Maddie (stage name Medusa) (voiced by Isla Fisher) is the main protagonist of the 2021 animated feature film "Back to the Outback'. She is the one to rally Frank, Nigel, and Zoe to escape the Australian Wildlife Park. Her own personal motive for wanting to go the Outback she's heard so much about from the older Crocodile Jackie is the realization that the crowds she expected to adore her think she's a killer critter. Realizing that the park it's self also furthers this image of her as a dangerous being, simply made her desire to leave stronger as 'in the outback we can be who we really are' and in her mind that means what she wants to be rather than what people think she is. At her core she just wants to be loved, rather than feared.
Biography[]
Background[]
Maddie's egg was laid in the outback and as part of a clutch her mother had been coiled protectively around her. Maddie states that she remembers hearing her mother sing a song to her and that the memory makes her happy. During a flood her egg was taken far from the nest and ended up on the side of the road where it was picked up by Chaz Hunt. There in the man's hand she hatched and his face was the first she ever saw. Maddie was raised from the egg and trained by Chaz Hunt, the event coordinator for the Australian Wildlife Park and star of the show at the Danger House. Maddie grew up to be a very tame Taipan Serpent, one of the most venomous creatures on the planet. As Chaz Hunt puts it one drop of her venom is enough to kill a hundred men. She herself, being raised as she was, is really just a sweat heart. Her innocence and enthusiasm is so endearing that the other critters at the Danger House don't bother telling her that she will be feared. Chaz Hunt told her that she'd be loved and adored by the crowd. Her faith in Chaz Hunt and trust of the one who raised her was strong enough that while Chaz had to use pincers and other methods on the rest of the critters in the danger house she would simply slither up to him and coil around his arm to be taken where ever he wanted to take her.
Back to the Outback[]
During her first appearance at the Danger House show, Medusa (Maddie's stage name), was a little blinded by the light of the sun as she'd been kept indoors for most of her life prior. She was rather certain that she was being adored but her expectations where shattered when she began to hear Chaz refer to her in terms he'd never had before. 'Hideous' and 'Cold Blooded Killer' being among them and while she performed what she was trained too she had expected the sounds of happy amazement rather then the fear reactions she got from the crowd. After being tossed into her carrying box as something dangerous she became very sad about how things had not gone the way she'd been brought up to expect.
She finds her self dropped into her tank at the Danger House, rather then allowed to slither in as she had been before. Such a drop does nothing good for her feelings about the show and she coils up to mull over her emotions. Jackie, the crocodile is returned to her exhibit though as usual she gives Chaz and the others a bit of a playful fight. Frank reminds her that the Humans don't know she's just kidding to which Jackie reminds him that she thinks it's fun to scare them. Maddie doesn't see how it can fun, she hadn't intended to scare them at the show. Jackie tells her it really doesn't matter what the Humans think about her, what matters is that she knows who she really is in the heart.
But Maddie, wants to be adored the way Pretty Boy the Koala is. Looking at him sleep via security footage on display in another room she expresses how everyone lines up to give him hugs and no one will ever do that for her. Frank expresses that they might if she threatens them with her insatiable bloodlust which gets some rather disagreeable looks from the other critters. Maddie herself doesn't like that Frank for his own reasons is trying to make light over how she's feared. Jackie, in an attempt to further her point about what really matters is what's in the heart starts talking about the outback as she does every night and Maddie shares her only memory of the place. Her mother singing her a song, she never met her mother, but she remembers the song word for word. Jackie tells her the first show is always the hardest, but it gets easier over time.
During her fourth show Maddie is still not feeling good. The same behavior from Chaz continues as part of the act and the crowd continues to be afraid. Back in her box as Chaz takes questions from the crowd she hears someone shout that a kid fell into the crocodile pool. Knowing how Jackie is Maddie is instantly worried about her. Chaz puts down Maddie's box and goes off out of Maddie's sight and Maddie listening learns that Chaz's son fell in. The boy helps out with the act and was trying to be a bit like his father with some unnecessary risk. Maddie can tell that Jackie just wants to help but given how she's been acting, scaring folks for giggles, no one sees her actions that way. Back in her tank Maddie watches on security camera as Jackie is taken away by the Department for the Removal of Dangerous Animals. Maddie can't do anything to help but has tried to escape to do something.
This, event is enough for her to set her mind on escape. With hope of finding her family in the outback she rallies Frank, Nigel, and Zoe into an escape attempt lest they live as monsters on display their whole lives. They make it to the outer wall when they encounter Pretty Boy whose up hitting chimes with a stick. Maddie asks that he stop and explains that they are trying to escape to find their families in the outback. Pretty Boy, doesn't care and finds the prospect of them escaping to be very slim. Realizing that despite her expectations Pretty Boy's actually very mean Maddie slithers up the tree to take the stick from him which causes him to truly panic with a belief that she's trying to kill him. Nigel knocks him out with his sting and he falls outside the walls of the park. Maddie takes it upon herself as the largest to carry him around as taking him back would hinder their escape.
