The Magic Roundabout

My youngest had his birthday party this weekend and we took him and a friend to see Doogal at the local second-run theatre. Not being at all familiar with the history of these characters, I came out of it thinking that it was, perhaps, the most bizarre animated film I had ever seen. And not very good, to boot. Knowing that this was a European project, and being the curious type, I came home and Googled the movie to see what I could dig up. There had to be some explanation of why this movie ever got made because the point of it was lost on, I think, everyone who was there to see it.

As it turns out, the movie is actually called The Magic Roundabout and is based on a childrens program that ran in the '60s on the BBC. A little research on the web turned up some helpful information regarding the characters (like why the film's namesake, Doogal, is obsessed with sugar and why another of the characters is a wizard with a big spring instead of legs) and history of the show for anyone who may be trying to make sense of it.

Originally the series hailed from France and was the brainstorm of a gentleman named Serge Danot way back in 1963 or '65. The show was eventually adopted by the Brits, adapted to their cultural needs and quickly became a staple of the BBC's children's programming. The show remains popular to this day with many people remembering it fondly from their childhood as we would with something like Sesame Street or something. This, of course, is why we now have an animated feature based on it.

Armed with the background knowledge, and now fully aware of the original British version of the film (available on DVD in the UK as of July 2005, if I'm not mistaken), I set forth to locate it in order to compare the two versions. I performed a torrent search yesterday and turned up the original which I've since previewed a bit of and I have to say that, from what I've seen so far, it makes way more sense than the American adaptation that is polluting screens all over the country. I mean, while I don't totally agree with it, I can understand changing some of the British slang to suit a North American audience (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, anyone?), but the changes they made also took away the context and point of the whole story.

How a show like Wallace & Grommit can win the Oscar for best animated film without such changes is beyond me. Obviously these are both British productions, so why one is more understandable than the other is kind of confusing. As a Canadian, I guess I'm sort of deep programmed to 'get' the British stuff, but it's not that hard to figure out. And people don't give kids enough credit. They still like Beatrix Potter, and Peter Pan, and various and sundry other Brit cultural exports for children, so they're not complete morons.

Oh well, I guess I'll just sit down with the younguns sometime this week and watch the 'real' movie from beginning to end and see how it plays out. If it turns out to be an entertaining piece of cinema, I'll be sad that it didn't really get a chance Stateside (those wacky Weinsteins), but at least I'll have had a chance to enjoy it.

If it's still crap, ignore this post. Well, some of it, anyways.

Later!

mike