Kangaroo Creek Gang: The Movie

Kangaroo Creek Gang: The Movie was a canceled animated film based on the 2002 Nine Network animated television series Kangaroo Creek Gang. The film was intended to be released to theaters on June 29, 2007. Had it been released, it would have marked the directing and writing debut of Ashley Foy. The musical score in the film are written and composed by Anthony Field. The movie was canceled due to the tragic death of Steve Irwin.

Production History
Production on Kangaroo Creek Gang: The Movie was noted as being one of the hardest to do. Ashley Foy, who had been a fan of the animated series for a long time, wanted to make a movie adaptation in order to broaden the audience. The managers of the franchise accepted, but they wanted an Australian all-star cast instead of the original voice actors. Ashley only accepted this as long as they let the original actors make guest spots throughout the movie.

The studio had a back and forth arguement with Ashley on the scripts tone, saying that it is darker than any previous incarnations of the franchise. Ashley argued that if the script was not in a dark tone, less people would be interested and just think it's another re-hash animated animal movie.

The studio also wanted either Baz Luhrmann or Yahoo Serious to direct the film due to them being bigger names, but Ashley felt she was the only one that could direct the screenplay to the way she wanted it.

Once production started, there was talk of re-dubbing the movie for American audiences, which Ashley Foy personally felt was a very bad idea. Nevertheless, she was forced to let the film happen with no objection. The re-dub was written by Cory Edwards, Todd Edwards, and Tony Leech, and Chris Wedge was hired as the director of the re-dub. This Americanization of the movie had people such as Jennifer Lopez, Paul Walker, Helena Bonham Carter, Paul Reubens, Christina Aguilera, Laurence Fishburne, Whitney Houston, Halle Berry, Nick Nolte, Charlton Heston, Cécile de France, Elle Fanning, and Amy Winehouse attached for voice overs at varying points, but they all dropped out due to various conflicts.

Most of the cast for the Australian version were hired with Ashley's consent. Steve Irwin and Terri Irwin, whom were hired to voice Kevin Kangaroo and Kristie Koala, respectively, became the executive producers of the movie.

A few casting issues arose during the production, forcing the film to be pushed back. Russell Crowe was persued to voice The Great Dingo, but he turned the part down, saying "I'm not into kiddie films". Elle Macpherson was asked to voice Emily Emu, but she turned the part down. Both actors were replaced with Eric Bana and Sophie Monk, respectively.

Sam Neill originally signed on to voice Mr Lizard, but due to his New Zealand origins, many of the other actors refused to work with him. He recorded a few lines, but he eventually had to be fired and hastily replaced with Julian McMahon.

People noted that the Hunter Gibson character seeed to be based on Mel Gibson, having the same features and last name, but Ashley stated it was just a coincidence. Surprisingly enough, Mel was going to voice the character in the American re-dub.

The studio attempted to push for Jessica and Lisa Origliasso (The Veronicas) to have cameos in the movie, but Ashley refused to let that happen. She was close to getting fired for this disagreement.

At one point, the footage for the song Australian Breeze, made for the movie, leaked on the internet. Trey Parker and Matt Stone then sued the company because the song sound very much like The End of An Act from their own movie, Team America: World Police, causing production to halt. The lawsuit was finally cleared up in September 23rd, 2006.

The next day, however, Steve Irwin tragically died. Ashley Foy tried to convince the studios to just let the original voice actor for Kevin Kangaroo finish up the recordings, but the studio instead canceled the entire project. Terri Irwin was quoted saying, "My husband dying was tragic, but that was no reason for the movie to just be canceled like that. The movie could have spoken to many, but now it will speak to no one."

After the rough time with the studio, Ashley Foy refused to ever work with one again, stating "If I was ever going to try and make another movie, I would do it independently."

Ashley has since refused to have any interviews about the movie. It is said that Terri Irwin is trying to bring the movie back into production.

Recently, Lauren Faust has signed on to do a Kangroo Creek Gang movie. She has stated in interviews that the plot is not the same as the failed project, though some elements remain.

Some of the cast members from the failed project have been said to return. Former ThatGuyWithTheGlasses contributer has reportedly signed on to voice Kevin. Bindi Sue Irwin, who was to voice the daughter of Ranger Gibson, was reportedly offered a chance to voice Kristie. Australian remix artist Pogo will provide the score. Hugh Jackman and Eric Bana notably swapped their original roles. Geoffrey Rush changed his original role from Mange to Mr. Lizard. Jacki Weaver originally played both Morrie and Connie. Now she just plays Morrie, and Connie is voiced by Isla Fisher.

