''Blinky Bill: The Mischievous Koala'' (also known as ''Blinky Bill'') is a 1992 Australian

animated Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most anim ...

adventure An adventure is an exciting experience or undertaking that is typically bold, sometimes risky. Adventures may be activities with danger such as traveling, exploring, skydiving, mountain climbing, scuba diving, river rafting, or other extreme spo ...

comedy film A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending (black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the ol ...

directed by

Yoram Gross Yoram Jerzy Gross (18 October 192621 September 2015) was a Polish-born, Australian producer of children's and family entertainment. He was known for his adaptation of children's characters from books and films, and best known for the produc ...

and produced by his

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

-based

production company A production company, production house, production studio, or a production team is a studio that creates works in the fields of performing arts, new media art, film, television, radio, comics, interactive arts, video games, websites, music, and ...

Yoram Gross Film Studios. The film tells the story of

Blinky Bill Blinky Bill is an anthropomorphic koala and children's fictional character created by author and illustrator Dorothy Wall. The character of Blinky first appeared in Brooke Nicholls' 1933 book, ''Jacko – the Broadcasting Kookaburra'', which w ...

's childhood with his animal friends in the

Australian bush "The bush" is a term mostly used in the English vernacular of Australia and New Zealand where it is largely synonymous with '' backwoods'' or ''hinterland'', referring to a natural undeveloped area. The fauna and flora contained within this ...

. The peace and charm of their existence is shattered by the destruction of their homes by humans. Blinky rallies his friends as they battle to protect their homes from destruction and as he rescues his mother from captivity. The animation is superimposed over

live-action Live action (or live-action) is a form of cinematography or videography that uses photography instead of animation. Some works combine live-action with animation to create a live-action animated film. Live-action is used to define film, video ga ...

footage of the Australian bush, which was filmed on location in a farm at Bobin.

Plot

The local woodlanders are carrying on with their everyday life as normal until one morning when two men Harry and Joe start clearing the entire forest with their tractor. The animals evacuate as many trees fall down, and more trees are cut down including Mrs. Koala's home, and a tree knocks Blinky Bill unconscious. At sunrise, nothing is left of the bush and every animal is left homeless. They move out of the grounds to search for a new home, including Mr. Wombat. Blinky, dazed and confused, calls for his mother, but she is nowhere in sight. Blinky rescues a young female koala named Nutsy from a cluster of fallen trees. They both run into Mr. Wombat. Nutsy tells him that Blinky has amnesia and Mr. Wombat explains to him about his life so far. Blinky was a very mischievous sort causing trouble and receiving a scolding from Mayor Pelican, his teacher Miss Magpie and his mother for his many antics. He once encountered and escaped Ms. Pym at her general store. His mother then disciplines him and cries about the grief he is causing her. By the end of this story, Blinky is feeling very guilty about the trouble he caused for his mother, so decides to find her. Blinky and Nutsy make their way towards a riverbank where they meet up with a hard-of-hearing Granny Grunty Koala. Down the river, they meet up with Splodge and his family who tell them about what happened to Mrs. Koala who refused to evacuate out of pride in her own home. Blinky and Nutsy make their way to the waiting line where Mayor Pelican is assigning all the woodlanders to their places. Blinky approaches the mayor who is less than pleased, and orders Nurse Angelina to take the children to the leaking North Cave. Unfortunately, Blinky's mother is not there. Blinky asks Ruff's mother for directions to the wood chip mill. Ignoring the fact there is danger there, Blinky goes to find his mother at the mill, and Nutsy follows him as they make their way through a rampaging river and the woods. They finally make it to the mill. The wood chip mill is home to the woodcutters that fell on their homes. The next morning Blinky and Nutsy witness the woodcutters reducing the animals' former homes into sawdust, narrowly escaping the circular buzz-saw. Then they stay in hiding until night time, but as they try to escape, they alert the dogs. When Blinky slingshots the security light, Harry's wife Flo urges her husband to investigate. Blinky manages to slip out of the place, but Nutsy is trapped and makes a run for it, climbing into the bedroom of the family's daughter Claire. Blinky tearfully goes back to tell the others about the tragic news. Blinky's gang form a rescue party, forcing Marcia, a marsupial mouse, to join them. Blinky has Jacko, a kookaburra, para-drop Marcia down the chimney of the woodcutters' house taking notes of the house layout and items. Meanwhile, Nutsy climbs into Claire's bed who wakes up happy to find a real koala in her bed and manages to get her parents to let her keep the koala temporarily. Blinky's gang sneak up to the house at night, then break into the house, but then they start up a commotion. Claire immediately hides herself and Nutsy in her bedroom cupboard. Splodge manages to fend off both the dogs and Joe, while Blinky keeps Harry and Flo locked in their bedroom. In the chaos that follows, the wood chip machines startup. Blinky gets Nutsy out of the house and they both fight off Harry. The chain of chaotic events against Harry and Joe ends them up in a water tank. Blinky locates his mother, and they all leave the place in the woodcutters' truck, while Claire waves tearfully goodbye to her new-found koala friends.

