And it's just scratching the surface!
Considering the film is about a young Australian girl getting lost in the woods and the adventures said girl goes on in the sequels, there's always going to be perils and potentially nightmarish scenarios along the way.WARNING: Spoilers are unmarked.
Original film
- The Bunyip Song. With its psychedelic visuals, downbeat instrumentation, and lyrics about how the Bunyip is "the most unpleasant monster that you have ever seen" and is "going to get you in the Bunyip moon", this sequence has terrified generations of Aussie children unlucky enough to see it.Oh, the Bunyip's very bad
And the Bunyip's very bold
And they tell me that the Bunyip's
Now a thousand years old. - Dot tumbling down the embankment and screaming (which is drawn out) then slamming headfirst into a tree. She was lucky not to be killed or seriously injured.
- The crows that Dot encounters when she initially becomes lost.
- Dot's reaction to the thunderclap.
- One of Dot's screams is her understandable reaction to the aborigines' dance which involves harpoons and wearing kangaroo skins, though it leads to her and the kangaroo being chased by dingos.
- The snake that coils around Dot's legs before preparing to bite her. Luckily, the kookaburra saved her from being bitten, otherwise Dot would most likely be dead from the snake's venom.
- The dingoes that chase Dot and the kangaroo to a chasm which the kangaroo jumps but she struggles to make it while Dot can only watch from her pouch.
- Dot's mother's eyes can be seen as this. Even by 1977 standards, they look downright creepy.
Around the World with Dot
- There's one scene where a child in an airplane sees Dot and the flying kangaroos and tries to get his mother to see them, unknowingly making her spill her tea on her. The mother then suddenly becomes so furious that she even crushes the tea cup in her hand whilst having a rather unnerving look on her face that almost looks deranged before screaming "Stupid boy, I'll give you flying kangaroos!". She can also be heard cackling rather menacingly as her child screams in appropriate terror which only adds to the implications.
- The volcanic ash cloud scene.
- Some of the entries in the Japanese kite festival, especially the green dragon, until Grumble-Bones destroys it.
- The extreme close-up of Dot's eye during her Alone in a Crowd song.
- The implication that statues are capable of eating people as the British Lion claims one of his kind (unintentionally) ate the Tea-Lady at the Houses of Parliament, even if it is technically Played for Laughs. It's enough for Dot to momentarily freak-out if you watch how her facial expression changes in an otherwise blink-and-you'll-miss-it instance.
- A Spanish VHS Cover for the film depicts the green dragon on the back, even if it is just a kite, it still looks unsettling at the very least for those who would not have been aware of what it really was beforehand.
Dot and the Bunny
- The snakes, goannas and frill-necked lizards can be unsettling. Dot seems to have learned from almost being bitten by a snake in the original movie as she remains cautious when approaching them and Funny-Bunny runs screaming at the mere sight of them.
- Dot tries to rescue Funny-Bunny from falling into a raging river and fails, by which time, it is pouring with rain, she is miles from home and has to use a wallaby cave for shelter and spend the night there.
- Said cave turns out to be so spooky as the walls are covered with unsettling looking cave drawings, the wallabies dare not enter it, Dot feels likewise once she sees it for herself.
- We get to see baby crocodiles hatching, in stark contrast to the birth of a baby joey earlier in the movie, it is unsettling to say the least.
- The fully-grown crocodiles have an "I Am" Song that emphasizes how dangerous they are with several implications that they eat children like Dot. True to form, they try to eat Funny-Bunny, biting his hind feet and seemingly fighting over him. He manages to escape partly because of the crocodiles flinging him around, eventually letting him go and Dot reprimanding them but once he is safe in Dot's arms, they turn their attention to her and are about to close in for the kill when the Flying-Fox swoops in and rescues Dot and Funny-Bunny.
- The kangaroos fighting as Funny-Bunny eggs them on, immediately after Dot rescues him from being run down by a whole troop of kangaroos.
- The War scenes, which includes footage of an atomic explosion, while Dot is explaining the meaning of War to Funny-Bunny
- This in turn leads to Funny-Bunny describing how he lost his parents.
Dot and the Koala
- The laughing townspeople at the beginning of the film.
- The opening shot is in fact an extreme close-up of their throats as they laugh almost to the brink of insanity.
- Compare all of this with the very serious and straight-faced Mayor Percy when he first appears.
