The Magic Roundabout Review

Diamonds, frozen roundabouts, red springs dressed in the colours of Norwich City F.C., this forgotten pocket of Barnyard-style nostalgia is grim. The Magic Roundabout was likely never good and its lack of reverence from those that grew up with it in the modern, rose-tinted trips through history is noticeable. Even Barnyard, somehow, pushed on through. Its concept of meme bait and Johnny Cash covers served it well but marked nothing new. Animation-wise, it was a sickly experience and that carries over to The Magic Roundabout. A ballsy move to make a film look so horrid. Adapting that 1960s television show does not mean the animation needs to be filtered in from that period too. When Robots was released the same year as this, there really is no excuse for woeful animation. 

Animated degeneracy is the core of The Magic Roundabout. One in a strange line of features that, while having very little quality to its script, became a magnet for talent. Pop culture of the time bled into this adaptation of a simple and forgettable children’s show. Robbie Williams and Kylie Minogue both feature as the resident powerhouse pop stars whose shine has since faded. Ian McKellen and Bill Nighy also feature, despite having turned in acceptable work prior to the filming of this children’s feature disaster. Zebedee (McKellen) is a strange piece of work, with a filter over his voice either noting the trouble of audio recording at the time or something very wrong with this particular copy of the movie. 

But all copies of this movie, and its recast American counterpart, are horrific. Booting out Lee Evans and Joanna Lumley does very little for Dougal, the United States re-casting that was gunned down by contemporary reviews much harsher than the ones levelled at this frozen roundabout horror show. A fascinating series of changes, including US-exclusive Judi Dench narration, is as puzzling as the half-baked quality throughout both. Closer to that of parodical features that hope to cash in on a popular property just months from release, The Magic Roundabout is easily lumped in with A Car’s Life or Dogtown. It is disgusting. Frank Passingham, Dave Borthwick and Jean Duval made this their first and only directed feature and it is easy to see why. Abysmal from start to finish Not a note of quality or interest beyond that of trying and failing to watch it as a humourous so bad it’s good feature. The Magic Roundabout loses out on the potential for charm and lighter moments because of how much it must establish in such a short period, and how little it tries. 

Even then that is barely an excuse considering how eerily remembered this feature is. People never forget what they were brought up on, and for many, The Magic Roundabout haunts school assembly halls, projected onto a pull-down screen in front of an IT room. You never forget your first Dougal sighting. That millipede-looking disgrace is just one of many surface-level problems here. When children’s entertainment from the time offered very refined, sleek animated offerings, this is a monumental step back. The Magic Roundabout stuffs itself full of famous faces, plasters them to moulded and very basic detailings of animal leads and has them hunt down diamonds. Beyond the most basic troubles of animation and character comes awkward positioning of scenes, terrible effects and a real lacklustre, thrown-together quality that the Foodfight reshoot suffered from a decade later.