magic remote. Meanwhile, when Zeebad crash lands after escaping the roundabout, he animates the Foot Guard figurine, Sam the Soldier, to be his henchman and enlists him to find the enchanted diamonds first. Meanwhile, Zebedee's fellowship makes camp in the icy mountains near Zeebad's old lair. Dougal wanders off during the night and is captured by Zeebad. Ermintrude breaks him out of his prison; after a short chase, Zebedee shows up to battle his evil counterpart. Zeebad eventually gains the upper hand, freezing Zebedee and collapsing the cliff on which he stands, presumably killing him.
Mourning for their friend, Dougal and his friends embark to recover the diamonds. This task takes them to a lava-bordered volcano and an ancient temple filled with booby-traps and evil skeleton guards (at which point Dylan reveals an exceptional knowledge of several types of martial arts), but Zeebad captures both the diamonds from these respective locations; leaving the gang's only hope of stopping Zeebad freezing the world in ice to be getting back to the roundabout and to the final diamond before Zeebad does. The gang are forced along the way to leave Train behind when his wheel is broken, leaving them to return to the village on their own through the snowy barren wasteland the world is now freezing into. Zeebad, after having abandoned Sam the Soldier to die wounded in the snow, beats the gang to the now-frozen village, but is unable to find the third diamond anywhere. Sam then arrives on a moose, having realised he's been following the wrong commander in Zeebad and that his true duty is to protect the roundabout against Zeebad, and tries to make a stand and charge against Zeebad but is easily defeated. Having learned Sam was in fact on the roundabout, Zeebad discovers that the third diamond is and always was hidden inside Sam, and removes it from him (ending Sam's life as a result).
Just as Dougal and the gang finally make it back to the village, Zeebad, with all three diamonds now in his possession, uses the diamonds to complete his powers' freezing effect on the world by freezing the Sun. However, Ermintrude, Brian, Dylan, and finally Dougal refuse to give up, and intervene to stop Zeebad; getting past Zeebad's attacks to the diamonds, and getting each of them one-by-one into their places on the roundabout until only the third diamond is left. Though Zeebad beats the gang to the diamond and seemingly secures his victory, the timely arrival of a healed Train knocks the diamond out of Zeebad's reach and gives Dougal the chance to place it in the roundabout's final slot. With all three diamonds placed on the roundabout, Zeebad is reimprisoned, and the world is thawed and turned back to normal; restoring Zebedee to his friends, and freeing the people.
Of those trapped in the roundabout, Florence is comatose, but is revived by an anxious Dougal. The moose (whose colour had been changed from brown to blue by Zeebad and helped Dougal's friends find Dougal in the earlier scenes of the film), is restored to his true colour by Zebedee. As everyone goes for a ride on the roundabout, they discover it still doesn't work, because Sam is still lifeless. At this point, Sam is restored and then reverted to his inanimate form, and placed back on the roundabout which functions once again. Dougal, who vowed to give up sugar when it seemed all was lost, forgets his former pledge completely, but now realises the true value of his friends and the good qualities of selflessness, courage, and humility.
Two mid-credits scenes follow: one reveals Zeebad back in his prison, which, to his chagrin, is a molten lava cave. In another, Zebedee delivers his famous catchphrase to the audience, "Time for bed", before disappearing.

Tags: good versus evil, revenge

Review:
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.
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..
All is quiet, it's teatime and before you know it Zebedee says those immortal words: "Time for bed children." But 'Boing' Suddenly, as if by magic Kylie Minogue is telling you that they're "coming to get ya"  a talking sugar addict dog, an opera singing cow, a stoned bunny and a wacky wizard with a spring instead of legs, man I think I've been eating too much sugar myself It's true though  just when you thought it was safe to take a trip back 30 years to a place of innocence and fun  here comes the super slick all singing, all dancing, all action CGI Magic Roundabout.
And who invited the lovely Kylie to not only voice Florence but also knock out a catchy Magic Roundabout single for the soundtrack?
Aided by the superb voice cast of Tom Baker (Zeebadee), Jim Broadbent (Brian the snail), Lee Evans (Train), Joanna Lumley (Ermintrude), Ian McKellen (Zebedee), Bill Nighy (Dylan) and Robbie Williams (Dougal).
And there's even a plot of sorts: the Magic Roundabout lies in ruin after an evil ice sorcerer Zebadee has escaped to freeze the world.
