Oddball

This is a true story, I presume embellished in places to make it a more interesting movie. All the actors are good and I was especially impressed with the cinematography.

There is a small island just offshore and only protected by a shallow patch of water. It was the home of hundreds of very small penguins. But then foxes discovered they could cross and soon the penguin population dwindled until it was down to under 20.

There are a few subplots going on but the main one is this curious dog named Oddball takes a liking to penguins and ultimately is utilized to scare off the foxes and help reestablish a healthy penguin population.

My wife and I watched it on Amazon streaming movies, it is a very nice and entertaining movie.

Destined to become an Australian Classic, 'Oddball' is a very enjoyable family friendly flick which says much about the local film industry and audiences. When a good yarn is well produced and marketed, people will go out and see Australian movies. Whilst not perfect, 'Oddball' is a genre pic - the kids movie that the whole family can watch; with cute animals, a wide eyed and intelligent child, a quirky and memorable leading man and a good versus evil motif. What's not to love? For me, the drawbacks were the casting/writing of an American in a major role. Surely this was not for funding reasons! The actor cast is not even a big name. It could have been written for a corporate Australian type; and there are dozens of great local actors to cast here, even if Alan Tudyk is a competent performer for both the comedic and dramatic moments. He has zero chemistry with the current superstar of Aussie cinema the omnipotent Sarah Snook. This actress is the next Cate Blanchett. World domination awaits her. With already a number of lead and supporting roles under her belt, Sarah has shown why she is the next big thing. This seems an odd choice, pardon the pun, with her career trajectory,but as it will turn out to be one of the biggest box office hits this year, perhaps there was strategy from her and her agents to take this role. The child actor playing her daughter is great, and Shane Jacobson once again ('Kenny') creates an unforgettable screen character. He shows a great ability to straddle both humour and gravitas, often from moment to moment. He is becoming a national treasure. Deb Mailman gets to do very little, but doubles up with narration; and Richard Davies ('Offspring') shows why he deserves more screen time and more work. The hilarious Frank Woodley goes somewhat against type and is terrific. But the obvious stars of the movie are the animals. They are just delightful, although it was not seamless when dog and penguin were spliced into one frame - not quite, for these eyes, anyway. With a movie like 'Oddball' its ending was always going to play out as it did, but there was a lot of fun and tension getting there. It has a very sweet heart to it this film, and I recommend it on that basis.

An Australian adventure-drama inspired by the true story about the wildlife conservation, but it does not follow actual details. Like in the real life, it was between father and daughter, unlike grandfather and granddaughter in this. So there many other changes were made in order to get the film right shape, but the theme remained true to the original.

This was the second film after the last week 'Brothers of the Wind' about the wildlife I had watched and I'm very happy with both. A film for everyone with the balanced contents between the film characters and the message it wanted to tell. I mean it was not about the dog or a girl or the penguins, but they all equally shared the parts. I think the animals were used well.

The film focused on a southern Australian small coastal town, where on a tiny island the little penguins are living for the centuries. But now the numbers are going down due to the fox attacks. So the people are worried that the place might lose its special status. Then they decide to protect it, but all the effort was in vain until a chicken farmer and his mischievous dog named Oddball become the game changer, while everyone was in the panic mode.

It is a modern fairytale, that's what they say in the opening. Because fairy tales do not have any violences and so in this the fox attacks were merely a concept to develop the plot. In reality those were obviously heartbreaking if you are an animal lover. The good thing is, the film does not have them like a Disney Nature film. So those who seek facts, logics and strong appeal in a film, I would advise them to stay away from it or you can just put away your adultness to have a good time with it.

"If you want the biscuit you gotta risk it."

This film was not based on a rare concept, but definitely very rare on what it deals with. Like as my knowledge I don't remember seeing a film or a documentary film about these little penguins. So it is totally worth, but disappointment was it was a human perspective story. About the human's intervene while nature fighting among themselves to extinction. Fox hunts penguins and that's a natural order, but when the balance was disturbed, the human's involvement to restore it is not questionable as we're the dominated species on the earth.

Most of the cast was Aussies and a couple of them were internationally recognised. Predictable story, especially the ending is not a complicated part. Somewhat fun, but most of the time the drama takes over like the struggling relationship between father and daughter. Sometime innovative ideas come when one in a such scenario. The film explored on that basis to tell a decent tale.

The kid was good, along with the dog, and the farmer who was also known as Swampy, the only one who tried very hard in the comical role to keep rhythm up. In a few scenes the camera work was great, the aerial view of the seaside was lovely. It was nominated for the best cinematography in the last Australian Academy Awards, but did not win.

This is not a massive hit film or well recognised in the rest of the world. Even if you watch it today, you will go to forget it tomorrow. Then you might be wondering why it should be watched. Well, it is one of the finest family films of the recent time and a message deliverer. In one film many plots were covered, like a man-dog, father-daughter-granddaughter relationship, midlife crisis, wildlife conservation; this film was full of sub-plots and yet it makes an overall decent film. I won't recommend it, but definitely not a waste of time.

7/10

Oddball, is a great family film that really is engaging because of the true nature of the events. The cinematography is wonderful and bright, the actors are believable and the film combines small elements of conflict with comedy that pulls the film onward seamlessly. Dogs, penguins and lighthouses are always a winning combination and somewhat unique. This film is much more than just one neatly defined genre. It is a documentary, drama, comedy, action, suspense all rolled into one. I had the pleasure of speaking with the producer after a screening and what sets this film apart from many is the sheer level of dedication in regards to time and overcoming weather challenges to bring this film to the public eye and it is indeed a treasure that will leave you wanting to learn more and perhaps even become an advocate.

It was W.C. Fields who said, 'Never work with animals or children.' He may have had a point because the actors in this film become almost irrelevant when Oddball, a beautiful Maremma sheepdog, shares the screen with the fairy penguins.

The film is based on real events. Apparently, Middle Island off the Victorian coast at Warrnambool, used to be home to a thousand fairy penguins until foxes started to snack down on them, reducing the population to just ten of the little guys.

Finally, a chicken farmer, Swampy (Shane Jacobson), and his dog, Oddball, come to their rescue and rid the island of foxes after hunting and trapping had failed.

The film is described as family fare, and Oddball steals every scene he is in, but I think children would be a little restless with the amount of story taken up with the affairs of the adults. Maybe the filmmakers tried to cram in too much. Along with the case for conservation, every character in the film seems to have a back-story. But it's all at the expense of more time with Oddball and the real stars of the show - the fairy penguins.

No doubt the scenes with the penguins would have been hard to do, but the film could have used a lot more of the confrontation between Oddball and the foxes - there are few long shots and much of the action seems either very close-up or off camera. Here and there the film gets to the heart of the matter - the human drama can't compete with the tension in the scene on the island when the fox sticks its head into the fairy penguin's burrow, or when Oddball saves the egg from going over the cliff.

Although no rival to "Babe", "Oddball" is nicely made, and no one will hate it, but I feel that the filmmakers missed the opportunity to make it more memorable than it is.