The Magic Roundabout 2

The Magic Roundabout 2 (retitled The Magic Roundabout for American audiences) is a 2018 French-British-American film based on the TV show of the same name directed by Ron Howard and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, and starring Mel Gibson, Jodi Benson, Ian McKellen, Brad Pitt, Kirk Douglas, and Helena Bottom Carter, and produced by BBC Films, and Plan B and distributed by Lionsgate Films in the US and StudioCanal in the UK

Plot
COMING SOON

Production
Plans for another film based on the show were planned by Action Synthese, but it was cancelled when they went bankrupt, in 2015, BBC films decided to revive the project as a stop motion animated film like the original show, later on, StudioCanal acquired rights to the film in the UK

The film was a joint UK-France production, Steve Cox, A producer and animator for the film, went over to Serge Danot's studio in France and brought back everything they could find right down to the biros that ran out, the puppets were starting to deteriorate but they were restored by Los Angeles-based collective Screen Novelties, the film was animated using similar techniques to the Puppetoons short films albeit without mouth animation, the puppets were placed on display at the film's premiere.

BBC Films had discussions about an american release of the film, BBC said "Well, an American release is VERY plausible due to the show's short run on Nickelodeon's Pinwheel and the failure of the 2005 film" after about a month into post production BBC decided to release the movie in America, and it was distributed in America by Lionsgate Films

Release
The film was released in the UK and France on January 26, 2018 and April 6th, 2018 in the US

Soundtrack
The film's official soundtrack was released on February 7th, 2018 in the UK and US, Luc Besson decided to have the film's main theme be the song "Always Come Back to You" from the 1991 Canadian American film "The Nutcracker Prince", this song was very identical to the original, but it was edited in this film, it was covered by Mel Gibson and Jodi Benson (Dougal and Florence's voice actors), respectively, and the part "And if the winds of fate, blow our ships off course someday" was changed to "And if some random fate, separates us up someday".

The CD contained 2 discs, one containing the film's songs, and one containing the film's score.

Box Office
In France the french dub premiered at the Cinema of France and made €456,987,890 million, whilst in the UK the english dub premiered at Odeon Leicester Square and it made £1000,928,28 Million

In the USA, the film topped the box office racking in $987,765,868 Million making it a box office success, the budget for the film was $30 Million

Critical Response
The film received positive reviews from critics, on Rotten Tomatoes it has 85% based on 324 reviews, with the conscious saying "Overall with a pleasant voice cast, and some heartwarming moments, The Magic Roundabout is one film the family can enjoy, a rare example of a film based on an old TV series done right", on Metacritic is has 76%.

Though some critics criticized the movie because of no mouth movement, Ridley Scott and Luc Besson responded the reason why they didn't input mouth movement is because they were trying to stay accurate to the original show, although some of the earliest episodes contained mouth movement.

One reviewer on Rotten Tomatoes gave it 3 out of 5 stars and said, "Thankfully better than Doogal in every way, but I wish they had good animation quality and no pop-culture references."

This movie currently holds a 7.2/10 on IMDb.

TV Show
After the film was released, BBC announced that a new TV show based on the film would be aired on June 5th 2018 on BBC Cebeebies in the UK, in the USA, the show was broadcasted on Cartoon Network starting a a month later on July 5th.

Trivia

 * The film takes place after the series.
 * Despite the title, this film isn't a sequel to the 2005 film, but it's own film.
 * The puppets used in the film were reused from Dougal and the Blue Cat, though Dougal and Florence have their designs from the second season of The Magic Roundabout.
 * In one part of the film, Dougal breaks the fourth wall when he says "Well who do I look like, Tony Hancock?" which is a reference to who he was based on in the UK version).
 * Despite being based on the original show, some elements of the CGI series are used, because of the inclusion of Dougal being shown to live with Florence and The Train is shown communicating by blowing its' whistle.