''The Adventures of Blinky Bill'' is an Australian

animated television series An animated series, or a cartoon series, is a set of Animation, animated films with a common title, usually related to one another. These episodes typically share the same main heroes, some different secondary characters and a basic theme. 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 Gross Yoram Jerzy Gross (18 October 192621 September 2015) was a Polish-born, Australian film and television producer, animation director, and writer of children's and family entertainment. He founded the animation studio Flying Bark Productions. ...

companies: Yoram Gross Film Studios (from 1993 to 1995) and Yoram Gross-EM.TV (from 2004 to 2005), with the main co-production of EM.TV and WDR. All three seasons of the series and the TV film were animated overseas by Colorland Animation Productions Co., Ltd. in

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

. Set in Greenpatch, a fictional Australian bushland town, the series presents stories through the activities and misadventures of Blinky Bill, as well as his family and friends.

Series

Season 1 (''The Adventures of Blinky Bill'', 1993)

In the first season of ''The Adventures of Blinky Bill'' (1993, 26 episodes), Blinky Bill and his friends rebuild the buildings and the community in Greenpatch, following its destruction by humans. They also come to terms with their new neighbours, the ill-famed Dingo family. The season first aired on ABC Television in 1993.

(with his first studios Yoram Gross Film Studios) co-produced the first series with: EM.Entertainment (Germany), WDR/ ARD (Germany), ABC (Australia), and

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

(UK).

Season 2 (''Blinky Bill's Extraordinary Excursion'', 1995)

In the second season of ''Blinky Bill's Extraordinary Excursion'' (1995, 26 episodes), Blinky Bill and his friends become lost while on a school excursion in the bush. Finding their way home across different parts of Australia, they have many adventures helping out other animals in need, including a crocodile, penguins, and farm and circus animals. The second season was a Yoram Gross Film Studios co-production with EM.Entertainment, WDR/ ARD and VIDEAL of Germany, as well as the

Australian Broadcasting Corporation The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is Australia’s principal public service broadcaster. It is funded primarily by grants from the federal government and is administered by a government-appointed board of directors. The ABC is ...

. It was aired on ABC Television in Australia.

Season 3 (''Blinky Bill'', 2004)

In season 3 (alternatively known as ''Blinky Bill's Extraordinary Balloon Adventure'' and ''Blinky Bill's Around the World Adventures'' in marketing), Blinky Bill, Nutsy, and Flap travel around the world in a hot air balloon that takes them on exciting adventures being chased by two humans named Basil and Cyril who are the Circus Bros. The animals he rescued were: Slippery, Leo, Ling-Ling, Tico, Yoyo, and Penelope (who originally works for the Circus Bros.). They went to

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean (also known as the Antarctic Ocean), it contains the geographic South Pole. ...

, the African plains, China, the

Amazon Rainforest The Amazon rainforest, also called the Amazon jungle or Amazonia, is a Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests, moist broadleaf tropical rainforest in the Amazon biome that covers most of the Amazon basin of South America. This basin ...

, India and

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

. The season aired on 10 June 2004 on the

Seven Network Seven Network (stylised 7Network, and commonly known as Channel Seven or simply Seven) is an Australian commercial free-to-air Television broadcasting in Australia, television network. It is owned by Seven West Media, Seven West Media Limited, ...

. The third series was a Yoram Gross-EM.TV co-production with EM.TV (Germany), WDR (Germany), ABC (Australia), and Wavery (Netherlands).

Spin-offs

Two

spin-off Spin-off, Spin Off, Spin-Off, or Spinoff may refer to: Entertainment and media *Spinoff (media), a media work derived from an existing work *''The Spinoff'', a New Zealand current affairs magazine * ''Spin Off'' (Canadian game show), a 2013 Canad ...

pilot episodes A television pilot (also known as a pilot or a pilot episode and sometimes marketed as a tele-movie) in United Kingdom and United States television, is a standalone episode of a television series that is used to sell a show to a television netwo ...

, ''Flap's Family'' and ''Flap's Island'', both following the story of supporting character Flap, were developed by

with the assistance of the Australian Film Commission and the New South Wales Film and Television Office in 1996, but both were not picked up.

