MovieChat Forums > National Lampoon's European Vacation (1985) Discussion > National Lampoon's: Australian Vacation

National Lampoon's: Australian Vacation


Assuming such a film came out in 1987, a year after the hit Crocodile Dundee, heck perhaps even set back to 1988, just so they can learn from Crocodile Dundee and perhaps rewrite some gags to avoid appearing to plagiarize and look similar etc.

What gags would you have put in? Remember to think of the late 80's!

I would have the Grisolds plan a big Australian trip, rather than say winning another game show.

Have them land in Sydney, touring the sites of course, causing havoc somewhat in their rental car of course (with Clark still not getting used to the idea of left side driving, roundabouts etc)

Perhaps a stop over at the nation's capital Canberra. Maybe an international incident with the Prime Minister.

They head down south, to Melbourne, where one gag could be the difficulty for out of state peeps to do a "Hook Turn", only after some frustration by other drivers involved that they realize that the Griswolds aren't from New South Wales/Sydney but are tourists.

Have them go east, towards Perth, where maybe one of Ellen's relatives live (which has a stop over in Adelaide and is a perfect excuse to go west)

We head on by road north heading to Darwin. At some point the rental car breaks down for good and the replacement car, which happens to be non other than a Wagon Queen Family Truckster (modified for the Australian road where the steering wheel is on the right) is provided as a replacement by the nationwide fictional car rental company).

In Darwin we perhaps catch a glimpse of a Mick Dundee parody, someone who claims to be a crocodile hunter of sorts.

We then head to Brisbane, why? No, not just round up mainland Australia's capitals, but to attend non other than Expo 88! At this point the Griswolds hear about a theme park called "Wally World Australia" located at nearby Gold Coast. The climax of the film could have been them visiting the Australian version of the beloved American park, where Dreamworld would have been modified to reflect the fictional park.

What do you think? Any more ideas?

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Shortly after making European Vacation, Chevy Chase and Eric Idle began to write a script for a follow up called National Lampoon's Australian Vacation. According to Idle, "We spent some time working together on it. It had some nice shark gags, but I can't pretend it was in any way finished." The concept of Australian Vacation resurfaced in the 90s as a potential fifth installment of the series, but nothing ever came of it.

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The idea of Ellen having a relative (perhaps a cousin?) getting married in Australia (i.e living in Perth) and inviting the Griswolds would have been a perfect catalyst for the whole road trip in Australia.

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eric idle offers some of the funniest bits to this, besides the physical humour which i've lately come to realise is a big part of chase's comedy, i guess i got wise to it after hearing him being inspired by jerry lewis, coincidently who was huge in france where they travel in this movie, like after clark has crashed into eric idle on the bike, eric idle totally messed up, all the while very apologetic "sorry to bother you, you haven't seen a bike around here?", eric idle and his role returned in the tv movie sequel to "christmas vacation" (2 cousin eddie's island adventure) where they seemed to scrap together what of the old cast they could, i don't think i'm off saying the movie is really bad and with computer special effects looking like something a childrens network would produce, i've heard before that chevy chase and eric idle had ideas for another vacation movie in the 1980's taking place in australia, you almost don't want to hear about information like that because you're just left thinking what a downer that it never happened, another movie fact like this that kills me is jack palance was planned to play the man with the golden gun (bond villain). i'm certain that australian vacation would've been funnier than vegas vacation (1997) since it would've been an 80's movie with chevy in his prime, if "vegas vacation" wasn't part of the franchise i probably would never watch that movie, made after the funniest one (christmas vacation) but with chevy somehow totally out of his game. it feels odd how much involvement british comedian eric idle seem to have on this franchise. "i should warn you, he was considered a genius in france, so soon there'll be people a lot ruder than you here" - married with children.



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seductive expertise,
seek out explore my senses,
at universe centre,
everything around you push out,
to practise the bond,
land wet kiss on my brain,
speak to my heart,
all i can do is follow along.

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eric idle just posted this on twitter - https://twitter.com/EricIdle/status/1276939604533235713

the best version of vacation part 5 is here - https://vimeo.com/manage/423545326

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Damn, I would love to read Eric Idle's Vacation Down Under script!

I think if such a movie was made today it would need to incorporate First Australians as there would no doubt be a lot of comments if this was overlooked in 2021.

Maybe when their car breaks down up north in the desert a group of native Australians in full "performance" dress (including tribal face markings, weapons and such) in a ute (pickup-style car) stops and gives them a lift to the nearest town which is hundreds of kilometres away.

Along the way the Griswalds are disregarded somewhat and don't really understand who they are or what is going on, and start to worry they are going to be their main feast or something. Eventually the joke on them is given up and everyone relaxes with some friendly sharing of culture, but then the ute breaks down and they all have to camp out by a fire by the road together, where the Griswalds learn more things about their culture, especially Dreamtime and the stars in the night sky. By morning, the mechanically-minded one in the group has gathered enough stuff from the bush to fix the car and get it limping to the next town.

An iconic Aussie documentary series was Bush Mechanics in 2001 which showed how Aboriginal mechanics know how to use sticks, rocks, vines and whatever else they can find out in the desert to fix mechanical car problems. It was quite amazing.

With the right people involved I'm sure it could be done respectfully and help carry the culture of First Australians further into another major film.

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