Movie Type: Family-Oriented Adventure, Adventure Comedy
Themes: Survival in the Wilderness, Mistaken Identities
Main Cast: Steve Irwin, Terri Irwin, Magda Szubanski, David Wenham, Lachy Hulme
Release Year: 2002
Country: AU
Run Time: 90 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG
Plot
Crikey! Following a brief cameo in Dr. Dolittle 2 (2001), hyperactive, high-energy cable television star and native Australian naturalist Steve Irwin parlays his success as a confronter of all things scaly, fanged, and venomous into this feature-film adventure. Irwin and his wife Terri Irwin play themselves as animal activists who rescue an endangered crocodile, not realizing that the critter has swallowed a downed top-secret satellite beacon that's the subject of an intense search by CIA personnel. Believing that the spies are poachers out to steal the animal's precious hide, the Irwins evade their pursuers while attempting to get the crocodile to safety in a remote area of the Outback, adopting an orphaned joey (a baby kangaroo), and grappling with bird-eating spiders and poisonous snakes along the way. In the meantime, the secret agents mistakenly believe the Irwins are enemy operatives trying to steal their highly valuable technology. The real-life Irwins donated all of their fees from The Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course (2002) to wildlife conservation efforts. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
Review
The contagious gusto of nutty bloke Steve Irwin has given pause to many a restless channel surfer, who stop on his Animal Planet show to witness the one time he recoils from a springing crocodile a smidgeon too late. It turns out his mixture of clowning and teaching is enough to carry a children's movie, and that this movie maintains that fascination factor necessary to keep older viewers from squirming -- not unlike Irwin's poisonous snakes, which he handles as though emboldened by a pact with the devil. The Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course works because writer-producer-director John Stainton doesn't try to make actors of Irwin and his wife Terri, letting them play themselves rather than Indiana Jones or Crocodile Dundee-style adventurers, as well as talk to deadly wildlife instead of human actors. Stainton splits the narrative between the familiar pursuits of the Irwins and the kooky CIA retrieval mission, even changing the aspect ratio from the rectangular cinema format to the square TV format to distinguish them. When the plots do finally collide near the end, it's clever and humorous: As he grapples with one of the suits atop a moving SUV, Irwin continues to address the camera as though he were simply encountering a nastier species of predator. These fun moments come at the cost of a B-movie production design and an anonymous cast of bland performers, but there's one notable exception: the rotund, cartoonish Magda Szubanski, offering an irascible variation on her Mrs. Hoggett character from Babe. Crocodile Hunter does have its moments -- but it would be just as well to wait and accidentally discover it while channel surfing. ~ Derek Armstrong, All Movie Guide
Lachy Hulme - Robert Wheeler; Aden Young - Ron Buckwhiler; Kenneth Ransom - Vaughan Archer; Kate Beahan - Jo Buckley; Steven Vidler - Deputy Director Ansell; Steve Bastoni - Deputy Director Reynolds; Robert Coleby - Dr. Weinberger; David Franklin - CIA Agent; Alyson Standen - Anne Milking; Kevin Hides - Dr. Krug; Todd Levi - Canberra Space Technician; Alex Ruiz - CIA Agent; Christopher Morris - Canberra Space Technician
Credit
Matthew Smith - Animator, Craig Brown - Animator, Chris Debney - Animator, Serge Kovalenko - Animator, Alex McCleod - Animator, Greg Petchkovsky - Animator, Alex Scollay - Animator, Scott Tansley - Animator, Rod Conder - Boom Operator, Alison Barrett - Casting, Christopher Gordon - Conductor, Jean Turnbull - Costume Designer, Chris Webb - First Assistant Director, Clinton White - First Assistant Director, John Stainton - Director, Suresh Ayyar - Editor, Bob Blasadall - Editor, April Harvie - Hair Styles, In Motion Location Services - Location Manager, Caroline Bonham-Jones - Line Producer, Mark McDuff - Composer (Music Score), Sue Kelly-Tait - Makeup, Henry Pierce - Camera Operator, Anthony Politis - Camera Operator, Jon Dowding - Production Designer, David Burr - Cinematographer, John Stokes - Cinematographer, Garry Phillips - Cinematographer, Daniel Ardilley - Cinematographer, Annie McEvoy - Production Manager, Bruce Willis - Producer, Arnold Rifkin - Producer, John Stainton - Producer, Judi Bailey - Producer, Paul "Salty" Brincat - Production Sound, Claudine Clark - Set Designer, Chrissy Feld - Set Designer, Jason Ballantine - Special Effects, Harry Ward - Special Effects, Wayne Pashley - Sound/Sound Designer, Greg Burgmann - Sound/Sound Designer, Paul "Salty" Brincat - Sound/Sound Designer, Simon Krivoroutchko - Sound Recordist, Craig Dunn - Stunts, Steven Robinson - Stunts, Mitch Deans - Stunts, Steve Irwin - Stunts, Michelle Comerford - Stunts, Marney Commens - Stunts, Renee Bowen - Stunts, Mick Corrigan - Stunts, Luke Eccleston - Stunts, Neil Fanning - Stunts, Zelie Thompson - Stunts, Darko Tuscan - Stunts, Ray Anthony - Stunts, Chris Anderson - Stunts Coordinator, Jeremy Douglas Bill - Unit Production Manager, John Stainton - Screen Story, Holly Goldberg Sloan - Screenwriter, John Stainton - Screenwriter, John Stokes - Additional Cinematography, Garry Phillips - Additional Cinematography, Daniel Ardilley - Additional Cinematography, Frazer Bailey - Additional Cinematography, Charlie Armstrong - Visual Effects Supervisor, Chris Godfrey - Visual Effects Supervisor, David Woodland - Visual Effects Supervisor, Peter Kaldor - Additional Music, Elliott Wheeler - Additional Music, Luke Hura - Animal Trainer/Wrangler, Fiona Wallis - Animal Trainer/Wrangler, Bob Eicholz - Executive in Charge of Production, John Harrison - Publicist, Bill Feightner - Technical Director, The PR Company - Unit Publicist, Shawn Seet - Additional Editing, Bruce Shapiro - Dialogue Coach, David Elmes - First Assistant Camera, Tony O'Loughlin - First Assistant Camera, Ricky Schamburg - First Assistant Camera, Sean Aston - Grip, Lester Bishop - Key Grip, Katrina Schiller - Music Editor, Pro Musica - Musical Performer, Sylvia Walker Wilson - Post Production Supervisor, Jennine Heymer - Production Coordinator, Sheila Lind - Production Coordinator, Phil Heywood - Re-Recording Mixer, Martin Oswin - Re-Recording Mixer, Jenny Quigley - Script Supervisor, Pam Willis-Burden - Script Supervisor, Angella McPherson - Second Assistant Director, Andrew McInally - Second Assistant Director, Rodney Burling - Sound Effects Director, Ian Neilson - Sound Effects Director, Fabian Sanjurjo - Sound Effects Director, Peter Townsend - Sound Effects Director, Greg Barrett - Still Photographer, Jeremy Howdin - Supervising Animator, Simon Christidis - Underwater Photography, Serena Rettenmaier - Visual Effects Producer, Julie Pearce - ADR Mixer, Katherin Phillips - Assistant Costumer Designer, Steve Gordon - Assistant Chief Lighting Technician, Sue Kelly-Tait - Assistant Hair, Tom Frisby Fraser - Buyer, Chris Cox - Buyer, Marnie Pankowski - Buyer, Graham Rutherford - Chief Lighting Technician, Wendy Brough - Construction Coordinator, Tim Jordan - Dialogue Editor, Sonal Joshi - Dialogue Editor, Pam Barnetta - First Assistant Editor, Nicola Scarrott - First Assistant Editor, Basia Ozerski-Bleakley - First Assistant Editor, David Burrows - First Assistant Editor, Milena Romanin - First Assistant Editor, Helen Brown - Foley Artist, Paul Huntingford - Foley Artist, Les Landon - Greensman, April Harvie - Key Make-up, Kirsten Le Bon - Post Production Accountant, Kate Hilliard - Post Production Assistant, Trish Ashenden - Production Accountant, Ben Breen - Production Accountant, Petrece Horne - Production Accountant, Brenda Pam - Production Executive, Les Brough - Scenic Artist, Robert Daly - Scenic Artist, Tom Frisby Fraser - Set Dresser, Chris Cox - Set Dresser, Justine Dunn - Set Dresser, Marnie Pankowski - Set Dresser, David Russell - Storyboard Artist, Nicole Miller - Cable Person, Cornelius Van Der Boogaart - Construction Foreman, Rick Lisle - Foley Mixer, Susannah Ingham-Myers - Production Secretary, Julian Bungate - Runner, Steven Campbell - Runner, Vickie Gest - Set Medic/First Aid, Jo Suna - Third Assistant Director, David Thomasson - Graphic Design, Zenon Kohler - Title Design, Dael Oates - Title Design, Mark Harmon - Compositor, Jeanmarc Furio - Compositor, George Zwier - Compositor, Vince Strong - Assistant Unit Manager
The film revolves around a satellite beacon swallowed by a crocodile and how two CIA agents collide with the famous Steve Irwin and how the CIA duo and the Hunter both race each other to find the crocodile.
Reviews
The film received mixed reviews, with a score of 53% freshness from review aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes. Roger Ebert gave a positive review, stating "You see a couple of likable people journeying though the outback, encountering dangerous critters and getting too close for comfort, while lecturing us on their habits and dangers and almost being killed by them." Robert K. Elder of the Chicago Tribune said, "Irwin and his director never come up with an adequate reason why we should pay money for what we can get on television for free."[citation needed]
Box office
The film made over $28.4 million at the American box office, with a worldwide gross of over $33 million.[citation needed]
Film Aspect Ratios
Collision Course is relatively unique among feature films in that it was shot in two film aspect ratios, 1.85:1 for the scenes with Steve and Terri and 2.35:1 for the plot about the Australian farmer and the CIA and their efforts to find the tracking drone. In theaters and on DVD, the 1.85:1 image appears with pillar boxing, a format usually reserved for 1.33:1 ratio content appearing within 1.85:1 or 2.35:1 frames.[citation needed]
