Original Soundtrack - Doogal

Branching off of the British hit children’s show The Magic Roundabout,The Weinstein Company’s CGI Animation film Doogal tells the legendary story of three magic diamonds that, if in the wrong hands, can be united to create a force powerful enough to freeze the sun. When the evil sorcerer Zeebad escapes from his ancient prison, he vows to exact revenge by deep-freezing the earth forever. Determined to save the world, a fellowship of four unlikely heroes band together to foil Zeebad’s villainous plot. Album Description

Anthem Of The Sun

The animated film seems to have come and went from theaters here in the USA, but the soundtrack remains.

Based on the European (French) cartoon series of the 1960s which in translation, proved an enduring hit for British children of generation after generation, "DOOGAL" must have been a tough sell, don't you think? The horrid Weinstein brothers, known for their compulsion to remake everything and tamper with any film they get their hands onb, called for an an all-new "American" voice cast, including Whoopi Goldberg, Chevy Chase, Jimmy Fallon and William Macy. Even Robbie Williams was thrown out and replaced by a nobody they could control. The only original voice cast members look to be Judi Dench and, in a surprise movie, pop star Kylie Minogue, who plays Florence briefly and then largely disappears from the main action of the film, the "search for Doogal." Jimmy Fallon plays Dylan, the drug-addled comic character, whereas in Britain he was essayed by the incomparable Bill Nighy. Oddly enough on the soundtrack, Nighy's allowed to tear up the house with a furious, comic rendition of "You Really Got Me" by the Kinks.

Why replace Ian McKellen with Jon Stewart? Isn't one as big a star as the other?

Happily the chef d'oeuvre of the LP remains Kylie Minogue's wonderfully upbeat title tune "The Magic Roundabout." This nearly four minute track is the most recent thing Kylie has committed to vinyl in the studio, and it's worth every penny and every wince you have to give when you walk up to the record store clerk and murmur quietly, "DOOGAL soundtrack, please."

Maybe to pad out a skimpy LP the producers also include what seems like the original demo by its songwriters, sung by Andrea Remanda, who's sort of a pop star. She's terrific but she misses out on the Beethoven like crash of joy that Kylie brings to this anthem. She is one of a kind and her absence from the contemporary recording scene is a disaster for us all. Get well soon, Kylie, we love you. March 14, 2006

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