''Dot and the Kangaroo'' is a 1977

Australian Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal A ...

musical live action/animated film which combines animation and live-action. It is based on the 1899 children's literature book ''

Dot and the Kangaroo ''Dot and the Kangaroo'' is an 1899 Australian children's book written by Ethel C. Pedley about a little girl named Dot who gets lost in the Australian outback and is eventually befriended by a kangaroo and several other marsupials. The book w ...

'' by Ethel Pedley.

Plot

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

, 1884: when a redheaded five-year-old girl named Dot finds herself lost in the Australian bush, a female

red kangaroo The red kangaroo (''Osphranter rufus'') is the largest of all kangaroos, the largest terrestrial mammal native to Australia, and the largest extant marsupial. It is found across mainland Australia, except for the more fertile areas, such as sou ...

who has lost her

joey Joey may refer to: People *Joey (name) Animals * Joey (marsupial), an infant marsupial * Joey, a Blue-fronted Amazon parrot who was one of the Blue Peter pets Film and television * ''Joey'' (1977 film), an American film directed by Horac ...

promises to help the girl find her way home. In the process, the kangaroo introduces Dot to a number of other local animals, teaching her a greater appreciation for

nature Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. Although humans are ...

Cast

Barbara Frawley Barbara Anne Frawley (14 April 1935 – 1 March 2004) was an Australian actress, voice artist and children's TV host. She is best known as the voice of young Dot in the 1977 film adaptation of ''Dot and the Kangaroo'', as well as ''Around ...

as Dot * Joan Bruce as the Kangaroo and Dot's Mother *

Spike Milligan Terence Alan "Spike" Milligan (16 April 1918 – 27 February 2002) was an Irish actor, comedian, writer, musician, poet, and playwright. The son of an English mother and Irish father, he was born in British Colonial India, where he spent his ...

as Mr. Platypus *

June Salter June Marie Salter AM (22 June 193215 September 2001) was an Australian actress and author prominent in theatre and television, best known for her character roles. Biography June Salter was born in Bexley, New South Wales, the youngest of six ...

as Mrs. Platypus *

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 So ...

as Willie Wagtail *

Ron Haddrick Ronald Norman Haddrick (9 April 1929 – 11 February 2020) was an Australian actor, cricketer, narrator and presenter. In 2012, he received the Actors Equity Lifetime Achievement Award for his long and distinguished career in media, spanning s ...

as Dot's Father * Lola Brooks *

Peter Gwynne Peter Gwynne (1929 – 17 November 2011) was a New Zealand-born Australian television actor who was also known for voice-over work. Career Born in New Zealand, Gwynne was a well-recognised character actor, appearing in many of the significant ...

Richard Meikle Richard Meikle (10 October 1929 – 2 June 1991) was an Australian actor who worked extensively in film, theatre, and radio. He was the father of writer Sam Meikle. Career Meikle began his career as a stage actor. His first recorded role was in ...

as Jack the Farmhand

Production

Yoram and Sandra Gross wanted to make an Australian animated feature for the world market. They read a series of books before deciding on ''Dot and the Kangaroo''. Two-thirds of the budget was provided by the Australian Film Commission.Andrew Pike and Ross Cooper, ''Australian Film 1900–1977: A Guide to Feature Film Production'', Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1998, 320 The film's backdrop was filmed on location in and around

Jenolan Caves The Jenolan Caves ( Tharawal: ''Binoomea'', ''Bindo'', ''Binda'') are limestone caves located within the Jenolan Karst Conservation Reserve in the Central Tablelands region, west of the Blue Mountains, in Jenolan, Oberon Council, New South Wa ...

and the Warragamba Dam Catchment Area of the Blue Mountains in

, Australia. Although the film uses many of the same elements as other animated children's musicals involving animals, such as many of the

Disney animated features This list of theatrical animated feature films consists of animated films produced or released by Walt Disney Studios (division), The Walt Disney Studios, the film division of The Walt Disney Company.This list does not include films or special ...

from the U.S., the film is essentially Australian in its use of icons and accents. It also references

Indigenous Australian Indigenous Australians or Australian First Nations are people with familial heritage from, and membership in, the ethnic groups that lived in Australia before British colonisation. They consist of two distinct groups: the Aboriginal peoples ...

culture in some scenes which depict animation of cave paintings and aboriginal dancing.

