The Magic Pudding (film)

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The Magic Pudding
Region 4 DVD cover
Directed by	Karl Zwicky
Screenplay by	Harry Cripps Greg Haddrick Simon Hopkinson
Based on	The Magic Pudding by Norman Lindsay
Produced by	Gerry Travers Paddy Conroy Bruce Davey Carmel Travers Edward Trost
Starring	Sam Neill Geoffrey Rush Hugo Weaving Jack Thompson Toni Collette John Cleese
Edited by	Richard Hindley
Music by	Chris Harriott
Production companies	Energee Entertainment New South Wales Film and Television Office Australian Broadcasting Corporation Premium Movie Partnership
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Release date	14 December 2000 (2000-12-14)
Running time	80 minutes
Country	Australia
Language	English
Budget	A$12 million (estimated)
Box office	A$1.1 million

The Magic Pudding is a 2000 Australian animated musical adventure comedy film loosely adapted from the 1918 book of the same name by Norman Lindsay.^[1] Directed by Karl Zwicky, the film features an voice cast of well known actors including Sam Neill, Geoffrey Rush, Hugo Weaving, Jack Thompson, Toni Collette and John Cleese.

The film was produced by Energee Entertainment, an Australian studio that also created the Wicked! series. Energee shut down in 2002 due to financial losses from The Magic Pudding.^[2][3]

Plot

In the South Pole, Bill Barnacle, his first mate Sam Sawnoff a penguin, and crewman Buncle a wombat, are shipwrecked after their ship is destroyed by a big wave. After Bill stops a starving Buncle from eating Sam, the iceberg cracks and produces an everlasting magic bowl of pudding. Buncle runs off with the pudding and claims it as his own, but the ice breaks and he falls into the sea. Bill and Sam manage to rescue the pudding, and after briefly mourning the apparent loss of Buncle, they choose to become the Pudding Owners dedicated to protecting it from thievery. The pudding is revealed to be alive and named Albert, who has a rude demeanor and demands that they continue to eat him.

Ten years later, a young koala named Bunyip Bluegum discovers that he is not an orphan and sets out on a quest to find his parents, Meg and Tom Bluegum. During his journey, he stumbles upon Bill and Sam and accidentally foils an attempt to steal Albert by two pudding thieves. Bill and Sam introduce each other to Bunyip and also introduce Albert, who reveals he's a thrill-seeker who often runs away to challenge other animals to try and eat him. Bunyip tries to ask a bandicoot with a watermelon for help in finding his parents, and the bandicoot tells Bunyip that the only one not afraid to reveal the answer is a frog on the log. Shortly after, Bunyip helps Bill and Sam foil another attempt by the pudding thieves to steal Albert, and Bill and Sam officially welcome Bunyip to the Pudding Owners group while explaining their history, and the four go together to find Bunyip's parents.

Meanwhile, Buncle is revealed to be alive and living underground, having enslaved a valley into bringing him food while still desiring to take Albert for himself. He is also revealed to be the one who has sent the pudding thieves, his nephew Watkin and his friend Patrick O'Possum, to bring him Albert, and it's also shown that among the enslaved citizens are Meg and Tom Bluegum.

After foiling another attempt by the thieves to steal Albert, Bunyip falls into a creek where he dreams/hallucinates about his parents, before meeting the frog on the log. The frog tells him to solve a riddle to find the place where they were last seen, "Where two gums meet, yet stand alone, there's plenty of water, but dry as a bone". Later, the pudding thieves finally succeed in stealing Albert by starting a fire as a distraction, but the Pudding Owners find their house and eventually rescue Albert.

Albert mocks Bunyip's desire to find his parents, causing Bunyip to lose his temper and kick Albert into two interwoven trees. There, they discover two gum trees overlooking a valley with a dam that feeds water into Tooraloo, solving the frog's riddle. As the Pudding Owners head to the town, the thieves open the dam, flooding the town, but Bunyip uses Albert to fill sacks and make a dam. The grateful residents celebrate, and when Bunyip explains his quest, the townspeople take them to the entrance of Buncle's underground lair, saying no one ever comes out. Bunyip begins to despair of ever finding his parents, but Albert slides down inside in his bowl, followed by Bunyip, Bill and Sam. Inside, Buncle is berating the thieves for their failed attempts, when Albert bounces into his lap. Buncle has the thieves thrown in with the slaves before celebrating the capture of the pudding with a large party.

