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Animals
Maddie
- Voiced by: Isla Fisher
- Amazing Technicolor Wildlife: She has a blue coloration which real life taipans lack.
- Beautiful All Along: Pretty Boy eventually sees her as being beautfiul instead of a monster at the end of the movie.
- Chaz Hunt also realizes he was wrong about Maddie and is able to see her for the beautiful snake she really is instead of a murderous monster like he has been treating her for the majority of the movie after she rescues both him and his son Chazzie from falling off the ladder hanging on the cliff to their deaths.
- Blue Is Heroic: She has blue scales and is the main heroine of the movie.
- Mirror Character: Maddie is this to Pretty Boy and Chazzie, with all three having been separated from their mothers when they were babies, and subsequently raised by Chaz, as well as being deceived by him in some capacity, but with key differences:
- For Pretty Boy, both him and Maddie are animals raised by Chaz at the wildlife park, for the guests to come and see. But while Pretty Boy was shown affection all his life in the zoo, with an open enclosure, and was adored for his looks, Maddie was raised in a small glass cage indoors all her life, only shown affection until she was old enough to be featured in Chaz’s animal show, at which point he dropped the kind demeanor and treated her like she was a monster. Also, while Maddie has at least some memory of her mother before they were separated, and her mother might be alive, Pretty Boy has no memory of his, as she was hit and killed by a car shortly after he was born.
- For Chazzie, Chaz raised both him and Maddie on his own after they were separated from their mothers, with Maddie being separated from hers on accident when rain water swept her egg away, while Chazzie’s mother left deliberately to run away with a landscaper. Chaz was a fatherly figure to both Maddie and Chazzie, but eventually made it clear in the zoo that he only saw Maddie as a dangerous monster. Their names are even spelled and pronounced similarly.
- Not Evil, Just Misunderstood: Being called a monster hurts Maddie's feelings.
- Nice Girl: She is an absolute sweetheart.
- Prehensile Tail: Maddie can use her tail to hold things, grab her friends out of danger and hold onto ledges.
- Snakes Are Sinister: Averted. How humans in the movie see her, but this couldn't be any further from the truth. In fact Maddie is one of the most kind-hearted snakes you will ever see.
- Team Mom: Takes up this role once the group gets out of the zoo, helping the others along to keep them from falling behind, and even letting Nigel nap on her while the group travels at one point.
Pretty Boy
- Voiced by: Tim Minchin
- Butt-Monkey: Easily gets the most abuse and humiliation out of all the characters.
- High Koala-ty Cuteness: Subverted. He is universally beloved by the public due to his cuteness, but he is a pretty big jerk once you get to know him.
- It's All About Me: And indeed the whole world did seem to revolve around him because everyone in the world loved him, until he was assumed to have rabies and then dead, at which point everyone turns on and subsequently forgets about him.
- Jerkass: He's rude, vain, disrespectful, and makes no effort to hide his disdain for his traveling compatriots. Thanks to some Character Development, he eventually grows out of this.
- Mirror Character: Pretty Boy is this to Maddie and Chazzie, with all three having been separated from their mothers when they were babies, and subsequently raised by Chaz, as well as being deceived by him in some capacity, but with key differences:
- With Maddie, both her and Pretty Boy are animals raised by Chaz at the wildlife park, for the guests to come and see. But while Chaz only showed affection for Maddie until she was ready to be featured in his show, residing her in a small glass cage, Pretty Boy spent all his life in luxury, with nothing to stop him from leaving his tree if he really wanted to.
- With Chazzie, both of them were raised by him after losing their mothers with both growing up being told their mothers died, but in Chazzie’s case this was actually a lie, but while Chaz raised Chazzie on his own, Pretty Boy was raised with the help of the other staff at the zoo. Eventually, Chaz shows that his affection for Pretty Boy was actually quite shallow, as once he assumes Pretty Boy has rabies, he kicks him away and calls him a "Filthy has-been".
- Replacement Goldfish: After he is assumed to have been "murdered" by Maddie and the others, he watches the world mourn him for less than a minute before moving onto adoring Giggles the quokka, who they gave his blanket to.
- Token Evil Teammate: He's a complete jerk to everyone around him, and the only reason he's with Maddie and her friends is because he interfered with their escape from the zoo and forced them to sedate him and take him along for the ride.
Frank
- Voiced by: Guy Pearce
- Amazing Technicolor Wildlife: Has purple fur, unlike his real-life counterpart.
- Friendly Neighborhood Spider: He's a good-natured arachnid who desperately wants to find a mate of his own.
Zoe
- Voiced by: Miranda Tapsell
- Clothing Appendage: The spikes and darkened scales on her wrists and ankles make it look as if she's wearing spiked bracelets.
