Doogal (2006) User Reviews (131)

RE-RECORDED WITH AN American CAST

[karlpaananen · 2/10 · 27 February 2006]

AAARGH!!! Nobody told me that this U.S. version had been re-recorded WITH AN American CAST!!!!! Lines were definitely changed. The American cast always said "Carousel" instead of "Roundabout". I think that some references to "sugar" were changed to "candy" or "caramels".

The actors kept from the UK version of this movie (released under the title "THE MAGIC ROUNDABOUT") were Judi Dench as the narrator, Ian McKellen as Zebedee and Kylie Minogue as Florence. All the other roles were substituted with the voices of American actors.

The kid who speaks Doogal (why did they change the spelling of this from "Dougal"?) is high pitched and annoying. Substituting the voice of Whoopi Goldberg for the voice of Joanna Lumley (Ermintrude the cow) was a bit strange. But what I thought was unforgivable was substituting the voice of Jon Stewart ("The Daily Show") for that of Tom Baker ("Doctor Who" (and many other roles)). This was the role of "Zeebad" the villainous enemy of Zebedee. There's even a scene where Zeebad and Zebedee have a wizardly duel, like Saruman and Gandalf in Lord of the Rings. But instead of Tom Baker facing Ian McKellen, it's Jon "The Daily Show" Stewart!!! Find a way to see the version with the British cast. Skip the one with the American cast.

Karl

Full of clichés

[kidzwrtr · 2/10 · 13 March 2006]

My son is 5.5 years old and he loved it. That being said, it's got probably the most clichés of anything I've seen in recent years. The story was completely predictable. I chuckled a couple of times, mostly in response to Jon Stewart's character, Zee-bad. The audience only really laughed in response to the flatulent moose. The rest were either shallow or a mish-mash of styles. It was as though the writers couldn't keep a straight thought in their respective heads and just strung together various pop culture references the kids would miss and parents unfortunately would get. Despite my willingness to sit through most anything 2-3 times for my son, I had to put my foot down on this one. P.S. My son's first comment was, "why doesn't Doogal have the same voice as in the commercials?" It just went down from there.

Run away...run very far away

[isyllt · 3/10 · 19 April 2006]

if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all, right? well...I have ONE nice thing to say...some of the pop culture references in this movie were fun.

Beyond that. This movie is atrocious. I was hoping for something fun; a good solid kids movie, complete with solid moral grounding.

All my son learned from this movie is, "if you make a mistake...LIE. take other people with you to solve your problem and let THEM do all the work (while you lounge around), make things harder for them, and then YOU take all the credit for their hard work."

I dislike SharkBoy and Lavagirl, but through all its eye-jarring visuals and mind-numbing plot...at least it has some morally redeeming qualities, and my kid walks away having learned a little something about doing the right thing, no matter how hard.

Doogal has NONE of that....

lazy movie. lazy plotting. lazy acting. lazy script. lazy thought.

If I never see this movie again, my life will be better for it.

Doogal: Huge Disappointment

[sonnetlove2004 · 1/10 · 13 March 2006]

I'm always looking for a cute movie for my 6 year old son and the characters in the Doogal movie trailer looked adorable. Not to mention a cast of Chevy Chase, Jon Stewart and Whoopi Goldberg, how could one go wrong. Boy was I disappointed. It was terrible. I can't remember the last time I saw a movie this bad. Not only did the characters lack any personality whatsoever, the plot relied solely on corny one-liners referencing countless movies and television shows in every scene. Most of which, children didn't understand and parents just didn't find funny. The theater was empty and those that decided to stay until the end hardly laughed. Do yourself a favor and pass this movie up. Don't even buy the DVD.

To be avoided at all costs!

[rcrtod · 1/10 · 8 April 2006]

I have been seeing films in theaters for over 50 years and this is only the second time I actually walked out during the movie. I am a big fan of quality animated films, from the early Disney up to the more recent Ice Age, Hoodwinked, Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, etc., and the wonderful Miyazaki films. I thought, with this cast it has to be good. I mean it has Dame Judy Dench, William H. Macy, Whoopie Goldberg. All actors I greatly admire. Unfortunately, the film has absolutely no redeeming qualities whatsoever. There is no humor, adventure, interesting characters or anything else that would keep one interested. I kept saying to myself, it has to get better, but it never did. I finally had enough and walked out. I was not the only one to do so.

