People are voting emotionally.

Must See Movie...

It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

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. The animation is quite pleasant. The soft colours, simple & clean animation, and colourful scenes make it quite visually appealing to watch. Dialogs are easy to understand, and there are quite a few lines that got me laughing. My favourite line is "This guy is seriously messing with my karma", which is something I totally did not expect in a kids' film! The music is quite good, the ending theme song is a Kylie Minogue song that I have never heard of! Putting the intended young audience into context, I think this film deserves more than the current rating on IMDb.

Let's get clear with two things first: 1. I have not seen anything of the original show so my childhood could not be ruined by this movie. 2. This is a movie for children and children only. 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). If I was a kid, I would have loved this movie. As an adult I see it's a great and spectacular children's movie.

SPOILERS In the 1970s, the parents of future main screen English actress Emma Thompson, discovered a little French cartoon which they brought across the English Channel. 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. As a result of it's success, if you skip forward to 2005 and low and behold, we finally have a film version. Featuring major British actors plus two famous singers, this modern day version is a CGI extravaganza which suffers from one fatal flaw. It's awful. Weak and unimaginative, it contains multiple film, music and drug references without ever actually making us laugh. It could be argued that children will love it, and that's entirely possible, but there are just so many lines involved which children wouldn't understand that questions have to be raised about the chosen market audience. 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). Turning the world to ice, ZeeBad requires three crystals to turn the Sun to ice. With Dougal and friends also after the crystals however, this soon becomes a race against time.It's hard to know where to start when chastising this abomination of modern cinema. 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 cartoons aimed at young children, you do have a degree of this sweet natured garbage, but 'The Magic Roundabout' just surpasses all acceptable levels. It's cheap, it's nasty and it really is so sickening that you find yourself wanting to vomit for the full eighty minutes.Drug references are consistent too. In the original series, the characters were not actually meant to be on drugs. These constant speculations came afterwards and were forever denied by the English writers. In the film though, it's like the writers know about this gossip and intentionally put in references. Whether it's Dylan wanting to save the grass or Dougal's sugar addiction, the presence of drugs never seem particularly far away. These links, whilst in a way slightly impressive in a tribute sort of way, are far too overplayed and would pass over anyones head who had no idea about the original series. Ironically despite the constant references, nobody ever really shows signs of being high (except the forever stoned Dylan of course). Whilst this is obviously a good thing since this is a children's film, it does serve as an interesting dilemma. In the 1970s when the characters were all drugged up, they were fun to watch, now after the Millennium, they've cleaned up their act and are remarkably boring. If anything, this film serves as the ultimate advert for drug usage. 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. It stands there proudly to this day. Updated to the 2000s though, the entire premise fails to hold water in the modern world. Awkward and unfunny, badly written and badly acted, this film is really not worth your effort. A horrible waste of eighty minutes, it should never have been made and it is an abomination of the genre of animation. Avoid.

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. Yes, some brave filmmakers have taken on the daunting task of updating the British teatime favourite (originally from France) which was once the 2nd most popular show on the BBC – behind the news!! How on earth could this work? And who invited the lovely Kylie to not only voice Florence but also knock out a catchy Magic Roundabout single for the soundtrack? A genius team of Dave Borthwic, Jean Duval and Frank Passingham actually – and they've pulled off a minor miracle here. 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. Step up some unlikely heroes, Brian, Ermintrude, Dylan and Dougal to challenge the chill by recovering three magic diamonds. Okay, so the plot might as well have been from a computer game and it is all a bit far removed from the genteel original but it's just mad to see Dougal and crew trekking over fiery volcanoes, jungle temples and snow-capped mountains. Plus McKellen manages to instill the spirit of Gandalf into Zebedee and even gets a heroic 'fall from a high pass' scene after battling his icy nemesis Zeebadee. 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. What can I say? I was amazed at how much I enjoyed this slight bit of nonsense, maybe it was sheer nostalgia but then my son Luke loved it too which I wasn't expecting.