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20 reviews in total

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9 out of 9 people found the following review useful:
Just plain wonderful movie-making, 7 August 1999

Author: RHM-2 from Vancouver, WA

Sometimes serendipity, dumb luck, and channel-surfing really pays off. That's how we found this terrific treat. Look -- in your cable listings or in your video store -- for this Australian-made movie feature. Total delight -- and you can watch it with your mom, your grandmom, your mom-in-law, even your kids in the same room -- or all by yourself if your macho attitudes requires. [Remember "Paulie"? That's right in this category.] But there's none of the "Old Yeller" boo-hoo stuff, so you-and-they'll be okay and sinus-dry when it's over. It's about a city-bred puppy who just knows he has to connect with his wild cousins, the dingoes. So off he goes -- in a balloon-powered basket (okay, we'll admit we worried about the pup up there in midair, especially when the basket was snared by a pointy-nosed commuter train -- but why give away the good stuff?). The photography is gorgeous, but the animal shots (birds, lizards, turtles, dingoes, etc.) are nothing short of incredible!! "Stunning!!" works, too. No people at all to get in the way, either. Try it. If you don't like it, then you'll just have to wait until the movie version of "Hannibal (the Lecter)" arrives.

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6 out of 6 people found the following review useful:
What a lovely movie!, 31 July 2007

Author: Atreyu_II from The world of artists

I absolutely love this movie. Words are not enough to describe such a cute movie. Aside some minor stuff, the whole movie is delightful, adorable, wonderful, hilarious, sweet, exciting, thrilling, entertaining, full of charm and adventure, danger and even some darkness.

The list of qualities doesn't end here. What to say about the scenario? For one thing, this is an Australian film. This special production takes place in Sydney and in a nearby island. This is one of the reasons why this movie is well renowned. This is a rich production that captures all the beauty and wonders of pure nature. Even details like the sounds of exotic birds and waterfalls were not forgotten, which accents this realistic environment even more. Mountains, forests, green places, trees, rivers, lakes, waterfalls, rocks, various species of animals, deserts, sandstorms, sunsets, sunrises, winds, rain, snow and even the seasons of the year are all present here. Plus, the camera work is very efficient.

The story is about a very cute and adorable Golden Retriever puppy named Muffin' (although he nicknames himself Napoleon) that longs for adventure, danger and a life with wild dogs. Despite his young age and innocent appearance, Napoleon is very confident and not timid at all. In fact, he is a brave and curious explorer. But he proves to be a hero later, when he saves two adorable dingo puppies.

His curiosity makes him explore a balloon and accidentally causes the balloon to fly with him inside the basket (which is attached to the balloon). The balloon flies all over the city (Sydney) in very big heights. There are very beautiful and stunning angles of view in this sequence: very tall buildings, roads, a big bridge, the endless sea and even the famous Sydney Opera House (also known as Opera Australia). And these fantastic vistas are perfectly combined at the sound of the lovely Napoleon's song "How High I'll Fly?". Even a brief but delightful voyage by train wasn't forgotten just after that. The basket gets stuck on the train, which takes Napoleon to a great ride over the city.

Other gorgeous shots are when a fantastic sight of Sydney is shown at the beginning, from Napoleon's house and also when, after a long cross of the sea (in the air) Napoleon is getting close to very tall mountains with a beautiful beach down there but he doesn't know what to do until a galah named Birdo appears to help him all over his fantastic journey. Together they live big adventures and dangers while, at the same time, Birdo teaches him everything he knows about wild life.

The soundtrack includes beautiful and soft instrumental music, the sad goodbye song sung by Birdo and Napoleon and the tender and touching Napoleon's song "How High I'll Fly?".

As for the cast, they do a decent voice job, especially Jamie Croft as Napoleon, Philip Quast as Birdo and Susan Lyons as Napoleon's mother.

Despite all its qualities, this is a quite underrated film, a sad reality. However, it's one of the best animal movies, no question about that. And anyone who loves this precious little film just gotta love "Old Yeller", "Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey", "Fluke" and "Air Bud". They all deserve to be considered timeless classics.

They don't make movies like this anymore and this is one of those unique gold classics about animals.

This should definitely be on Top 250.

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6 out of 6 people found the following review useful:
My three year old nephew's favourite movie, 2 July 2000

Author: Theora from Sydney, Australia

A great tour through Australia, the scenery is magnificent. My three year old nephew has watched this about 100 times and still demands it on average once a week. It's a good movie for young children but not too childish for adults to get some enjoyment out of it as well. One the whole family can watch.

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8 out of 10 people found the following review useful:
This Movie rocks., 8 May 2004

Author: (moderndaydelilah) from United States

This movie is so pleasant it could be watched over and over and over without getting tired of it. Negative comments?! I think not. The scenery, the songs, the animals, the plot, the voice actors, the characters, the entire thing...it's adorable, it's endearing, it's wonderful! What more can I say? This is one of the best animal movies ever! On the level of Homeward Bound, Milo and Otis, Fluke, and some animated ones. Exceedingly well-done movie. Everyone will like it. I heartily recommend this one to be bought today. It's VERY memorable! I rented it once and needed to buy it to watch it more. It's got a lot of great lessons for little kids, but it's got such an array of charming characters that anyone would fall in love with it.

