Australian
Screen

an NFSA website

National Treasures – ‘The Magic Pudding’ Illustrations (2004)

play Nudity
clip
  • 1
'The Magic Pudding' illustrations education content clip 1

This clip chosen to be PG

Clip description

Norman Lindsay’s The Magic Pudding is one of our best-loved children’s books and the central character one of our great Australian antiheroes.

Curator’s notes

by Digital Resource Writers

The children’s book The Magic Pudding by Norman Lindsay was published in 1918.

It tells the adventures of the koala Bunyip Bluegum who goes in search of his missing parents. When Bunyip Bluegum finds he can no longer live with his uncle’s annoying whiskers, he sets out to find his own place in the world. Rather quickly he meets Sam Sawnoff (a penguin) and Bill Barnacle (a man with a long white beard) and their pudding, Albert.

Albert is a magic pudding, which magically renews itself whenever part of it is eaten. Albert can taste like steak and kidney pie, or plum duff, or any number of things. Albert is rather cranky and his goal in life seems to be to get people to eat as much of him as possible. A gang of pudding thieves stalk the magic pudding, who is protected by his companions.

The pudding owners are in constant conflict with a couple of pudding thieves, who frequently succeed in stealing Albert for short bursts of time, until they are set upon and beaten up by the Society of Pudding Owners.

The story is a variation on the ‘three wishes’ theme common in fairy stories.

Teacher’s notes

developed for NFSA digital learning NFSA digital learning

WARNING – the opening sequence of this clip contains nudity. Teachers can avoid screening this sequence by downloading the clip and playing it from Warren Brown’s narration to camera at the State Library of New South Wales that commences, 'Like many Australian kids I grew up in love with The Magic Pudding'.

Classroom Activities

  1. What is The Magic Pudding?
  2. Why was it created?
  3. Why has it been a popular book?
  4. How do the illustrations show the skill of the artist Norman Lindsay?
  5. What is meant by an ‘antihero’?
  6. Who is an example of an antihero today?
  7. Why does the character of the Pudding appeal to many people?
  8. Look at an illustrated version of the book. What is the main purpose of the illustrations – to reflect the text, or to add additional information and ideas to the story? Describe the:
    • style
    • characterisation
    • use of colour
    • use of black-and-white in the illustrations.
  9. The Magic Pudding was a popular book from its first publication. Is it likely still to appeal to its main audience today? Explain your reasons.
  10. The Magic Pudding was published in 1918; it was created as an animated film in 2000. Watch the film and compare the key features with those of the illustrations. Also discuss the filmic elements in it: the nature of the voices, the animation, the use of music, the adaptation and modernisation of the language and the general style.
  11. What are the main strengths and weaknesses of the two different media?

Norman Lindsay’s Posters

  1. Norman Lindsay was a popular cartoonist and a major propaganda artist during the First World War. Go to the Australian War Memorial site and enter Norman Lindsay and First World War into the collection search. You will find images of recruiting/patriotic cartoons. Look at these posters and discuss:
    • Who he presents in the posters
    • How he characterises these people
    • What messages he is presenting
    • The likely reactions of a variety of people to those posters, such as a man who has joined the army, a wounded soldier back from the war, the mother of a young man who is of eligible age, a man who has decided that he will not join the army, and the father of a soldier at the front.
  2. Could Lindsay’s posters be seen as uniting the community, dividing it, or both? Discuss your ideas.