- The Destruction of the Dam.
Dot and Keeto
- Just being insect-sized proves perilous enough for Dot, no sooner does she realize her situation, she is almost crushed by her brother Simon and then their mother.
- To make matters worse, neither Simon or their mother realize this since Dot is too small for them to hear her screaming.
- The fact that most of the animals Dot encounters while she's insect-sized intend to eat her.
- The magpie and the cat actually fight over her with regards to eating her
- One of the cockroaches actually tries to bite her finger.
- Nasty the wasp imprisons her in her nest with the intention of having her unhatched larvae eat her.
- She and Keeto get caught in a spider's web and the spider would have eaten them if the insect-sized kangaroo hadn't come to save them when she did.
- Dot appears to hallucinate momentarily after consuming the red root that turns her from live-action to animated form.
- Dot and Keeto caught in a spider's web, the insect-sized kangaroo has to quickly force-feed Dot the green root to save her and restore her to her normal size.
- Word of God implies Dot would have shrunk even smaller if she hadn't found and consumed the green root before sundown.
- The live-action close-ups of various insects can be seen as this for those with entomophobia (fear of insects).
Dot and the Whale
- The climax of Moby Dick as Dot is finishing the book.
- This sequence later appears in an extreme close-up of Moby's eye when he's telling Dot his side of the story.
- Dot's eyes with dolphins swimming around her pupils.
- Happens again when she is stung by the live coral.
- Dot and Nelson's encounters with the ship and sharks.
- The graveyard of ships.
- The cackling skeletons in the wreck of the Golden Dragon.
- The seemingly haunted diving suit in which a puffer fish resides.
- The sinking of the Golden Dragon.
- Dot accidentally steps on live coral and gets potentially fatally stung, and then nearly sits on the same coral until Nelson moves her out of harm's way. She starts to feel dizzy and hallucinate and finally faints.
- She also gets zapped by an electric eel earlier in the movie.
- The octopus that heals Dot has glowing yellow eyes, resides in a lair that resembles an enormous skull (of which the mouth opens to provide entrance) and nearly suffocates Nelson with his tentacles.
- Moby Dick himself, he towers over Dot and at one point, we get to see an extreme close-up of his eye with Dot's reflection in it.
- The seagulls are most likely this for the penguins who are trying to protect their eggs.
Dot and the Smugglers
- Although it's nothing compared to the Bunyip's original appearance in the first film, the "Welcome" sign depicting the Bunyip with its teeth bared and about to reach out and grab anyone reading the sign still emphasises how threatening the monster potentially is.
- The "Don't Go Out Tonight" song sequence. While not as frightening as the Bunyip song from the original film, the large shadows and roars of what appears to be the Bunyip are still quite unsettling.
- Dot and her animal friends talking about the Bunyip and its exact form, leading to all manner of dark shadows of various shapes appearing on the surface of the nearest river.
- The Bunyip balloon when it is distorted by the water.
- It's only brief, but when the real Bunyip appears, it pokes its head out of the water and roars to the heavens, Dot and her friends, animal and human alike, can't help but initially feel intimidated.
- The dogs that Mr. Sprag and Scarface use to keep their captured animals in line. They actually threaten them if they dare to scream or cry for help. Dot and the two boys are lucky never to encounter the dogs at a time when Mr. Sprag and Scarface aren't around, especially Dot when she tried to infiltrate the circus tent.
- The presence of guard dogs really emphasises the prison-like nature of the circus and actually puts the captured bush animals in a worse situation than Joey.
- On top of that, the dogs are shown to be rather sadistic, as showcased when Basher and Bruiser come to rescue Burra and the other animals, they flat-out say that they'll enjoy tearing them apart.
- The poster for the film depicts the Bunyip reaching out behind the titular smugglers as if he's prepared to tear them apart.
Dot Goes To Hollywood
- An epidemic of eye disease is spreading around the koalas including Gumley.
- An alien costume that Dot encounters outside of Studio 6 comes to life, giving her quite a fright, but it is actually Gumley emerging from the helmet.
- Gumley is eventually discovered and sent to the local zoo where he is placed in a cage that resembles a prison cell.
- And right before that, we see him strapped to a table in a doctor's office as if he's due to be put down by lethal injection.
- The scenes where Gumley undergoes an operation on his eyes can be seen as this for those who are squeamish towards surgery scenes.
