America has Mickey Mouse, England has Winnie The Pooh, Canada has The Raccoons, and Australia has Blinky Bill. Ironically, the pride of Australian kiddie fare was actually the creation of an immigrant from neighboring New Zealand. Reportedly, Dorothy Wall invented the character to entertain her young son, but the books she authored became huge hits. Almost from the start, Dorothy knew the character would be perfect for the animated screen and she simplified the (originally more realistic) character designs before shopping the the idea around to every major animation studio in Hollywood. She failed to generate much interest, and then she suddenly passed away in, I think, 1946. Blinky lay dormant for decades, but continued to become ingrained in Aussie culture. It was Australian cartoon studio Yoram Gross which finally brought Blinky to the screen in 1992.
BLINKY BILL, in short, tells of the sudden calamity which befalls the animal community of Greenpatch when loggers (illegal ones, the film stresses, lest it come across as an attack on the logging industry as a whole) crash through and harvest all the trees for lumber. As the villagers seek shelter in some caves, Blinky Bill mounts a rescue operation to save his friend Nutsy, who has become trapped in the loggers' home where their young daughter wants to keep her as a pet. During the rescue operation, Blinky finds his missing mother, who has been trapped inside the tree they lived in and has been stranded inside the wood pile slated to become wood chips. The mill, as one might expect, suffers heavy damage before the animals drive away in the loggers' own truck.
Most of the characters that would carry into the resulting series are present. There's Blinky the young, and quite 'cheeky' koala, of course, and his very sweet feminine counter-part Nutsy. Their friends include the insecure marsupial mouse Marcia, who after being rather frightened in this picture would go on to front a courageous personality. Flap is the amusing young platypus who would go on to become one of the most visible characters in the franchise. Splodge is Blinky's closest friend, a young kangaroo. The sage of the group is the elder Mr. Wombat (whom everybody calls "Wombo" much to his dislike). Mayor Pelican is the loud-mouthed windbag he would continue to be throughout the resulting series, and so on.
The movie seems to rely on the audience being aware of the characters, and it helped me that I'd already seen the resulting TV series (it pretty much HAD to go to series, since the movie ends with the animals still in exodus). It's notable for the Yoram Gross trademark of laying animation over live-action background plates. All the following series would opt for traditional drawn backgrounds. I'm not sure the film works all that well as a stand-alone vehicle, but it was a success and television was quick to continue the story.
The Adventures Of Blinky Bill followed the animals as they set down roots in a new territory and rebuilt their town of New Greenpatch. This included an uneasy co-existence with a family of dingoes, which is interesting to watch develop over the course of the series and it's sequels -as the dingoes go from trouble-making neighbors to strong allies. Notable is the character of Daisy Dingo, a figure of womanly proportions who became first crush to a lot of Aussie boys.
Essentially the second season of the show, the follow-up series was Blinky Bill's Extraordinary Excursion. Starting and finishing with more typical Greenpatch adventures, the larger middle of the series found Blinky and his friends getting lost and wandering the outback as they searched for home. That was the last of the 90's episodes, but the series continued to be popular and in 2003 a new series came along simply titled Blinky Bill. This one was basically one long serial as Blinky, Nutsy, and Flap rescued some abused circus animals and then traveled the globe to return them to their families. This series was noted for it's slight change in aesthetic (which might be best described as looking more like a comic book than a cartoon series), but it was also a bit more energetic than the first two series (which grow on you, but it must be admitted start kinda slow).
Finally, in 2005 came a second movie BLINKY BILL'S WHITE CHRISTMAS, which returned to the more comfortable aesthetic of the first two seasons. The cast was reduced somewhat for this vehicle, as it mostly follows Blinky and Flap as they search for a pine tree to present to Wombo as a Christmas present. Following this, the whole franchise was re-tooled and the results are reportedly pretty weak. Despite all this material, the only bit of it that has gotten to the US so far is a DVD set of the first season of the teleseries (and it was rather weirdly packaged, showing the show opening, then all the episodes playing back-to-back without titles, and the end credits playing on the last episode).
In the end, it may not have been the most perfect franchise, but it was incredibly charming. Those interested in some relaxed fun could do far worse. As to the movie itself, well, I think it helps if you can follow it up with the teleseries. Particularly if you can follow it through to the delightful Christmas special.
An odd little side note is the interaction betwixt the animals and humans. In the movie and the first series, neither understands the other when they speak. In the second series, the animals can understand humans if they actively listen to them. By the third series, there's no language barrier at all!
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