At a time when children’s television media fell into very standard formulas, and with Australia still not having a lot of content to call their own yet unless it had cliched attributes of the country slathered all over itself, Blinky Bill has become a staple part of Australian pop culture, as the show, The Adventures of Blinky Bill, along with the original book the character is based on written by Dorothy Wall, are considered classic material for Australia and are known on a global scale. Being a decent show at the time that ran from 1993 to 2004 with only three seasons, this story about a koala and his outback friends experiencing life lessons in the outback originally came from a direct to DVD movie made strictly in Australia, and the results were decently well received. The titular character Blinky Bill (voiced by Robyn Moore) is a cheeky little koala who spends his time with his friends in their homes in the photo-realistic woodlands, but things can’t stay picturesque forever as humans come and chop all the trees down, tearing down the forest and leaving their homes destroyed. After waking up with amnesia, Blinky finds out his mother (also voiced by Robyn Moore) was apparently killed during the deforestation epidemic and comes across another koala named Nutsy (ALSO voiced by Robyn Moore) who seems to have lost her family as well. Coming across the rest of their village, the two koalas, along with a mouse named Marcia (ALSO VOICED BY ROBYN MOORE) kangaroo named Splodge, a platypus named Flap, and a kookaburra named Jaco (all voiced by Keith Scott) have to work together to find the humans that stole their trees, locate the mill and maybe even find the answer to what really happened to Blinky’s mother. Managing to gross over a $1 million at the box office, this movie is clearly for little kids and for those that are now grown and have nostalgia for the show that spawned from this film, and as a result, while there’s nothing remarkable featured and it has its little issues here and there, it has nothing bad in it and is perfectly acceptable for kids to watch and enjoy.

The story written by Leonard Lee and John Palmer feels largely confused and can’t pick a specific story thread to focus on, more than likely coming from its original source material featuring simple stories that didn’t have much in terms of narrative structure. It switches back and forth between trying to find his mother, trying to find a new home for all the animals to live in, freeing Nutsy from humans who are keeping her as a pet, it’s a lot to work with for a movie that’s only roughly 90 mins and it never feels like any of these individual portions are given enough screen time even though they could work fine on their own. The pacing always feels a little too fast and it’s hard to pinpoint what exactly to connect with or what even to keep focus on. Outside of the dramatic nature of their homes being destroyed and having to travel from location to location, nothing about it screams being movie worthy and it lacks that punch that usually comes with these kind of stories and instead just feels like an extended TV episode (which is what the show would become later on anyway). There’s a flashback near the beginning that just shows the characters living in their own environment and what their daily routines are like, and that part does have some likeable stuff and gives the characters time to just be themselves (it honestly showed how it could work really well as a show). The film does obviously have an environmental message which is pretty blatant, but because the film can’t decide what to focus on, it’s not talked about much after the first 20mins. The film does have a simplicity to the atmosphere and the characters that is charming and keeps the audience at least engaged with the film even if the goal isn’t always clear. The director for this movie was Yoram Gross, who not only helped write and produced this film along with its eventually series with his company, Yoram Gross Film Studios, but he’s also been responsible for several Australian-based cartoons like Skippy: Adventures in Bushtown, the entirety of the Dot series, and of course, Blinky Bill. For something that is clearly meant for much younger audiences, it doesn’t need to have the grandest adventure or most complex twists and turns, but instead relies much more on its endearing atmosphere to lull the audience into a more mellow mood so they don’t expect anything major. Because of this, when moments happen in the film that feel relatively pointless as a whole, it doesn’t feel too out of the ordinary and actually feels quite delightful. While the focus on losing the mother gets weirdly forgotten about halfway through the movie, it does result in a nice moment at the end and there’s a little girl who makes a small connection with Nutsy that is again not addressed much but is kinda sweet as well. The climax at a steel mill actually feels decently done; it has a specific goal, all the characters get involved, it has some fun moments, even some sweet moments, and it closes out the movie pretty well, even if it gets to the credits too quick again.

The characters aren’t given that much of an introduction besides Blinky and Nutsy, and not many of the side characters that would become staples in the show going forward are given much to work with in this film as their screen time is pretty small. The previously mentioned fast-pacing doesn’t give much time for development and even most of the side characters aren’t really involved in the film until the climax, but with that said, most of them are likeable enough, their designs are simple but are laid-out in a way that makes them look visually distinct, and they do work pretty well in the film. Blinky is a troublemaker and isn’t always that nice, but he still has that child-like innocence and attitude that kids can connect with, and he is at least defined, something that most kid shows back then didn’t always do very well, he can keep the audience invested. Others like an elderly figure named Wombo, the tomboyish Marcia, the short-minded Flap, even if their characteristics are rushed, they are so simple that you can get them pretty quick, and when they get involved, it is fun and honestly could’ve used more. The way the characters are designed feel very fitting as well; despite looking exactly like their respected animals, the clothing and unique expressions and mannerisms that they give them feel like the perfect look for each animal, and you can tell they are having some fun with certain stereotypes these animals have when you see them in conjunction to their positions and labelled personalities (having a magpie be a loud-mouth bitter teacher, and a pelican as the mayoral figure is perfectly fitting). Nutsy is pretty generic and does kind of just feel like stereotypical girl character that frequented a lot of these cartoons at the time, but she’s not bad by any means, just not that interesting and considering that a majority of the movie is just spent around saving her, there’s not really a lot of time to get to know her. The villains are typical humans that hate nature, but again to its credit, it at least gives a bit more screen time to them that they at least feel like an actual family with their own problems and typical homely problems to contend with, and not just heartless monster that only exist to do the cruellest things imaginable.

The animation feels nice in moments and standard in others. Some of it looks like traditional TV show animation; with faded lines and slower movements that don’t feel very movie quality, while other moments actually look quite good with nice colors and good line work, they feel solid and have pretty good expressions, it just varies moment to moment. The real-life backdrops feel more like a gimmick than a necessary ingredient; nothing about the movie demanded a realistic background and it probably could have got away with just being fully animated, but overall it’s not that badly done as it has some decent blending between the environments and the animated characters and it does make sense for a movie that’s so focused on the Australian bush land to feature actual footage from Australian within that similar region. Again, it comes and goes in quality, but for a small underground movie with probably a small budget, it could have been a lot worse, and its impressive with what they actually did do. It doesn’t look like they always occupy the same space, but it gives the film a unique look and does allow for some pretty backgrounds, particularly when there’s a sunset. The songs are also pretty catchy. They were composed by Guy Gross, a Australian film and TV composer who would go on to compose for the Australian cult film, The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, and written by John Palmer and Mattie Porges and even if they are very simply written, and don’t add much to the overall film, they do have some good melodies and memorable lyrics that stick with you (it’s annoying how catchy that arithmetic song is).

Blinky Bill became a simple charming kids show, and this film was the starting point for that, and it seemed to do the same. Though the show had better focus on its scenarios, everything that worked in the show does work in this. The characters are likeable, the atmosphere is laid back, but engaging, the music is surprisingly catchy, sometimes the animation can be nice and every once and awhile, it does give a funny or even a touching moment. It’s not something that will give anything amazing or be flooded with praise, but for a little kid’s story that eventually became a kids show, it’s perfectly adequate. Definitely not extraordinary, but still a cheeky little flick, nonetheless.

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