Revenge of the Roo: Skippy fights back! (The Naked City)
Image: Source: Leigh Williams on Pexels
For an animal that is officially recognised as a national icon, enshrined on our coat of arms since 1908, the poor old kangaroo has a chequered history. You could call it a ‘love hate’ relationship if you like, depending on just where you live in Australia and your overall attitude to animal welfare. Over the years the image of this unique marsupial has ranged from the loveable Skippy to the more recent ‘Rippy’, the giant zombie kangaroo.
Ever since the colonialists arrived in this country kangas have been slaughtered either in the name of protecting pastures or for their meat and skins. Millions of roos have been shot over the years and whilst there is a code of practice for shooters today, the general public would be shocked to learn of the real cruelty involved. As PETA reports:
“The Code of Practice also requires hunters to shoot ‘at-foot joeys’ and decapitate or crush the skull and destroy the brain of pouch young, meaning that most joeys’ heads are swung and smashed against hunting vehicles to kill them. Even worse, many dependent young joeys are left in the field to suffer from exposure, starvation, and predation.”
Maybe the coat of arms could be altered to show a roo with blood gushing out of its head with a dead joey at its feet or the famous Qantas logo changed to a decapitated version. Outrageous to suggest of course as despite the ongoing bloodbath, the image of the kangaroo we like to project is entirely positive – proudly nationalistic and uniquely Australian. Tourists never get to see a pet food factory or a roo being skinned, just the opportunity to fawn over a people conditioned mob at a wildlife park.
When we are not turning roos into shoes or tacky souvenirs, we are embracing and exploiting them in the arts, particularly on TV and in the cinema. A generation of kids grew up in the 90s with the immensely popular ‘Adventures Of Skippy’, where the good (mainly thanks to Skip) always prevailed over the bad. The series spawned numerous spinoffs, feature movies and a range of products from breakfast cereal to peanut butter.
Not surprisingly we have gone from the wholesome family entertainment of Skippy to the forthcoming horror feature ‘The Red’. Here the aptly named ‘Rippy’, a giant zombie kangaroo, leaves a trail of dreadful carnage in its wake. The movie is a full length version of Ryan Coonan’s 2014 popular short film ‘Waterborne’ and promises lots of bloody gore – not unlike the current commercial butchery.
There was a time in Australia where old fashioned tent shows promoted boxing kangaroos and wildlife docos have often featured a couple of angry boomers battling it out in the bush. Every blue moon somebody is attacked by a kangaroo with fatalities extremely rare – the last in 2009 involving a seventy seven year old man when a kangaroo smashed through the window of a suburban house. It’s no doubt the pugilistic side of some roos that the filmmakers have drawn upon in ‘The Red’.
If transforming a kangaroo into a zombie is part anthropomorphism, maybe movie makers could go the whole hog and give us a talking, conniving, totally evil critter with all the worse attributes of mankind – a kind of Pol Pot with paws. However thanks to CGI filmmakers could deliver not just a single roo but an army of the buggers, moving murderously across the country, fraught with decades of pent up aggression and the need for revenge. Look out all you sharp shooting roo killers, they are coming to get you and like a monstrous Aunty Jack, ready to rip your bloody arms off!
With apologies to D.H. Lawrence and his 1923 novel ‘Kangaroo’, where the title character was the leader of a bunch of right wing ultra nationalists, the roos could be driven by a conspiracy to turn them all into kangaroo paw shoe horns. They attempt to convert other marsupials to the cause but the wombats, quokkas and sugar gliders are having none of it.
Not since The Goodies featured a plague of Rolf Harrises overrunning Britain back in the mid’70s has there been a more terrifying spectacle – and how this movie finishes is anybody’s guess. I have yet to see ‘The Red’ but I’m guessing like most horror movies good triumphs over evil, albeit with a unnerving twist. Maybe Skippy resurfaces to mobilize all other marsupials and defeat the marauding roos. Then again the kangas, realising the stupidity of their ideology, could end it all by suiciding like lemmings off the high cliffs of the Great Australian Bite. Finally an inspired Australian leader like Anthony Albanese ditches their RM Williams roo leather hat and declares a moratorium on their slaughter. Sounds great but look out all wombats – open season has just been declared!
