How come your main page plays the John Landis clip where Dougal should be, but when you click on the Dougal page, it plays the Magic Roundabout clip. Very bizarre.

Having picked up a VHS of DATBC from a charity shop I watched the film back in April of this year (a bizarre double bill VHS evening with Shock Corridor, another Kermode recommendation).



It occured to me at the time how amazing it must've looked in full techniclour on the big screen in 1972 with all its vibrant pinks and blues.



Thought the story suffered a little due to the length of the film, it took a real dip midway through and Eric Thompson's voicework is perfectly suited to five minute segments, but does got somewhat tiresome for a full length film.



That said, the psychedelic tweeness is undeniably charming, the songs are enormous fun, and Dougal is a classic British icon. Clearly a big inspiration on Nick Park's Aardman animations (especially in the bit when the two eponymous characters go to the moon). Delightful, and far more preferable to most modern day animations.



Will definitely be buying the DVD.

I picked up a VHS copy of this film years ago and watched it over and over - absolutely love it! I am delighted that it will be available on DVD. Not sure why I love it so much but part of the reason is undoubtedly because of the age I was at the time I had it on VHS. So, yes, there is a huge nostaligic element to it but its more than that as I loved other movies but none of them with the same enthusiasm. Its the animation, the colours, the voices, the storyline, the dialogue, the theme tune, the characters, the characters, the characters ... Everytime I watch it I think I love Dougal the most, Brian, Dylan, Mr Rusty, Florence, Zebedee, Ermintrude, Mr McHenry and who could forget the Roundabout itself!



Merci Serge Danot et Eric Thompson, merci

VHS? Pah! I've seen it projected! It was shown as part of the Southampton Film Festival in 1988, and screened some way out of town, possibly on a campus (not entirely sure of the venue but it required a very long bus ride). Can't remember much about it, to be honest, except that yes it IS bonkers, and undeniably fun, and I've added the DVD to my rentals list (317 titles and counting).

I love this film having seen it in my childhood, many years ago. I finally found it for sale on VHS about 15 years ago, for under a fiver, in a bargain bin in a Filton newsagents. Had never seen it for sale before, or for that matter, after. Recently the only problem I had was not owning a video player. Hurrah for a DVD release.

The record you mention is currently on eBay! If only I had a record player :(



Here it is: https://goo.gl/k0y6V

Audio soundtrack albums were very much 'of their time'.

I had some later ones, incl 'Black Hole' and 'Tron', as well as older ones like 'Railway Children' and the old MGM 'The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm'. Usually in mono.

Some had gatefold sleeves with booklets from the films - oh what a lost age.

TV classics from the Gerry Anderson stable were other favourites.

The worst were fake ones, like a version of 'Bedknobs and Broomsticks' sung by Hugh Paddick and Beryl Read. (Why/How did I get *that*??)

DATBC? I do recall that I saw it at the cinema as a child but I remember very little except that I found it pretty tedious. I'll catch it on BBC2 when Mark gets a Cult Film season.

This looks fantastic. I've added it as a high priority on LOVEFiLM and will let you know what I think when I've seen it. I have to say though... wasn't expecting to find it on LOVEFiLM at all..!

It's one of those movies that comes around every once in a while that has been made with the love and care that filmmakers want but very seldom get to do freely.

OMG! I am definitely buying this when I'm in London next week. I loved watching The Magic Roundabout as a child and have fond memories of it. Never saw DatBC though. Can't wait to see this masterpiece. Love hearing Eric Thompson's voice again.



Today's version is just not on a par with this masterpiece.

Now if we can only get Ken Russell's cut of The Devils on DVD, with DATBC and Possession, we'll have the trifecta!



I had an LP of The Wizard of Oz that segued between dialogue clips and most of the songs. I think I remember the cutdown version of the LP so well, I'm sometimes surprised by bits when I see the film.

I got hold of a copy of this at your recommendation and have just finished watching it. overall i enjoyed it, the colours and quality of animation where great and have stood the test of time better than anything similar from that era that i have seen. I would say its a very good kids movie but as an adult watching it for the first time i cant see it any anything more than that. i think you must be looking at it through nostalgia tinted glasses to say its one of the best movies ever made, which is fine but don't expect many people to agree who are coming to it for the first time now. I loved the voice of Fenella Fielding in it and of course Eric Thompson. I did find some of the songs in the film to be cringingly bad though. I'm sure if i was a kid of the right age i would love them but as an adult i found myself nearly having to mute the sound on some of them before i was sick!





