While I did enjoy Dot and Keeto more than most people, I do agree that this is the least tolerable of the Dot films. It's not every day you see an animated family film tackle racism and slavery (unless you consider it weight shaming), but then again it's not every day you'd see the same little girl who bawled over the fact that she couldn't find a joey, told a rabbit the horrible facts of the war without toning it down and practically died at the bottom of the ocean break in to a space station and speak to aliens either. And with a film of its quality released direct-to-video in 1994, stripping Dot's world of its photographed backgrounds that made the series so unique, this once-successful series couldn't have found a better time to end.

Live long and prosper, you little Aussie rebel.

Dead Koalas Don't Wear Glasses.

Not quite as fun as other Dot films or even the films Dot is able to communicate with - one scene includes some horribly blatant product placement for an airline - but while the message about koala chlamydia is effective enough, the stand-out moment is the MGM lion singing a song about what cinema used to be that still holds up today. Jesus Christ, the relevance. That, and the design used for Dot is the absolute cutest Dot. Especially when she dances.

Of course, her designer and occasional animator grew up and worked in Japan. What did you expect?

Following the borderline silliness of Dot and Keeto comes a sequel that shares the artistic style and fantasy elements of the same film, but retains the grit of Dot and the Bunny with a helping of Kangaroo. Aside from being a long anti-whaling PSA for families, it's a Dot film that surprisingly stands out from the rest.

The first film to make Dot a more social person, being more inclusive with friendship around characters other than kangaroos, and not to recycle anything from the previous entries, some of its animations and live-action underwater footage match quite poorly, but it still provides some of the most gorgeous visuals in the entire series, a couple of songs beautifully sung by Kim Deacon and some of the darkest elements besides its central theme to ever turn up in a Dot film, including suicide; the titular, suicidal whale leaves a puddle of blood in one shot only.

Given the power to breathe underwater and communicate with undersea life through magic, because gills would be freaky, the other titular character is especially put in so much peril for a film of hers as she tries to survive the bottom of the ocean that it almost becomes the death of Dot as we know her. If they aren't too traumatised by its subject matter or what goes on, it's an obviously flawed but overall nice alternative for children if you don't want them to think about watching Blackfish. Besides, it's a lot better than Free Willy.

One of Dot's tamest films also has the best art style and animation of the series (the animation director moved on to Roger Rabbit, go figure). The whole "Dot in the Pouch" number from Dot and the Kangaroo is even reused in its entirety probably to commemorate the film's 10th anniversary and give you an idea of how much has changed over the past decade the time it was released.

Cute as ever for kids, especially those who were traumatised by certain elements of the first two films that are reused and toned down here, but for adults who grew up with Dot it may ruin any memory they had of the bunyip if they judge this as consistent with the original.

The first Dot film to:
-feature Dot as an all-animated girl since the first film
-cast Robyn Moore as the voice of Dot
-focus on Dot less than the other guy
-utilise a heavily cartoonish style on its characters
-base its whole storyline on an ecologial threat that concerns the safety of not just nature, but humans too
-make animals experienced in architecture

It's no Animal Farm for sure, but it uses a rather interesting approach as a Dot sequel to warn its audience about the state of the environment, modernisation, pollution and all that jazz.

The first of the Dot sequels opens with a live-action girl who just so happens to be Dot herself, and a clipshow of moments from the film that gave us the thought that she was animated the whole time. Only by having Drew Forsythe transform into an Aussie Santa does she become animated again, as do the rest of the world's inhabitants, just to ease up searching for the joey that in the last movie had been lost forever.

Of course, who am I to judge a cartoon that went ahead a century in time and pulled a true Looney Tunes in the process for the rest of the series? Anything's possible in the Dot series - you'll have a little kid singing a saddening song bearing realism regarding the circus that cartoons wouldn't have the courage to warn your children about even today, and then several movies later she'd be magically shrunken down to the size of an ant. It's a lot more charming than watching a thousand PETA PSAs, to be honest.

In a whole series where every sequel is a departure from the last, this is the honest-to-God Dot sequel (despite of the opening). A sweet tale that sticks to the continuity and moral of the first film, pretending that Dot never found that Joey or traveled the world with Santa Claus (that is, unless you watch these in a shuffled order), and gives a personal message as well as an effective natural one.

It's not all cute, though, because as if an animated hunting wasn't bad enough, past the 60-minute mark arrives some of the most haunting use of stock footage in a family film since the goddamn boat ride from Willy Wonka. It's not nearly as scary, but it's referencing war and loss, even going as far as to feature nuclear explosions. In terms of Disney influence, it goes from on par with Winnie the Pooh to on par with Bambi and The Fox and the Hound.

These Dot films may be weird at times, but you have to give them some credit - there's no way you can make anything like them nowadays. See what your children think.

Let it be known that this is the only animated family musical to spend most of its adventure like your average Disney film at the time and both begin and end on a depressing note. It's the 1986 Little Shop of Horrors (Director's Cut) of such a genre.

It's also been through the strangest case of sequelitis an animated film's ever had - it took a final bow in outer space - though every sequel's had more variety and occasional darkness than any American animated sagas. Suck on that, Littlefoot.

I attended this film's UK premiere at the London Film Festival, and everyone around me cared so much about the characters that I participated in the loudest gasp of shock I'd ever heard coming from a cinema audience. My mouth was gaping wide for a good 20 seconds.

And despite James Ponsoldt's promise, this could only be released on VOD since then.

For Christ's sake, Disney.

As a resident of Britain, I find the fact that Letterboxd just had to merge this and its Weinstein-handled version into one title a huge frustration. The British dub wasn't anything spectacular, but it did at least provide something relatively interesting - our childhood heroes kicking ass. The American version, however, comes courtesy of Hollywood's second bunch of meddlers and throws in needless pop culture references, fart jokes and a rather displeased Kevin Smith in a role that wasn't meant to speak, all under the implication that neither American children or their parents will recognise Dougal, or as Harvey Weinstein likes to call him, "Doogal". They're two very different movies. You're making me look like I appreciate a terrible movie, Letterboxd.