It's been ages since I last saw this and I'd almost given up hope on finding a way to watch it in its entirety after all the years. Well, I lucked out and found a way to watch it again. I remembered many things about it, and finally having seen it again, it's still enjoyable, but not as good as I remember it being. The animations, for one, don't quite hold up, though I still find it neat that they blended animation with real backgrounds. I actually kinda miss the time Australia used to do that with all of their animated films. As far as the story goes, well, yes, it's environmental propaganda, which was so common in the 90's. But, what makes this film slightly better than a lot of those other environmental films is that this one put its focus where it matters: on the characters. See, my biggest issue with films like this is that they spend so much time on the message and the visuals, they forget that unless the characters are interesting, it's hard for the audience to get invested in the moral it's trying to get across. This movie actually focuses more on characters and their interactions, and that's a major plus. The only issue I do have with the story is that the intro is kind of rushed, but once we get to the flashback, the pacing improves immensely, so it's alright. As for the songs, well, they're fun, they're energetic, but I have two issues with them. First issue is that they stop after the first half. This is something that bugs me, when a musical stops being one halfway through. No, if you make your film a musical, you spread the songs out more otherwise it doesn't feel like one. The second issue... um... can anyone point out one song that actually contributed to the story? No, really, there isn't a single song in this film that felt necessary to the plot. Say what you will about the songs in Ferngully and Once Upon A Forest, at least most of them helped to tell the story in some way or another. Every song in Blinky Bill feels like it was added for the heck of it. But on the whole, this movie's enjoyable. It's not great, but it's still fun and for that, I give it a small recommendation. That said, though, the show is better.
Review of Blinky Bill: The Mischievous Koala