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5 out of 5 people found the following review useful:
Charming and educational Australian live animal film, 7 September 2001

Author: Filmtribute from United Kingdom

This is a charming saga of a young puppy called Muffin who longs for adventure as his wild dog alter ego Napoleon. After he escapes from the Sydney suburbs in a hot air balloon conveniently provided by a children's party, we follow Napoleon into the stunning Australian outback where he has many adventures. Napoleon makes friends along the way including Birdo (a galah) who becomes his guide, as well as encountering enemies such as a demented cat who regards all other mammals as mice to be killed. This is a very useful educational film and morality tale with the journey into the `Red Center' of Australia being a metaphor for Napoleon's exploration into himself. Unless we follow our dreams and examine ourselves we might never know what we are capable of. Napoleon overcomes his fear of water to swim and gains maturity through performing a heroic rescue. Eventually he finds he has been brave and wild all along and can return home a more fulfilled pup.

This was the first Australian live animal movie, where any humans shown are purely secondary, and it makes full use of its country's unique menagerie of creatures. In fact I was reminded of the Walt Disney wild life films of my childhood, though unfortunately this feature lacked the same marketing power. It is good to see the live action of the animals without the animatronics of Babe, and the director (Mario Andreacchio) cleverly makes use of the 64 puppies needed in the making of the film to match the appropriate expressions.

The human voices mainly accord well with their animal counterparts, with some wonderful and famous ones, including Joan Rivers and Barry Humphries' Dame Edna Everage. Anne Louise Lambert (Picnic at Hanging Rock), especially, displays the versatility of her silken voice as a very peeved spider whose web is destroyed by Napoleon; as well as a tremulous earless wallaby terrified of domestic animals; and as an anxious desert mouse. There is some wit in the tale that shows the makers had in mind who else would be watching this film along with its target younger audience, and the songs are pleasant if not exactly memorable.

The perceived scary moments for the very young ones, such as Napoleon's encounters with the deranged cat, may be unfounded as my 2½ year old son watched this with interest without being terrified, but then he has a natural love of animals. Although the dogs struggling in the flood did concern him, a train crash in Thomas the Tank Engine and the snowstorm in ‘Tigger the Movie' caused him more emotional distress. He was as equally confused as Napoleon at the sounds of a wild dog barking that turned out to be a perenti lizard doing animal impressions.

However, the dingo pups are probably portrayed as too cute (witness the tragic mauling to death of Clinton Gage, a nine year old boy, by a couple of wild dogs on Fraser Island in Queensland in May 2001) and perversely the most ferocious looking animal is a domestic cat. A healthy respect for wild animals must be encouraged so that we recognise that we are living in their environment, and that they as well as household pets will behave unpredictably. The senseless culling of animals in retaliation is never an answer. Co-existence is the way forward, not extermination.

In the UK VHS (PAL) copies of this film can be obtained from Britannia Music.

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4 out of 4 people found the following review useful:
one of my favorite movies, 20 July 2000

Author: Diana-55 (timmsglink@hotmail.com) from Richmond, Michigan

I really love this movie and I just never get sick of it.Napoleon was really cute and the scenery was beautiful.The animals were pretty funny and kept me entertained.The plot was interesting,there was never a dull moment in the movie.It's a movie I'm sure everyone will enjoy.If you haven't seen it yet,you don't know what you're missing.I give it 10 out of 10 stars.

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3 out of 3 people found the following review useful:
The original Aussie version much better, 9 September 2001
Author: Tony McFadden from Australia

I can't add to the comments. It's a wonderful movie.

However, if you are one of the unfortunates that picked up the NTSC redubbed copy in the states, you are only getting half the movie.

The original Aussie accents, background noises and animal sounds are much nicer in the un-dubbed version.

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2 out of 2 people found the following review useful:
one of my favorite movies, 20 July 2000

Author: Diana-55 (timmsglink@hotmail.com) from Richmond, Michigan

I really like Napoleon and I just don't get sick of the movie.I think Napoleon is really cute and the scenery is beautiful.It's a movie I think everyone will enjoy.The animals are pretty funny and even my dog likes the movie.If you like this movie,I recommend Babe .I think animal movies are the best.

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4 out of 6 people found the following review useful:
My Cat Loves This Movie, 6 July 1999
Author: Jimbo-96 from Baltimore, Maryland

Kids will love this movie too. If Walt Disney released this film, it would have been a big hit. The camera simply follows a curious puppy as it wanders through the woods encountering other animals. A large bird becomes his guide to this strange environment. There is no real danger, just adventure, with a humor based narrative added to the sound track.

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1 out of 1 people found the following review useful:
Napoleon, 9 May 2009

Author: teraliev from New Zealand

Napoleon as a movie tends to be filled with joy, music and cute animals. Even with the flaws of the storyline the movie still is able to be enjoyable if you set aside all your critiques and just watch it as a movie. The characters and the lame humour actually made me laugh but it is actually the characters who make this movie.

Without Birdo, Napoleon and all the other characters in this movie you would not have a movie and I give Kudos to all the voice actors for their amazing portrayal. I particularly enjoyed Birdo and the Koala but that's not to say that the others were bad. Even the cat was pretty well done.

A nice cheerful movie, if a little old.

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