1st Razzie of 2006

[foight · 1/10 · 26 February 2006]

Rip-off plot was not funny at all. The dog was completely selfish and unlikeable. The voices(including the English ones left in the film after the dubbing) have no inflection and tone. The talent of Whoopi Goldberg was completely wasted on this "dog" of a movie. You know that the movie is bad when as an adult the only thing mildly amusing is a moose passing gas. There is no fun in this movie, my kids (age 4 and 7) were bored and they are not picky. Valient was a five star masterpiece compared to this schlock. It was an hour and a half of my life I will never get back! I will not go to another Weinstein animated film unless it has topped the charts for weeks - this is not even straight to video quality. Do not waste your hard earned money on this. Even if the kids are dying to see it, wait until it hits video stores next week and put it on while you are vacuuming.

worst kids' movie of all times

[wamole · 1/10 · 26 February 2006]

I've found that attending movies with my kids is almost always great fun. Movies that I wouldn't be caught dead watching otherwise are somehow not so bad when the kids are there. In one case, a movie I had seen by myself and been completely bored was actually a lot of my fun watching with my 7 yr old son later.

Doogal has no redeeming value whatsoever. The celebrity voices provide zero added value - Jon Stewart is at best, OK. The rest are definite negatives which I have never seen before. The plot is transparently thin, the characters are extremely weak, and not a single laugh out loud in the entire theater, although it was almost empty on the second day.

Not even a DVD rental. KEEP AWAY!

An insult to the people behind The Magic Roundabout

[Zerbey · 1/10 · 28 May 2006]

Anyone who, like me, assumed this was a modern remake of The Magic Roundabout will be sorely mistaken. The Magic Roundabout was a charming little stop-motion animation from the 1970s that I have loved since childhood (even if the creators where obviously smoking something!).

This movie bears no resemblance to that original animation, apart from lifting the character names. The rest is frankly the worst children's animation I have ever seen. Even Jon Stewart cannot save this turkey (the only reason I even bothered watching it).

Avoid at all costs, it deserves to be in the bottom 100. Go buy a DVD of the original series instead!

boring............

[stinkyuu · 1/10 · 1 May 2006]

This was the all-time boring est movie I have ever seen in my short life. The plot line..boring..the jokes..boring..the animals..boring. This movie wasn't even on a long time in the theaters. It would have been better if it was a made for t.v. I would have respected it more and give it 2 stars. It definitely didn't have any qualities for a theatric movie. When I went to the theaters, that was the first time I actually wanted to leave after 10 minutes of watching it.

I can't believe the creators of the 'Fairly Odd Parents' did such an awful job on this movie. And I don't even like the odd parents. I expected more of this movie. I am very aware that this movie was made for little children. But that doesn't mean that older and adults can't say that they didn't like this movie.

At least I got some sleep in the theater! No offense to anyone who like this movie.

Awful for the Whole Family

[kfarooque · 1/10 · 5 June 2006]

This is a poor choice for kids, poor choice for adults, and poor choice for everyone in between. The movie simply has no appeal to -anyone-. I'd hold Doogal up as a shining example that a string of great voices does not a good animated film make.

For children, I can't see the appeal. The handful of jokes in the movie are mostly pop-culture references--most of which will probably sail right over kids' heads--and overly predictable gags throughout. Even then, the jokes that do remain aren't particularly funny: a skeleton mentions "Pirates of the Caribbean" by name and that's it, or one of the characters quotes a line from Pulp Fiction during what's supposed to be a sad moment.

For adults, I definitely don't see the appeal. Besides the trite jokes, the plot is so predictable and irritating that it grates on one's nerves. There is a -bit- of redemption with being able to hear Ian McKellan and Jon Stewarts' voices, but their lines are so awful that it just begs the question of what possessed them to bother with Doogal in the first place. Beyond that, the characters themselves are very flat, all of which have stock personalities, and there is absolutely zero development of any of them, not even to reflect the 'moral of the story'.

