Doogal
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Not to be confused with the 2016 Indian film Dangal
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 Congratulations The Weinstein Company, you’ve nearly ruined The Magic Roundabout series!
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Doogal is the official American English-language dub of The Magic Roundabout, released in France as Pollux - Le manège enchanté, a 2005 French-British computer-animated adventure comedy fantasy film, based on the TV series of the same name. Doogal was released in the United States where audiences are not as familiar with the series on February 24, 2006. While both the original 2005 FR/UK version of the movie and the 2007 revival television series were based on the original 1963 television series that had mixed-to-positive critical and audience feedback, Doogal is panned and is considered to be one of the worst animated movies or dubs ever made. It is a rare case where a dub of a movie and the original are judged on different spectrums.
For over 19 years, this was the final main entry in the Magic Roundabout series, that is until 2023, were a new version is being made by Method Animation targeted for 2024, that will try to "find a balance between the French and English contexts".
Plot
This movie is the story of Doogal, an adorable candy-loving mutt who goes on a mission to save the world. Doogal must prevent the evil sorcerer Zeebad from freezing the earth forever with the power of the three mysterious legendary diamonds. Joining Doogal on his big quest are pals Dylan, a guitar-playing rabbit, Ermintrude, an opera-singing cow, and Brian, a bashful snail. Hopping on a magic train, they travel over ice-capped mountains, navigate fiery pits of lava, and sail across vast oceans on the perilous journey of a lifetime. Along the way, they learn that the most powerful weapon of all is their friendshipーwhich even Zeebad's magic cannot destroy!
Why It's Always Crashing and Falling Down and Never Spinning Round and Round
Note: This will only focus on issues present in Doogal, the American version of The Magic Roundabout; references to any narrative issues, present in the French/UK English dubs are based on their continued problematic presence, in the former.
- Overuse of pointless narration, presumably in an attempt to justify the cost of hiring Judi Dench in the role of things that viewers can outright see for themselves (for example, "Florence and Doogal... and Florence... and Doogal. Doogal and Florence" during the opening scene of the movie, specifically the portion focusing on photographs of the characters), often undercutting several of the film's more prominent dramatic scenes, most notably Zeebad's breakout, and the slow-motion climax.
- Poor attempts at humor, consisting mostly of constant pop culture references and flatulence jokes, which were not present in the original British and French versions. The film therefore suffers from an incessant number of context-irrelevant and overly rapid-fire pop-culture allusions, some of the more egregious as follows:
- One scene, where the now-audible skeletons flat-out mention "here’s Johnny!" from The Shining, one of the skeletons later on says "bring out your dead!" from Monty Python and the Holy Grail, and when one skeleton mentions Pirates of the Caribbean, another tells the other "Hey, thought we said no Disney jokes.", and one yells “Wazzup?!” from Scary Movie.
- Upon discovery of the hidden tunnel, Zeebad says "Well, someone’s been watching CSI."
- A reference to Thomas & Friends is said during the chase scene where Zeebad says, "we're gonna lose this race to Thomas the tank engine?!", referencing and poking fun at the train, even though Thomas & Friends has nothing to do with The Magic Roundabout in the slightest.
- While the book version of Thomas & Friends was made before The Magic Roundabout television series was created, it still feels very out of place.
- When the gang finds the first diamond, Dylan catches the diamond and lustfully claims "my precious", then "kidding", referencing Lord of the Rings.
- During the camping scene there were added sound effects where Brian is playing a video game, and he mentions Master Chief from Halo, even though he never owned a gaming console in the original series and movie! Also how does Brian use the controller when he doesn't have hands?
- This is especially out of line for Brian to say that, as The Magic Roundabout(as in the 1963 television series that this film is based off of) was made WAY before Halo, or other video game consoles and franchises for that matter, were even created.
- Also how can he fit a home console inside his shell?
- During the temple scene, Dylan mentions Pink Floyd, when he is amazed by the alarm beams and claims that he is Neo from The Matrix when the skeletons rise upon them.
- When Train first appears, he says, "I'm the train, and you're not.", which references Saturday Night Live.
- Ermintrude says to the skeletons, "lookin' all dawn of the dead, and everything" referencing Dawn of the Dead.
- When Zeebadbad demands Doogal to hand over the map, Doogal responds with "Forget it, Frosty!", which references Frosty the Snowman.