So overall thank you for recommending it. If i ever have kids one day i will be sure to get them to watch it, but otherwise i expect this will be the first and last time i watch it.

I've only ever been genuinely frightened to sleeplessness by two films: Nicolas Roeg's 'Don't Look Now' and 'Dougal and the Blue Cat'!

Jim, you are correct in saying that seeing this film unfiltered though the lens of childhood nostalgia reveals it to be flawed in many way. But that's true of an awful lot of films of this type (Star Wars being my own personal example of this.)



But you can count me in the group of those who don't care. I practically wore out my VHS copy of this years ago, and I completely concur with Mark - the film is bonkers in just the right way, and deserves to be considered amongst the canon of animation greats.

On another note click here for a lovely account by "Reel and Imagined" of Dr K's visit to The Barbican.

i am 13 and have been watching dougal scince i was 3 years old and i still think it is the best animated film of all. (even better than chicken run and spirited away)

Inspired a remake so awful that I walked out of it twice.

I only ever remember watching Magic Roundabout in black and white

The first film I ever saw - terrifying and bizarre, especially after the cosy psychedelia of the tv series (that very sentence is an indication of how great kids tv shows were in those days). I was taken by a neighbour, who was only know to me for the first few years of my life by her stockings and slippers on the stairs to our flats (just like the lady in the Tom and Jerry cartoons) and whose flat had James Bond 'Thunderball' wallpaper in the hallway. Life seems so boring now by comparison...

I admittedly had to watch this movie the naughty way and torrent it. Completely ridiculous and ridiculously adorable. Hard to believe that something like this could be made with the intention of showing it to children - The Last Unicorn terrified me as a child, I can't imagine what damage Dougal and the Blue Cat would have done. Like you're sitting there watching this movie about a creepy disembodied voice turning things blue and cute things being thrown in dungeons, then there are those masks and the one guy loses his mustache and they go into space and what. It was like if Rankin/Bass and René Laloux could have a baby and that baby was a messed-up children's movie.



The only thing I object to is the music numbers. A few of them were kind of ear-splitting. Otherwise it actually passed my expectations a bit and I will probably import the DVD one of these days when I have a little extra pocket money again.

My older sister took me and my younger sister to see this at the Odeon cinema, Bowes Road (now a Jehovah's Witness assembly hall)in about 1971/2. We loved it so much that our mum bought us the soundtrack LP.We listened to this in the same way that Python fans listened to to that team's LPs. We knew the whole script and the words to all the songs before by the time we started school. I never saw it again until my sister bought the video about 14 years ago.....it is brilliant and still remains, along with the Michael Caine starring version of "Kidnapped", my earliest cinema memory. It is powerfully directed and Eric Thompson's imagination appears to be bordering on genuis...it also has a few satiric moments for those of us who grew up in the 70s...my DVD copy is on it;s way to me now.

Whatever it is, it's lovingly-rendered.

We had the Dougal and the Blue Cat LP in our house and it was played almost every day. Funny thing, I saw the film when I was about 4 projected onto white bricks in our local community centre and didn't see the film again until I was 11 or 12 on a grainy VHS. Haven't watched it again since.

Listened to an mp3 convertion of my LP only last month.



I really want to see this in it's full glory.

Ordered a copy and still waiting for it to arrive! I'm stoked now!

I have already left my thoughts on this film however i felt the need to add a supplementary comment. i watched DATBC for the first time over a week ago now i have found myself thinking about the film on and off ever since. This usually happens to me when i watch a great film for the first time ("Possession" most recently) or re-watch some of my favorites, (Suspiria, Leaving Las vegas, Dawn of the dead, Clerks)



So although i cant see myself actually adding DATBC to my personal list of favorite films, i have to admit that there must be something more special about it than i first thought, and despite my original comment i now fully expect that i will be re-watching it before the year is out.

I still have this film in my video collection. It does suffer a little because of the length but it is a gem. I have fond memories of watching a triple bill of this alongside Head (The Monkees) and Bronx Warriors. I would love to see a crisp, clean version of this.

Have never seen this.. But it is surely on my list now. It looks like it could be the same kind of creepy trip as 1971's "The Point" or 1986's "The Adventures of Mark Twain".