There is no highlight to this movie whatsoever. It's not even worth a Netflix rental. Avoid it altogether and save yourself the 85 minutes. KF

Best movie I have ever watched

[mikiemikehall · 10/10 · 18 January 2019]

This movie is actually 😍. If you haven't watched it you need to reconsider

What is there to summarize?

[badgerboy97 · 9 October 2007]

Now, let me start by saying I normally enjoy animated movies. They're refreshing, fun and a nice change of pace from the drugs/sex/violence/vulgarity of the majority of movies out there. Don't get me wrong, I like those things in movies, as well but sometimes you need a break from that.

With that said, Doogal was terrible. I didn't even know who to root for in this sorry excuse for animated fun. Lots of stars in the cast, so you'd think they'd put more into the writing. They re-used several jokes, many fart/burp jokes which even kids tire of. I didn't care about any of the characters and couldn't even tell why I should be cheering for the good/evil! It was nice to, like I said, watch something pure and non-offensive. But people making animated movies these days pay all their attention to graphics and smooth scene transition than they do to story lines and this movie was the perfect example. However, even THAT didn't work in this movie. The graphics seemed choppy and forced, almost as though I was "watching" a video game.

I'm no kid, so I can't really tell if a kid would enjoy this movie or not, but I'm assuming even the smartest of kids between the ages of 2-10 would be yawning half way through asking if it was almost over yet.

Looking for some good recent animation? Stay away from this one. Hoodwinked, Wallace & Gromit, etc. at least make an attempt at decent jokes and clever characters. Doogal was a distraction at best.

I liked it

[intelboy · 7/10 · 26 February 2006]

This is a children's story, and has children values. This is not for the teen-year-old. I have a very young child, he loved it, kept him interested throughout the movie. I kinda found out the characters fun, the Moose was very cool. The animation. was old school, very nice to see. But not having a background on the characters was at first daunting, my son didn't have a problem. Although it did try to add 'adult' humor, it was very easy to spot. I gave it a good vote because my son talked about it all day long, and that is what is important? this tale is good, and not as scary that my child wouldn't be up with nightmares. The actors voice were very well, and you could tell that they were having fun in their roles.

I would kick that dog if I could

[Isaiah53-1 · 1/10 · 21 March 2006]

Seriously, this is possibly the worst animated feature of all time. Not only is the story LAME, but it jumps around way too much. There is absolutely no character development whatsoever. The voice acting is horrendous; the voices don't fit the characters at all. You would think with Jimmy Fallon and Whoopi Goldberg, the movie would be somewhat amusing…it was just the opposite. I found myself wanting to kick that stupid little dog right in the face. He is obnoxious and condescending. If I hadn't fallen asleep half way through, the entire experience would have been a waste. I would rather watch Ben Affleck as Hamlet for a month straight, then see this "movie" one more time. Don't waste your time…don't waste your money and don't insult your kids by making them choke through this mess.

Eisner could have been right with this crap on a stick

[daisydukenator · 1/10 · 27 February 2006]

This was possibly the worst movie I have ever seen. It makes dukes of hazards look like Gone With The Wind.

The only time I laughed at the movie was from relief, when it ended. The jokes in the movie were horrible. For example, when skeletons came out of the ground they said "Pirates of the Carribian." Thats it. WHAT? This movie was released by the weinstien brothers who were the head of mirimax. Michael Eisner fired them a few years ago, I am starting to think that this was a good idea, because even Eisner would not release stink like this.

Also, the dubbing was horrible. There was a moose in the movie, whose mouth did not move, but he still spoke. Don't see this movie, it sucks.

Was a big waste of time

[jpates-1 · 3/10 · 26 February 2006]

After coming fresh off of a pretty good movie with Hoodwinked, something fell totally apart when it came to this movie. This is the first movie in a LONG time where I was constantly checking my watch to see if it was almost over. And at a short 85 minutes, that is pretty sad.

