Doogal
Four guys going after three diamonds with two guys at opposite ends of the magic spectrum. That’s a quick look at what Doogal has to offer. In the movie, lots of other guys get in the act.
Plenty of loony action, too. Makes for a good evening’s entertainment especially if you are into stuffed toys. Animated stuffed toys. Talking ones. Some cuddly. Some not too cuddly. Some looking over-due for a spin in the washer.
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The movie Doogal was produced in 2006 by Weinstein Company together with eight other companies. The direction was by Dave Borthwick, Jean Duval and Frank Passingham. Searge Danot created the storyline and the characters as well as co-wrote the screenplay with Paul Bassett, Butch Hartman, Tad Safran, Raolf Sanoussi and Stephane Sanoussi. Martine Danot worked with Searge Danot on the characters.
The main characters (with their human voices) in the movie were Doogal (Daniel Tay), a dog, Ermintrude (Whoopi Goldberg), a cow, Dylan (Jimmy Fallon), a rabbit and Brian (William H. Macy), a snail. Other characters were Florence (Kylie Minogue), Doogal’s human friend, Zebedee (Ian McKellen), the good wizard and Zeebad (John Stewart), the bad wizard.
Doogal was said to be modeled after either a Skye Terrier or a Lhasa Apso. Given that, in the movie, Doogal did not show any erect ears like a Skye Terrier, it was more likely that his creator was thinking about a Lhasa Apso.
The Lhasa Apso is a non-sporting breed from Tibet, taking its name from Lhasa, the capital city of Tiber, and “apso”, which, in the Tibetan language, means “bearded”. So a Lhasa Apso means “long-haired Tibetan dog”. Indeed, a Lhasa Apso has very long hair. Standing at only about 10 inches at the withers, it has long, straight hair which can reach all the way to the floor. Colors include black, white, golden, rust and parti-colored with various shadings.
Originally bred as an indoor monastery sentinel dog by Tibetan Buddhist monks, the Lhasa Apso has a very keen sense of hearing and a deep bark which is rather surprising considering its size. It is a very loyal dog and loves to rub itself all over its owner to show its love. It has been identified by DNA analysis as one of the fourteen most ancient dog breeds. It could be easily mistaken for a Shih Tzu, which is a related breed.
Doogal, in the movie, looked more like a stuffed toy. A talking stuffed toy. And his hair looked very much like a mop. So were all the other characters. It gave an innocent quality to the movie. This child-like atmosphere was enhanced by Doogal’s penchant for sugar and candy.
The story of the the movie Doogal started with Doogal trying to get a candy from a cart. Soon everything became frozen. Apparently, Zeebad, the bad wizard, had just started on his sinister plan to take over the world by freezing it. Zeebad had just escaped from his mystical prison. Now it was up to Doogal and his friends to bring him back to justice before he could gather three magical diamonds and freeze the whole world including the sun.
Along the way, the fearless foursome met up with, among others, a talking train, voiced by Chevy Chase, and a moose, voiced by Kevin Smith. Said moose was troubled by rumblings of a gastronomical nature.
And in the end? This you have to see in the Doogal DVD for yourself. Stuffed toys will never seem the same again. You have been forewarned.
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