Plot
The plot has been revealed in great detail after the cancellation. The film was intended to begin with the little kid versions of Kevin Kangaroo and Kristie Koala talking to each other during a sunset. Kristie told Kevin that she is going to school, and will not be seeing him much anymore, unless he came along. Kevin did not want to, so Kristie felt that he did not like her, but Kevin explained that is not the case. Kevin promises to Kristie that, whenever given the chance, he will spend as much time with her as he can. Just then, Kevin's parents started calling out for him, and Kristie's parents do the same for her. They both feel uncomfortable about this, because they do not want their parents to find them together like this, so they go off on their separate ways.

The film then cuts to years later, where Kevin is now part of the school, and has been spending a lot more time with Kristie. The rest of the gang, Wally Wombat, Emily Emu, Eddie Echidna, Peg Platypus, Paddy Possum, Tiddles Tigersnake, Morrie Magpie, and Connie Kookaburra, have also became friends with Kevin and Kristie. After a song (The Gang's All Here), we see the gang being told by their teacher, Mr Lizard, that they will have a special night where the gang will graduate to a higher class, and all of their family members are allowed to come. They are excited, until they find out that the gang will end up going to different and separate schools. The gang is saddened by this, Kevin and Kristie being the most hurt. Kevin and Kristie go away to be alone together. While all of this is happening, the feral cats, Mog, Mange, and Gabbo, are looking at the scene through binoculars, wondering if they will finally get the creek to themselves.

Mog then hears a noise close by and tells Mange and Gabbo to see what it is. They find Swizzle the croc eating a piece of food, when Gabbo accidentally knocks over a rock and almost crushes Swizzle. The croc gets mad and starts to go after the cats, when suddenly, a net falls from the sky and covers the croc, making him unable to move. Two big men them climb over Swizzle, pick him up, and throw him in a nearby cage. There is also a dark, shady man next to the cage, holding a taser that weakens Swizzle from an attempt to break out. Mange and Gabbo then run back to Mog to tell her that they saw "weird creatures with no fur, except on their heads." Mog almost instantly realizes that they are referring to humans and rushes over to see it for herself, as she has not seen a human in a long time. She finds out that the group is going to take a rest, and then attack the creek. Mog also feels that she recognizes the shady man.

Later that day, Kristie and Kevin are talking to each other about how they may be split up and never see each other again, but then they start to think that things could be set right later (Silver Lining). The rest of the gang, coming to console Kevin and Kristie, find out about the deeper feelings between the two. Initially shocked, the gang tries to convince them that the relationship is not good, but Kevin and Kristie refuse to hear any of it. Wally then decides that the gang should try and let the relationship go on and eventually, it will all wear off. The gang also promises to never tell anyone else of this. Wally then looks at Peg in a strange way, but she does not notice. The gang leaves the scene to go to the special ceremony. Kristie is greeted by her grandmother with open arms. She is not greeted this greatly by her own parents. Kevin also has a similar greeting from his parents, and feels that his parents do not care much for him. Tiddles noted that his cousin, Swizzle, seems to be nowhere, but Emily immediately scoffs at the idea of him showing up, as Swizzle mostly has nothing but contempt for the rest of the gang.

While the ceremony continues, the group of humans from earlier get ready to start their hunting rampage, but get side tracked by The Great Dingo, who was disturbed from his sleep and begins attacking the hunters. Kevin and Kristie eventually decide to go away from the ceremony for a little while to just talk before the supposed split. The talk soon turns into an almost embracing, when suddenly, the parents happen in on the scene. The shock is brought to full attention by everyone from the ceremony. Kevin and Kristie's parents are severely disappointed in the two. Kristie's grandmother, however, tries to instead reason with Kristie that she and Kevin should just stay friends. Kevin and Kristie, however, start to get into an argument with their relatives, and soon, all the animals present in the start to argue with each other about the issue, unintentionally also revealing that Wally harbored feelings for Peg. The entire argument stops dead when yelps of the Great Dingo are heard. The dark, shady man then walks on top of a hill with Dingo on his left shoulder. He then throws Dingo off the shoulder to reveal his taser in his left hand and then pulls a sniper out of his back with his right hand. The rest of the hunters walk up to the top of the hill and then start to charge down. The entire group of bush animals tried to escape, but most got captured.