Let me say a couple good things about the movie. The pre-movie cartoon was really funny. The animation kept the cute, and simplistic CGI style found in Hoodwinked.

Unfortunately, there was a lot of bad parts to the movie. The thing that bothered me the most were the number of puns and pop references. I think it is good when they are used, but they went overboard. They didn't always even fit in with the situation. I would have to say, they were almost forced. Then the references would be above most of the 'target' audience. Another problem is that I don't care much for 'fart' jokes. Unfortunately, about the only time I really heard any laughter from the kids in the audience was when a flatulent character was on screen. Even the story was pretty weak.

It was a shame considering that this movie had such a great cast. But I would have to recommend avoiding this movie unless there is absolutely nothing left to watch that you can take a kid to.

The key to comedy is timing

[jeffhowardmeade · 1/10 · 24 February 2006]

Warning: No Spoilers ahead. You can't spoil what is already totally rotten.

The key to comedy is timing, folks. You can't take what might have been a funny line (we'll never know now, will we?), and cram it together so it fits (loosely) with the vague movements of the character's mouths. It's painful to watch, really. I would have walked out, but my boys (2 and 4) were being quiet, which doesn't happen often. They weren't enthralled, mind you, they were BORED. I kept hoping for them to start acting up, so I could have an excuse to take them out of the theater! I wonder, if we HAD walked out, would they have bothered to continue showing the film, considering we were the only ones watching? The timing of the humor is so badly botched, that even the producers of the teaser trailer edited it to make it work better. Just some examples: "Sorry, the brave knight couldn't make it." It made me think Jon Stewart's voice would be given to the title character, but it wasn't. The real voice of the pooch is a kid. Why change this? Because if trailer audiences heard the voice they really gave the dog, they would stay away. Oh, wait, they seem to be staying away anyway. Another example: The rabbit picks up a gem stone and says "my preciousss... The trailer cut away from the bunny, caught a glimpse of the rest of the group gasping, then back to the rabbit, who says "just kidding." In the film version, the rabbit says something like "mypreciousjustkidding." It was as bad, if not worse, than the time the smurf movie used one voice for all those little blue rodents, rather than the various ones already being used for the TV series. What a cheat! It was like a mystery-science-theater-3000 version, only I didn't see anyone sitting in the front row of our theater. Oh, yeah, and it wasn't funny. Really, folks, I'm a movie lover, and I HATED this. I loved Hoodwinked, even when nobody else did, so that tells you something. I'm actually going to wait for the DVD and hope it has the original language track with subtitles. But even without subtitles, even if it's in a language I don't speak, it'll probably be more enjoyable to watch. SHAME ON YOU, WEINSTEINS!

Simple advice- Avoid the re-dubbed version and try to find the original British film

[dbborroughs · 1/10 · 11 November 2006]

Let me make this simple:This film should be avoided. Go find the original version of this film called the Magic Roundabout that has a great collection of English actors doing voices. Here they've changed it all around so that its a bunch of actors pretending to act for a pay check. its awful. Really it is, the difference is like night and day. This is just a good little film ruined by attempts to making it acceptable for American audiences. On top of that the script was reworded so that it was hip and happening and now. The casting sounds good, in theory, but when you consider that they gave a voice to the moose, who's lips never move and never spoke in the original version you know you're in trouble. I know I've always wanted to hear Kevin Smith say with almost no emotion "oh look Blue Man Group is in town".

One of the worst films of the year. (which is not the case of the original version)

Rated G: No one over the age of 2 allowed

[xxbrennan · 1/10 · 25 February 2006]

If you are over the age of 2, I do not suggest going to this movie, unless your kids force you under knife and gun. After many successful animated movies for the ENTIRE family, which include Hoodwinked, Shrek, A Bug's Life, Finding Nemo, Shark Tale, and even Monsters INC., this falls short of "Family Friendly". This is the type of movie that should go straight to DVD and be bought by families with 2 and 3 year olds to watch when they have a baby sitter. It clearly falls under the same league as Sesame Street and *gasp* Barney.

