Fierce Creatures

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Fierce Creatures
Fierce Creatures promotional poster
Directed by	Fred Schepisi Robert Young
Produced by	John Cleese Michael Shamberg
Written by	John Cleese Iain Johnstone
Starring	John Cleese Jamie Lee Curtis Kevin Kline Michael Palin Robert Lindsay Ronnie Corbett Derek Griffiths Maria Aitken
Music by	Jerry Goldsmith
Cinematography	Adrian Biddle
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release date(s)	January 24, 1997 (USA)
Running time	93 min.
Language	English
IMDb profile

Fierce Creatures is a 1997 comedy film, John Cleese and company's follow-up to the widely popular A Fish Called Wanda. The movie was directed by Fred Schepisi and Robert Young. The story is centered on a London zoo which has been recently acquired by New Zealander businessman Rod McCain (played by Kevin Kline) and put under the charge of Rollo Lee (Cleese). In order to boost profits, Lee decides to institute a 'fierce creatures' policy that means that only potentially deadly animals will be featured in the zoo. The film was dedicated to Gerald Durrell and Peter Cook.

1 Plot
2 Cast
3 References to A Fish Called Wanda
4 References to Monty Python
5 External links

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The story centres around Marwood Zoo (named after John Marwood Cleese) that has recently been bought out by Octopus Inc., a corporation that requires all its assets to have a 20% profit margin. Retired policeman Rollo Lee (John Cleese) is put in charge of the zoo, and in order to reach the required profit margin, he creates the "fierce creatures" policy where only potentially lethal animals will be kept in the zoo, based on the logic that violence brings in greater audience numbers. The various animal keepers, including Bugsy (Michael Palin) protest the policy and try various attempts to get Rollo to change his mind.

Meanwhile, Willa Weston (Jamie Lee Curtis) becomes interested in running the zoo for Octopus Inc. because she sees it as a potential moneymaker. Vince McCain (Kevin Kline), son of the CEO of Octopus Inc. (also Kevin Kline) decides to tag along with Willa to the zoo with his own moneymaking agenda.

Spoilers end here.

[edit] Cast

John Cleese as Rollo Lee
Jamie Lee Curtis as Willa Weston
Kevin Kline as Vince McCain/Rod McCain
Michael Palin as Adrian 'Bugsy' Malone
Robert Lindsay as Sydney Lotterby
Ronnie Corbett as Reggie Sea Lions
Carey Lowell as Cub Felines
Bille Brown as Neville
Derek Griffiths as Garry Ungulates
Cynthia Cleese as Pip Small Mammals
Richard Ridings as Hugh Primates
Maria Aitken as Di Harding

[edit] References to A Fish Called Wanda

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Fierce Creatures is a follow-up, but not a sequel, to A Fish Called Wanda, featuring the same creative team, the same leading quartet of actors (John Cleese, Jamie Lee Curtis, Kevin Kline and Michael Palin) and a number of returning supporting actors. The main four actors have roles here that display similar dynamics to their roles in A Fish Called Wanda, eg. Jamie Lee Curtis's character starts out reluctantly at the side of Kevin Kline's character but ends up romantically involved with John Cleese's character. Michael Palin's character, however, is the opposite: in A Fish Called Wanda he played a stutterer with very little to say, in Fierce Creatures he plays a man who doesn't shut up, even if there's nobody listening to him.

Spoilers end here.

In A Fish Called Wanda there was a fish named after Jamie Lee Curtis' character while in Fierce Creatures there is a lemur named after Cleese's character. In the final scene John Cleese calls Jamie Lee Curtis's character "Wanda" instead of Willa, drawing attention to the previous film.

Supporting actors from A Fish Called Wanda that returned for Fierce Creatures include Maria Aitken (John Cleese's wife in A Fish Called Wanda and John Cleese's assistant Fierce Creatures) and Cynthia Cleese (John Cleese's daughter in A Fish Called Wanda and Pip Small Mammals in Fierce Creatures).

[edit] References to Monty Python

The screenplay of Fierce Creatures was co-written by Python John Cleese and stars two Pythons: John Cleese and Michael Palin. This creative input lead to the film containing several references to Monty Python. Direct lines lifted from Monty Python projects are Pip the small mammals keeper saying "It's just a flesh wound!" (a line originally from Monty Python and the Holy Grail) and a spectator describing the sea lions has having "beautiful plumage" (a line originally from the Dead Parrot sketch). Another reference is that the character Bugsy (Michael Palin has a pet Terry the tarantula, named after Terry Jones, with whom Palin once wrote a sketch called "The Fierce Creatures Policy".