Writing this before the film is released on DVD, but as I saw this when it first came out, I'd like to say buy it, but watch it yourself before you show your kids. For those of us raised on the reassuring exploits of Dougal and his chums in the magic garden before the BBC news, this film ought to have been a jolly romp. Oh no. Grim and psychedelic, it takes that familiar Roundabout crew and subverts all that you remember. Yes Dougal is the hero of the tale, but I guarantee that you will remember Buxton the megalomaniac blue cat and his guiding 'blue voice' (how exactly a voice can be blue is a moot point, but as the voice in question belongs to the inestimable national treasure that is Fenella Fielding, who cares?)There is a relentlessness to this story that really, really gets to you. 'Blue is beautiful, blue is best' are words that can still chill me to the core after nearly forty years. And Buxton? Well I've never felt happy going to Derbyshire and that cursed blue cat is the reason. Seriously, if you find Professor Yaffle and his mice friends creepy in Bagpuss, or worry about the bizarre post-apocalyptic world where the child Emily is running her own antique shop, DO NOT watch this film. If however Ludwig was plain sailing for you then watch this. But please be warned, if they were to make a sequel to this today, it would probably match the freaky horror of The Clangers with the teatime reassurance of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. I may have got those slightly confused. Having said all that, I am going to order a copy. I just won't watch it alone, or without an awful lot of alcohol...