The Adventures of Blinky Bill | |
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Genre | Animation Adventure Comedy |
Based on | The Complete Adventures of Blinky Bill by Dorothy Wall |
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Theme music composer | Guy Gross |
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Country of origin | Australia |
Original language | English |
No. of seasons | 3 |
No. of episodes | 78 (list of episodes) |
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Release | 1 January 1993 – 5 July 2004 |
The Adventures of Blinky Bill is an Australian animated television series based on Dorothy Wall's books about Blinky Bill, and is a sequel series to the 1992 film Blinky Bill: The Mischievous Koala . The series is produced by the Yoram Gross [1] companies: Yoram Gross Film Studios (from 1993 to 1995) and Yoram Gross-EM.TV (from 2004 to 2005), with the main co-production of EM.TV and WDR. All three seasons of the series and the TV film were animated overseas by Colorland Animation Productions Co., Ltd. in Hong Kong. Set in Greenpatch, a fictional Australian bushland town, the series presents stories through the activities and misadventures of Blinky Bill, as well as his family and friends. [2]
In the first season of The Adventures of Blinky Bill (1993, 26 episodes), Blinky Bill and his friends rebuild the buildings and the community in Greenpatch, following its destruction by humans. They also come to terms with their new neighbours, the ill-famed Dingo family. The season first aired on ABC Television in 1993. Yoram Gross (with his first studios Yoram Gross Film Studios) co-produced the first series with: EM.Entertainment (Germany), WDR/ARD (Germany), ABC (Australia), and BBC (UK).
In the second season of Blinky Bill's Extraordinary Excursion (1995, 26 episodes), Blinky Bill and his friends become lost while on a school excursion in the bush. Finding their way home across different parts of Australia, they have many adventures helping out other animals in need, including a crocodile, penguins, and farm and circus animals.
The second season was a Yoram Gross Film Studios co-production with EM.Entertainment, WDR/ARD and VIDEAL of Germany, as well as the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. It was aired on ABC Television in Australia.
In season 3 (alternatively known as Blinky Bill's Extraordinary Balloon Adventure and Blinky Bill's Around the World Adventures in marketing), Blinky Bill, Nutsy, and Flap travel around the world in a hot air balloon that takes them on exciting adventures being chased by two humans named Basil and Cyril who are the Circus Bros. The animals he rescued were: Slippery, Leo, Ling-Ling, Tico, Yoyo, and Penelope (who originally works for the Circus Bros.). They went to Antarctica, the African plains, China, the Amazon Rainforest, India and Paris.
The season aired on 10 June 2004 on the Seven Network. The third series was a Yoram Gross-EM.TV co-production with EM.TV (Germany), WDR (Germany), ABC (Australia), and Wavery (Netherlands).
Two spin-off pilot episodes, Flap's Family and Flap's Island, both following the story of supporting character Flap, were developed by Yoram Gross with the assistance of the Australian Film Commission and the New South Wales Film and Television Office in 1996, but both were not picked up.[ citation needed ]
In 2005, a television movie entitled Blinky Bill's White Christmas was produced by Yoram Gross-EM.TV, [3] with the co-production of WDR (Germany). The telemovie first aired on the Seven Network on 24 December 2005. Its theme song, "Christmas in Australia", was performed by Christine Anu. [4]
In the Philippines, the special was aired across two parts on GMA Network on 1 and 2 December 2020. [5]
The theme of the first series carried a strong anti-woodchip message, with the second line saying "Save us from that woodchip mill", together with scenes of forest destruction. There were also obvious environmental messages in most episodes. Some forest industry groups lobbied the ABC arguing that the opening scene showed illegal wood chipping, which was not fair to the timber industry. In the following two series, these song lyrics and the opening credits sequence were different (the line in the theme became "You'll never catch him standing still"), reflecting the change in storylines and locations. [6]
The Adventures of Blinky Bill received generally positive reviews.[ citation needed ]
Rupert Bear is an English children's comic strip character and franchise created by Herbert Tourtel and illustrated by his wife, the artist Mary Tourtel, first appearing in the Daily Express newspaper on 8 November 1920. Rupert's initial purpose was to win sales from the rival Daily Mail and Daily Mirror. In 1935, the stories were taken over by Alfred Bestall, who was previously an illustrator for Punch and other glossy magazines. Bestall proved to be successful in the field of children's literature and worked on Rupert stories and artwork into his nineties. More recently, various other artists and writers have continued the series. About 50 million copies have been sold worldwide.
