Hugo Weaving, Web Weaving: The Magic Pudding
 
Hugo Weaving, The Magic Pudding, Elvis

n.  Hugo Weaving ~ The Magic Pudding

AU Animated Movie 2000  Running time: 80 minutes 
Hugo Weaving Content:  appx 43%
Bill Barnacle: headstrong, salt-of-the-earth sailor/pudding protector
Cast: John Cleese   Albert the Magic Pudding, Geoffrey Rush  Bunyip Bluegum, Sam Neill   Sam Sawnoff, Hugo Weaving   Bill Barnacle, Toni Collette   Meg Bluegum, Jack Thompson Buncle, Dave Gibson Uncle Wattleberry, Mary Coustas   Ginger, John Laws   Rumpus Bumpus 
Dir: Karl Zwicky       Based on books by:Norman Lindsay
Availability: Australian R4 DVD with 'Baking of' documentary

Hugo Weaving: The Magic Pudding Plot/Comments:

Aclassic of Australian children's literature, The Magic Pudding is a back-to-basics, old-fashioned, no-frills 2-D animated film which is often charming in its chaotic 'road trip' mentality, though in its simple treatment and gimmick-free plot, it was a difficult sell outside of the territories which were familiar with Norman Lindsay's much-loved book.

Being such a classic of Antipodean bedtime reading, the assembled talent of the voice cast belie the obviously restricted budget: Geoffrey Rush is Bunyip Bluegum ~ a quiet, timid, well brought up koala looking for his parents; Hugo Weaving is  Bill Barnacle ~ a headstrong, rambunctious salt-of-the-earth sailor/explorer; Sam Neill's Sam Sawnoff is a fantastically fey and cultured penguin; and Jack Thompson is evilly bungling as the pudding-stealing Buncle (a new character brought in to give the story a more accessible good vs evil plot). The only outsider in the cast is the imported talent of John Cleese, who is suitably curmudgeonly (though very one-note) as Albert, the pudding him/itself.
Hugo Weaving, The Magic Pudding, Bill Barnacle
Hugo Weaving, The Magic Pudding, it had gnashy teeth

The movie's animated characters, faithfully lifted from Norman Lindsay's illustrations, move through surprisingly well-rendered watercolour backgrounds, showing their journey through typical Australian countryside. 
     The plot is a 'waffer thin' (the pudding is eternally available for eating and can be any flavour you desire; baddies want it for themselves to hog; Bunyip is looking for his parents and the pudding grudgingly ends up helping) but serves as a way of hanging a series of chases and slapstick set-ups together.
Hugo Weaving, The Magic Pudding, eating montage

There are numerous songs and though these are sometimes too numerous (especially when combined with the thematically repetitive score),  Bill Barnacle and Sam Sawnoff get all the best ones: big salty sea-dog sing-a-longs which both Sam Neill and Hugo Weaving obviously had a stupendously good time performing.

It's not amazingly memorable, but it's diverting enough and has its moments of anarchic Aussie humour.

The Magic Pudding Gallery
Back: The Kiss
Next: The White Devil
Web Weaving
 
 
 

Typical Hugo Weaving Quotes:

  • "Let go of our puddin'., you large-bellied beached whale!"
  • "That's the most bunfoodlin' idea I ever heard"
  • "The Noble Society of Puddin' Owners 're sworn to protect the puddin' "
  • "Nothin' gives a puddin' thief away like a fruit and nutcake with chocolate sprinkles on top ~ we'll thump yer heads"
  • "Blasted poltroon"
Comments:
  •  Geoffrey Rush taught Weaving clowning at NIDA, was the original Allen Fitzgerald in The Blind Giant is Dancing, worked on Frontier , and directed him in The Popular Mechanicals. Sam Neil co-starred in For Love Alone. See The Usual Suspectsfor a huge list of recurring Weaving co-workers.
  • AFI Nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay
Hugo Weaving, The Magic Pudding, montage

Hugo Weaving content: 

Perhaps the best reason to get the Australian R4 DVD of The Magic Pudding is The Baking Of documentary, which as well as interviews, has some cracking footage of voice-booth performances from Hugo Weaving, Geoffrey Rush and Sam Neill.
    In particular, there is a fair bit of footage (appx 2 mins) of Weaving's fantastically animated (no pun intended) performance: all Elvis grimacing, leg shakin', and puddin' slurpin'.

Sam Neill: "There were all these people doing it that were friends of mine ~ Geoffrey and Jack and Hugo. So I thought I'd be in good company. I had to pitch my voice up a bit because Hugo and I actually have very similar kinds of voices. He got to be down here [adopting Weavingesque Bill Barnacle voice] and I got be up here [doing mild-mannered Sam Sawnoff voice].
Hugo Weaving: "I guess like everyone else, I read Magic Pudding , or had Magic Pudding read to me when I was a kid, so when you get offered someone like Bill Barnacle you can't really turn it down, so I was pretty excited about it. "
Sam Neill : "I think probably the best fun I had on it ~ because usually when you're doing these things, you're standing in a room by yourself and feeling like a big prawn in front of the microphone ~ but I did have two days working with Hugo and we bounced off each other and kind of had fun and the best day of all ~ the thing I enjoyed most of all doing the film ~ was we did a few songs".
Hugo Weaving, The Magic Pudding, Sam Neill, singing