Fierce Creatures (1997)

Zookeepers struggle to deal with the policies of changing directors.

Directors:

Fred Schepisi, Robert Young

Writers:

John Cleese, Iain Johnstone

Stars:

John Cleese, Jamie Lee Curtis, Kevin Kline

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
John Cleese	...	Rollo Lee
Jamie Lee Curtis	...	Willa Weston
Kevin Kline	...	Vince McCain / Rod McCain
Michael Palin	...	Bugsy Malone
Ronnie Corbett	...	Reggie Sealions
Carey Lowell	...	Cub Felines
Robert Lindsay	...	Sydney Small Mammals
Bille Brown	...	Neville Coltrane
Derek Griffiths	...	Gerry Ungulates
Cynthia Cleese	...	Pip Small Mammals
Richard Ridings	...	Hugh Primates
Maria Aitken	...	Di Admin
Michael Percival	...	Ant Keeper
Fred Evans	...	Flamingo Keeper
Lisa Hogan	...	Sealion Keeper

Storyline

A massive corporate conglomerate, Octopus Inc., run by a shrewd and cruel tycoon named Rod McCain, purchases a UK-based leisure company, and also the failing London Marwood Zoo. To bring more business to the zoo, Octopus hires a new manager, Rollo Lee, who promptly comes up with a way to increase profits-do away with all the animals except for the ferocious ones. This new Fierce Creatures Policy shocks the Marwood zookeepers, led by the unendingly talkative Adrian "Bugsy" Malone. Eventually, Rod McCain's son Vince, along with the up-and-coming business executive Willa Weston, take control of the zoo and revoke the Fierce Creatures Policy. Vince instead comes up with many under-handed and vicious schemes to attract customers-unauthorized celebrity endorsements, shoddy, overpriced zoo merchandise, and using robotic animals instead of real ones. However, Vince is also stealing from the zoo's funds, and when his father finds out, he rears to turn the zoo into a Japanese-owned golf course....

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Plot Keywords:

zoo | animal | marketing | black comedy | reference to christopher lee | 

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Taglines:

Don't pet them.

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Genres:

Comedy

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for sexual innuendo and language

Details

Official Sites:

Universal Studios Home Entertainment [United States]

Country:

UK USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

24 January 1997 (USA)

Also Known As:

Death Fish II

Filming Locations:

England, UK

Box Office

Budget:

$25,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$3,759,480, 26 January 1997, Wide Release

Gross USA:

$9,381,260

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$40,381,260

Company Credits

Production Co:

Universal Pictures, Fish Productions, Jersey Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

93 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby SR DTS-Stereo Dolby Digital (5.1 surround) (DVD version) Dolby Digital

Color:

Color (Rankcolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.39 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Preview audiences disliked the original ending, and a decision was made to reshoot it. Unfortunately, Michael Palin had already embarked on an eight-month voyage around the Pacific Ocean for the BBC documentary Full Circle with Michael Palin (1997), and director Robert Young had begun his next film. Fred Schepisi, who was already talking to John Cleese about a film based on Don Quixote, was chosen to reshoot the ending when Palin returned from his trip.

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Goofs

When Willa tells Vince she had an extraordinary experience with the gorilla, we hear her say "yesterday", but she is obviously saying "this morning".

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Quotes

Vince: Did you get a whiff of that guy's cologne? Eau de Monkey Fart!

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Crazy Credits

No animals were injured during the making of this movie, only humans.

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Connections

References The Muppet Show (1976)

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Soundtracks

Hungry Heart
Written and performed by Bruce Springsteen

User Reviews

Enjoyable Fluff

If you like "A Fish Called Wanda," you'll probably get a kick out of this farce, in which an Australian magnate sends two Americans to a British zoo to make it turn a profit. The bad guys are Kevin Kline, Jamie Lee Curtis, and John Cleese, at least until Curtis and Cleese fall for each other.

Cleese intends to make money from the zoo by offing all the cuddly little animals and replacing them with "fierce creatures." The tree huggers who run the zoo and love all the animals try to convince the dim-witted Cleese that the cuddly things are in actuality deadly when provoke, telling him tales of people who have torn to shreds by an angry lemur and other nonsense.

Cleese is persuaded not to kill the animals but he advertises them all as Dangerous to Man and, to boost profits, drags in merchandising in various forms. A fully grown Bengal tiger wears a kind of table cloth advertising Absolute Vodka with the logo Absolute -- FIERCE. A brand new panda is installed but it's a robot and all it can do is slowly raise and lower its head.

Other absurdities abound, some funnier than others. Curtis, wearing a very low-cut dress and a smile, bends down to pet a coati mundi or something and the distracted Cleese mutters, "Yes, that's one of our breast mammaries -- er, best mammals." The whole set-up is in a way a distraction. Everything seems to rush by. People fall down. It's a little exhausting and lacks some of the earnest wit of "A Fish Called Wanda." There is no line here that's the equivalent of, "The philosophy of Buddhism is not 'every man for himself.'" Still, it has some laugh-out-loud moments, at least for me. I think the one I enjoyed most appears near the end. Kevin Kline has been playing the grasping and nasty Australian billionaire with a farcical Australian accent, and also playing the billionaire's son. The elderly billionaire shows up at the zoo, discovers the fraud and confronts his son, whom he holds responsible. Says the ruthless magnate, "The last words you'll hear from me is --" A shot rings out from off screen and a bullet hole appears in the Australian's forehead. Without any change in his expression and after only the slightest pause, he continues, "you're fiiirrred." But his voice has slowed down and become baritone, like a tape recorder with dying batteries. Holding the same angry posture he slowly flops backwards to the grass, a mannequin, evoking images of Saddam Hussein's statue in Baghdad.