November 9th, 2021 
Jackson Murphy 
Australian-set animated feature Back to the Outback is coming to Netflix on December 10th. It’s about a group of animals at a wildlife park who are looking to get out and explore more of what their continent has to offer. I’ve screened the first 30 minutes of the movie so far, and I spoke with directors Harry Cripps and Clare Knight all about it.
Jackson Murphy: I really like the take you have on the obsession with the 24/7 webcams. Harry, where did that come from — wanting to use that element?
Harry Cripps: Well actually… this [movie] was a long process. Animation, as you know, takes years. And we were all fixated with some of these real-life, 24/7 nature cams. Clare, I believe there was one you were [watching].
Clare Knight: The Big Bear Eagle. I was really obsessed with that eagle trying to keep its eggs away from all the crows. It was very upsetting to me when they would go in and steal the eggs of the eagle. I was following that one all the time. It was keeping me going when I was in Lockdown, because you could hear the sounds of all the beautiful Big Bear and everything. That was my favorite, but there are plenty of them. There are so many great webcams.
HC: And also celebrities’ lives in general, like the Kardashians, they seem to be living under these 24/7 webcam sort of existences. So it seemed to have a koala [Pretty Boy] — an animal in one of those. He’s a celebrity. That is his life. Everything that you do is on display.
JM: Very true. There are a lot of them, including a pig at a farm not far away from me. The obsession is huge. Clare, tell me about figuring out how to organize the layout of the wildlife park and how you wanted to use these animals to organize the shows that they’re in.
CK: We were very, very keen to show Sydney. Our first shot as you come into Sydney is this love letter to Australia. We had this great decision early on: there would be a divide within this wildlife park that would have the beautiful and then there’s the reptile house. Because it always feels like that when you go to a lot of places. They’re all in these dark, dark enclosures that feel very uncomfortable. And then there’s other beautiful pastoral places. We really wanted to hone in on the whole idea of the beautiful look of Sydney and the stone of Sydney. We made this Gladiators arena where they were brought out. There were very specific things we were finding as we looked at places in Australia that informed all of that design.
HC: One of the big things in the movie is about unity and coming together no matter what you are and no matter what our differences are, it’s about everyone pulling together, not being put apart. So it was important to [change] a world that felt it was divided in two and you were either on the beautiful side or the ugly side. By the end, there is no beautiful and ugly. They’re all just in it together.
Harry, Clare and Jackson
JM: One of the things that has already gotten me emotionally is listening to Isla Fisher as Maddie [the snake]. You’ve put real emotion into what she says, and she puts a lot of emotion into that character. Harry, how was it crafting that character — and the way that Isla gives this voice performance?
HC: She just took it to a whole different level. We always wanted that. When we started conceiving that character, we thought of her beginning the movie a bit like a young girl who’s had braces put on her teeth. That’s the way she sees herself with fangs. She’s ashamed and throughout the film she starts to become more empowered until she actually embraces who she is. Isla brought so much warmth to that. She’s such a beautiful actress, but she’s also really hilarious. So she was the perfect blend of comedy and great warmth. We did audition a lot of actresses, but I can’t imagine anyone now except Isla playing that role.
CK: She has this impeccable comic timing and this richness to her voice. The voice quality alone is so endearing, so it was really important because we wanted her to be appealing. And Isla came — and we had a great script from Harry — and she’d do the script but then she’d come up with some really funny golden moments that were able to put in the movie as well.
JM: I look forward to hearing more of her in the rest of the film. Clare, was casting Jacki Weaver as a croc named Jackie intentional?
CK: Yes! There was no one else but Jacki. And the quality of her voice… we put the character design up and then you put up all these voices that you’ve gotten from old performances they’ve done. And it was a no-brainer. You put up any of her… even the times when you feel like it’s a scary character, her voice quality is just so comforting. I can listen to her all day. She’s fabulous.
JM: Great. And that emotional portion of her character towards the end of the footage we’ve seen so far also got me a little bit. Harry, how was it making an ensemble animated adventure comedy? Some animated films have ensemble casts, but some of them just focus on one or two main characters. But you’ve got a real ensemble here.
HC: I love an ensemble cast. I love it because it gives you an opportunity to develop a lot more of the characters a lot more thoroughly — to really be able to go in. It also lets the actors play around a lot more with finding particular quirks. The three other characters: we have a lizard [Zoe] played by Miranda Tapsell, a spider [Frank], who’s Guy Pearce and Angus Imrie voices [Nigel] a scorpion. All of those actors completely ran with those roles and came up with a lot of other stuff because we wanted those roles to be as fully fleshed out as Pretty Boy and Maddie, even though those, traditionally, are the two lead characters. I love an ensemble comedy. It just feels bigger and more real and richer.
There are a lot of other animals on the way who only appear in one or two scenes, but they are just as richly drawn and beautifully acted by a bunch of other Australian actors.
JM: I grew-up watching some of Steve Irwin’s shows and what he did — and then obviously learning of his passing when I was young. I can still picture the news coverage of that. Clare, what kind of an influence did he have on the character of Chaz Hunt and the movie as a whole?
CK: Well, there is an influence there but there are a lot of those kind… there’s the kangaroo hunter. It isn’t necessarily, in any way, a reference to Steve Irwin. It is a kind of take on that. The character of Chaz — he thinks it’s important to be like this. He’s a big character. He feels that’s really important to present himself like that. I think Eric Bana really understood the tone of this when he took the role. And he brought so much to it. But in terms of it specifically being anything to do with the Irwins, no. It is meant to be an homage to him. He is the most wonderful… We did watch a lot of his extraordinary performances when he does these things. He did one with a taipan snake where he’s right up close to it. It’s almost like a performance, but it’s also really scary. You’re risking yourself with this. But he really had a sense of how he could talk and be with animals, which I think is part of what Chaz feels he has too.
JM: For both of you: did you feel as you were making this that maybe some… elementary school age kids are gonna be learning about Australia and its culture for the first time by watching this movie?
HC: Yeah. We really hope so. We would love to think that kids around the world in all the many different countries that Netflix is showing this movie will get to see a side of Australia and the Australian wildlife they haven’t seen before — and that they will take an interest in that and really want to learn more about those animals and more about the country. As the film goes on, we see more parts of Australia. As I said, we meet more animals. So it’s really a love letter to all the incredibly exotic and wonderful wildlife in Australia.
CK: I think also there’s this idea and notion of: everyone knows about koalas, and that was very helpful that we had this idea of who he is and it plays against his type, somewhat, of what you think a koala is. But then this other band of animals, like a thorny devil lizard — certainly not a lot of people know about them. Having them be that appealing, you’ll then look into, “What do they do? Do they know that they drink water from their bellies?” (laughs) Those kinds of things. There’s lots of facts about Australian animals, particularly about these animals, that aren’t known worldwide. I think this is great that we’re able to get them represented.
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