TV movie (''Blinky Bill's White Christmas'', 2005)

In 2005, a

television movie A television film, alternatively known as a television movie, made-for-TV film/movie, telefilm, telemovie or TV film/movie, is a film with a running time similar to a feature film that is produced and originally distributed by or to a Terrestr ...

entitled ''Blinky Bill's White Christmas'' was produced by Yoram Gross-EM.TV, with the co-production of WDR (Germany). The telemovie first aired on the

on 24 December 2005. Its theme song, "Christmas in Australia", was performed by Christine Anu. In the Philippines, the special was aired across two parts on

GMA Network GMA Network (an acronym of its legal name, Global Media Arts and commonly known as GMA) is a Television in the Philippines, Philippine commercial broadcast network, serving as the flagship property of publicly traded GMA Network (company), ...

on 1 and 2 December 2020.

Characters

Soundtracks

* ''Blinky Bill and Friends Singing Songs Based On the TV Series'' (1994) * ''Blinky Bill and his "Extraordinary" Christmas Sing-Along!'' (1999) * ''Don and Blinky's Outback Adventure - The Lost Cooee'' (2002)

Video games

* ''Blinky Bill's Ghost Cave'' (1996) * ''Blinky Bill's Extraordinary Balloon Adventure'' (1997) * ''Blinky Bill and the Magician'' (1998) * ''Blinky Bill's Play & Learn'' (1999) * ''Blinky Bill's Cartoon Maker'' (2001)

Home media releases

VHS releases

* ''Blinky Bill's Favourite Café'' (1994) * ''Blinky Rescues the Budgie'' (1994) * ''Blinky and the Red Car'' (1995) * ''Detective Blinky'' (1995) * ''Blinky Bill Down On the Farm'' (1996) * ''Blinky Bill and the Lost Puppy'' (1996) * ''Sing A Song with Blinky Bill'' (1997) * ''Blinky Bill and the Polar Bears'' (1998) * ''Blinky Remembers Nutsy's Birthday'' (1998) * ''Blinky Bill's Holiday'' (1998) * ''Blinky Bill and the Blue Mystery'' (1999) * ''Blinky Bill Goes Camping'' (2000) * ''Blinky Bill and the Magician'' (2002) * ''Blinky Bill and the Winter's Tale'' (2002) * ''Mayor Blinky Bill'' (2003)

DVD releases

* ''Blinky Bill to the Rescue'' (2015) * ''Blinky Bill's Red Car'' (2015) * ''Blinky Saves Granny's Glasses'' (2015) * ''Detective Blinky'' (2016) * ''Blinky Bill and the Strange Koala'' (2017) * ''Blinky Bill's Treasure Hunt'' (2017)

Miscellaneous releases

* ''ABC For Kids Featuring Banana Holiday and Lots of Other Great Songs'' (1994) * ''ABC For Kids Bumper Collection'' (1999)

Forest industry controversy

The theme of the first series carried a strong anti-woodchip message, with the second line saying "Save us from that woodchip mill", together with scenes of forest destruction. There were also obvious environmental messages in most episodes. Some forest industry groups lobbied the ABC arguing that the opening scene showed illegal wood chipping, which was not fair to the timber industry. In the following two series, these song lyrics and the opening credits sequence were different (the line in the theme became "You'll never catch him standing still"), reflecting the change in storylines and locations.Blinky Bill's Fire Brigade (1992) curator's notes on ASO – Australia's audio and visual heritage online
/ref>

Reception

''The Adventures of Blinky Bill'' received generally positive reviews.

References

External links

''The Adventures of Blinky Bill''
at

IMDb IMDb, historically known as the Internet Movie Database, is an online database of information related to films, television series, podcasts, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and biograp ...

''Blinky Bill's Extraordinary Excursion''
at IMDb
''Blinky Bill's Extraordinary Balloon Adventure''
at IMDb
''Blinky Bill's White Christmas''
at IMDb

at Big Cartoon Database

at Big Cartoon Database
''Blinky Bill's White Christmas''
at Oz Movies {{DEFAULTSORT:Adventures Of Blinky Bill, The Blinky Bill Australian Broadcasting Corporation original programming Seven Network original programming 1993 Australian television series debuts 2004 Australian television series endings Australian children's animated adventure television series Television series about koalas Australian television shows based on children's books 1990s Australian animated television series 2000s Australian animated television series Blinky Bill Children's television series about talking animals Australian English-language television shows Environmental television Television shows set in Australia