DOT AND THE KANGAROO
Australia, 1977, 86 minutes, Colour.
Voices: Barbara Frawley, Joan Bruce, Spike Milligan, June Salter, Ross Higgins.
Directed by Yoram Gross.
Dot and the Kangaroo is a delightful film for younger children. It shows the heroine, Dot, out in the Australian bush with the various Australian animals. The plot is slight, the importance being the focus on Dot, the little child Dot and the animals.
The film was written by John Palmer who wrote a dozen films for director and animator Yoram Gross who had come from Poland to Israel and then to Australia and been very successful with his animation studios. There were many Dot films: Around the World with Dot, Dot and the Bunny, Dot and the Whale, Dot and Keeto, Dot Goes to Hollywood and Dot in Space – over a period of almost seventeen years. Other collaborations between Palmer and Yoram Gross include The Little Convict (with the voice of Rolf Harris), Oliver Twist, The Camel Boy and Blinky Bill.
Many Australian actors, especially from radio, give their voices to the animals – and they include Spike Milligan. The Dot series – which became much more socially conscious as the series went on – can be recommended for very young audiences.
1. The appeal of this film? For what age audience? For Australian children, Australian parents? Overseas audiences? The quality of the entertainment, its main impact?
2. The quality and style of the animation? The Disney tradition for humans and animals? This kind of animation for very young children and their acceptance of it(would it be better to have more realistic animation or this kind of fairy tale simple animation?) The importance of using real bush backgrounds and of the homestead? The effect of having animation with real backgrounds?
3. The contribution of the music, the contribution of the songs? Simple songs, simple lyrics for very young children?
4. The effect of the film its introduction to the range of Australian animals in the bush? How well did it make them characters? How memorable were they?
5. The story was published in 1899. How does it reflect 20th century, Australian values, the, way of life in the bush, pioneering? The impact of the story now? Its perennial values? The appeal to children? To boys, to girls?
6. How could the young children identify with Dot? Her personality, way of speaking? Home, father and mother? Going out into the bush and getting lost? Her ability to cope with the bush, not coping? Her encounter with the animals and the friendly encounter? Yet the realism with the hostility of the snake?
7. The portrait of her home, father, mother and their worrying, the assistant farm hand and his helping in the search? The father's desperation, illness? The joy when Dot returns? How moving this ending for a children's audience?
8. The importance of the focus on the kangaroo, the particularly Australian animal, the feminine kangaroo, the mother who had lost her Joey, Dot taking the place of the Joey? Her friendliness, help? The fantasy of Dot riding in the kangaroo's pouch? The details of their finding food, shelter, places to sleep, water? Seeking the advice of the other animals? Dot learning the ways of life and survival of the other animals from the kangaroo?
9. The portrait of the other animals - the blend of fantasy and reality? Their characters, their songs? e.g. the various birds, the koalas? The episode with the snake?
10. The focus given to the platypus? The particularly strange Australian animal? Its behaviour? Advice? Spike Milligan and the character of the platypus, its scientific name and its use, the song?
11. What did Dot learn by her being lost in the bush? The encounter with the Aborigines and the importance of the Aborigines, place in the Australian heritage, the bush, relationships between black and white? An optimistic look? Respect for the corroboree?
12. The atmosphere of a finale? The kangaroo transforming into a real kangaroo and leaping through the bush? What was the audience left with as regards story, Australian values, the experience of the Australian bush?
