Director Yoram Gross
Starring Barbara Frawley, Joan Bruce, Spike Milligan
Rated G
Score 6/6

A young girl gets lost in the Australian bush and befriends a kangaroo.

For those of you who might be interested, before we get to far into things a little history. Dot and the Kangaroo was originally an 1899 Australian children’s book written by Ethel C. Pedley. The book was adapted into a stage production in 1924, and a film in 1977. The Yoram Gross Studios followed up the first film with another eight movies between 1981 and 1994. On a slight sidenote Barbara Frawley the actress who provided the voice for Dot in four movies including Dot and the Kangaroo spent time in the 80’s as one of the hosts of Play School (An interesting fact I found out looking through her filmography).

I was inspired to take a look at Dot and the Kangaroo after recently stumbling across the movie’s Trailer on YouTube, though there is a really interesting concept for the trailer being Spike Milligan talking to Dot about the movie they are in. The only complaints I have about the trailer is that as trailers go its longer than most trailers usually are and perhaps it didn’t need the musical numbers. Now I am sure there are more than a few people who have seen Dot and The Kangaroo, for those of you who haven’t the interesting thing about the movie is the use of 2d animation being used on top of live action scenery footage that was shot in the Blue Mountains in New South Wales. Even though the movie is over forty years old it still has a charming and sweet quality (parents introducing their kids to this movie there are the obligatory scary moments towards the end of the movie) at the start of the movie I loved the line about talking to animals and I would hold the animation for Dot and the Kangaroo as being better then the animation of some modern animated children’s shows. Two of the songs that I loved from the soundtrack are All We Ever Do All Day Is Quack and The Platypus. I also can’t help but wonder how much the song Ride In The Pouch Of A Red Kangaroo has help fuel certain stereotypes of Australians over the years.