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Dot and the Kangaroo (1977)

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Being polite to a platypus

Original classification rating: G. This clip chosen to be G

Clip description

The kangaroo introduces Dot to Mr and Mrs Platypus, who are difficult to be polite to, because they are easy to offend. Mr Platypus (voiced by Spike Milligan) gives Dot a history lesson. Mrs Platypus (June Salter) corrects her pronunciation of their biological name.

Curator’s notes

by Paul Byrnes

This routine comes very directly from the book and gives a flavour of Ethel Pedley’s comic style, which appears to be somewhat influenced by Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, first published in England in 1865. In the book, Dot is lured away from the sight of her house by a hare, just as Alice was distracted by a white rabbit. In the film, she tumbles down a gully, just as Alice fell down a rabbit-hole. Much of the film’s dialogue comes directly from Ethel Pedley’s story, which is dedicated 'to the children of Australia, in the hope of enlisting their sympathies for the many beautiful, amiable and frolicsome creatures of their fair land, whose extinction, through ruthless destruction, is being surely accomplished’.

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