Blinky Bill: The Little Australian (1958 film)

Blinky Bill: The Little Australian is a 1958 Australian Live-Action/Animated film by Pathe Australian and Eric Porter Films. The idea first came in 1952 while Eric Porter was working on a pilot film for a series of animated cartoons based on the books. Loosley adapted form The Complete Adventures of Blinky Bill by Dorothy Wall, it stars real animals and human actors as well as utilizing hand-drawn/stop-mtion animation process. The film predates the 1992 adaptation, but stays more faithful to the original books. It focuses on Blinky Bill, his sister Nutsy and his gang and their adventures in the Australian bush, as they travel to a small town, where they bumped into Mrs. Pym as well as several Hunters who try to track them down. It starts famous Australian actors of the 1950s and 1960s. Filming took Place in 1956-1957 with post-Production late that year. It first premiered in it Sydney in March, 1958. The film was a critial succsses in Australia and Europe and had a short-lived popularity in the United States in 1961. It was re-released in 1968, in Australia and in the US in 1970. The film became so popular that In 1965 a sequel called Blinky Bill in America was planned by The Rank Organisation, but the film never got into Production. The film is now considered a cult-classic in Australia.