Adventures of the Little Koala is an anime television series produced by Hakuhodo. It aired originally in Japan on TV Tokyo from October 4, 1984, through March 28, 1985, and then aired in the United States on Nickelodeon dubbed in English from June 1, 1987, until April 2, 1993. The storyline revolved around Roobear Koala and his friends and their utopian village in the Australian bush, known in the Japanese version as Yukari Village, within the shadow of a real rock formation known as The Breadknife.
Blinky Bill is an anthropomorphic koala and children's fictional character created by author and illustrator Dorothy Wall. The character of Blinky first appeared in Brooke Nicholls' 1933 book, Jacko – the Broadcasting Kookaburra, which was illustrated by Wall. Wall then featured Blinky Bill in a series of her own books, including Blinky Bill: The Quaint Little Australian, Blinky Bill Grows Up, and Blinky Bill and Nutsy. The books are considered quintessential Australian children's classics, and have never been out of print in Australia.
Pac-Man is an American animated television series produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions and based on the Namco video game franchise of the same title. It premiered on ABC and ran for 44 episodes over two seasons from September 25, 1982, to November 5, 1983. It was the first cartoon based on a video game.
Skippy: Adventures in Bushtown is an Australian animated children's series created by Yoram Gross, set in a fictionalised Australian town. It is based on the character Skippy from the 1968 live-action series Skippy the Bush Kangaroo.
Yoram Jerzy Gross was a Polish-born, Australian film and television producer, animation director, and writer of children's and family entertainment. He founded the animation studio Flying Bark Productions.
Keith Scott is an Australian voice actor, comedian, impressionist and animation historian.
Ross Higgins was an Australian vaudevillian, character actor, television host, comedian, singer and voice actor. He was best known for his role as Ted Bullpitt in the 1980s television situation comedy series Kingswood Country and brief revival Bullpitt!. He was also a commercial advertiser who provided the voice of animated character "Louie the Fly" in the television ad campaign for Mortein, over a 50-year period as well as Mr. Pound, when decimal currency was first introduced in Australia.
Julie Anne McGregor is an Australian television actress and comedian, noted for her roles in comedy.
Blinky Bill: The Mischievous Koala is a 1992 Australian animated adventure comedy film directed by Yoram Gross and produced by his Sydney-based production company Yoram Gross Film Studios.
Guy Gross is an Australian film and television composer. He is known most for writing the award-winning music for the Australian science fiction series Farscape and the international hit film The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. He also composed for the animated television series Blinky Bill and Dumb Bunnies. He has 91 credits as screen composer.
Flying Bark Productions Pty. Ltd. is an Australian entertainment and animation studio. The studio acts as a full-service production facility across feature films, television and an assorted range of digital content. The studio was established by Yoram and Sandra Gross in 1967 as Yoram Gross Film Studios.
Tabaluga is a German-Australian animated television series produced by Yoram Gross Film Studios and Yoram Gross-EM.TV, based on the character of the same name created by Peter Maffay. In this series, Tabaluga is the last of the dragons and lives in Greenland, a magical place inhabited by talking animals of many different species. Tabaluga must defend his home from Iceland, a frigid arctic tundra, ruled by the evil snowman Arktos. In Season 2, he must also deal with a searing desert, ruled by an evil sand-spirit named Humsin.
Old Tom is a children's animated television series based on a series of books by Leigh Hobbs. The show features the voice of Keith Scott as the titular character.
Around the World with Dot is a 1981 Australian animated film directed by Yoram Gross and starring Drew Forsythe and Ron Haddrick. It is a sequel to Dot and the Kangaroo.
The Wild Adventures of Blinky Bill is an Australian animated television series based on the books by Dorothy Wall, and a sequel series to the 2015 film Blinky Bill the Movie.