The Magic Pudding

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. 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. 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.