Film Reviews

The Magic Roundabout

• Rating:
• Director:
• Starring: Dany Boon
• Details: UK and Fra/ 90 mins/ (U).

A favourite of children and stoners everyone, The Magic Roundabout gets a less than perfect transition to the big screen in this loud, overpopulated and unwieldy adaptation. As you might expect for a kids' programme, the story is not the most taxing: Bad old Zeebad (voiced by Tom Baker's dulcet tones) has decided that the time is right to stake his claim for the Enchanted Village and sets about turning it into an icy fortress. Of course, this isn't the best news that the inhabitants have heard so a gang of them, including Brian the Snail (Jim Broadbent), Ermintrude the cow (Joanna Lumley) Dylan the rabbit (Bill Nighy) and Dougal the dog (Robbie Williams), have to find three magic stones to defeat the nefarious Zeebad and restore the equilibrium.
In the rush to give the animation a major revamp, The Magic Roundabout seems to have lost something of its original appeal. Although the original's charm lay in the gentle meanderings of its characters, the filmmakers seem to be under the impression that the exaggeration of characters' personalities is the only way to win over an older, more jaded audience, while kids unfamiliar with the history of the programme are expected to engage with the hi-energy, kinetic storyline. That The Magic Roundabout fails to satisfy either demographic is perhaps inevitable, but not unexpected.

Review by Garreth Murphy