Around the World in 80 Days

Once very much for a long time, in already nonexistent country (USSR) showed this remarkable animated serial on TV..., viewing of this animated cartoon was top of pleasure! It everyone who had the TV looked, both children and adults... Cares and employment aside left all. In this cartoon film, on a number with flashing humor and fables cognitive episodes got on also. Travel on the countries and continents, the nature (plants and animals), people and their customs, a word a cartoon serial were the encyclopedia for boys and girls of our huge country. But the encyclopedia animated and fascinating! The Australian animators have worked at glory! It is a pity, that now our TV has passed to display of low-grade and silly cartoon films, having forgotten about existence of such remarkable cartoon film as " around the world in eighty days "

Not the best version of the Jules Verne classic, the 1980s TV series, but in all honesty I wasn't expecting it to be. It is still a very enjoyable version in its own right. Of Burbank Films Australia's output, Around the World in Eighty Days is not quite as good as Wind in the Willows and Peter Pan but better than The Three Musketeers and The Prisoner of Zenda and on the same level as their Treasure Island and Robin Hood. It is not perfect, I did think Passporttout's French accent was overdone, and the stereotypical portrayal of the Chinese railway employee verged on embarrassingly insulting. However, the animation is colourful in settings and not too scratchy in character design. I did find the different places and cultures very interesting also, while the music is suitably rousing, the story is exciting and although abbreviated maintains the spirit generally of the original story and the script has its witty spots. I loved the character of Phineas Fogg, shown here as a fox, and he is voiced excellently. In conclusion, I enjoyed this Around the World in Eighty Days very much. 8/10 Bethany Cox

If you want to present this story to children in a time frame that will not cause their attention spans to wane, this is a reasonably well-done animated version of Jules Verne's classic tale. It retains most major points of the original story, albeit in an abbreviated fashion. Children should enjoy the anthropomorphic characters and quick pace of the story. While the voice acting for the Phileas Fogg character is excellent, adults may find themselves cringing a bit at the verbal scenery-chewing and ridiculously overdone French accent of whomever voiced the Passepartout character. Children, however, are likely to be more forgiving of this shortcoming, and will probably even enjoy it. Overall, I would recommend this for families with children in the age range of 5-12 years, or for any adult who remains a "kid at heart" and wants to get the main points of the story without reading the novel or sitting through a multi-hour filmed version.