The arrival of Buxton the Blue Cat throws Dougal, Florence and friends into turmoil. His desire for control and obsession with Blue sees Buxton become increasingly powerful, proclaiming that everything will become his favourite colour and anything not blue is to be destroyed. Will Dougal save his friends, the garden and the day? Eric Thompson’s witty script and incomparable voice talent added a new dimension to Serge Danot’s world.
From one living-room to millions
Serge Danot, director of the animation for Dougal and the Blue Cat, started making puppets at the age of ten. He based his first models on the pets that his family kept, and on the farm animals he saw around him in the French village of Clisson, near Nantes.
Later in life he learned the art of bringing puppets to life on film by the technique of frame-by-frame animation. At that time he had a large shaggy dog as a pet. He made a puppet based on this dog, revived some old ones from his childhood, added some new ones, and then wrote and designed for them a story which he called Le Manège enchanté (The Magic Roundabout).
For several years no company was interested in Danot’s project, so he was unable to get the money to buy a studio and start a full-scale production. In 1965, with his last few hundred frames, he animated and filmed a few Magic Roundabout episodes, more or less single-handedly, using his own living-room as a studio.
This time both the BBC and French television thought that Danot’s idea was worth buying and they bought it. Other countries soon followed suit. Three years later, it was estimated that The Magic Roundabout had a worldwide audience of 250 million. Danot was able to turn an old paper factory into a film studio, employ 50 animators, and turn out hundreds of 4.5 minute episodes. Shops all over the world did good business for many years, selling Magic Roundabout soap, toys, puppets, books, sweets, slippers, breakfast cereals, etc, etc.
Pollux Becomes Dougal
The version of The Magic Roundabout shown on BBC TV is very different from that shown in France. This is partly because Eric Thompson, the actor who the BBC employed to do the English version, could not speak French. He used to just watch the episodes in a viewing theatre, without any sound at all, and then make up a story and dialogue to fit the puppets and their movements. He never knew, or cared, what Serge Danot had intended them to be saying and doing.
For a start, Thompson changed the characters’ names. The shaggy dog who Danot had called Pollux became Dougal on British screens. Other name changes were Florence (Margot in French), Brian (Ambroise), Dylan (Flapy), Zebedee (Zebulon) and Ermintrude (Azalée).
Also, Dougal’s character had to be changed considerably from that of Pollux, because in French the main joke about Pollux is that he is an English dog who speaks French badly, with a very ‘funny’ accent. Thompson decided that there was no way he could adapt that joke into English, certainly not to last through hundreds of episodes. Instead he made Dougal a gruff individualist, trying to go his own way. Probably the only characteristic he shares with Pollux is his fondness for sugar lumps.
Terry Staples
A contemporary review
Dougal and the Blue Cat is derived from The Magic Roundabout, the television puppet animation series. Devotees of the programme who feared that its intimate style would be lost in the transition from five-minute spot to full-length feature can relax. Dougal and his friends survive unscathed and the result is enchanting. Eric Thompson, who wrote the English version of both series and film (the original idea and splendid animation are French), has created a marvellously endearing character in the self-important Dougal, a resourceful dog whose stock of asides would not have disgraced Tony Hancock. ‘Fickle jade!’ he mutters as Florence lavishes attention on the Blue Cat, and ‘There’ll be tears before bedtime’ as disaster looms.
The minor characters are no less endearing: Florence, who sings little songs to reflect her mood; Brian, a trusting and cheerful snail; Dylan, a hip but sleepy rabbit; and Ermintrude, a lovely theatrical cow who paints (‘I’m going through my blue period, dahlings’). It is this constant disparity between the simplicity of the puppet characters and the sophistication of what they say that proves so attractive. ‘I was the victim of a false doctrine’ declares the defeated Buxton. Eric Thompson both narrates and plays all the parts, apart from the Blue Voice (unmistakably Fenella Fielding’s) and it is a tribute to his acting ability that his voice never becomes boring or obtrusive. One reservation: 80 minutes is a long time for very young children to sit still, particularly if they’re not quite old enough to appreciate all the humour. But the many adult fans of The Magic Roundabout will find the film delightful.
Margaret Ford, Monthly Film Bulletin, April 1972
The Magic Roundabout: Washing Machine
An episode of the beloved children’s TV show, voiced by Eric Thompson.
THE MAGIC ROUNDABOUT: WASHING MACHINE
Director: Serge Danot
France-UK 1977
5 mins
Digital
DOUGAL AND THE BLUE CAT (POLLUX ET LE CHAT BLEU)
Director: Serge Danot
Director/Script/Lyrics, English version: Eric Thompson
Production Company: D.A.N.O.T.
Production Company, English version: Goodtimes Enterprises
Producers: L. Danot, L. Auclin
Producers, English version: Gavrik Losey, Joyce Herlihy
Assistant Director: Claude Levet
Script: Serge Danot, Jacques Josselin
Original Story: Serge Danot
Photography: C. Giresse
Animators: V.M. Cahier, V.P. Garreau, V.P. Liblang
Editor: S. Gerstemberg
Music: Joss Basselli
Sound Re-recording, English version: Peter Lodge
Sound Editor, English version: Hugh Newsam
Voice Cast
Eric Thompson
Fenella Fielding
Paul Bisciglia
France 1970
82 mins
Digital
STOP MOTION:
CELEBRATING HANDMADE ANIMATION ON THE BIG SCREEN
Dougal and the Blue Cat Pollux et le chat bleu
Sun 1 Sep 12:10; Sun 15 Sep 15:20
Alice
Wed 4 Sep 18:10; Sat 21 Sep 15:10
Little Otik
Wed 4 Sep 20:15 + intro by musician and Starve Acre composer Matthew Herbert; Sat 21 Sep 17:45
21 Years of dwarf studios
Sun 6 Oct 15:30
Coraline
Sun 8 Sep 12:00
King Kong
Sun 8 Sep 13:00 + intro by Douglas Weir, Content Remastering Lead
James and the Giant Peach
Sat 7 Sep 12:10; Sat 21 Sep 12:00
The Pied Piper Krysarˇ
Sat 7 Sep 18:40; Sun 22 Sep 15:00
Anomalisa
Sat 7 Sep 20:40; Wed 2 Oct 18:30
King Kong
Sun 8 Sep 13:00 + intro by Douglas Weir, Content Remastering Lead; Mon 16 Sep 2045
Mighty Joe Young
Sun 8 Sep 15:45; Wed 18 Sep 20:55
Mary and Max
Wed 11 Sep 18:00; Wed 25 Sep 20:35
ParaNorman
Sat 14 Sep 12:20
Marcel the Shell with Shoes On
Sat 14 Sep 15:40; Sun 6 Oct 12:20
My Life as a Courgette Ma vie de Courgette + Manipulation
Sun 15 Sep 12:20; Tue 8 Oct 18:40
Library Talk: A Study in Stop Motion
Mon 16 Sep 18:30
Stop-Motion Masters + Q&A with Barry Purves, Suzie Templeton and Osbert Parker
Fri 20 Sep 18:10
Chuck Steel: Night of the Trampires + Q&A with director Mike Mort
Fri 20 Sep 20:30
The Boxtrolls
Sun 22 Sep 12:00
Kubo and the Two Strings
Sat 28 Sep 11:40
Wendell and Wild
Sun 29 Sep 15:10; Mon 7 Oct 20:40
Missing Link
Sat 5 Oct 12:00
Thanks to Jez Stewart, BFI National Archive
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Programme notes and credits compiled by Sight and Sound and the BFI Documentation Unit
Notes may be edited or abridged
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