After the dust settles, the gang, Mr Lizard, and Kistie's grandmother, are the only ones that escaped by means of Peg and Wally digging underwater and creating a small cave for the gang to come up and breathe. Once the coast was clear, the gang ask Kristie's grandmother and Mr. Lizard who the strange creatures were, but they did not truely know. Suddenly, Mog, who was watching the entire scene with Mange and Gabbo, starts laughing at this, calling the animals "Idiotic" and "Incompetent". Kristie, angered by this, launches at Mog and slaps her right across the face. The gang hold back Kristie and calm her down, but then Mog decides to explain that the creatures that captured their families were humans, and they usually do this to sell them for money.The gang feel that they have lost all hope in finding them at first, until they notice that one of the hunters had knocked himself out during the rampage. They then see that his "fast one" is left in the outback. Kevin is the only one that feels that he shouldn't waste anytime with this, still being angry over the arguement, but Kristie and the others explain that whether they disagree or not feel love, they are still family. The gang, with the help of Kristie's grandmother, convince Mr Lizard to find their parents, but only after a rest. They also convince the feral cats to help them, because this would mean Mog can find her owners and be with them again. Kristie's grandmother then sings the gang a lullaby (Diamond Stars of Hope)

The next day, the gang immediately set off in the "fast one", as well as take the clothes if the remaining man, leaving Mr Lizard annd Kristie's grandmother behind. They try to drive, but the feral cats fight with the gang at the wheel, making them crash into an abandoned gas station. After a few funny scenes, Morrie and Connie fly off to see if they can find the other "fast ones", leading them closer to their families. They do not come back after a few hours, prompting the gang to go out on foot in deguise and see if they could find anything themselves. Once they get into the city, they meet many more humans, which frighten Paddy and Eddie. The rest of the gang don't feel as brave and hide in a back alley. Mog, feeling that they are getting no where with the task thus far, decides to get Mange and Gabbo to run away from the gang and let them suffer on their own. The gang eventually pulls themselves together and decide to split up at a a crossroad. Kevin and Kristie go down the middle road, Wally and Peg go down the left road, and Emily, Eddie, Paddy and Tiddles go down the right road. The scene then briefly goes to Connie and Morrie, both of whom do find the hideout of the hunters eventually, but they are captured by hunters that were hiding on the roof.

We then shift to the dark, shady man, who's name is revealed to be Hunter Gibson. One of the men questions the fact that they are taking a good chunk of species away from their homelands, and that he is possibly destroying life. Hunter stops, and then tells the other hunters in the scene to take the man away and throw him out to the street. He then tells the men to make sure all the stock is in order while he runs a quick errand. We then come back to the remaining gang, split up and still looking for the hunters. Kevin and Kristie find themselves at an Australian Zoo, where a man very similar looking, as well as voiced by, Steve Irwin is shown. Wally and Peg are at a radio station building, with a teenage desk woman, and Emily, Eddie, Paddy, and Tiddles find themselves at an amusement park with a lot of children. The gang try to ask people to see if they could find information, but they almost immediately realize that no one can understand them. Kevin and Kristie start to talk about if they really should just be friends, when their disguise suddenly comes off, and two security guards go after them, but Kevin and Kristie escape. Peg and Wally discuss if they should truly be in a relationship, and Peg also talks about how she's never been away from the water this long before. They then accidentally make a mess of a broadcast, and get thrown out of the building for it, but they laugh it off. Eddie and Paddy are still scared, to which Emily practically shuns them for it. Tiddles then calls Emily "Too full of herself", and then consoles Eddie and Paddy. Their disguise also gets accidentally torn off, but then children snuggled Eddie and Paddy, making them feel better. Two of the hunters taking a break find them, unfortunately, and after a chase, capture all four. We then cut to the feral cats, whom are exhausted, but are close to Mog's home. Once they got there, however, she discovers it has been abandoned for quite a long time, causing Mog to break down into tears (Life Hurts).