This leads to Dylan almost quoting Pulp Fiction with "Zeb's dead babe, Zeb's dead"; this and some of the original's trippy substance references will keep adults of a certain age smiling.
Jim Broadbent and Joanna Lumley seem to have great fun in their roles (as Brian the snail and Ermintrude the cow respectively) and Bill Nighy, well, lets just say there's no one else in the world who could've done Dylan the drug-addled bunny like he did ("no way man!
Tom Baker and Sir Ian Mackellen also seemed to enjoy giving very camp performances as the arch rival jack-in-the-boxes Zebedee and Zeebad (though Sir Ian sounded a little too much like Gandalf).
The music, which seems to include vocal performances from Kylie and Robbie, is fantastic and well above average for a kids film today.
The plot is full of gaping holes, and while it mostly works with a very young audience in mind, the jokes aimed at adults are not laugh-out-loud funny, they just raise a knowing smile.
(Watch the scene where Zebad fights Zebedee for the first time - then again maybe it was just cheesy...) I never saw enough of the original 5 minute episodes to be a fan, but really, it seems very different from the original, so old-time fans may be disappointed, or maybe they'll appreciate seeing their old favourites in some new action-packed situations.
The characters are more animated and better able to sustain your attention for the length of a feature film though I was surprised initially at the changes, not having seen any trailers beforehand.
Just keep die hards and cynics at bay!The DVD is excellent with a lot of extras and a an interactive two level quiz for youngsters when they have seen the film a few times and want a bit more involvement.
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.
Parents may not enjoy the jokes and the plot as much as the children accompanying them, but I say at least we see a movie that is not too "grown-up" for those some-year-old.
And with the lively characters they can emotionally connect to, surprisingly nice CGI graphics and enjoyable music it's sure they will not be bored for a second; rather be fully entertained by the big adventure story that playfully steals scenes from other adventure movies - but from the greatest ones, namely Indiana Jones and The Lord of the Rings (okay, and from other movies too).
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!).
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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).
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.
But I missed Dougal's cynical, world-weary quips from the original Magic Roundabout.
This is a family film but not for infants or very young children, like the old TV show.
The plot is really good with Tom Baker playing an evil version of the Zebadee called Zeebad who wants to take over the world.
Yes, this is indeed a far stretch from the original, but the old show had very short story lines, this required a longer plot.
There was I, a 21 year old woman, watching this movie on my own...and I loved it!
So, yeah, I enjoyed it, a nice, simple movie to look back on old times on..
but it wasn't :-( I know it's meant for kids but even so, these days you expect a good laugh don't you?
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.
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..
The characters have all been "re-imagined" as is the current trend, and re-voiced, as one might expect in the absence of Eric Thompson.But why does the Magic Roundabout have to change so much?
And as for the new use the Magic Roundabout is put to at the start of the movie, why oh why oh why?
This film is about a group of friends trying to stop an evil Zeebad from turning the world into ice.This film is for the very young kids to enjoy.
What we essentially have here is a CG movie that I suspect did not have great CG when it was released in 2005 and now after I have watched it in 2008 looks even worse, and to make matters worse we have a great British voice cast wasted by a mainly terrible script holding together a weak story line.The premise of the move is that new character Zeebad  is accidentally released from the imprisonment that Zebedee has had him trapped in and preceded to try and take his revenge by turning the world into permanent winter (was that not done by CS Lewis), So Dougal and his pals have to try and stop him.The movie as is often the case for family orientated animated movies where essentially you have a movie containing three or four set pieces linked together by a pot and in this case a very thin one.
All bases are tried to be covered as is the way of these films by trying to throw in jokes for the adults too, unfortunately this is not done successfully and I can only remember laughing once at one of Dillon's lines.The movie will run out as you expect and if like me you will find yourself wondering why the cast and characters where wasted.
The vocal talents are good with Tom Baker excelling as ZeBadDee and Robbie Williams as Dougal has a future in this sort of thing but there wasn't enough to keep this 35 year old fixed on the screen as say Skrek could.
Kylie Minogue seemed to have a small part as Florence and was hardly noticeable, Jim Broadbent probably had the best lines as Brian and Bill Nighy as Dylan just seemed to be the same character as in Love Actually!
Joanna Lumley was good as Ermintrude, the opera singing cow.OK, so I have been kind with the vocal talents but where this magic of the original was put into 5 minute episodes this falls down with trying to stretch that 5 minutes worth of fun into 80 minutes.It is for the children and my 6 year old loved it....
