Where do I begin with this. Where do I begin. Now, keep in mind I was forced to see this when it came out, since I was 14 at the time with a 3-year-old brother, so why not? I mean, I honestly went into the theater with optimistic expectations, hoping for an OK-to-decent film. In fact, I enjoyed the short right before the film a little bit. But then the film begins. When I heard that some human girl was friends with some stuffed animals, I expected something along the lines of Toy Story, you know, they just sit there, then spring to life when no one's around....then the film shows Doogal sneaking up to his owner....
What happened afterward scarred me for life. This film still brings back awful memories 2 years after I saw it. I mean, the story's awful. In a nutshell, there's some carousal ride at the center of town, home to a bunch of children and stuffed animals, where some evil spring guy lives, and once Doogal sets him free, the town is freezed up, trapping the children, including Doogal's owner, and a snail just randomly says the stuffed animals need 3 crystals to stop him. No explanation of why the spring guy was put in a carousal, more importantly why that same carousal is STILL BEING USED when there's some bad guy in there, and why the 3 crystals are needed, or how they came into existence. What a bunch of plot holes for a film, and that's in the first 20 minutes. We're in for a good movie, ladies and gentlemen!
Now, I'll be honest, my memory is a little fuzzy of what happens next, but I remember a slew of bad pop culture jokes that makes DreamWorks' references seem restrained in comparison, the group of stuffed animals nearly getting a crystal until Doogal messes it up, and a bunch of farting jokes, and when I saw it, the only jokes I heard any laughter in the theater were from the farting jokes, which is always a bad sign if that's the only joke type that even gets a chuckle.
Now, some people know that this film was originally called The Magic Roundabout in the UK, based off of a cartoon series I believe, with, obviously, British actors, but when it came to the US in its current title, it was re-dubbed with celebrity actors, like Whoopi Goldberg and Jon Stewart, and I have to say, Jon Stewart is sadly the best actor here, with the other actors' talents going to waste here. I know these aren't the most helpless of actors, but you have to wonder what inspired them to do something like this.
In conclusion, this is a really bad film from beginning to end, even if its audience was for kids, that's not a good excuse when you consider some of Dreamworks and Pixar's works. I know this isn't the worst movie of all time, but it's the worst I've seen, and I think I would explode if I saw anything worse than this piece of crap.
What happened afterward scarred me for life. This film still brings back awful memories 2 years after I saw it. I mean, the story's awful. In a nutshell, there's some carousal ride at the center of town, home to a bunch of children and stuffed animals, where some evil spring guy lives, and once Doogal sets him free, the town is freezed up, trapping the children, including Doogal's owner, and a snail just randomly says the stuffed animals need 3 crystals to stop him. No explanation of why the spring guy was put in a carousal, more importantly why that same carousal is STILL BEING USED when there's some bad guy in there, and why the 3 crystals are needed, or how they came into existence. What a bunch of plot holes for a film, and that's in the first 20 minutes. We're in for a good movie, ladies and gentlemen!
Now, I'll be honest, my memory is a little fuzzy of what happens next, but I remember a slew of bad pop culture jokes that makes DreamWorks' references seem restrained in comparison, the group of stuffed animals nearly getting a crystal until Doogal messes it up, and a bunch of farting jokes, and when I saw it, the only jokes I heard any laughter in the theater were from the farting jokes, which is always a bad sign if that's the only joke type that even gets a chuckle.
Now, some people know that this film was originally called The Magic Roundabout in the UK, based off of a cartoon series I believe, with, obviously, British actors, but when it came to the US in its current title, it was re-dubbed with celebrity actors, like Whoopi Goldberg and Jon Stewart, and I have to say, Jon Stewart is sadly the best actor here, with the other actors' talents going to waste here. I know these aren't the most helpless of actors, but you have to wonder what inspired them to do something like this.
In conclusion, this is a really bad film from beginning to end, even if its audience was for kids, that's not a good excuse when you consider some of Dreamworks and Pixar's works. I know this isn't the worst movie of all time, but it's the worst I've seen, and I think I would explode if I saw anything worse than this piece of crap.