The Magic Roundabout (film)

The Magic Roundabout (released in France as Pollux - Le manège enchanté) is a 2005 French-British computer-animated adventure fantasy comedy film based on the television series The Magic Roundabout.

The film features the voices of Tom Baker, Jim Broadbent, Joanna Lumley, Ian McKellen, Bill Nighy, Robbie Williams, Kylie Minogue, Ray Winstone and Lee Evans.

Plot
The wizard Zebedee, a red jack-in-the-box-like creature, is having a nightmare about the ice villain named Zeebad. Dougal the well-meaning cheeky, slacker dog places a tack in the road to pop a sweet cart's tyre, hoping to be rewarded with sweets for watching the cart. After the driver goes for help, Dougal accidentally crashes the cart into the magic roundabout at the centre of the village. Zeebad, the evil blue ice jack in the box-like creature, emerges from the top and flies away, followed by a Foot Guard figurine thrown off the roundabout. The roundabout freezes over, trapping repairman Mr. Rusty, Dougal's young owner Florence, and two other children within an icy cell.

The horrified villagers, who are all animals, call upon Zebedee for help. He explains that the roundabout was a mystical prison for Zeebad. With it broken, Zeebad is free to work his magic on the world again as he once did before by starting the Ice Age. The only way to stop Zeebad freezing the world is by collecting three magic diamonds (one of which is supposed to be hidden on the roundabout, while the other two are hidden at separate locations far beyond the village). Slotting the diamonds onto the roundabout will re-imprison Zeebad and undo his magic, but if Zeebad retrieves them first then their power will allow him to freeze the Sun itself. Zebedee sends Dougal, Brian the cynical snail, Ermintrude the opera-singing cow and Dylan the hippie rabbit, to accomplish this mission along with a magic train. Meanwhile, Zeebad crash lands after escaping the roundabout, and animates the Foot Guard figurine, Sam the Soldier, to help him find the enchanted diamonds. Meanwhile, Zebedee's fellowship makes camp in the icy mountains. Dougal wanders off during the night and is captured by Zeebad. Ermintrude breaks him out of his prison. Zebedee then shows up to battle Zeebad but loses the battle with Zeebad freezing him and collapsing the cliff on which he stands.

Mourning for their friend, Dougal and his friends embark to recover the diamonds. This task takes them to a lava-bordered volcano and an ancient temple filled with booby-traps and evil skeleton guards, but Zeebad captures both the diamonds from these respective locations; leaving the only hope of stopping Zeebad by getting back to the roundabout and to the final diamond before Zeebad does. The gang are forced along the way to leave an injured Train behind, leaving them to return to the village on foot through the snowy barren wasteland the world is now freezing into. Zeebad, after having abandoned Sam the Soldier to die wounded in the snow, beats the gang to the now-frozen village, but is unable to find the third diamond anywhere. Sam then arrives on an elk, having realised his true duty is to protect the roundabout against Zeebad, he tries to make a stand but is easily defeated. Having learned Sam was in fact on the roundabout, Zeebad discovers that the third diamond is and always was hidden inside Sam, and removes it from him (ending Sam's life as a result).

Zeebad, with all three diamonds now in his possession, uses them to freeze the world by freezing the Sun. However, the gang finally reach the village, get to the diamonds, and put them into their places on the roundabout until only the third diamond is left. Though Zeebad beats the gang to the diamond and seemingly secures his victory, the timely arrival of a healed Train knocks the diamond out of Zeebad's reach and gives Dougal the chance to place it in the roundabout's final slot. Zeebad is now re-imprisoned, and the world is thawed, Zebedee is restored to his friends, and villagers are freed.

Of those trapped in the roundabout, a comatose Florence is revived by Dougal. As everyone goes for a ride on the roundabout, they discover it does not work because Sam is lifeless. At this point, Sam is restored and then reverted to his inanimate form, and placed back on the roundabout which functions once again. Dougal now realises the true value of his friends and the good qualities of selflessness, courage, and humility.

Music
The film's score was composed by Mark Thomas. The soundtrack was released on July 26, 2005, by Universal Music Group.

Release
The movie was first released to France on February 2nd, 2005 and then in the United Kingdom on February 11th 2005 as well as a marketing campaign which Thorton's and Kellog's. After the film's release. Harvey Weinstein was interested in a re-dub and a re-edit of the film to suit the American audiences, however Universal Pictures was also interested in acquiring the film's distribution rights for the US and international markets, but without re-dubbing or re-editing the film, thus resulting in Universal obtaining the distribution rights. After acquiring the distribution rights, Universal decided to release the film on July 29, 2005 not only for the box office results during the late summer season of 2005 but as well as good DVD sales during the holidays. Universal eventually released the film with the English dub of Azumanga Daioh: The Very Short Movie (a theatrical short shown in Japanese theatres in late 2001) to be shown before the film as a way to advertise Universal's DVD re-release of the complete anime series after they licensed the anime from Sony Pictures. Universal also accompanied a $25 million marketing campaign with Burger King, Baskin-Robbins, and Mattel.

Reception
On Rotten Tomatoes, the UK version of the film received an aggregate score of 60% based on five reviews (three positive and two negative).

Home media
The Magic Roundabout was released to VHS and a 2-disc special edition DVD as well as a single disc edition on in the UK on 18 July 2005. The film's French version was released to France on 17 August 2005 as well as a limited 2-disc edition in lenticular DigiPack packaging. The film was released in the US on both widescreen and fullscreen versions as well as a 3-disc collectors' edition DVD on 20 December 2005 containing the English version as well as the European French version on separate discs. In 2006, 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment released a 3-movie DVD pack that contains The Magic Roundabout, Twentieth Toons: Tooned Out and Robots in the UK. On 10 September 2008, Pathé released the film on Blu-ray (With both French and English versions) as part of the "Sélection Blu-VIP" catalog in which it contains a DVD copy in a clear plastic sleeve and a code on the back of the Blu-ray catalog to recieve 1000 points at blu-vip.com. The film was later given a Blu-ray release in the US on 16 June 2010. A 4K Blu-ray edition from Shout! Factory under license from Universal will be released in the US on 13 December 2022.

Main
To see the main transcript of the film, click here.

Trailers
To see the transcript for the trailers of the film, click here.