Characters

Animal characters

* Blinky Bill - a young koala and the titular film character. * Nutsy - a female koala and Blinky's best friend. * Splodge - a kangaroo who lives with his parents. * Marcia - a tomboyish marsupial mouse and one of Blinky's friends. * Flap - a platypus and one of Blinky's friends. * Mrs. Koala - Blinky's mother. She was kidnapped by Harry and his assistant Joe. * Mr. Wombat - Blinky's mentor. He does not like it when Blinky calls him "Wombo". * Miss Magpie - Blinky's school teacher. * Mayor Pelican - the Mayor of Greenpatch. He hates it when Blinky gets up to mischief. * Mr. Gloop - Mayor Pelican's helper. * Jacko - a kookaburra who often laughs. * Ruff - a frilled-neck lizard and one of Blinky's friends. He wears a yellow shirt. * Nurse Angelina - a wallaby, who wears a nurse uniform.

Humans

* Harry - a fat woodcutter, Joe's boss, Flo's husband, and Claire's father. * Joe - Harry's assistant. * Flo - Harry's wife and Claire's mother. * Claire - Harry and Flo's six-year-old daughter. * Ms. Glennys Pym - a shopkeeper who has a dislike for koalas.

Cast

* Robyn Moore as Blinky, Nutsy, Marcia, Mrs. Koala, Miss Magpie, Nurse Angelina, Flo, Claire, and Ms. Pym * Keith Scott as Flap, Splodge, Mr. Wombat, Mayor Pelican, Mr. Gloop, Jacko, Harry, and Joe *

Ross Higgins Ross or ROSS may refer to: People * Clan Ross, a Highland Scottish clan * Ross (name), including a list of people with the surname or given name Ross, as well as the meaning * Earl of Ross, a peerage of Scotland Places * RoSS, the Republic of Sout ...

as the Frogs

Soundtrack

Guy Gross Guy Gross is an Australian film and television composer. He is known most for writing the award-winning music for the Australian science fiction series ''Farscape'' and the international hit film ''The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert ...

composed and produced music and songs, while all lyrics of the latter are written by John Palmer except "You and Me" and "Nutsy's Ballad", where instead are by Mattie Porges. Finally, through The Danglin' Bros. performance, all songs are sung by Robyn Moore and Keith Scott except where indicated below.

Box office

''Blinky Bill: The Mischievous Koala'' grossed $1,903,659 at the box office in Australia.

Home media

''Blinky Bill: The Mischievous Koala'' was released on VHS by

Roadshow Entertainment Roadshow Entertainment (formerly known as Roadshow Home Video from 1982–1993) is an Australian home video, production and distribution company that is a division of Village Roadshow (formerly Roadshow Home Video and Roadshow Entertainment) th ...

and on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...

Umbrella Entertainment Umbrella Entertainment is an Australian film distribution company that began operating in 2001. It is based in Kew, Victoria. Umbrella Entertainment manages the theatrical, physical, and digital releases of Australian films, documentaries and a ...

Television series

The film was followed by television series, ''

The Adventures of Blinky Bill ''The Adventures of Blinky Bill'' is an Australian animated television series based on Dorothy Wall's books about Blinky Bill, and is a sequel series to the 1992 film '' Blinky Bill: The Mischievous Koala''. The series is produced by the Yoram ...

'' that aired on

Australian Broadcasting Corporation The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is the national broadcaster of Australia. It is principally funded by direct grants from the Australian Government and is administered by a government-appointed board. The ABC is a publicly-own ...

Seven Network The Seven Network (commonly known as Channel Seven or simply Seven) is a major Australian commercial free-to-air Television broadcasting in Australia, television network. It is owned by Seven West Media, Seven West Media Limited, and is one of ...

, and

ABC For Kids ABC Kids is the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's part-time channel, broadcasting shows between the hours of 5am and 7:30pm for children under 6 years old in each local Australian channel. It shares the same bandwidth as ABC TV Plus which b ...

for three seasons.