“In
a beautifully-coloured fantasy
land called The Magic Garden, Dougal
and Florence and their friends run
around safe and free and play on The
Magic Roundabout—
until a sinister
arrival threatens their peaceful existence
in Dougal and the Blue Cat...”
A STUNNING, NEWLY-RESTORED VERSION of the cult classic Dougal and the
Blue Cat is making a welcome transition to DVD, to the delight of its many
admirers for whom it has been virtually impossible to track down the film for
many years, despite being greatly in demand.
A spin-off from the hugely popular television series The Magic Roundabout,
Dougal and the Blue Cat is an enchanting, eerie and atmospheric venture
into the darker side with a suspicious Dougal desperate to convince Florence
and the others that a newcomer to The Magic Garden is not the cute and cuddly
innocent he is pretending to be. Retaining the humour and fun of The Magic
Roundabout, Dougal and the Blue Cat adds a slightly sinister and
compulsive dimension to the normality of The Magic Garden.
Dougal is dreaming of being given a knighthood at the Palace when he suddenly
wakes up in the middle of the night. He is drawn to the abandoned factory on
the hill and hears a ghostly voice (the delicious Fenella Fielding) declaring
that "blue is best".
Little does Dougal know that his friends will soon be in danger. And as new
arrival Buxton, the blue cat, wheedles his way into everyone's affections, Dougal
tries to warn his friends that something is very wrong.
He follows Buxton and listens to him having a conversation with The Blue Voice
but he still cannot get Florence and their friends to listen to him. When everyone
is arrested by the Blue Soldiers (looking amazingly like a horde of Wizzard's
Roy Woods!) and thrown into the dungeons at the factory, Dougal realises that
things are more worrying than he thought.
He disguises himself as a blue dog called "Blue Peter" and is taken into the
confidence of Buxton, who has had to undergo a series of tests in order to earn
his colours — even if they are blue — and become king. But what is
Buxton's hidden agenda and what has he done with Zebedee's magic moustache —
without which Zebedee is powerless to help?
Will anyone listen to Dougal before it is too late and if not, can he alone
outwit the enemy, discover Buxton's sinister purpose, rescue Florence and their
friends and restore The Magic Garden to its natural order?
The world of The Magic Garden and a host of familiar characters is the backdrop
for the strange happenings in Dougal and the Blue Cat: Florence is ever
in her familiar light-coloured Jumping Jack shoes; Dylan watches his crazy mushrooms
grow; The Train gets antsy with Brian the Snail for beating him — "Funny
those things that upset the railways these days"; and Dougal ends up on the
Moon. Also featuring are: Ermintrude the cow; Mr Rusty the organ grinder; and
Mr McHenry.
Like the original series of The Magic Roundabout, Dougal and the Blue
Cat was created in France by Serge Danot, who was also the Director, and
the dialogue (including the lyrics) was re-written in English by Eric Thompson.
Eric Directed the English version and narrated all the characters bar one, lending
each his own inimitable style and humour.
Lovely to hear the husky tones of Fenella Fielding (who was so wonderfully vampish
in Carry On Screaming) voicing the scary Madame Blue, adding to the strange
and nightmarish quality of the film. The Screenplay is by J Josselin; Production
by L Danot and L Auclin; and Music is by Joss Baselli.
• With a much darker slant than the original
story of The Magic Roundabout and with spooky characters, Stanley Kubrick
references and David Lynch overtones, Dougal and the Blue Cat will be
released on 1 November 2010 courtesy of Second Sight. RRP: £14.99 | Certificate:
U | Catalogue No: 2NDVD3188 | Running Time: 79 Minutes.
Bonus Features: Interviews with Emma Thompson, Phyllida Law, Fenella Fielding
and Mark Kermode | Original French Version with English subtitles | Lobby Card
/ Stills Gallery.
"Retaining all the humour and fun of The Magic Roundabout, Dougal
and the Blue Cat adds a slightly sinister and compulsive dimension to the
normality of The Magic Garden" — Maggie
Woods, MotorBar
"A quite inspiring animation movie, by turns witty, satirical and occasionally
downright weird. Kids will love it, adults go bananas over it, and spaced-out
acid casualties think they've astrally projected on to another planet" —
Time Out
"I still think of it as one of the creepiest films ever made" — The
Guardian
"One of my favourite films of all time" — Mark Kermode
“In
a beautifully-coloured fantasy