Doogal

With the success animated movies like Shrek and any given Pixar film,
who wouldn’t want to get in on the action? Most of the major studios
have opened animated divisions in order to stake their claim, small
though it may be. Unfortunately, with a rise in quantity comes a fall
in quality. About a month ago, we reviewed Hoodwinked, a first time
entry from directors Corey and Todd Edwards
and Kanbar Entertainment. Though we found the animation to be just
average, the humor and pacing were spot on enough to earn it 4 out of
5. So when a new movie “from the people that brought you Hoodwinked”
was announced, I was anxious to see how much they had improved with the
experiences learned from Hoodwinked. What I got instead was a mess of
one-liners, a nonsensical plot and timing fit for an A.D.D. patient on
speed.

Doogal is the story of a dog living in a utopian villiage of animals
and humans living in harmony and looked over by the good wizard
Zebedee. Doogal’s apparent candy addiction causes a candy cart to crash
into the carousel at the center of town releasing the evil wizard
Zeebad and trapping Doogal’s best friend in a block of ice surrounding
the carousel. The good wizard descends from on high to tell Doogal,
Dylan the rabbit, Ermintrude the cow and Brian the snail to find 3
magic diamonds before the evil wizard does in order to prevent him from
freezing the son and ruling the world. Confused yet? The snail is in
love with the cow, the train they travel the world on can talk and why
in the world would you banish an evil wizard into a carousel that
children play on?

The film suffers from any real originality. Even though the characters
and their surroundings are whimsical, the animation doesn’t compliment
them and the story does nothing to get you to feel for their plight.
Worse though is that instead of actual dialogue, the script borrows
heavily from dozens of other movies. The Matrix, Pulp Fiction, Lord of
the Rings, Star Wars and Indiana Jones barely scratch the surface. Add
to that a bombardment of one lined cliches and you begin to feel like
you’re hearing fingernails on a chalkboard.

The film moves faster than most Saturday morning cartoons. Doogal’s screenwriter, Butch Hartman,
is responsible for some of the best animated series on Nickelodeon
including the award winning Fairly Odd Parents, but he fails to adapt
his writing and pacing to a film audience. Attached by their vocal
cords are big names: Chevy Chase, Judi Dench, William H Macy, Ian McKellen and indie film maverick Kevin Smith. Even their star power can’t help to keep a cohesive experience.

The visuals are colorful and imaginitive, but hard to watch. Though
kids will likely be entertained on those alone, anyone requiring more
than pretty lights will find it boring and uninspired. Save your $9.75
for Cars later this summer.