Pretty Good

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

Watching it is like watching the spectacle of a class clown at their best: you laugh at their jokes, instigate their defiance, and "ooooh" when they get in trouble.

Accepting the hazards inherent in any attempt to realise a well-known and loved book in audio/visual form, "Disneyising" this plot is still a mistake. One of the great joys of the book, especially for (older) adults, is its distinctive Australianism, its evocation of the period of Banjo Patterson's "Saltbush Bill", and this is paid lip-service only. The watered-down accents, presumably to make the movie more "internationally acceptable", are a letdown as well. I would have expected to have recognised Jack Thompson's voice instantly. Even the potentially inspired casting of John Cleese as Albert, the Puddin', falls short. Albert and Basil Fawlty have a good deal in common, and one listens largely in vain for any sign of this. Viewed in isolation, on its own merits, a moderately enjoyable pre-teen animation. As a film realisation of a unique, and distinctively Australian, classic, a huge disappointment.

And so you see the time is ripe/ To send this twaddle up the pipe/ It had to go/ It had to be/ And very soon you're going to see...Hopefully a better version of the beloved masterpiece. One comment, what faithfulness did the film show to the book? I'm waiting! Seriously, I found this nonsense disgraceful, loud, noisy and unacceptable as a rendition of a classic piece of Australian literature.Honestly, how could anyone like it? The best part? THE CAST, NOT THE FILM, JUST THE ACTORS PROVIDING THE VOICES!In fact, my rating doesn't even appear on the register - I give it 0.01 - WOEFUL!

As a French viewer with no knowledge about the original story, I would say this cartoon is like a UFO for a French audience. Both kids and parents were yawning after half an hour. As the movie was dubbed in French, the Australian accents were totally missed. The story upon which the movie is based is unknown to French viewers, so the movie just does not click. The baddie scared my nearly 4-year old, and I did not like the graphics very much. The various sequences in the movie just don't flow, you go from one character to another in what seemed totally random to me. I don't get the psychology of the cake either, but then I guess this won't prevent me from sleeping... I would be curious to read the original book, though. Anyway, I would not be paid to go see it again.

I really had high hopes for this film. Twelve million dollar budget, digitalanimation, star-packed cast (John Cleese, Sam Neill, Geoffrey Rush, Hugo Weaving, Toni Collette, Jack Thompson), fond memories of the Norman Lindsay story and the promise that it was going to mark a new direction in Australian mainstream animation.Well, five minutes in and I was ready to leave. Most of the audience (packed to capacity with kids and adults) looked fidgety and bored. It's hard to remember a film that fails so comprehensively.Looking forward to state-of-the art digital animation? Well you will have to be content with shoddy eighties-style Yoram Gross animation with a few digital lens flares. Yes, washed out watercolour backgrounds and sub-Disney style characters with bad inbetweening are back! Oh yes, and atrocious lip-syncing. At several points, Bill Barnacle's mouth doesn't even move when he talks!Want a good story? Well this confusingly paced film had most of the kids restless and scratching their heads as they tried to figure out what was going on. For adults and fans of the Lindsay original, it manages to tick-off the original in plot points and scenes without any of the warmth or character of the original. It also introduces new elements such as Bluegum's lost parents that please no one. It reminded me of the old Rankin Bass "animated classics"; exciting stories leeched of their quirkyness and originality through a pedestrian TV-style telling.Great voice acting and dialogue? Well if you can get past John Laws as Bumpus, the voice acting is okay. The dialogue however is awful. Poor old John Cleese is left to seemingly improvise old Fawlty Towers/Monty Python material while Geoffrey Rush utters some insipid stuff as Bunyip Bluegum. And yes, I know it's a kids movie!Top musical numbers? Well the musical numbers pop up at unexpected moments but are mercifully brief. Most of them are passable eighties fare with the exception of one sickly-sweet Celine Dion power ballad by Bluegum's mum. In a week, I will have forgotten how they sounded.The rest? Well did I mention the Saturday morning cartoon gags complete with musical "stings" or the TV-style direction (no swooping digital camera techniques here). Think of the The Silver Brumby and you'd be close..This is not a clever movie. This is a dumb TV cartoon writ large. It shows no love for Lindsay nor any understanding of what a modern kids movie should be.