Danny Dingo is the main antagonist in the Australian animated series The Adventures of Blinky Bill who frequently attempted to con the folk of Greenpatch out of their money during the first series of the show. He became a archenemy to Blinky Bill and his gang, as he would antagonise them and attempt to con them as well. His schemes were often unravelled by Blinky and his gang or the consequences of his actions. He was usually aided by his strong but dimwitted brother Meatball, his vain sister Daisy, and younger brother Shifty, who later becomes one of Blinky's friends.
Personality[]
Being Greenpatch's resident conman, Danny acted with a suave, charismatic demeanour which usually helped him pull off his scams. But he also tended to be a bully and a jerk, making him more of an antagonist towards Blinky and the gang. On some occasions, he deliberately antagonised the child protagonists of the series to accomplish some goal, such as in 'Blinky and the Monster' where he, along with Meatball, attempted to fake a monster sighting at the local lake in order to win a bet and force Blinky and his friends to pay for a restaurant meal (after forcing them to pay a bill they skipped out on of course). Even his siblings weren't safe. Danny often mocked and criticised Daisy though she would also take pot shots back at him. Meatball was often the butt of abuse as Danny would task his brother with all the heavy work, such as the monster sighting scheme. Shifty would still try to impress his big brother by attempting to be as helpful and, in some cases, as much of a jerk as Danny was. On one occasion, he forced Shifty to work on a machine making shampoo. Danny was often inconsiderate of other people in his various pursuits of money. That said, he was not above cheating and using underhanded methods to gain wealth. He was also incredibly lazy, commonly seen lounging in a hammock at the Dingo residence or site of his latest scheme and usually while he got others to do the work for him. Despite all this, he did show some moments of concern, such as worrying that his magician's sawing box routine was actually killing Blinky and his friends inside (they were only screaming to psyche out Danny). Most of his schemes are also done to get money for his family and he is shown to have a positive enough relationship with his siblings for them to aid in his scams. He also was rather formidable when angered. In the events of 'Blinky Bill Finds Marcia Mouse', Blinky had staged Danny as a wanted criminal in order to win a newspaper photo contest. Naturally, Danny wanted to catch and kill Blinky until he was swayed into searching for Marcia, one of Blinky's friends who had run away in the episode to get the reward. Around the second and third seasons, he and the rest of the Dingo family had reformed, although he was no longer a major focus in the series at that point, save for two episodes. During the finale of the third series however, he made a reappearance along with the residents in driving off the two human antagonists of this series from Greenpatch.
Notable schemes[]
He was the main villain of the series' first season as several episodes revolved around his numerous get-rich-quick scams. In 'Blinky Bill and the Film Star', he devised a plot to rob Greenpatch's bank under the pretence of filming a fake Western. 'Blinky Bill and the Magician' featured Danny posing as a false bearded magician named 'El Diablo' to distract Greenpatch's populace while Meatball looted their homes for food that they would resell as concessions. 'Blinky Beats the Drought' features Danny and Meatball's theft of a rabbit family's carrots so as to resell them to the family during the dry period at raised prices. When foiled by Blinky's traps set up to keep them from stealing more, Danny and his siblings blocked up the river by creating their own pool and attempted to sell water at high prices to the populace. In some cases, Danny's schemes could be really petty such as when he rigged elections for club leader in 'Blinky Leads the Gang' so that he could steal their saved pocket money. (That scheme ultimately resulted in the Dingoes having to work to pay off the debts to the cats he bribed for their help in rigging the election.) These schemes were always doomed to failure, of course, but Danny persisted with the schemes up until the first season finale. One of Danny's more villainous acts occurred in 'Blinky Bill and 'Club Pet'' where he convinced the (rather easily swayed) Mayor of Greenpatch to permit the construction of a tourist resort with the intention of 'putting Greenpatch on the map' by giving bored city pets a chance to get out into the country. His real intention was setting up the populace of Greenpatch as live game for those bored city cats who craved to hunt and kill something, essentially an act of attempted murder. Although the cats' attempted hunting of Greenpatch's citizens was foiled by Blinky acting as a dog, this was also one of the few times (if not the only time) where Danny actually managed to be a Karma Houdini. By the time of the second and third series of the show, the Dingo family had essentially mellowed, although Danny was once again shown trying to enact another scheme in the second season episode 'Blinky Bill and the Mysterious Pollution'. In the episode, Blinky and his friends search for the source of a mysterious spot-creating pollutant that had gotten into the river and find its origin at a tall device Danny manufactured for a shampoo. Danny was completely apathetic to the pollution he was causing when the machine producing his formula leaked into the river. He was foiled and exposed by Blinky and his friends.