"DOOGAL" (2006) (voices of Daniel Tay, Jon Stewart) (G)
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QUICK TAKE:
Children's Animated Adventure: A group of animal friends sets out to retrieve three enchanted diamonds so they can stop an evil wizard from freezing the entire world.
PLOT:
In a faraway land, and according to our narrator (voice of JUDI DENCH), all is good and happy. Doogal the dog (voice of DANIEL TAY) and human girl Florence (voice of KYLIE MINOGUE) are best friends, Ermintrude (voice of WHOOPI GOLDBERG) the cow wants to be an opera singer, Dylan the rabbit (voice of JIMMY FALLON) is a laid back guitarist, and snail Brian (voice of WILLIAM H. MACY) can barely contain his hidden affection for Ermintrude.
But then Doogal's obsession with candy gets the better of him, setting off a chain reaction that ends up freeing evil spring wizard Zeebad (voice of JON STEWART) from the town's magic carousel. He immediately freezes the carousel and takes adornment Soldier Sam (voice of BILL HADER) from the top of it before escaping.
Good wizard Zebedee (voice of IAN MCKELLEN), who previously imprisoned Zeebad in the carousel, informs the group that they must find three enchanted diamonds in order to stop Zeebad from taking over and freezing the entire world. And time is of the essence since Florence and a few other kids are stuck inside the frozen carousel, and it's getting colder for them by the minute.
Getting a ride from the magic Train (voice of CHEVY CHASE) and occasionally encountering a flatulent Moose (voice of KEVIN SMITH), the quartet of animals then sets out to retrieve the diamonds and stop Zeebad before it's too late.
OUR TAKE: 3 out of 10
Based on the British stop-motion animated TV series "The Magic Roundabout," this film was released last year in England (to little fanfare) and now hits U.S. shores in an "Americanized" and re-titled version. Gone are some well-known English performers providing some of the vocal talent. But their replacements (along with the presumably altered cultural references) can't do much to save this production.
While younger kids will likely be distracted by the bright colors and lively action, and despite an eclectic collection of bits presumably designed to amuse adults (ranging from a very old Van Halen song to MC Hammer, Pulp Fiction, Ray Harryhausen, Blue Man Group, Donald Trump and even "Mad Money's signature "Booyah!" exclamation), the film is a boring affair that, like its Weinstein staple mate "Hoodwinked," sports less than state of the art special effects.
Blessedly short at around 80 minutes, the film is still something of a chore for all but the littlest eyes to sit through, especially in the computer-animated world dominated by Pixar's far superior offerings. The Weinstein Company did not screen this film in advance for critics before it opened, so we're still working on the final review
Reviewed February 24, 2006 / Posted February 24, 2006
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