- When Ermintrude wakes up Dylan, he suddenly says "What's up, Doc?", which is Bugs Bunny's famous catchphrase.
- The train says, "I think I can, I think I can!", when trying to climb back up the ledge, which is a reference to both Dumbo, and The Little Engine That Could.
- Doogal mentions Hogwarts from Harry Potter when the skeletons merge into a giant skeleton.
- Zeebad mentions the Star Trek convention during the chase scene.
- There are so many random pop-culture references that we wish to add to the list, but all 27, or more are listed in IMDb here or a comparison video on YouTube here.
- Screenwriter Cory Edwards, co-writer of "Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil", is mostly to blame for these unfunny jokes.
- It's very unnecessary to even dub Doogal in the first place, as the original UK version of the movie was already in Englishーwhile it can be argued that US cultural preferences differ to the extent, where a re-dub could be justified, particularly in light of the unfamiliarity of the franchise to general US audiences, the re-dub in question attempts to distance itself from the UK dub by exaggerating its "Americanized" humor and dialogue to an absurd, almost self-parodying degree, indicating the WC's approach to adapting the film to be overly extreme.
- False advertising: The trailer claims the movie was created by Butch Hartman, though he isn’t mentioned, with the line "From the creator of The Fairly OddParents!". This is 100% false since he wrote only 3% of his script for the movie that appears in the final version.
- Stunt casting: The majority of the original British voices have been dubbed over by celebrities, more familiar to the American public, despite most of the original British cast being famous in the United States, solely for target nationality and/or to increase box office returns, and regardless of the extent to which these actors fit their respective roles, such as Kevin Smith, as the infamous flatulent moose. Only two members of the original British cast, Ian McKellen and Kylie Minogue return to reprise their roles.
- However, Minogue decided to re-dub her role with an American accent, while McKellen remained the only character, whose voice was unchanged.
- Speaking of McKellen, it's possible that the production crew re-used dialogue from the original British version, because in the scene, where Zebedee explains Zeebad's motives, he says the word, "roundabout", but most of the characters say the American term "carousel" instead.
- However, Minogue decided to re-dub her role with an American accent, while McKellen remained the only character, whose voice was unchanged.
- It has no sense of pacing, similar to The Amazing Spiez!.
- In the original version of the film, some characters like the train and the moose barely speak. But in this movie, they were given voices solely to provide Kevin Smith and Chevy Chase cameo appearances, also in the original United Kingdom version, the moose did not talk, but the train could do so.
- The lip-syncing is very poor, and there are moments where there's added dialogue in scenes, where characters don't even speak, like for example, in the Mr. Blue Sky sequence, Brian says, "Hey! It's Doogal, just in time for the picnic, of course!", however, if one looks closely, they can see that he doesn't move his mouth at all, this is because in the original version, the sequence is mostly silent, aside from Ermintrude singing a part of the song, meaning there was no need to add dialogue there.
- Terrible voice acting, even from famous actors such as Jimmy Fallon, Whoopi Goldberg, and Jon Stewart. There's also barely any enthusiasm in the cast, because of how dead they sound, even for a CGI-animated movie. Almost none of them were even trying, especially the US actor Jon Stewart, who plays Zeebad, the main villain of the film, who sounds bored instead of villainous.
- On a related note, the voice of Doogal, provided by Daniel Tay, shockingly sounds nothing like Robbie Williams. Also, why would Doogal need the voice of a child?
- In the US trailer of the movie, they kept Doogal's original voice, but not in the actual movie.
- On a related note, the voice of Doogal, provided by Daniel Tay, shockingly sounds nothing like Robbie Williams. Also, why would Doogal need the voice of a child?
- Some of the characters are dumbed down in this dub. For example, Doogal is depicted as a fat cowardly idiot who only cares about sweets and candy, and Ermintrude has a sassy personality similar to that of her US dub actress, Whoopi Goldberg, instead of a mature one.
- Many scenes and bits were cut, and moved around in this version for continuity. For example,
- A post-credit scene showing Zeebad in his prison was removed from the American version for unknown reasons, thus leaving Zeebad's fate unknown.
- Doogal's nightmare sequence of himself and Florence in a sugar paradise, before Florence duplicates herself and becomes evil was also removed, though to be fair, this is most likely due to it being scary for kids.