During the party, Bunyip and Bill free the slaves, including Meg and Tom, while Sam distracts Buncle by dressing as a woman. After they escape, Bunyip finally recognizes his parents, and they share a warm reunion, before Bunyip goes with Bill and Sam to rescue Albert from Buncle. As Buncle tries to eat Albert, Bunyip, remembering that Albert can change his pudding forms whenever somebody demands it, demands Albert for a double serving, intending to give Buncle the double. As Albert splits, his good and evil half fight, quickly growing bigger until breaking out of the cavern. Buncle then demands for 'all the puddin's in the world', only to fall into one of the Albert's mouths and is spat far away. Albert splits into millions of puddings before turning back to normal and falling back into his bowl, apparently dead. Everyone begins to mourn, until Albert wakes up, and everyone rejoices.

Later, Bill, Sam and Albert are living a new life with the Bluegums, as well as Rumpus and Wattleby, the ones who raised Bunyip during his childhood. Bunyip breaks the fourth wall by inviting the viewers to join them for a slice of pudding, unless they happen to be a "pudding thief", while the Pudding Owners foil yet another attempt by the two pudding thieves to get Albert for themselves.

In a mid-credit scene, Buncle is shown to have crash-landed back in the South Pole, where he lands on a floating ice block. He bemoans his failure to capture Albert before falling unconscious as the ice block carries him away.

Cast

Geoffrey Rush, John Cleese, Hugo Weaving, and Sam Neill play the animated characters from the book (top) Jack Thompson, and Toni Collette (bottom) play the characters in the Australian animated musical film.

• John Cleese as Albert the Magic Pudding: A bad-mannered, living steak and kidney pudding who lasts forever and turns into different sorts of puddings.
• Geoffrey Rush as Bunyip Bluegum: An accomplished young koala that leaves home in search of his lost parents.
• Hugo Weaving as Bill Barnacle: A sailor who leads the noble society of Pudding owners group.
• Sam Neill as Sam Sawnoff: A emperor penguin who is a shipmate of Bill Barnacle's cruise.
• Jack Thompson as Buncle: An evil wombat who is looking for the magic pudding for himself to eat forever. Also a former shipmate of Bill Barnacle's cruise.
• Toni Collette as Meg Bluegum: The mother of Bunyip Bluegum.
• Roy Billing as Tom Bluegum: The father of Bunyip Bluegum.
• Greg Carroll as Watkin Wombat: The nephew of Buncle who is one of the pudding thieves who has to catch and bring the pudding to him.
• Dave Gibson as Patrick O'Possum, a possum who is The wombats helper of the pudding thieves, and as Wattleberry: the uncle of Bunyip Bluegum.
• Mary Coustas as Ginger: is the right-hand mouse of Buncle.
• John Laws as Rumpus Bumpus: A wise old friend of Bunyip Bluegum.
• Sandy Gore as Frog on the Log: a female frog who helps Bunyip to finding his parents.
• Michael Veitch as Fergus the Bandicoot: He carries the Watermelon.
• Peter Gwynne as Benjamin Brandysnap: An elderly Basset hound who owns a grocery store, once a friend of the pudding thieves, now betrayed by them after they stole his grocery bag and joined the pudding owners for revenge.
• Robyn Moore as Henrietta Hedgehog
• Martin Vaughan as Parrot
• Gerry Connolly as Dobson Dorking

Production

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The Lindsay family had previously rejected many international requests to sell the rights to The Magic Pudding, preferring to wait until an Australian company presented the right formula for adaptation. Past contenders were Rolf Harris, Jim Henson Productions and even Walt Disney himself. Eventually, in 1997, the Lindsays sold the film rights to Energee Entertainment, one of the country’s then-leading independent animation companies.^[4]

Release

The film was first released in Australia on 14 December 2000, and was released theatrically by the local branch of 20th Century Fox.

The VHS tape and DVD were released in Australia in May 2001 by Roadshow Entertainment.

It was then released in New Zealand four months later after the Australian release on 9 April 2001.

A re-release of the DVD was released in Australia in 2013.

Although the film has yet to have an official DVD or Blu-ray release in North America, it is currently available for streaming on Amazon Prime and Roku.

It was also on Tubi for a bit.

Critical reception

The Magic Pudding was released to mixed reviews with most critics perceiving it as a failed attempt to do justice to Lindsay's work.^[4]

Australian critics, such as Louise Keller, Andrew L. Urban, and David Edwards, have given the film positive reviews.^{[citation needed]}

After the film bombed at the box office, Energee went into financial difficulties. It was placed into administration on June 28, 2002 and closed down for good not too long after.

Soundtrack

A soundtrack, recorded by the Marionette Theatre of Australia, was released on 14 July 2001.

Video games

• The Magic Pudding Adventure - The same month when the movie was released, an interactive game called "The Magic Pudding Adventure" was released with video highlights from the movie and 5 re-playable activities including Sink or Swim also released on DVD.

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to The Magic Pudding (film).

• The Magic Pudding at IMDb
• The Magic Pudding at Rotten Tomatoes
• The Magic Pudding at Oz Movies
• The Magic Pudding is available for free viewing and download at the Internet Archive