Dot and the Kangaroo

Image credit: Wikipedia

There’s nothing nicer that revisiting a movie from your childhood and realising that you can still enjoy it as an adult, especially if it’s a film that you remember not being overly spectacular. I experienced this last night when I discovered that Prime has Dot ad the Kangaroo, an animated classic that I had almost completely forgotten.

This little animated gem takes place in the Australian bushland and tells the story of a little girl named Dot (Barbara Frawley) who gets lost. Coming to her aid is a beautiful red kangaroo (Joan Bruce) that teaches her to understand the animals and the two then venture all over the bush trying to find Dot’s way home.

An homage to the beautiful Australian outback and its unique fauna, Dot and the Kangaroo, despite being a little dated, is truly a wonderful film that not only inspires its audience to appreciate and protect Australia’s wondrous flora and fauna, it’s a very interesting experimentation with animated cinema.

This movie is true blue, meaning that it’s a depiction of Australian bush culture and a part of our cultural identity that is authentic and self-appraising rather than glossier films such as FernGully or The Rescuers Down Under that have that mainstream, American shine. What sets it apart from other animated films is its blend of different drawing styles; most of the film is done in simple animation with cave indigenous cave drawings used in a dream sequence, and the superimposition of animated characters in real footage of the bush (a la Mary Poppins).

While this filmic style takes a little bit of getting used to and many scenes remind one a little of Sam Raimi’s opening and closing scenes of The Evil Dead, it proves to be a proves to be a most fascinating and effective technique.

Image credit: YouTube

The rest of the film is pretty dated, telling a very simple story with accompanying musical numbers that remind one of morning TV shows for toddlers, but there is something beautiful about the film that still manages to bring tears to the adult’s eyes as well as the child’s. All Aussie children should be brought up on Dot and the Kangaroo.

Director: Yoram Gross, 1977

Cast: Barbara Frawley, Joan Bruce, Spike Milligan, June Salter, Ross Higgins, Ron Haddrick, Richard Miekle, Lola Brooks, Peter Gwynne, George Assang, Kerrie Biddell, John Derum, Kevin Golsby, Nola Lester, and Sue Walker