Mange and Gabbo start to cry with her as well, then Kevin and Kristie accidentally bump into them. Mog then thinks about herself, and then decides that the only way to make things right is to not be bad anymore, so she and the other feral cats reassign themselves to the gang. They go to another alley and find a new disguise, and then set off again. Back with Walley and Peg, they enter a hospital and start looking around there. Just as they leave the room, Hunter Gibson walks into the hospital as well, and goes into an elevator. He then stops at a floor and comes out of an elevator to go into the room right in front of it. He looks inside through the glass on the door, and sees (along with the audience) that there is a young girl on life support. He walks in and talks with her, revealing that she is his daughter, Terri. She asks if she is going to die, but Hunter tells her that everything will be alright soon. He then comes to to meet a nurse, who tells him that she doesn't have much time left, but he snarls "There is always time". He then gets a beeping noise from his pocket. He picks up the phone and his employer, Mr Braun, tells him that he wants his stock tonight. Hunter then goes back down stairs, and just as he comes out of the elevator, Wally and Peg see and recognize him. They immediately started to follow him and find the hideout. They then see that some of their friends got captured too. Peg says that she wants to try and save them while Wally finds the others. Wally is unsure about this, but Peg kisses his on the lips. Wally then decides to go with this plan. Wally runs around and eventually bumps into Kevin, Kristie, and the feral cats. Just as he tells them where the hunters are, they start to go off, but Kevin stops. He still believes that his parents never loved him or accepted his love for Kristie and refuses to even go along. Kristie starts to argue with Kevin on this, stating that this is not about us. Kevin still refuses to budge, and then Kristie says "We're through." Kristie, Wally, and the feral cars go on without Kevin, and Kevin seemed to not have changed at first, but starts to become sad.

Peg has gotten her way into the building and found her way to where the gang is locked up. She manages to free Emily, Tiddles, Eddie, Paddy, Morrie, and Connie, but then guards show up and start to get them back in the cages. Emily beats the guards back, but accidentally knocks them into the cage where The Great Dingo is being held, unlocking it. Dingo starts to try to claw the gang to shreds, with Eddie and Paddy cowering in the corner. Seeing their friends being hurt, however, they decide to bring up courage and fight back. They do so by using the taser that one of the guards had, and starts using it on Dingo, forcing him out of a window, but he survives the fall. At first, the gang cheered, and just right when Kristie, Wally, and the feral cats returned to help them, but then Hunter Gibson shows up and shoots most of the animals with a tranquilizer, calling them "soulless". Kristie tried to fight back, but she was shot four more times before she could go down. The feral cats were the only ones that escaped, but Mog went under a brief shock, as she realized that the man was, infact, her original owner. We then go back and see Kevin, starting to truly miss Kristie (Australian Breeze), but he feels that nothing is going to bring things back to the way they were. He realizes how foolish and selfish he was acting. Suddenly, he realizes that if he wanted love and acceptance by anyone, he would risk his life to make sure that no one is hurt. He then attempts to find the place by himself. In the meantime, the hunters are packing up to bring all the animals to Mr Braun. Mange is telling Mog to think of something, but she does not want to go against her own owner. Gabbo then says something smart: "Those freaks are going to die if you don't help them!" Mog realizes that he is right.

Kevin manages to find his way to the hideout, but the cars just start to leave. Kevin cannot catch up with them, but then Mange and Gabbo come and tell Kevin that they already have a plan. They hijack another "fast one" and Mog, who is hiding in one of the hunter's cars, gives them directions via cellphone. The rest of the gang, all chained up with there family members, start to feel sad. Emily apologizes for feeling above everyone else and putting others down. The gang hugged her. Most of them feel scared, expect for Eddie and Paddy, who are now a little braver and say that we still have each other. Wally then interjects "All except Kevin", to which Kristie replied in a bitter tone "Kevin, who's Kevin?" Kevin's parents, who are in the scene, feel even more disappointment for there son, because they did love him, but he just never saw it. They eventually make it to the docks at near dark, where Mr Braun is waiting. He welcomes Hunter, and they start unloading the animals. Mog loses connection with Kevin, Mange, and Gabbo, and not seeing them anywhere in sight, she decides to try and save the animals herself.

She first frees Swizzle, whom thanks her, but still wants to eat her. He starts to walk away and Mr. Braun notices, as the hunters go to get him, suddenly, the car Kevin, Mange, and Gabbo were in pulls up, frightening the hunters. They get their flashlights and point them at the car, but there is nothing in the car. They suddenly hear a falling sound, causing the hunters to be confused. The hunters are then stomped on by Kevin. Mange and Gabbo are holding on to him by his ears. Kevin looks at Kristie and his parents, and winks at them, causing them to feel a glimmer of hope. He then jumps again, with the remaining hunters try to shoot at him. While the humans are distracted, Mog frees nearly all the animals, and then they begin to attack the hunters from the back. Mr. Braun, seeing the chaos, tries to run, but gets stomped on my Kevin, knocking him out. The hunters begin retreating, but Hunter Gibson stays behind, and takes out a sniper to start shooting at the animals. He eventually shoots Kristie in the leg. The animals get shocked by this, and try to rescue her, but they all get captured by the remaining hunters. Hunter Gibson decides to kill Kristie, but Kevin throws Mange and Gabbo off his head and then throws himself in front of Kristie, take the bullet for her. Kevin is severely wounded, and Hunter reloads to shoot again, but then Kristie crawls in front of Kevin, refusing to let his life end like this. Hunter was about to pull the trigger, but then he looks into the eyes of both Kevin and Kristie, as they looked at each other tearfully. He then looks at all the other animals watching the scene, with tearful eyes. Hunter paused for a moment, then unloaded his gun and and dropped it.

