Australian cinema was in a vibrant state between the 1970's and the mid 1980's.....We had Mountain Men!, Disappearing Girls!, Apocalyptic Futures! and Crocodile Wrestling! We also had "Dot!"....A fun little tale about a lost girl, A Kangaroo and an Adventure In the Australian bush!...With Animation on a live action background, Which was cutting edge in 1977 and secured the movie as a children's favourite.However, Looking back on this movie (After recently buying the boxset!), It's painfully obvious as too the age of it, As The Writing, The Animation, Music and Songs don't stand up well now....Though, It's the type of movie, Where it's good natured charm Overcomes it's obvious flaws.It's certainly worth showing to children..Or adults for that matter?, As it's one of the far too few examples of good Feature length Australian Animation.

I just finished watching Dot and The Kangaroo with my 4 year old son. I would have been 5 years old when this weird combination of animation and camera footage was released. My mother in law bought the DVD at Walmart for $1.00 American. My son seemed to enjoy it and I thought it was strange enough to warrant a view. One of the things that I found disturbing was the two little mice playing patty cake while singing about their boyfriends eating snakes. The music was rather relaxing. I had no idea what this thing was when we popped it in. Mother in law bought all of these strange videos for a buck each and most of them are like Chinese cartoons that have been dubbed over in English. Since I like anything strange, I enjoyed this.

Thanks to this movie being shown to me when I was about three or four, my favorite animal of all time is now the kangaroo. This movie is the best, I watch it as often as I can, and it never gets old or boring. Of course, the Bunyip still freaks me out, even though the song that goes along with that scene is so cool! I remember telling my friends that "The Bunyip could easily beat the crap out of the Boogeyman plus the Monster Under The Bed and the Monster In The Closet!". My friends thought I was insane, and I plan on showing this movie to them. It won't have the same effect on them as it does me, but maybe they will become fans, too.I have a VHS copy of Dot and the Kangaroo, Dot and the Bunny plus Dot and Santa Claus that I found at a used video store, and it still works perfectly! Sadly, the one I had taped off of HBO back in the 80s was lost during a move in the early 90s. I'm also planning on getting the Dot and the Kangaroo DVD Box Set, just to be able to see Dot and Keeto, Dot and the Whale, Dot and the Bunny, etc. again (though, I don't ever remember seeing Dot in Space).I wish there was a soundtrack, or MP3s from this movie, but I've never found any. Oh well... I'm going to go watch it again. Beware the Bunyip! Love, Laura

Man, this is a sad film! I first saw this on HBO in 1980 and I enjoyed it, but I did not like the ending. Dot crying over her lost friend is just heartbreaking! I wondered recently if the book could be this sad too? Being curious, I decided to track down the original source novel by Ethel Pedley. I read it and was surprised at how good it was and close to the movie and how different too! Warning! Spoilers follow! Do not read if you don't want to know what happens! Well, after the same adventures as in the movie (except for the part about the hideous monster, the bunyip), Dot and her kangaroo friend make it to her home.Her father is about to shoot the kangaroo, but Dot intervenes. They all become friends when Dot explains how the kangaroo saved her life. However, the best part of the book is when the kangaroo FINDS her lost joey! This is the only case where I have seen the book have an upbeat ending, whereas the movie does not. The only problem I had with the book was that it was dated. I mean really dated with its' views on race! It was published in 1899, so there were some unfortunate racial stereotypes mentioned when they meet the aborigines. Still, this is very interesting historical fiction! My recommendation is to see the movie first. Then, read the book. Keep in mind the publication date!That's my rant! Bodger1.