Doug's 1st Movie though is a rather dull affair. The animation is simple and line drawn, exactly like it was made for tv, and not terribly interesting on a visual level. Disney, who backed Doug's 1st Movie, were clearly not expecting there to be much interest in the film and didn’t throw much of a budget at it. Indeed Doug's 1st Movie was only originally intended for a video release, only to go to cinematic release where it became a surprise success, earning some $20 million in US box-office rentals.

Doug's 1st Movie however is almost made watchable by a peculiarly offbeat sense of humour – there are times it almost feels like the film has been intended as the indie equivalent of a children’s animated film. The film has a mildly amusing idea of a mythic lake monster that, when found, in fact proves to be intelligent and quite tame. There are odd moments of bizarre humour – like the superhero parody dream sequence featuring Quail Man and his companion Quail Dog, or where the fake reporters at the news conference are spotted because they have a blow-up tv camera, and the bully who is given a killer robot that instead ends up nannying him. There’s a not very funny spoof of Virtual Reality – the VR helmet transports the wearer into an identical simulation of the living room they are standing in. But for the most part the film’s eccentric offbeat sense of humour never really comes to life. And it is all housed in a rather banal plot. The film remains without much in the way of enervation overall, like something that is straining to be funny.