This is one of those movies that I watched when I was a kid that looked much better then than it does now (okay, not really, but I *remember* it looking better). In fact, this movie was probably the reason I'm into Australian animals so much.
The animation is a little better than Gross' other features, and the songs are all entertaining (at least the first time through), but I have to admit the best scene in any Gross feature is the live action carnival scene at the beginning of Toby and the Koala. Storywise, though, Dot and the Kangaroo is the best--mildly satirical, witty, and, in the end, sadder than any of Disney's tearjerking movies since Old Yeller (since most of them, from The Black Cauldron to Beauty and the Beast, walk up the road to tragedy then jump back at the last possible second--even after characters "die"). *(Spoiler)* DatK doesn't do that, or at least not so shamelessly, since kangaroo is only injured at one point, and she never finds her little joey. She merely helps little Dot get home, as if it were her way of dealing with her loss. *(end spoiler)*
In the end, though, the animation does become distracting and detracting. Just about every song is repeated twice in a row, with almost exactly the same animation, and often animation is repeated or recycled (sometimes using "speaking" animation when the character is no longer talking!). And Dot's voice is a little grating at times (I think it's an adult woman trying to sound like a little girl, but with little success--I wish animators would more often take the route of Isao Takahata's "Grave of the Fireflies" and hire children for the voices of children!).
The animation is a little better than Gross' other features, and the songs are all entertaining (at least the first time through), but I have to admit the best scene in any Gross feature is the live action carnival scene at the beginning of Toby and the Koala. Storywise, though, Dot and the Kangaroo is the best--mildly satirical, witty, and, in the end, sadder than any of Disney's tearjerking movies since Old Yeller (since most of them, from The Black Cauldron to Beauty and the Beast, walk up the road to tragedy then jump back at the last possible second--even after characters "die"). *(Spoiler)* DatK doesn't do that, or at least not so shamelessly, since kangaroo is only injured at one point, and she never finds her little joey. She merely helps little Dot get home, as if it were her way of dealing with her loss. *(end spoiler)*
In the end, though, the animation does become distracting and detracting. Just about every song is repeated twice in a row, with almost exactly the same animation, and often animation is repeated or recycled (sometimes using "speaking" animation when the character is no longer talking!). And Dot's voice is a little grating at times (I think it's an adult woman trying to sound like a little girl, but with little success--I wish animators would more often take the route of Isao Takahata's "Grave of the Fireflies" and hire children for the voices of children!).