The Magic Roundabout (2007)

The Magic Roundabout (2007)
I wish it was time for bed, man.
Genre: Children's animation Running Time: 11 minutes Country: France United Kingdom Release Date: 2007 - 2010 Network(s): Nick Jr. M6 Created by: Graham Ralph Distributed by: Action Synthese Starring: David Holt Sue Elliot-Nicholls Emma Tate Jimmy Hibbert Wayne Forester Seasons: 2 Episodes: 104

The Magic Roundabout is a 2007-2010 British-French animated television series produced by the French animation studio Action Synthese with collaboration of Films Action, Ellipsanime and Play Production with M6, Nickelodeon UK, Disney Television France and ZDF participating. The series was directed by Graham Ralph of Silver Fox Films and produced by Theresa Plummer Andrews. It aired on Nick Jr. from 2007 until 2010 with two seasons produced with 52 episodes for each season. It is a revival of the original 1963 television series of the same name.

Why It Rocks

1. It stays faithful to the original series and thankfully, not the horrid American dub of the movie where the characters still retain their original personalities, albeit with some modifications.
   • Dougal is still a temperamental and loyal dog, but he is usually grumpy. Like in the original series, Dougal still cares dearly for Florence and would do anything to help her.
   • Florence is still a kind-hearted and polite young girl who is very friendly to everyone and provides help to those who need it. She still looks out for Dougal and would try to help him realise his wrong actions in any episode.
   • Zebedee is still summoned to help any of the characters with their problems, but although he has the tendency to get into some mischief, he plays tricks on the other characters to teach them a lesson for their actions. In addition, he speaks to the viewers of what will happen in the episode at the beginning and sometimes during the episode.
   • Brian is still cheerful and happy-go-lucky, but he has interest in reading and gravels. Although he and Dougal may butt heads with each other, they still work together as good vitriolic friends.
   • Ermintrude is no longer ditzy, but still has her opera-singing personality and would spend her time dancing and singing, as well as trying to help people out in some episodes.
   • Dylan still has his hippy-like personality and is usually seen outside his burrow playing his guitar, before he would often drift off to sleep from time to time. At the end of each episode where Zebedee throws a party when all the problems are solved, Dylan, droopily says "I wish it was time for bed, man." (or just simply "I wish it was time for bed." in the second season) before he drifts off to sleep.
2. The episodes' runtime is extended from 5 minutes to 11 minutes to allow more fun and more screen time for Dougal and his friends.
3. Decent voice acting from David Holt (Dougal and Brian), Sue Elliot-Nicholls (Florence), Emma Tate (Ermintrude), Jimmy Hibbert (Dylan, Mr. Rusty and Mr. McHenry) and Wayne Forester (Zebedee, Mr. Grimsdale and Fly).
4. Decent and superb CGI animation, for 2007 standards, which was produced by the same animation studio that produced the 2005 film. It even reuses the CGI designs of the characters from the film.
5. The episodes provide good morals for kids, like taking a bath as it is good hygiene (Dougal's Bad Smell Day), never take anything important from machinery (The Thingy), be careful what you wish for (The Wishing Tree) and never leave litter lying around (Litterbugs).
6. Like the original series, it provides many funny moments, with some slapstick moments.
7. The characters from the original show are still likeable and charming in their own ways.
8. While Soldier Sam and Mr. Grimsdale return from the film for the revival series as supporting characters, the show introduced other new characters: Dougal's companion Fly and two of Dougal's relatives, his Australian cousin Digger and his overbearing and bossy Auntie Primrose where Digger only appears in Season 1 episodes "The Thingy" (as a cameo) and "Digger!" whilst Primrose only appears in Season 2 episodes "Auntie Primrose" and "Auntie Primrose Strikes Again!".
9. Mr. McHenry returns for the series albeit with a redesign, as he was completely absent and replaced by Mr. Grimsdale in the 2005 film.

Bad Qualities

1. While Zebedee still helps to solve problems, he can be annoying in most episodes as he was flanderized as a trickster where he usually gets into mischief and deliberately plays tricks on his friends (which was one of his traits from the French version of the original series), but he does get found out in the end by everyone.
2. Even though it remains faithful to the original series, it sometimes may lack the charm that the original series had.
3. Some of the episodes can get repetitive at times where it involves Zebedee secretly playing a trick on anyone deliberately and doesn't get found out until the end.

Trivia

• Jimmy Hibbert, who is one of the writers of the episodes, was one of the only actors from the 2005 film to reprise his role as Mr. Rusty, but now respectively provides the voices of Dylan and Mr. McHenry.
• A trailer of the cancelled animated film of "Stupid Invaders" makes a cameo in the episode "Who's Taken the Moon?". In the scene where Dylan is sitting in his burrow feeling depressed, a snippet of the trailer is seen on Dylan's TV set.
• Because of the dubious nutritional value at the time, Dougal's trademark diet of eating sugar had to be removed in the reboot series and his diet instead now has him eating pies or chewing bones.
• The development and the production of the 52 episodes in the first season took roughly a year and a half to be completed.

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