The Magic Pudding

This did have the potential to be really, really good. But as an adaptation of the wonderful story by Norman Lindsey, it does fall short, and the result is a rather disappointing animated film. My main problem was the story. A lot was left out from the original story, and replaced with some very slow and pointless scenes and contrived sub plotting. The songs were unnecessary and rather uninspiring, none of them are memorable in any way, and the lip syching, especially with the character of Bill Barnacle, was very distracting. Not to mention the script, that was quite poor even for a kids movie, it just lacked a sense of fun, despite the valiant attempts of livening it up. However there are a number of good points, namely the terrific voice cast, that includes John Cleese(a bit loud at times but fine overall), Geoffrey Rush, Hugo Weaving, Sam Neill and an unrecognisable Jack Thompson. Another was that I personally thought the animation was pretty good, with the lovely Australian backgrounds, and the characters are at least likable. All in all, watchable but disappointing. It had the potential to be wonderful, but due to elements that didn't work, it is a hit-or-miss really. 5/10 Bethany Cox

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.

When his ship sinks off the South Pole, Bill Barnacle and his crew are starving when they discover some sort of magic pudding called Albert that can talk, change flavour on request, lasts forever and demands that they continue to eat him. The crew are divided over the pudding but two of them resolve to protect and look after it. Sometime later, far from this, small koala Bunyip Bluegum discovers that he is not an orphan and sets out to find them. Their paths cross on the road when Bunyip stumbles into the middle of an attempt by thieves to steal the everlasting pudding from Bill and his first mate Sam.

When I go to the US I always take the opportunity to watch the Cartoon Network late at night because it turns into adult swim and features some weird animations, one of which involves a team of fast food superheroes of a floating milkshake, a packet of fries and a rolling meatball; this is just one example and from the description you know it will not be a simple affair. And so it was with the Magic Pudding. I knew it was a kids film but having read the plot summary I wondered what this would be like because it sounded like the ramblings of a man on drugs. Certainly I did wonder who had been smoking what and where I could buy some when I watched the film's revelations that the pudding was present at Jesus's birth, was the cause of the mutiny on the Bounty and helped build the pyramids before going down on the Titanic and being frozen in ice (albeit half a world away from where Bill, Sam and Buncle find him). At times the novelty value of the ideas makes this entertaining but mostly it fails to translate this into the film as a whole and the film could easily settle in with any American cartoon with weird characters and celebrity voices. The songs are pretty uninspiring and I would have preferred the film without many of them and something more imaginative in their place.

It is still OK even if it is nothing special and it will keep young children distracting. There is the occasional amusing moment for adults but more could have been made of the unusual characters and story to serve both markets. The voices help. Cleese is quite good but I felt his character was a bit too abrasive and one-note. Weaving and Neill are OK in the leads while Rush is quietly understated as Bunyip. Despite the quality of the names, none of them really have much to work with even if they are OK for what it is. The support cast are OK but nobody really stands out mainly because this is not a film that seems able to stand out.

Overall the idea sounds like a weirdly imaginative kids movie that intrigued me. However aside from the pudding the film does little with it other than churn out a typically manic and heart warming adventure without too much in the way of originality in the writing. Distracting for children but nothing that special; hard not to see it as a missed opportunity though.

I watched the first half hour of this thing on Showtime this morning before I switched off the TV. The best bits were the water colour backgrounds. Story was s***e. No direction. Lots of meaningless action. All wasted and futile. The people that made this need to go back and Learn the craft of Storytelling. Moral: Don't try and upgrade a classic.

Funniest bit: John Laws trying to act. Hilarious!

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.