5 Lessons Kids Will Learn In ‘Back to the Outback’ - Netflix Tudum

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    5 Lessons Kids Will Learn in ‘Back to the Outback’

    And they’re not that corny, we swear.

    By Casey Suglia
    Nov. 24, 2021

If you’ve finally stopped jamming out to the soundtrack and fawning over the cuteness of the koalas in Back to the Outback, then it’s time to focus on the important things. Sure, the movie is filled with tiny talking animals, but it’s also full of important messages that even the smallest viewers can learn once the credits have rolled. Below, check out just six of the many lessons learned in Back to the Outback.

 1. Ugly Is The New Beautiful.

A friendly shark meets the zoo creatures in Back to the Outback

Maddie, a venomous snake, and her friends — Nigel, a scorpion; Frank, a Funnel-webbed spider; Zoe, a thorny devil lizard; and Jackie, a crocodile — live in the zoo’s Danger House, which is the home of the zoo’s “ugliest” and most dangerous creatures. Fed up with zoo visitors being afraid of them and not appreciating them for who they are, Maddie hatches a plan for her and her friends to escape from the Danger House and head to the Outback, the place where they’re from. 

Once they break out of the zoo and their journey begins, they meet a shark named Jacinta who introduces them to the Ugly Secret Society, or USS, which is comprised of misunderstood animals who help each other out of tricky situations. The USS’s password for help is a bit long winded but fun to remember: “I’m ugly, you’re ugly, we should all be this ugly, ugly is the new beautiful.”

Throughout the film, however, Maddie and her friends (and the very not-ugly koala, Pretty Boy) come to learn that there is no such thing as being ugly — instead it’s about being unique and special, which is what Pretty Boy proposes that the USS should stand for at the end of the film. He also comes to discover that Maddie has always been beautiful, even if he was too distracted to see it the whole time.

 2. Family Is What You Make It.

Maddie the snake and her friends in Back to the Outback

The characters in Back to the Outback don’t remember who their families are, but they have dreams of what it will be like to reunite with them. Once they’ve made it back to the Outback at the end of the film, Pretty Boy finds that the koalas are more interested in gossiping, and Maddie finds that not everyone is as courageous as her friends are. 

They soon learn that family is what you make of it. It can be the people who are supporting you while you’re living in a Danger House or helping you escape near-death experiences. Most importantly, family is the people (or creatures) that’ll be there with you through thick and thin, whether you’re living in a zoo or in the Outback.

 3. Looks can be deceiving.

The crocodile and snake in Back to the Outback

Sure, Maddie, Nigel, Jackie, Frank and Zoe all have qualities and features that make them threatening to the average person. They have fangs, stingers, and can kill people in an instant. Although they might seem dangerous, you soon learn from their conversations with each other that there is more to them than just the scary stuff. Nigel has an eye for color, Frank wants to be a dancer, Zoe is a mastermind at escaping tricky situations, and Jackie is the mother figure that they’ve been lacking.

 But Pretty Boy, the koala who appears to be sweet and cuddly, is actually selfish and rude. While he is reluctant to accept his new friends for who they are in the beginning, through their actions, he learns that looks can be deceiving. And after they save him from one too many close calls with death (and worse, being captured by Chaz), he is able to embrace his new friends at the end of the day.

 4. Teamwork works. 

Maddie and her friends hitch a ride on warthogs in Back to the Outback

Over the course of her journey, Maddie and her friends rely on the members of the USS to help them get to the Outback. The members help them make their way across the ocean, navigate through the city’s sewers, escape from being captured by Chaz and disguise them from other predators. Although they might be capable of doing things on their own with their unique skill set, they’re able to make their way out of the city with all of the help they can get, thanks to the extended network of the USS and the secret password. Even once they arrive in the Outback, the group of friends still have to rely on each other and the Outback’s inhabitants to come to their rescue to keep them there once Chaz is able to finally get his hands on them.

5. A little kindness goes a long way.

Being kind to others is one of the first lessons that you learn in life. In spite of Pretty Boy’s attitude toward the Danger House crew and the multiple insults hurled at them, they end up being nothing but nice to him, which helps change the way he acts toward others by the end of the film.

Zoo keeper has the critters in his wheelbarrow in Back to the Outback

When Chaz Hunt, the zoo’s presenter, and his son, Chazzie, end up in a near-death situation, Maddie and her friends end up helping them out and saving their lives, in spite of the fact that Chaz is hunting the animals down and has the intention of bringing all of the creatures back to the zoo.

 

 

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