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.

Apparently I am swimming against the tide of the glowing comments on this film. I have not seen it since I was 4 or 5 years old but there is one thing I remember distinctly...The Bunyip was TERRIFYING!!! Nightmare inducing terrifying. With the creepy music and the little girl and kangaroo running/hopping away for their lives...As a kid I also remember the animated Hobbit... no worries. Watership down? Didn't blink an eye. Dot and the Kangaroo? It still haunts my dreams. And I have several friends the same age who also think it was massively creepy. Maybe we can get a group rate on therapy.In short: one freaky film for its time.

Boy, do I have fond memories of seeing this delightful cartoon feature on cable TV as a kid in the early 80's. I just bought a copy of this gem on DVD and rewatched it. I'm happy to report it still has the ability to powerfully move and captivate me now as an adult like it did when I was a little boy.Adorable little redhead girl Dot gets hopelessly lost in the Australian outback. Dot meets and befriends a nicely, loving, motherly and understanding female kangaroo who looks after Dot and helps her find her way back home. While trekking across the bush Dot and the kangaroo meet a colorfully flaky and entertaining assortment of animals which include a singing frog quartet, playful mice, a miserable owl, a touchy, but wise platypus and his wife, dancing flamingos, helpful big-voiced birds, nasty dingoes, and the engagingly exuberant bird Willie Wagtail. All of these above cited encounters are quite fun and enjoyable, but for me nothing beats the special appearance of creepy local Aussie folkloric bogeyman figure the bunyip, a freaky, pasty white humanoid blob with brown spots who runs through the woods while other animals flee in mortal dread. Better yet, "The Bunyip Song" seriously smokes, with some incredibly awesome lyrics: "You better come home quickly/ And you better hide very soon/ For the bunyip's going to get you/ In the bunyip moon." The shots of the bunyip coming out of both fire and water are really hair-raising as well, implying that the bunyip is basically everywhere. Ooga booga, now that's scary stuff, man! Seriously, this is a truly terrific cartoon feature. It's quite sweet-natured and good-hearted, with nifty animation (the kangaroo in particular is positively cuddly and lovable), endearing characters, breathtaking scenery, beautiful photography, and a marvelous batch of infectiously catchy, sprightly and witty songs. As an added bonus there isn't even a faint trace of either cynicism or sarcasm to be found; in its place we have a winningly child-like and innocent sense of awe and wonder which in turn makes this movie extremely special and unforgettable. Moreover, there's also a smartly articulated message concerning loss and separation at the heart-breakingly sad and poignant conclusion. The closing sequence of the kangaroo hopping back into the bush after Dot is returned to her parents is genuinely haunting and touching. A radiantly sparkling and affecting little jewel.

This film was repeatedly shown on british TV early on Saturday mornings, and I NEVER missed it. Boy did I love this film in the 80's whilst growing up. Well now nearly 30 (BOO HOO!!), nostalgia starts kicking in and I started to remember what I loved about the 80's. I remembered this movie and set off using the world wide web to track a copy down. I found help from a most unusual source, the director himself! Yoram Gross helped me obtain, via e-mails from Oz, a DVD copy. HOW COOL! Was I disapointed?No............The film looks dated, then so do I. Compared to the excellent CGI these days used for animated giants like Shrek and Toy Story this comes last in the egg and spoon race. But this film oodles charm. The story is very innocent, even compared to Shrek and Toy Story, and children will love it. Now I'm definately not one of those people who bang on about films causing kids to rebel and hurt, maim and kill folks. But if you are this film will only cause your kids to "jump in the pouch of a red kangaroo, hippety hoppety, hippety hop". I had not heard the songs for maybe 20 years yet still knew nearly every word. The way the animation is mixed with real time footage is charming and adds to the film, even if Roger Rabbit did it 100 times better. The animals are truly adorable and you warm to them all, exept the Bunyip which is just frightening enough for the age it's aimed at, still don't wanna meet one at 30 though!!!So dated, yes. Fun, massively. Heart warming, definately. Memorable.........."Quack, quack, quack, quack, all we wanna do all day is quack.......quack, quack......QUACK!"