The Adventures of Blinky Bill facts for kids
Quick facts for kids The Adventures of Blinky Bill |
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Title card
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Genre | |
Based on | The Complete Adventures of Blinky Bill, by Dorothy Wall |
Written by |
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Directed by | Yoram Gross (Season 1–2) David Evans (Season 3) Guy Gross (TV movie) |
Voices of |
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Theme music composer | Guy Gross |
Opening theme | "Hey, Hey, Blinky Bill" performed by Keith Scott (Season 1) and Ric Herbert (Season 2–3) |
Ending theme |
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Composer(s) |
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Original language(s) | English |
No. of seasons | 3 |
No. of episodes | 78 (list of episodes) |
Production | |
Executive producer(s) |
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Producer(s) |
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Editor(s) |
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Running time | 26 minutes |
Production company(s) |
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Release | |
Original network |
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Picture format | PAL (576i) |
Original release | 1 January 1993 | – 5 July 2004
The Adventures of Blinky Bill is an Australian animated television series based on Dorothy Wall's books about Blinky Bill, and is a sequel series to the 1992 film Blinky Bill: The Mischievous Koala. The series is produced by the Yoram Gross companies: Yoram Gross Film Studio (from 1993 to 1995) and Yoram Gross-EM.TV (from 2004 to 2005), with the main co-production of EM.TV and WDR. All three seasons of the series and the TV movie were animated overseas by Colorland Animation Productions Co., Ltd. in Hong Kong. Set in Greenpatch, a fictional Australian bushland town, the series presents stories through the activities and misadventures of Blinky Bill, as well as his family and friends.
Contents
Series
Season 1
In the first season of The Adventures of Blinky Bill (1993, 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 season 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.
Season 2
In this season, also known as Blinky Bill's Extraordinary Excursion (1995, 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 season was a Yoram Gross Film Studio co-production with EM.Entertainment, WDR/ARD and VIDEAL of Germany, as well as the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. It was aired on ABC Television in Australia.
Season 3
In season 3, 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 two humans named Basil and Cyril who are the Circus Bros. The animals he rescued were: Slippery, Leo, Ling-Ling, Tico the greedy toucan, Yoyo, and Penelope (who originally works for the Circus Bros.). They went to Antarctica, the African Plains, China, the Amazon Rainforest, India and Paris.
The season 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, were developed by Yoram Gross with the assistance of the Australian Film Commission and the New South Wales Film and Television Office in 1996, but both were not picked up.
Blinky Bill's White Christmas
In 2005 a television movie entitled Blinky Bill’s White Christmas was produced by Yoram Gross-EM.TV, with the co-production of WDR (Germany). The telemovie first aired on the Seven Network on 24 December 2005. Its theme song, "Christmas in Australia", was performed by Christine Anu.
In the Philippines, the special was aired across two parts on GMA Network on 1 and 2 December 2020.
Video games
In 1997, Forest Interactive and Roadshow Interactive created an edutainment software called "Blinky Bill's Ghost Cave" based on the episode of the same name.
In 1999, Forest Interactive and Roadshow Interactive created an edutainment software called "Blinky Bill and the Magician" based on the episode of the same name.
Forest Interactive and Tribe Interactive created three activity edutainment software CDs titled "Play & Learn with Blinky Bill". The first CD was for preschoolers, the second CD was for kindergarteners and the third CD was for first graders.