I went with my family, and we only watched 15 minutes of it before changing our plans and seeing Firewall. Luckily, the manager had no problem if we had watched under 30 minutes of the movie. Within the 15 minutes I saw, there was bad animation (comparable to Casper's Haunted Christmas and other straight to DVD movies) and horrible jokes. It is the kind of movie where there is laughter from 2 year olds because the cow was singing opera (which hurt my eardrums) and a wagon flying around.

If you plan on seeing this movie, be sure to bring some earplugs and a sleeping pill to take a nice 1 and a half hour nap, if you can sleep through the laughter of the 2 year olds. Do something for yourself and hire a babysitter to take your children, but be sure to pay them extra.

Oh dear God, why?

[ChrisSpartan117 · 1/10 · 3 July 2008]

Where do I begin with this. Where do I begin. Now, keep in mind I was forced to see this when it came out, since I was 14 at the time with a 3-year-old brother, so why not? I mean, I honestly went into the theater with optimistic expectations, hoping for an OK-to-decent film. In fact, I enjoyed the short right before the film a little bit. But then the film begins. When I heard that some human girl was friends with some stuffed animals, I expected something along the lines of Toy Story, you know, they just sit there, then spring to life when no one's around....then the film shows Doogal sneaking up to his owner....

What happened afterward scarred me for life. This film still brings back awful memories 2 years after I saw it. I mean, the story's awful. In a nutshell, there's some carousal ride at the center of town, home to a bunch of children and stuffed animals, where some evil spring guy lives, and once Doogal sets him free, the town is freezed up, trapping the children, including Doogal's owner, and a snail just randomly says the stuffed animals need 3 crystals to stop him. No explanation of why the spring guy was put in a carousal, more importantly why that same carousal is STILL BEING USED when there's some bad guy in there, and why the 3 crystals are needed, or how they came into existence. What a bunch of plot holes for a film, and that's in the first 20 minutes. We're in for a good movie, ladies and gentlemen!

Now, I'll be honest, my memory is a little fuzzy of what happens next, but I remember a slew of bad pop culture jokes that makes DreamWorks' references seem restrained in comparison, the group of stuffed animals nearly getting a crystal until Doogal messes it up, and a bunch of farting jokes, and when I saw it, the only jokes I heard any laughter in the theater were from the farting jokes, which is always a bad sign if that's the only joke type that even gets a chuckle.

Now, some people know that this film was originally called The Magic Roundabout in the UK, based off of a cartoon series I believe, with, obviously, British actors, but when it came to the US in its current title, it was re-dubbed with celebrity actors, like Whoopi Goldberg and Jon Stewart, and I have to say, Jon Stewart is sadly the best actor here, with the other actors' talents going to waste here. I know these aren't the most helpless of actors, but you have to wonder what inspired them to do something like this.

In conclusion, this is a really bad film from beginning to end, even if its audience was for kids, that's not a good excuse when you consider some of Dreamworks and Pixar's works. I know this isn't the worst movie of all time, but it's the worst I've seen, and I think I would explode if I saw anything worse than this piece of crap.

Basically a tale of a dog and his random group of extremely undeveloped, uninteresting friends continuously fight a spring person for some diamonds.

[takelly · 1/10 · 24 February 2006]

First of all I expected something somewhat funny given the members of the cast. It turns out that this is probably the worst movie I have ever seen and I'm not just saying that because I am not a little kid because I love Disney movies and this was absolutely terrible. There was no character development or story and the animated mouths did not match the words at all. The jokes were based on horrible puns or lines stolen straight out of other movies. Above all I am convinced that the movie was made in less than a month total and the actors were all working a grand total of one day on this movie. Despite the fact that it is based on some super cool original series it was still awful. The thing about this movie that made me laugh more than anything else is that when I went to go see it there was absolutely nobody in the theater, it was completely empty, I was laying down across theater seats. It's impossible for me to understand how the creators of this abomination conviced so many funny or talented actors to jump on and slap their names all over this steaming pile of crap.

