Blinky Bill the Movie

I sat through this film with my four-year old son, his friend and their parent, all of whom enjoyed the film barring myself. This reboot will be disappointing for those who have fond memories of the original movies and TV series by Yoram Gross Film Studio (based on the children's books by Dorothy Wall) now known as Flying Bark Productions, with a less adorable animation style and some different characters. I strongly feel that this movie is an embarrassment to modern Australia, perpetuating cultural stereotypes projected by iconic relics such as 'Crocodile Dundee' and the late Steve Irwin.

'Blinky Bill: The Movie' (nobody could think of a better title?) loosely espouses some community values and environmental messages under a good vs evil theme, and the title character embarks on an 'Indiana Jones'-inspired journey with plenty of action scenes. Unfortunately, the screenplay is weak, characters are lacklustre, and about %99 of the dialogue is indecipherable and/or irritating. Being Australian-born myself and having lived in several Australian states, I found the meaningless phrases uttered in harsh accents very painful to my ears. Notable characters include a villainous cat impersonating Scar from Disney's 'The Lion King' movies, two female emus voiced by Toni Collette doing an excellent imitation of the title characters in 'Kath and Kim', and a sunstroke-affected wombat somewhat channelling the murderer in 'Wolf Creek'. Curiously, humans that encounter the animals in the story never seem to question their outlandishly anthropomorphic and inventive qualities. There's a joke thrown in for adults, which I felt to be trashy compared to the intelligent humour often found in better-quality children's films.

Nonetheless, young children will no doubt be delighted by this mischievous koala's adventures. Personally, I won't be allowing this film (or the new TV show) to appear on any screens in my home, at least until my children are able to discern outdated colloquialisms from proper speech.