- Live footage of the American actors recording for the film was added to the end credits.
- The sequence of Doogal playing with Florence and his friends which features the song, "Mr. Blue Sky" by Electric Light Orchestra was moved from the halfway point of the film to the very end, thus making the ending a bit more involved and happy, makes it last way too long.
- Every shot that involved Zeebad's ice fortress was also cut from this version of the movie. Glimpses of the fort can be seen in the background in a few shots, but it's never shown in full view.
- Poor grasp of the source material, especially for an adaptation, despite American audiences' lack of familiarity with the 1960s television basis.
- Plot hole: It is revealed at the end of the movie that the ice enclosing the carousel could've been cracked through conventional methods, which means Ermintrude breaks the ice with her singing.
Magical Qualities
- Nice soundtrack, with most of the music score carried over from the original version.
- The animation is at least decent, like the original.
- The fight scene between Zebedee and Zeebad is nothing short of awesome.
- On that note, the final battle was pretty epic.
- There are some unintentionally funny moments, such as when Zebedee says "GET THE DI-A-MONDS!" while falling from the ice fortress, and near the end of the volcano scene when Dynlan is trying to figure out how to use the Magic Box, only for Brian, Ermintrude and even Doogal to sarcastic stare at him and yell, "Just. Press. THE BUTTON!!!", at Dylan
- The film is far superior in French and British English. It also has Tom Baker (better known as the fourth doctor from Doctor Who) as the voice of Zeebad, instead of Jon Stewart providing Zeebad, despite his relative lack of defined characterization, with a more imposing and menacing presence, absent from Stewart's more comical depiction.
- At least Florence, Basil, Coral, Mr. Rusty, Mr. Grimsdale, and Zebedee don't make lame pop cultural references, unlike everyone else.
- Butch Hartman, who wrote the original draft of the American dub (and also the creator of The Fairly OddParents T.U.F.F. Puppy, Bunsen is a Beast, and Danny Phantom), apologized for ruining the movie, claiming that only 3% of his script appears in the final version, approximately only two lines of dialogue.
- The 2007 revival would save The Magic Roundabout franchise, same can be said for the upcoming 2024 reboot which will bring back the original stop motion designs of the characters.
- As said above, the original French and British dubs of this movie are much better.
Reception
While the original UK-dubbed version received mostly positive reviews, the US-dubbed version has become pretty infamous for its overabundance of pop culture references and flatulence jokes, Butch Hartman revealed in a 2017 interview during the Weinstein scandal and the MeToo and Time's Up movement that his actual script was actually re-written, and even re-recorded, without his consent by Harvey Weinstein and his distribution, and production company The Weinstein Company with a screenplay by Hoodwinked! co-director, Cory Edwards. At least 3% of his actual script made it into the final cut.
Also, unlike the French-British CGI film, which was a success at the box office worldwide, the American version miserably failed at the box office, holding a record for the time having the worst opening week for a computer-animated movie ever, only gaining $3,605,899 on its opening week and $7,417,319 overall, domestically out of its budget of $20 million. The record was later surpassed by 2008's Delgo at $511,920 on its opening week, and $694,782 worldwide against a budget of $40 million.
Trivia
- So far, this is the only film to be produced by Action Synthese.
- The US failure of the movie alongside The UK failure of The Hottie and the Nottie, led to Pathé UK giving up UK distribution rights in 2010, with one of their films, Chatroom, being transferred to the now defunct Revolver Entertainment. The company then began producing biographical films, such as The Iron Lady, Philomena, Pride, Florence Foster Jenkins and Judy, and since then only distributed Pedro Almodóvar's films in the UK, up until its shut down on November 2023.
- Doogal is the first and, so far, the only theatrical film in The Magic Roundabout series.
- This was the final film to be produced by Bolex Brothers before it was acquired by DHX Media.
- A sequel to this film was in development in 2004 by Action Synthese before the film was released. Unfortunately to some, Action Synthese shut down in 2013 and the sequel, along with an animated film adaptation of The Wizard of Oz, and a CGI film of Space Goofs, called Stupid Invaders (not to be confused with the video game of the same name released in 2000), were both canceled.
Reviews
External links
Doogal at the Internet Movie Database
Doogal on Rotten Tomatoes
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