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 Luc Besson and Ridley Scott and produced by Steve Cox, Vincent Cassel, and Ron Howard, and starring Nigel Planer, 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

Cast

 * Nigel Planer as Dougal
 * Jodi Benson as Florence
 * Ian McKellen as Zebedee
 * Brad Pitt as Brian
 * Kirk Douglas as Dylan
 * Helena Bottom Carter as Ermintrude
 * Jan Rabson as Mr. Rusty
 * Tim Whitnall as Mr. McHenry
 * Jonathan Freeman as Buxton
 * Christopher Ragland, Glenn Wrage, Kerry Shale, Steve Kynman, Kevin Frank, and Neil Crone as Buxton's Minions

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, the film was animated in Toronto, Canada. 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.

In the night scenes in the movie, a stark contrast is made to the original series, In the original show, it use an indigo or black background, in this film, the night sky background is more realistic looking and some of the lights were dimmed to make it more realistic

When the film was released in the USA, a few terms were modified to reflect the American terms, though the word "Roundabout" was left untouched, several prints of the film left it this way but Cartoon Network airings had the original terms.

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 Nigel Planer 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.

Home Media
The film was released on DVD on June 5th, 2018 in the UK and September 18th, 2018

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. Cinemascore gave the film a A. Randy Miller of DVD Talk said "Not the best adaptation of this show, but definitely not the worst, it's loads better than Doogal i'll give that"

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.
 * Among other things, actors Rob Schneider, Mel Gibson, and Tony Goldwyn auditioned for the role of Dougal, but were dropped in favor of Nigel Planer.
 * The film aired on BBC One in the UK on September 8th, 2018 and December 8th, 2018 in the USA on Cartoon Network.
 * The puppets used in the film were reused from Dougal and the Blue Cat, though Dougal has his design from the second season of The Magic Roundabout and Florence has her design from several colorized episodes of The Magic Roundabout.
 * The American trailer has music from the french trailer for March of the Penguins.
 * 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, though the former isn't shown until near the end of the film.