Linbeymusol Wonderful character development!

Siflutter It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

Patience Watson One of those movie experiences that is so good it makes you realize you've been grading everything else on a curve.

Yazmin Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

Stompgal_87 I have fond memories of watching the original 1960s - 1970s stop-motion series on VHS at my grandparents' house when I was a child and I remember my nan telling me about my dad and other children trying to get home from school in time for the programme. When I heard there was going to be a full-length CGI film based on the show with Robbie Williams and Kylie Minogue (both of whom had already duetted on their 2000 single 'Kids') providing the voices of Dougal and Florence respectively, I was certainly up for seeing it because it came out before the time CGI completely ruined my childhood favourites such as 'Thomas the Tank Engine,' 'Noddy's Adventures in Toyland' and 'Bananas in Pyjamas.' I saw this film at the cinema with a family aide and we quite enjoyed it although I found some aspects a little disappointing, such as the lack of screen time for Florence due to her entrapment on the frozen roundabout. Other weaknesses of this film were Florence looking different from how she did in the stop-motion show, the pacing being somewhat slow and the plot consisting of drawn-out filler.The positives surpass these negatives. The positives include the animation being fluid on the whole despite the jerky movements on the blue mousse towards the end; most of the characters staying true to the style of those from the original series albeit the detailed lip sync, expressions and facial features; the backgrounds having more colour and definition than those in the original series; the basic premise of Brian, Ermintrude, Dylan and Dougal going on a quest to retrieve diamonds in order to get the roundabout to work again; the dialogue having its witty moments; the voice cast and the soundtrack. With regard to the soundtrack, the incidental music was epic and cinematic for the film's nature and I liked the songs, especially Electric Light Orchestra's 'Mr Blue Sky' and Ermintrude's hilarious operatic singing along to it.Overall, 'The Magic Roundabout' has its weaknesses but its strengths more than made up for them, it brought back significant memories of the original show and I'll definitely be steering clear of 'Doogal (what a stupid way to spell his name!)' because I despise it when British voices are dubbed with American ones and this has already happened to 'Spot the Dog' as witnessed on YouTube once. 7/10.

andy_the_brave I thought about giving everyone the long version but, to be frank, The Magic Roundabout is not worth it.This has a formulaic plot that involves the characters performing some very unlikely moves.Instantly forgettable.It is a sad day when one has to say that the only reason this doesn't get a '1' is that the voice ensemble is, generally, very very good. After all, a film is all about visual entertainment - something sadly lacking here.But the class of the voices doesn't make up for the film's serious shortcomings in plot and sheer audience involvement. It is very, very hard to care whether the goodies win or not, indeed, as Tom Baker magnificently voices the villain, it is pretty easy to start rooting for the rotter's.Children seem to like it, but in that fleeting 'so what' fashion that is concomitant with a throwaway society.The production ethics of this film seems to have followed the formula of the Star Wars prequels - don't worry about the film, the name will sell the t-shirts.

Lynda Spence This production hits the buttons at all levels. For the younger kids who will enjoy it as they would any new animation; the tweenagers who will enjoy the story and the action; and the teens & twenty somethings for all the many references to movies over the last 10 - 15 years. And for the rest of us, the vague sense of nostalgia - don't rush out before the end of the credits, just for that famous phrase you are waiting to hear! Robbie is excellent as Dougal, with Baker, McKellen and Broadbent not far behind. The other "famous" artists were out of my realisation until I read the credits and thought - "so it was". It's not what you watched just before the BBC news, but still worth the ticket, with or without a pre-schooler in tow.

matt adcock All is quiet, it's teatime and before you know it Zebedee says those immortal words: "Time for bed children." But 'Boing'… Suddenly, as if by magic… Kylie Minogue is telling you that they're "coming to get ya" – a talking sugar addict dog, an opera singing cow, a stoned bunny and a wacky wizard with a spring instead of legs, man I think I've been eating too much sugar myself… It's true though – just when you thought it was safe to take a trip back 30 years to a place of innocence and fun – here comes the super slick all singing, all dancing, all action CGI Magic Roundabout. Yes, some brave filmmakers have taken on the daunting task of updating the British teatime favourite (originally from France) which was once the 2nd most popular show on the BBC – behind the news!! How on earth could this work? And who invited the lovely Kylie to not only voice Florence but also knock out a catchy Magic Roundabout single for the soundtrack? A genius team of Dave Borthwic, Jean Duval and Frank Passingham actually – and they've pulled off a minor miracle here. Aided by the superb voice cast of Tom Baker (Zeebadee), Jim Broadbent (Brian the snail), Lee Evans (Train), Joanna Lumley (Ermintrude), Ian McKellen (Zebedee), Bill Nighy (Dylan) and Robbie Williams (Dougal). And there's even a plot of sorts: the Magic Roundabout lies in ruin after an evil ice sorcerer Zebadee has escaped to freeze the world. Step up some unlikely heroes, Brian, Ermintrude, Dylan and Dougal to challenge the chill by recovering three magic diamonds. Okay, so the plot might as well have been from a computer game and it is all a bit far removed from the genteel original but it's just mad to see Dougal and crew trekking over fiery volcanoes, jungle temples and snow-capped mountains. Plus McKellen manages to instill the spirit of Gandalf into Zebedee and even gets a heroic 'fall from a high pass' scene after battling his icy nemesis Zeebadee. This leads to Dylan almost quoting Pulp Fiction with "Zeb's dead babe, Zeb's dead"; this and some of the original's trippy substance references will keep adults of a certain age smiling. What can I say? I was amazed at how much I enjoyed this slight bit of nonsense, maybe it was sheer nostalgia but then my son Luke loved it too which I wasn't expecting.