The Adventures of Blinky Bill

The Adventures of Blinky Bill is an Australian animated television series based on Dorothy Wall's books about Blinky Bill. The series is produced by the Yoram Gross^[1] companies: Yoram Gross Film Studio (from 1993 to 1995) and Yoram Gross-EM.TV (from 2004), with the main co-production of EM.TV and WDR. Finally, all three seasons were animated at Colorland Animation Productions Ltd.. Set in Greenpatch, a fictional Australian town, the series presents stories of conservation and nature through the activities of Blinky Bill and his family and friends.

Series

Series 1

In the first series of The Adventures of Blinky Bill (1993-1994, 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 series first aired on ABC Television in 1993. Yoram Gross (with his first studios Yoram Gross Film Studio) co-produced the first series with: EM.Entertainment (Germany), WDR/ARD (Germany), ABC (Australia), and BBC (UK). It is the series closest to the original book in character and setting.

Series 2

In this series, also known as Blinky Bill's Extraordinary Excursion (1995-1996, 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 series was a Yoram Gross Film Studio co-production with: EM.Entertainment (Germany), WDR/ARD (Germany), ABC (Australia), VIDEAL (Germany), and Beyond Distribution (Australia). It was aired on ABC in Australia.

Series 3

In series three, Blinky Bill’s Extraordinary Balloon Adventure also known as Blinky Bill's Around the World Adventures (2004, 26 episodes), Blinky Bill, Nutsy and Flap travel around the world in a hot air balloon that takes them on exciting adventures being chased by 2 humans named Basil and Cyril who are the Circus Bros.. The animals he rescued were: Ling Ling the Panda, Slippery the Seal, Yoyo the Monkey, Princess Penelope the Poodle, Leo the Lion, and Tico the Toucan (who originally works for the Circus Bros.). They went to Antarctica, the African Plains, China, the Amazon Rainforest, India and Paris, and it was shown in high definition.

The series 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).

Spin-off

Two spin-off pilot episodes, Flap's Family and Flap's Island, both following the story of supporting character Flap after he is stolen by zookeepers, was developed by Yoram Gross with the assistance of the Australian Film Commission and the New South Wales Film and Television Office in 1996, but the pilots were not picked up.

Telemovie

In 2005 a telemovie entitled Blinky Bill’s White Christmas was produced by Yoram Gross-EM.TV,^[2] with the co-production of WDR (Germany). The telemovie first aired on the Seven Network on 24 December 2005. The theme song from the telemovie, "Christmas in Australia", was sung by Christine Anu.^[3]

Other media

In 1997, Forest Interactive and Roadshow Interactive published an edutainment software called "Blinky Bill's Ghost Cave" based on the episode of the same name.^[4]

Characters

Broadcasting history

• Australia
  • ABC (1993–1996)
  • Seven Network (2004)
  • Fox Kids

International broadcasts

Forest industry controversy

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.^[5]

References

External links

• The Adventures of Blinky Bill at TV.com
• The Adventures of Blinky Bill at Big Cartoon Database
• Blinky Bill's Extraordinary Adventures at Big Cartoon Database
• Blinky Bill's White Christmas at Oz Movies