I thought about giving everyone the long version but, to be frank, The Magic Roundabout is not worth it.This has a formulaic plot that involves the characters performing some very unlikely moves.Instantly forgettable.It is a sad day when one has to say that the only reason this doesn't get a '1' is that the voice ensemble is, generally, very very good.
i love animation movies for the following reasons, 1.its fun 2.the characters are memorable 3.the emotions are much more vivid than real characters 4.the plot is wonderful 5.wonderful sense of humor 6.its great to sit back and watch a wonderful story unfolding with beautiful visualizationsbut this movie has failed on all..
humor and creating wonderful characters should come naturally, but in this movie, they are trying so hard to make it funny and interesting , a absolute waste of time and really quite painful to watch , i had to push myself to survive every scene to make it to the end..., so much dumb and please for gods sake, the directors and producers should stop making animation movies like these!shrek, ice age, despicable me, megamind, etc have set the standards for the quality of animation movies.
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.
Well, my kids (aged 6 and 4) loved it -- but they'd never seen the original.
But then times change and I think I should not have gone to see the new big screen Magic Roundabout: youngsters in the audience seemed to be thoroughly enjoying it.
(Note Dylan and Ermintrude's version of "You Really Got Me"...Class!) Okay, so maybe it's not the old stop-motion cartoon of yesteryear, and maybe the cast has had a makeover and a bunch of big names taking over their voices, but there is a lot to enjoy about this film.
I have fond memories of watching the original 1960s - 1970s stop-motion series on VHS at my grandparents' house when I was a child and I remember my nan telling me about my dad and other children trying to get home from school in time for the programme.
When I heard there was going to be a full-length CGI film based on the show with Robbie Williams and Kylie Minogue (both of whom had already duetted on their 2000 single 'Kids') providing the voices of Dougal and Florence respectively, I was certainly up for seeing it because it came out before the time CGI completely ruined my childhood favourites such as 'Thomas the Tank Engine,' 'Noddy's Adventures in Toyland' and 'Bananas in Pyjamas.' I saw this film at the cinema with a family aide and we quite enjoyed it although I found some aspects a little disappointing, such as the lack of screen time for Florence due to her entrapment on the frozen roundabout.
The positives include the animation being fluid on the whole despite the jerky movements on the blue mousse towards the end; most of the characters staying true to the style of those from the original series albeit the detailed lip sync, expressions and facial features; the backgrounds having more colour and definition than those in the original series; the basic premise of Brian, Ermintrude, Dylan and Dougal going on a quest to retrieve diamonds in order to get the roundabout to work again; the dialogue having its witty moments; the voice cast and the soundtrack.
With regard to the soundtrack, the incidental music was epic and cinematic for the film's nature and I liked the songs, especially Electric Light Orchestra's 'Mr Blue Sky' and Ermintrude's hilarious operatic singing along to it.Overall, 'The Magic Roundabout' has its weaknesses but its strengths more than made up for them, it brought back significant memories of the original show and I'll definitely be steering clear of 'Doogal (what a stupid way to spell his name!)' because I despise it when British voices are dubbed with American ones and this has already happened to 'Spot the Dog' as witnessed on YouTube once.
Called 'The Magic Roundabout' this animation was a favourite of many people over the years it was shown.
Entertaining and light on plot with audiences constantly joking about characters being on drugs, it became a mainstay of British children's entertainment.
Weak and unimaginative, it contains multiple film, music and drug references without ever actually making us laugh.
All in all, 'The Magic Roundabout' is a turgid affair.Dougal the Dog (Robbie Williams) is attempting to steal candy when he accidentally releases the evil ZeeBad (Tom Baker).
Whether you choose to condemn the mediocre unimaginative vocal acting (only Bill Nighy as Dylan deserves any sort of acceptable for his role here), the terrible jokes which are hideously unfunny, or the horrendously bad soundtrack (rescued only briefly by 'Mr Blue Sky') there is enough to be able to criticise for hours.The film is just so twee too.
In the original series, the characters were not actually meant to be on drugs.
Whilst this is obviously a good thing since this is a children's film, it does serve as an interesting dilemma.
You certainly wish they'd take something to make them more entertaining.Broadcast in the 1970s, the original 'Magic Roundabout' was a cornerstone of children's entertainment.
the casting is excellent i think the voice of Dylan maybe the best in the whole film.