Dot and the Kangaroo (film)

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
Revision as of 12:38, 2 December 2016 by 216.152.182.8 (talk)

An Australian film featuring animation over live-action backgrounds from the 1970s. Based on an 1899 novel by Ethel C. Pedley. An early success for the Yoram Gross studio, with many sequels (diverging further and further from the original source material).


Tropes used in Dot and the Kangaroo (film) include:
  • Angry Guard Dog: The dingoes.
  • Art Shift: The Aboriginal cave drawings in The Bunyip Song.
  • Artistic Licence Biology: In the Council of the Animals scene, there was a rabbit. Rabbits don't live in Australia.
  • Beserk Button: Mr. Platypus dislikes books written about him.
  • Bittersweet Ending: Dot was finally home and tells her parents about where she had been and what she had been doing. She wants to show her parents the kangaroo, but the kangaroo is gone. Dot wants the kangaroo to come back, but the kangaroo didn't. Willy says to Dot to cheer herself up and reminds her that the kangaroo is going home and her home is the bush where she must have her freedom. Dot couldn't help herself and she still wants the kangaroo to come back, then she began to cry over the kangaroo as she will never see her again. After this scene, the credits roll.
  • Bloodless Carnage: Played straight with Dot falling inbetween two trees and stepping on something sharp; averted with the kangaroo successfully getting off the cliff, especially in the book with Dot having her bare legs and feet till they bled and the kangaroo having her mouth bleeding.
  • Crosscast Role: The Kangaroo is clearly played by a male in the live action footage.
  • Disney Acid Sequence: The Bunyip Song.
  • Disney Villain Death: One of the dingoes does this.
  • Easy Amnesia: The sleepy koala has this twice.
  • Family-Unfriendly Violence: The kangaroo having a cut and bleeding after climbing off the cliff.
  • Foot Focus: Dot is always barefoot in all the movies.
  • Grumpy Bear: Mr. Platypus.
  • Hates Being Touched: Dot touched a bandicoot and scaring him and she laughed at him but the bandicoot doesn't think it's funny.
  • "I Am" Song: "I'm a Frog" and "Platypus Duet".
  • Intellectual Animal
  • Kangaroos Represent Australia
  • Kangaroo Pouch Ride: There is a song about it and it was called In the Pouch of a Red Kangaroo.
  • No Name Given: The titular kangaroo and the other animals.
  • Nobody Poops: Averted; Dot whispers to the kangaroo, which she responds with "Anywhere you like, dear.". It's very obvious what she means.
  • Literal Cliff Hanger: The kangaroo does this.
  • Redheaded Hero: Dot.
  • Roger Rabbit Effect
  • Speaks Fluent Animal: Dot. In the book, the kangaroo fed Dot some berries which Dot had to keep eating in order to prolong the effects. In the film, she fed her a root and the effect was permenant, but she must not eat anymore of that and the warning is "If you eat too much, you'll know too much."
  • Thunder Equals Downpour: It does this near the ending of the Council of the Animals scene.
  • Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Dot is shown to have a fear of snakes and she got encountered by it.

Tropes the sequels have