Soundtrack

The film featured an original soundtrack including several lyrical melodies composed by Bob Young with lyrics John Palmer, and Marion Von Alderstein, while Bob Young provided additional lyrics, and they were recorded by Maurie Wilmore. A soundtrack album was released in the year of 1982 combined with the soundtrack of ''

Around the World with Dot ''Around the World with Dot'', (also known as ''Dot and Santa Claus'') is a 1981 Australian animated film directed by Yoram Gross and starring Drew Forsythe and Ron Haddrick. It is a sequel to '' Dot and the Kangaroo''. Premise Dot joins a swag ...

''. The music from ''Dot and the Kangaroo'' appears on the B-side.

Reception

The film was a success, being screened around the world and returning its cost within three years.Antoinette Starkiewicz, "Yoram Gross", ''Cinema Papers'', August 1984 p338 It allowed

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 ...

to enlarge his production company and market his family films in the U.S. Additionally, the film's use of animation set against photographic backgrounds established the style for many of his later films.

Release

In the 1980s, the first eight films were released on VHS in the U.S., the first one by

Magnetic Video Magnetic Video Corporation was a home video/home audio duplication service that operated between 1968 and 1982. History Magnetic Video Corporation was established by the co-founder Andre Blay, an American film producer in 1968 with Leon Nichols ...

, the next two by CBS/Fox Video and the next five by

Family Home Entertainment Family Home Entertainment (FHE) was an American home video company founded in 1980 by Noel C. Bloom. It was a division of International Video Entertainment, which had its headquarters in Newbury Park, California. History The company was founde ...

. A DVD version of the film was released on 30 October 2001 by Hen's Tooth Video. In Australia there is a complete series DVD set of all the Dot films. They also were released on DVD on Digiview Entertainment. One of them is the first film which was released in 2005 by Digiview Productions and re-released in 2006 by Digiview Entertainment. It was then released by TUTM Home Entertainment on 1 November 2009, as the Digiview copies went out-of-print since Digiview's closure. The copyright for the film in the U.S. is unclear despite being released after the enactment of the Copyright Act of 1976. A

Blu-ray The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of st ...

release on 2 July 2013 by

20th Century Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Dis ...

and

Arrow Films Arrow Films is a British independent film distributor and restorer specialising in world cinema, arthouse, horror and classic films. It sells Ultra HD Blu-rays, Blu-rays and DVDs online, and also operates its own subscription video on-d ...

. The various films were shown on the Disney Channel in the late 1980s through the 1990s in the US, and on the Canadian Family Channel.

Sequels

Animation company Yoram Gross Studios followed up the first film with another eight movies between 1981 and 1994. The theme behind all of the films in the Dot series is the negative impact of humanity on animal life in nature. The sequels are as follows: #''

'' (1981) #'' Dot and the Bunny'' (1983) #''

Dot and the Koala ''Dot and the Koala'' is a 1985 Australian animated film from 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 adaptatio ...

'' (1985) #'' Dot and Keeto'' (1986) #''

Dot and the Whale ''Dot and the Whale'' is an Australian animated film from 1986. It is based on the character Dot from the animated film '' Dot and the Kangaroo'' (1977), which in turn was based on the children's book of the same name by Ethel Pedley. Plot The ...

'' (1986) #''Dot and the Smugglers'' (1987) #''

Dot Goes to Hollywood ''Dot Goes to Hollywood'' is a 1987 Australian film directed by Yoram Gross. It was released in DVD (Region 4 format) in 2014. Plot Yoram Gross' eighth Dot movie opens in Australia with Dot and a koala named Gumley dancing and singing in the st ...

'' (1987) #'' Dot in Space'' (1994; Australian release only)

Footnotes

External links

* * *
''Dot and the Kangaroo''
at Oz Movies {{Yoram Gross 1970s adventure films 1970s children's adventure films 1970s children's animated films 1970s children's films 1970s English-language films 1970s female buddy films 1970s musical comedy films 1970s musical drama films 1970s musical films 1977 animated films 1977 comedy-drama films 1977 films 1977 independent films Films set in 1884 Animated films about children Animated buddy films Animated films about kangaroos and wallabies Animated films about koalas Animated films about wombats Animated films based on Australian novels Animated films based on children's books Australian animated feature films Australian children's adventure films Australian children's films Australian independent films Australian musical comedy-drama films Children's comedy-drama films Films directed by Yoram Gross Films set in New South Wales Films shot in Australia Films with live action and animation Flying Bark Productions films Animated films set in Australia