Who is Eddie Izzard and why is he from England?

A few points in answer to your response:
1) Calm down.
2) Since its obvious that I've already seen Madagascar, and there I was watching a preview at the movies for The Wild, it must surely be just as obvious that in Australia Madagascar came out significantly before The Wild. As such, I think that you could find it in your heart to forgive me not knowing and possibly understand why I asked the question in the first place.
3) I did mention that the koala could have been brought up in England, and mentioned that that would be stupid, I stand by that. I obviously haven't seen the film because it hasn't been released in Australia, so I think it is reasonable to ask if it was noticable throughout the film, since I didn't know that the koala was English.
4) Calm down.
5) I am not offended by an English koala speaking with an English accent, I was offended by the possibility of an Australian koala speaking with an English accent, which was why I was trying to find out what the deal was. Also, you may have missed it, but I was attempting a little bit of humour there, its Aussie humour, so I can forgive you for missing it. Another thing you might not know about Aussies is that we are too lazy to read the other threads, which is why I asked the question. If you think my question below you, you may simply refrain from answering it. Either way, I suggest you calm down.
Righto, I hope you get a nice sleep tonight and maybe consider taking a holiday.

whether he knows who eddie izzard is or not is irrelevant (and, lets face it, unless you're a stand up comedy fan or homoesexual - or both - you'd be forgiven for never having heard of izzard before) - his point is the ridiculous miscasting.

the koala coming from an english zoo is also irrelevant - since KOALA'S CAN'T TALK, LET ALONE DEVELOP AN ACCENT DUE TO THEIR RESIDENCY STATUS IN ANOTHER COUNTRY!

we're talking about a CHARACTER here. a CHARACTER in an animated film - in which a large part of that character is the voice. it would be like having a female voice actor cast to play an obviously male character... it would be completely incongruous, and hugely insulting to any number of capable male actors that could have easily played the part.

I haven't seem the movie by the way, I just like to argue with poms.


p.s. "pom" is derived from the acronyn Prisoner Of Motherland - and therefore, you are indeed a pom. as is everybody of british descent living in britain.

After seeing that preview for the Wild, my first thought was, "Is that an American trying and failing once again to put on an Aussie accent?" It kind of upset me because I thought, "why not use one of the big name aussies that hollywood apparently loves so much and have them put in some tasteful Aussie jokes so that we Aussies can understand something that other countries don't (I believe these are called 'in jokes') as this happens so often the other way round in movies." But then I realised I recognised the voice of the Koala and was forgiving that they cast Eddie Izzard, coz truthfully, I don't mind him.

The thing is, it IS just a movie, but I found that in the movie 'The Rescuers down under' it was more affective that the character of Frank the frilled neck lizard and whatever the koala and the female kangaroo's names were, were all done, to great affect by Aussies. Cody's mum was an Aussie, yet Cody and McLeach (I believe that was his name) two of the main characters living in the outback of Alice Springs, NT, Aus spoke with american accents! It detracted from the movie for me because it lost some integrity, the same way as every other movie where people speak in american or english etc accents yet are meant to be living in Germany, France, Iraq, whatever.

As an Aussie it would be nice to hear a fellow aussie voice a character that is based on an Aussie, especially a koala which you do not find naturally anywhere else in the world!

But it really doesn't matter, it would just be nice!

Now as for Aussie humour... I've seen American TV, movies etc and what i've discovered is that they rely on insults and toilet humour for cheap laughs. The english haven't been funny since Monty Python really, say for a few along the way who have made me laugh (mainly when they pay out Australia or my hometown of Adelaide) and Aussie humour is also few and far between, but the good stuff (that no one else in the world seems to understand) is based on catch phrases, unlikely circumstances and paying ourselves (and not others) out. We're the country that pay ourselves out chronically.

Unfortunately, we're becoming too american thanks to the overbaring excess that they pump into our country, leaving little room for our own home-grown talent to stand up and be noticed.

If you want to see true Aussie humour then stick to the classics like Croc Dundee (originals not the more modern crap) and find a little movie called 'The Castle' that will put you all straight.

Anyway, I'm not aiming to insult anyone, and I apologise if I have, I just wanted to have my say...

Are you guys really this thick?

The koala clearly states that he is from London, thereby explaining his accent. If he is born and raised at a zoo in London it doesnt really matter if his species doesnt occur there naturally or not, does it?

Are lions and giraffes naturally occuring in the US?

it's really too obvious.

Nope. He was born in Yemen. (Eddie Izzard that is...)

That would be intersting, and at the least would acknowledge that there are people/animals in this world that don't sound like celebs.

It would require subtitles though...

Righto, I'm going to attempt to clear it up once and for all. I do not care if the character of the koala is from England and speaks with an English accent (although it sounds like a stupid idea to me, but that's beside the point). I never did care about that and never will. I have not seen the film (as I stated at the very beginning) and have only seen the preview at the movies. My concern was that that a non Australian actor had been cast to attempt (poorly) an Aussie accent, which is a distinctive variation of the English language, rather than a completely different language (ie. Zulu). This has been done before and will, no doubt, be done again, but it sounds awful and is a pretty poor effort by the casting agents. Of course, it turns out that he wasn't attempting an Aussie accent, but I wasn't to know. Anyway, I don't think it was a terrible thing to be puzzled by, and I certainly don't think that makes me a bigot, which I believe someone called me. I originally posted to find out what the deal was, and I have since been told. I don't have anything against the English or English comedians (Rolf Harrish, who's from my country, however, I do), but, as is the case when people read too much into things, I have been seen as suggesting things that were never my intention. I suggest you all stop caring, for I certainly have. I posted to find out what the deal was, I have since found out, so I think that there has been enough talk about it. Thanks.

I have said in other message boards that I am not a great fan of Australian movies, nor TV for that matter. There are very few movies around that depict australian humour very well, and most of our "comedies" are in fact taking aim at ourselves. The "common" humour of Australia is not the same as the jokes told by Australian comedians.

Perspective is everything in comedy, which is why one must play to their audience and why an audience should choose their comedians carefully. Some people find the wayans brothers funny, some do not. Some think Steve Martin is hilarious, others don't.

As for accents in movies, I do think it would be good for the panda to have an accent matching its origins, the same for the zebra, the koala and the fox. (i don't actually care which animals appear in this film, I am just using examples). But it is just a movie, and not a very good one at that.

Long live the long winded. Short live the short of breath.