Movie Type: Family-Oriented Adventure, Animal Picture
Themes: Man's Best Friend, Discovering One's Heritage, Talking Animals
Main Cast: Jamie Croft, Philip Quast
Release Year: 1994
Country: JP/AU
Run Time: 81 minutes
Plot
Aimed at children, this live-action Australian adventure follows an adorable golden retriever puppy on a cross-country search for the dingoes who comprise his doggy roots. Though the cocky young puppy's real name is Muffin, he prefers to think of himself as Napoleon. His quest begins at a children's birthday party where he frolics gaily with the children until he lands in a basket that has several helium balloons tied to it and is suddenly carried away. Eventually he lands on the rocky shore of distant Sydney Harbor. There he is befriended by a parrot-like galah named Birdo Lucci (other sly in-jokes for film buffs abound in the story). Together, the two buddies head into the bush in search of Napoleon's forebears. Along the way, they encounter a variety of native Australian critters including a koala, a kindly mother kangaroo, a hissy frill-necked lizard, a mean snake and a terrifying black cat who mistakes Napoleon for a giant mouse. Eventually, Napoleon meets his distant relatives too. Like the animals in Babe, this film's closest relative, the animals in this outing are endowed with human voices and qualities. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
Cast
Jamie Croft - Napoleon
Philip Quast - Birdo
Anne-Louise Lambert - Earless Wallaby/Spider; Susan Lyons - Napoleon's Mother; Carole Skinner - Cat; Steven Vidler - Turtle/Snake; Barry Humphries - Kangaroo; Joan Rivers - Mother Penguin; David Arque - Frill-Necked Lizard; Brandan Little - Owl/Wombat; Frank Whittle - Koala
Credit
Christine King - Casting, Kieran Weir - First Assistant Director, Mario Andreacchio - Director, Edward McQueen-Mason - Editor, Masato Hara - Executive Producer, Ron Saunders - Executive Producer, John Wild - Line Producer, Bill Conti - Composer (Music Score), Bill Conti - Songwriter, Vicki Niehus - Production Designer, Roger Dowling - Cinematographer, Mario Andreacchio - Producer, Mark Saltzman - Producer, Michael Bourchier - Producer, Naonari Kawamura - Producer, James Currie - Sound/Sound Designer, Craig Carter - Sound/Sound Designer, Mario Andreacchio - Screenwriter, Mark Saltzman - Screenwriter, Michael Bourchier - Screenwriter
Napoleon, whose real name is "Muffin", is a little dog that lives in Sydney. He and his mother live with a family, but Napoleon loves to dream about meeting the wild dogs that live far away, and eventually becoming one himself. One day he gets into a basket hung from some balloons and flies away into the sky. The wind carries him to a nearby island where the basket finally lands. There he meets all kinds of different animals; some of them are friendly, but some aren't. With the help of a galah named Birdo, he learns the secrets of living alone in the island and defending himself from wild animals, in particular a pshycopathic cat who believes everything around her to be a mouse. He goes in search of the wild dogs, whom he finally finds. He is very happy with them, but then he gets homesick and starts to miss his mother, so he decides to go home again.
Un sudario a la medida (1969) ·Juliette de Sade (1969)
1970s
A Man, a Woman and a Bank (1979) ·The Seduction of Joe Tynan (1979) ·Rocky II (1979) ·Goldengirl (1979) ·Dreamer (1979) ·Five Days from Home (1979) ·Uncle Joe Shannon (1978) ·Slow Dancing in the Big City (1978) ·The Big Fix (1978) ·Paradise Alley (1978) ·F.I.S.T (1978) ·An Unmarried Woman (1978) ·Handle with Care (1977) ·Rocky (1976) ·Next Stop, Greenwich Village (1976) ·Pacific Challenge (1975) ·Harry and Tonto (1974) ·Blume in Love (1973) ·Liquid Subway (1972)
1980s
Lock Up (1989) ·The Karate Kid, Part III (1989) ·Lean on Me (1989) ·Cohen and Tate (1988) ·Betrayed (1988) ·Le grand bleu (1988) (US version) ·A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon (1988) ·For Keeps? (1988) ·Broadcast News (1987) ·Baby Boom (1987) ·A Prayer for the Dying (1987) ·Masters of the Universe (1987) ·Happy New Year (1987) ·I Love N.Y. (1987) ·The Boss' Wife (1986) ·The Karate Kid, Part II (1986) ·Big Trouble (1986) ·Nomads (1986) ·F/X (1986) ·Niagara: Miracles, Myths and Magic (1986) ·Beer (1985) ·Gotcha! (1985) ·Mass Appeal (1984) ·The Coolangatta Gold (1984) ·The Bear (1984) ·The Karate Kid (1984) ·Unfaithfully Yours (1984) ·The Right Stuff (1983) ·Bad Boys (1983) ·That Championship Season (1982) ·Split Image (1982) ·Rocky III (1982) ·I, the Jury (1982) ·Neighbors (1981) ·Carbon Copy (1981) ·Victory (1981) ·For Your Eyes Only (1981) ·The Formula (1980) ·Private Benjamin (1980) ·Gloria (1980)
