 | ON: Content is age-appropriate for kids this age. |
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 | OFF: Not age-appropriate for kids this age. |
 | NOT FOR KIDS: Not appropriate for kids any age. |
Doogal
- Review Date: May 15, 2006
- G
- Genre: Family and Kids
- 2006
Common Sense Media says
So-so kids' movie about animals saving the world.
Parents say
QUALITY
Kids say
QUALITY
What parents need to know
Parents need to know that this film features an evil wizard (a jack-in-the-box without his box, bouncing on a spring), who wants to freeze the world and rule it, by means of gathering together three magical diamonds. Characters are afraid, fall off cliffs, crash vehicles, fight skeletons with glowing eyes, face scary situations (and say they have "pooped" or "slimed" themselves when frightened), and occasionally carp at one another. Crude humor includes farting and slapstick violence.
What's the story?
Narrated by Judi Dench, this U.S. remake of the animated 1960s-70s British series The Magic Roundabout tells the story of a careless puppy named Doogal (Daniel Tay). When Doogal crashes a candy cart into the frozen chamber of evil Zeebad (Jon Stewart), the wicked wizard is released and sets out to rule and also freeze the world. Zeebad imprisons Doogal's girl, Florence (Kylie Minogue), along with some other children, recruits a wooden soldier, Sam (Bill Hader), as his sidekick, and sets off to find the magic diamonds that will grant him unending power. The rescue is left to Doogal and his friends, including the opera-singing, disco-dancing cow Ermintrude (Whoopi Goldberg), determined snail Brian (William H. Macy), laidback bunny Dylan (Jimmy Fallon), and convenient vehicle Train (Chevy Chase). They set out to find Zeebad and the diamonds.
Is it any good?
Unoriginal and only sometimes cute, DOOGAL is mostly harmless, but dull. The current version features the original's so-so animation and storyline, and ongoing pop cultural references that don't build narrative or character relationships, but only provide punch-lines for jokes never initiated.
The film is preceded by a short, Gopher Broke, in which a gopher tries to pick up vegetables dropped of passing pickup trucks, only to have every tidbit stolen by other creatures (squirrel, chickens, crows) and also be run down by trucks, smacked by a road sign, and smashed by a falling cow.
What families can talk about
Families can talk about the primary lesson learned by Doogal, that friendships are more important than his desire for candy. How do his friends, who help him save the world and Florence, show their loyalty to him even when he seems lazy or selfish?
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AGE
WORST MOVIE I HAVE EVER SEEN!!!
Where do I begin with this one. Well let me start by saying I won a ticket to this movie and I still felt cheeted. The plot was pointless. The pop culture was insulting. The animation was cheesy. The jokes were lame. The charecters were un-developed an annoying. Know lets exsamine the plot. Well our story begins in who cares vill wear you see a group of collerful animals playing with humans in some sort of park square. Then Doogal, a whinny hairy dog is after a cart full of candy. Some how it convenently just pushes the 3 kids into a randumly placed merry-go-round. Then it freezes and the kids get trapped inside. So the go off all a cross the world with the help of a spring wizard to find 3 power crystles so that they can harness the power and melt the ice witch somehow had to do with an evil ice wizard. Not to mension for the days and days that they are gone the kids are still trapped in the merry-go-round. So if that was real life they would have died of starvation. Let me just put it to you this way: WORST MOVIE I HAVE EVER SEEN!!!
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AGE
Don't waste your time
Doogal appears to be cute animation, but is a mess of a story, a mess of voice acting and just plain bad. Not only is it scary for little ones (skeletons chasing the characters), but there's not real point to it. Don't be seduced by the acting talent for this - just say NO!
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AGE
This movie was pretty terrible, and the older kids' laughs were only at the expense of the movie.
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AGE
A self-absorbed, candy-loving dog, refuses to clean up his own mess in a movie best described as never-ending
My brother and I got this movie one day, because we were supperr bored. It turns out that being bored was a million times better than watching this traversty. Doogal was the most idiotic movie I have eveerrrr seen. The main character is a candy-loving, scared idiot, who gets himself in a bad situation and doesn't want to get out of it himself. The two adversary forces are an ice wizard and a good wizard who are men on top of springs. Honestly, that is the stupidest idea I have ever heard. Don't be fooled by this allstar cast. They're what makes it worst. They include all these pop culture references that the movies target audiences probably wouldn't even get. I read some reviews below, and they noticed things that I didn't even see. This movie was shockingly bad. Do NOT waste your time on this. I would reccomend watching a really good movie like Tangled instead.
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AGE
There's something people need to realize
I've read the reviews and it seems people blame EVERYONE who worked on this film for how bad it was. I agree, Doogal is terrible. The pop culture references make Dreamworks' look moderate by comparison and the dialogue is downright awful, however, what people need to know is that this was not the original movie. The original movie is a British film called The Magic Roundabout, based off of a populer stop-motion cartoon by the same title. I have had the privelage of watching the original online and it's MUCH better. First of all, the characters: Dougal (Not Doogal) is slightly more likeable and his voice isn't the annoying whiny one we got here in North America. The other VAs... some were better in the original but some I felt were improved in the US dub. As for the whether the characters are likeable... yes. Dylan's slightly less annoying, the moose thankfully doesn't talk, Zeebad's less obnoxious and he's more witty and the relationship between the snail and the cow seemed more believable whereas the US version made it creepy. As for the dialogue, it's at least easier to take seriously. There's little to no pop culture in there, the jokes don't feel forced, I think there's only one bad pun in the original and it's just overall more enjoyable. I'm not saying Magic Roundabout was exactly a great film either, but it's at least descent and tolerable whereas Doogal is a horrid mockery of a descent family film.
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AGE
Too many one-liners
It's an animated film, so it will keep young kids' attention. However, the plot and characters are not well developed. The movie is filled with one-liners that will make parents giggle at first, but they get old quite fast. Passing gas happens frequently in this flick. I wouldn't recommend paying full price to see Doogal. We were lucky: due to a damaged speaker in the theater, we received a full refund.
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AGE
Boring!
My 6-year-old wanted to see it because of the preview with the rabbit playing a guitar and singing, "You Really Got Me." However, there wasn't much more to the scene than what was in the preview. My son thought it was ok, but the movie bored me to death. The pop references went over his head, but I didn't find them funny at all. I also didn't understand the point of the wizards with springs instead of legs..???
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| Topics: | magic and fantasy, adventures |
| Studio: | Weinstein Co. |
| Directors: | Dave Borthwick, Frank Passingham, Jean Duval |
| Cast: | Jimmy Fallon, Jon Stewart, Whoopi Goldberg |
| Genre: | Family and Kids |
| Run time: | 85 minutes |
| Theatrical release date: | February 24, 2006 |
| DVD release date: | May 16, 2006 |
| MPAA rating: | G |
| MPAA explanation: | all audiences |
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