He then starts to explain that more than a year ago, he was with his own daughter, showing her the wonders of the outback. Suddenly, while observing a kangaroo, it started jumping towards them. Hunter and Terri tried to get out of the way, but they tripped. The kangaroo was about to jump on top of Hunter, but Terri pushed him aside and she took the injury instead. The kangaroo never looked back, never hesitated, never looked like it acknowledged what had happened, it just kept going. He rushed her to the hospital as fast as he could and paid all the money he had, but it wasn't enough. He became broke, with his one and only family member left dying, when he decided, as an act of revenge, he would set up a group of hunter's to track down and sell animals for money. Hunter had always thought that all outback animals were heartless and cold after the incident, but today, he has been proven wrong. Paddy then notices a purple ring on Mr Braun's finger. Thinking it is a plum, he runs out, takes the ring off the finger, and bites the ring, but his teeth hurt from it, and he threw ring to Hunter in disgust. After it landed on his hand, Hunter looked at it and realizes the ring is so valuable that it will give him more than enough money he needed to save his daughter. The gang got driven back to where they came from, Kevin and Kristie are healed, and the humans and animals went their separate ways. Kevin hugged his parents, saying he is sorry for what had happened, but his father said that what he did made him very proud to be his father. Kristie parents hugged her and told her that she can do what she would like now. Kristie then goes up to Kevin to talk. They feel that they do belong for each other, but they want their parents approval. All of the animals egged the two on, and so Kevin and Kristie kissed each other on the lips for the first time. Wally and Peg get together as well, Emily is becomes more down to earth, Eddie and Paddy have grown up a little bit, Tiddles feels entranced by the experience, Morrie and Connie decided to practice being unable to be seen more, and Mr Lizard allowed them to graduate to the same school.

In the meantime, Hunter and Terri are now back in their home, living together, but Hunter feels as if he is missing something still. Mog then comes up to Hunter like a normal cat, and Hunter realizes that he had left her in the outback at the time of the accident. Terri then notices Mange and Gabbo behind her. She asks if she can keeps those too, and Hunter allowed it. Mog did not want attention away from her at first, but then it turns out that Terri loves all three equally. The film ends with the Kangaroo Creek Gang having fun at their creek again (Kangaroo Creek Gang)

Video Game
THQ was making a Kangaroo Creek Gang: The Movie video game to coincide with the release of the movie, but after the movie was canceled, the game was canceled as well.

References to popular culture

 * Early production posters for the movie were parodies of the posters for The Departed, Letters From Iwo Jima, and Little Miss Sunshine.
 * During the capture of Swizzle, one of the hunter's commented "Even Dundee would be scared by this." a reference to Crocodile Dundee (Paul Hogan, who played Dundee, was hired to voice Swizzle).
 * When the Hunter said that he was planning to attack the creek, the fellow hunter commented "I guess he intend to do what they do in Japan and catch 'em all", a reference to Pokémon.
 * When the gang crashed into the gas station, buzzing noises are heard, to which Kevin started screaming "Oh not the bees! Not the bees! Ah! They're all over my eyes! My eyes!", a direct quote fron the 2006 version of The Wicker Man. The buzzing then turned out to be a radio recording.
 * When Paddy explores the gas station, a giant cardboard cut-out scares him. He then throws a plum at the cardboard cut-out's face. The cardboard cut-out is actually Tom Cruise in a promotion ad for Mission Impossible III. Nicole Kidman, who voiced Paddy in this movie, divorced Tom years ago.
 * At one point, two of the hunters gave a conversation that is very similar to the conversation that is had in the first episode of Red vs Blue.
 * During the final scenes, Mr Braun yelled out "You're tearing me apart!", a reference to The Room, which Braun's voice actor produced, directed, wrote, and starred in.