This is so Sexy.

[callofgameingpro · 10/10 · 25 July 2015]

Why would you bash this beautiful film. GO DIE IF YOU HATE THIS! There's so much great stuff like the main character dongle. He shows progression. At the star he just your average porn star then he becomes a porn director and steals the show. Then there's the infamous scene where dongle kill his brother for stealing his acting roll in... Aladdin and the 40 Horny Genie Whores. Man this is amazing.

Lets address a few fools one guy says this is boring. Well the fact your still alive is boring.

Dongle is my favorite porn star and porn star movie documentary thing anything less then a ten out of ten would be racist.

I still don't believe it...

[Astro_Nut · 21 July 2008]

It was on TV last night, and I thought, "I heard it was bad, but i'll watch it for the heck of it..."

My mistake.

The story is about a dog who I instantly disliked. He nearly ran a poor man off the road to steal candy, trapped the only person who cares for him in a cold death trap, that HE caused. And not only that, released an evil wizard. That's another thing, who in their right mind would trap a insane murderer IN A BLOODY ROUNDABOUT?!?! Well, anyway, 10 minutes into the film, dougal and a bunch characters we don't know anything about go off to save the world. Where's the substance?? No child could get this movie. I honestly could not watch the rest and left Dougal to be interrogated by Zeebad. Hopefully, Zeebad will realize where he is and teleport out of this movie.

2/10

I Compared It To The Scary Movie Trilogy

[drummerdude2008 · 7/10 · 26 February 2006]

I took my brother to see the movie. The first ten minuets was hell, but then it got better. They took ideas from other movies (ie. scary movie). I spotted out The Mummy Returns, The Apperntice, Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, King Kong, Indiana Jones, Matrix, Pirates of the Caribbean, and a few others. This is what made the movie interesting. They took rated PG, PG-13, and R movies and made it G rated. Just because I spotted these spots in the movies, it caught my interest, but because all of these movies are in one, I think the older crowds would understand it. They picked some of the right actors and actresses to play in this movie. I give it a 7.

Doogal: One of the worst kids films ever made.

[Electricbassguy · 2/10 · 26 February 2006]

There seems to be a relaxing of standards when it comes to making children's films, especially CGI cartoons. As long as it has goofy animal characters, some "inside" jokes for the adults, and is 90 minutes or less, it will get green-lighted by any studio and run a profit.

Yet this formula in no way guarantees a good movie, and Doogal is no exception. It is perhaps one of the worst kids film ever made. Its "heroes" are a candy-addict dog named Doogal, Brian the Snail, a hippie rabbit, and an opera-singing cow. None of these characters are especially funny or charming, and the voice acting done here, despite all the big names, is mediocre and simply gives the characters a voice without adding anything extra to the movie.

The plot is simplistic and boring, even with the lower standards set for children's films. Doogal ends up crashing a candy cart into a carousel and this releases an evil ice mage, and Doogal and his friends must find the three diamonds before the evil mage does.

Then, the movie falters even more. More than half of the jokes it attempts are REFERENCES to other much better movies and TV series, such as Lord of the Rings, The Matrix, Harry Potter, and Star Trek. And what makes this so offensive is that the jokes are not even remotely funny to anyone with an IQ above 30. For example, the good and evil wizards are little clowns on springs. The evil one claims he is: "The lord of the springs."

Also, the target audience of young children will not understand these movie references, as they are targeted at their parents. Yet the problem with these "adult jokes" is that they are hardly jokes. Movies such as Shrek or Madagascar were able to smoothly add hilarious adult humor into their movies, yet Doogal fails miserably.

If this sort of movie can make it into theaters, then I should seriously start writing a screenplay. I could whip something better in a day.

Don't insult your kids intelligence by buying into the robotic parent-thought of seeing every G-rated movie because it is for kids. Here's a list of much better movies still playing at theaters:

Pink Panther Narnia Eight Below Hoodwinked (could be hard to find) Shaggy Dog (coming in two weeks.)

And countless ones are on DVD and TV. Skip Doogal for your sanity. Your kids will thank you as well.