Using a bird's nest and throwing the eggs into the water the group of escapees begin to raft across the waters that separate them from the outback. There they encounter a shark named Janicta. Maddie is afraid of sharks herself as are all the others because of what they have heard of them. Janicta recognizes what sort of snake Maddie and is rather ecstatic as she has heard that her venom can call 100 men to which, in an attempt to keep friendly conversation going Maddie says it's more like 95 and suggests that Janicta has probably eaten more people than that to which- the shark agrees. The shark claims and latter proves themselves to be part of a group called U.S.S. the Uglies Secret Society which is suppose to help misunderstood animals such as themselves. Janicta tells them a password to use if they are ever in danger. The shark carries them across the water before departing.
The trip takes until morning and the city of Sydney is rather active in the day. It's here that Pretty Boy leaves the others to make his own trip back to the park, seeing how he was abducted essentially. He tells Maddie that she's never going to make to the outback and would be better off quieting now before she gets her friends killed. Without Pretty Boy Maddie leads her group through the city. Getting lost she's surprised to see Pretty Boy calling out for help while running towards them followed by crowds of Humans. Surrounded she tries to remember the password and does moments before they would have been clobbered to death.
Getting a bit more comfortable with her deadly side Maddie manages to have a conversation with the local Capo of the U.S.S. - a redback spider, Legs Lucario, who admires Maddie's venom's ability to kill so many. Getting through the sewers of Sydney with the aid of U.S.S. Maddie encounters Chaz again who tries to capture them with his son Chazzle. The two loose sight of Maddie and her group and she begins to cross the road with them towards the outback only to notice that Pretty Boy is standing in the road in an emotional state of sorrow and frustration over his new situation. Zoe tells Maddie to leave Pretty Boy but Maddie decides to get him out of the road regardless and Chazzle sees them and the group is again threatened with capture. Maddie manages to get the group onto the back of a catering truck and the group evades capture.
Arriving at a school but not knowing what the place is Maddie releases two caged toxic Cane Toads who in gratitude tell her that a bus heads into the blue mountains. Taking the bus she finally makes it to the outback. On the bus the group is happy, already feeling a lot better as they sit on the roof. Nigel wonders if they'll really be happy in the outback to which Maddie expresses her belief that they will because they'll be with family. Nigel asks, "What if we don't like our families?" Zoe seconds that concern and points out that they really don't know what a family is. Maddies says, "Maybe it's being with people who love you no matter what." to which Nigels says, "It sounds like us." which makes her smile, having such friends as they. She embraces them right before Chaz and Chazzie show up. Escaping into the bus and causing a ruckus inside the group is hidden by an aboriginal student who lets them off the bus. She seems to be able to speak with Maddie or at least communicate a lot better empathetically. Off the bus Chaz managed to get her pinned under a stick and nearly capture her and the others before Tazmanian Devils came to the rescue.
Members of U.S.S took the group through a network of other contacts until they where at the mountains. It seemed they had finally got away when Chaz and a group of bikers showed up to capture them. Frank, Nigel, and Zoe where caught and Maddie was the only one still free but scared. When Chazzie stumbled upon her they where both scared of each other and had a moment of recognizing this as she trembled against a rock. Chaz caught her and while he drove away his son took an opportunity to push her tank out causing it to shatter and her to slither free but she followed wanting to save her friends. Eventually she realized she couldn't go any further like that. Going back to the mountain she tried to get aid from the wild life there. Eventually with the help of Pretty Boy, who had left the group to live with Koalas only to return as he found them too shallow, she did managed to catch up with Chaz to save the others.
In their confrontation, as the wild life finally came to her aid, a situation resulted where Chaz, Chazzie, Frank, Maddie, Nigel, Pretty Boy, and Zoe where on a cliff's edge balanced on a ladder with Chazzie off the edge about to fall. Maddie told the others to find something to brace under the ladder but they had no luck doing so. She starts to slither over to Chazzie when she hears Chaz tell her to stay away from his son. He called her a monsters and something finally triggered in her frustrated mind. She slithered up to Chaz with hostility, even knowing he can't understand her she told him rather plainly that yes she is venomous- so much so she could kill a hundred men- but she's no monster. Baring her fangs and biting onto the leather around Chaz's arm she uses her body as a rope to pull Chazzie to safety and in the process sheds her old skin. Seeing Chaz happy about his son reminds her that while she'd come to see him as a 'total psycho' 'who just saw another monster for his show' during the events leading up to her escape- he still was the man who saved her. Chaz too sees that Maddie is still the sweet thing she's been. He lets them go, giving up on the chase as she and the others join the community around the red mountain. She's most surprised to learn that Jackie did escape there too- and is in fact head of the U.S.S. It turned out the stories she told and promise that they'd make it to the mountains one day where not just comforting words- she really had intended to get them out someday. Events just didn't really work out towards her plan for such.
Source Citation[]
- Back to the Outback (feature film)