- Deadpan Snarker: She is not afraid to say what she thinks and she is snarky at times.
- The Smart Guy: Zoe seems to be the most resourceful of the main cast, as evidenced by how she managed to find a means of escaping her cage at the zoo and coming up with a plan on the fly to get them on the bus they need to ride to reach the outback.
Nigel
- Voiced by: Angus Imrie
- Berserk Button: He hates the color beige. When he, Zoe, and Frank are captured by Chaz, Nigel had to be provoked into hearing the word "beige" to scream and break the "unbreakable glass" of their tank.
- Instant Sedation: The venom in his tail can cause people to go unconscious immediately, or at least Pretty Boy the koala, that is.
- Nice Guy: He's a soft-spoken and overall pleasant scorpion one would be happy to call their friend.
Jackie
- Voiced by: Jacki Weaver
- Interspecies Adoption: Refers to Maddie, Frank, Nigel, and Zoe as her babies, and considers herself their mother. It’s implied she watched over them all as they grew up, as she recalls that when they were brought to the zoo, they were too young to remember their old homes.
- Mean Character, Nice Actor: In the eyes of visitors and staff of the park, she's a textbook case of Never Smile at a Crocodile, a sentiment reinforced by how aggressively she acts around humans. Behind the scenes, however, she's one of the sweetest reptiles you could meet, probably surpassing Maddie as the kindest character in the movie.
- Parental Substitute: She acts as this to the film's protagonists (sans Pretty Boy) on account of how they spent most of their lives in captivity away from their biological families.
- Team Mom: She is this to the main characters when she is with them, with Maddie taking over the role when Jackie is absent.
Humans
Chaz Hunt
- Voiced by: Eric Bana
- Artistic License – Animal Care: For an expert in wildlife, he's not very good at handling animals safely. For example, once he's done introducing Maddie to visitors, he chucks her into a wooden chest with great force. note
Fridge Brilliance kicks in once it's revealed that Chaz actually made up his background as a wildlife expert, all the adventures he claimed to have went on in his books. - Awesome Aussie: when he first appears, he seems to be clear-cut example of this trope, presenting himself as a Steve Irwin-esqe, fearless bushman who has accomplished many dangerous and impressive feats prior to the events of the movie. As it turns out, he's not this at all.
- Fauxreigner: Chaz isn't an Australian. He's an American.
Chazzie
- Voiced by: Diesel LaTorraca
- Broken Pedestal: Towards his father, after the latter reveals that he never went on all the adventures that he'd written about in his books.
- Kids Are Cruel: Shows shades of this with him threatening another kid that he’d thump him if he didn’t tell Chazzie where the zoo animals went, as well as angrily beating on their cages back at the zoo with a stick and yelling at them. Although he drops the attitude after his father reveals he was lying to Chazzie about all the adventures he went on, so he may have just been trying to impress/emulate his father.
- Mirror Character: Chazzie is this to Pretty Boy and Maddie, with all three having been separated from their mothers when they were babies, and subsequently raised by Chaz, as well as being deceived by him in some capacity, but with key differences:
- With Maddie, Chaz raised both Maddie and Chaz on his own after they were separated from their mothers, but while Maddie’s separation was an accident, Chazzie’s mother left deliberately to run away with a landscaper. Unlike Maddie, Chazzie was shown affection his entire life and was never treated meanly by his father, and enjoyed much more freedom. Also, their names are spelled and pronounced similarly.
- With Pretty Boy, both were shown love and affection by Chaz, but while Chaz had to raise Chazzie as a single father, he had the help of the other zoo staff to raise Pretty Boy. Both Chazzie and Pretty Boy were also allowed a fair amount of freedom in the zoo, although Pretty Boy still isn’t allowed to leave, as he is an animal. Also, while Chaz shows great concern for Chazzie’s safety, once he assumes Pretty Boy is dead, he has no problem chucking the koala out of a bus window over a cliff, because at least they have Giggles.
Norine
- Voiced by: Kiara Marr
- Nightmare Fetishist: She is fascinated by Maddie and the others, and helps them escape the school bus, correctly guessing that they just want to get home.Norine: *gasps* Deadly.
- Speaks Fluent Animal: Played with. It’s established at the start of the film that humans can’t understand what the animals are saying, but she seems to be the only one who does, or at the very least understands them way better than anyone else can.
- Token Heroic Orc: Downplayed. Norine is not only the only child to not be afraid of the protagonists upon seeing them, but the only human in the entire film they encounter who realizes at first glance that they aren’t actually doing anything to try and hurt anyone, and as a result decides to try and help them.
