Joey is an Australian family adventure film from 1997, written by Stuart Beattie and Maxwell Grant and directed by Ian Barry.
12-year-old Billy McGregor (Jamie Croft) lives with his mother Penny (Rebecca Gibney), in the Australian outback town of Harrisville New South Wales. His friendship with a family of kangaroos is threatened when the Dixon family call in a "Kanga-Catcher" (Harold Hopkins) from Sydney to take them away, leaving only their baby Joey behind. Billy takes Joey and runs away to Sydney in hopes of tracking them down. He's joined by Linda (Alex McKenna), the sheltered daughter of US Ambassador Ted Ross (Ed Begley Jr.).
This film provides examples of:
- Abhorrent Admirer: Constable David Walker tries to ask out Penny several times, telling her how much Billy needs a father figure. She gets fed up with it pretty quickly and leaves for Sydney to search for him.
- Anger Born of Worry: Ambassador Ross is furious with Linda after she goes missing, to the point of refusing to hear her explanation, leading her to run off again.
- Bonding over Missing Parents: Billy and Linda bond over the deaths of his father and her mother.
- Boxing Kangaroo: Billy and Linda eventually track down Joey's family to an underground gambling operation where kangaroos are forced to fight people.
- A Boy and His X: Billy and Joey.
- Can't You Read the Sign?: While on the train to Sydney, Billy panics upon seeing an oddly-specific "No Kangaroos" sign.
- Chekhov's Gun: In the opening scene Billy uses a remote-control car with a camera mounted on it to watch the kangaroos without scaring them, which he brings out in the climax to get footage from inside Kangaroo Kingdom.
- Chekhov's Gunman: The woman who wakes up Billy at the train station in Sydney, Sylvia, comes back to help him and Linda during the climax.
- Cool Old Lady: Sylvia Vanderberg (Ruth Cracknell), an animal welfare activist who has been fighting against animal cruelty for a long time, being responsible for shutting down Kangaroo Kingdom fifteen years earlier.
- Dead Partner: Implied when the ASIO detective mentions a partner who once "got a little too close to a case".
- A Dog Named "Dog": A baby kangaroo named Joey.
- Evil Poacher: The Kanga-Catcher.
- Failed a Spot Check: A Running Gag with a pair of wannabe news reporters outside the embassy, who first fail to spot the ambassador's limo arriving (or rather, the cameraman Davo notices but doesn't bother to get a shot of it because he's too busy trying to point it out to Johnno), then fail to spot Linda and Billy running between them, then after they drive off, fail to notice Billy and Linda clinging to the back of their news van and the police chasing them.
- Fish out of Water: Both Billy and Linda in Sydney, for different reasons.
- Gilligan Cut: Linda complains about the embassy receptions, saying that all the people there ever do is "slobber all over my hand and tell me how cute I am." Her father replies, "They do not!" Cut to an unnamed Senator doing exactly that, in an admittedly pretty creepy fashion.
- Hidden Wire: Parodied when the ASIO agent reveals a recording device hidden inside a cassette player.Ross: You hid a tape recorder inside a tape recorder?
Agent: I know. Brilliant, isn't it? Don't forget, you're dealing with ASIO now. - My God, What Have I Done?: When Ambassador Ross listens to the recording of his argument with Linda and his refusal to hear her out. "How many times did I say to her, 'I don't care'?"
- Newscaster Cameo: Ann Sanders of Seven News Sydney reports on the donations Billy receives in his quest to reunite Joey with his family.
- Non-Indicative Name: The Midnight Express train comes through Billy's town at 1:00 am. Naturally, the midday train leaves at 1:00 pm.Billy: But if it's the Midnight Express...
Ticket Master: Son, I've worked here for 32 years and I still can't work it out. You asked me why the midnight express doesn't come through at midnight. I tell you, because we don't have a midnight express that comes through at midnight. Any train station worth the tracks it's laid on needs a midnight express. The closest express we've got coming through near midnight is at one o'clock, so by process of elimination, that's the midnight express. - Not Good with Rejection: After the authorities in Sydney contact Constable Walker about Billy supposedly kidnapping Linda, he tells them about Billy's arrest record and that Penny is probably in on it. He ends up paying for this by being literally Reassigned to Antarctica when the truth comes out.
- Not in Kansas Anymore: As the train arrives in Sydney, Billy remarks, "Well Joey, I guess we're not in Harrisville anymore."
- Overt Operative: The unnamed ASIO detective is rather annoyed to find out his number is in the Yellow Pages.
- Rebellious Princess: Not actually royalty, but Linda sneaks out of the embassy to explore Sydney at the first opportunity.
- Shaming the Mob: Attempted by Billy when he confronts the punters at Kangaroo Kingdom with the cruelty of forcing them to fight. The crowd openly don't care.Billy: Kangaroos have lives and personalities and families just like all of you. So how can you stand there and do this?
Punter: Because there's money to be made! - Shoot the Dog: Downplayed when Billy steals money from a Save the Animals charity tin to fund his trip to Sydney, and he ends up paying it back by the end.
- Wouldn't Hit a Girl: When Billy meets Linda and tries to take Joey back from her, she trips him to the ground and gets in a martial arts stance.Billy: I'm not fighting you.
Linda: Afraid you'll lose?
Billy: Of course not.
Linda: Then why?
Billy: Because it's wrong to fight a girl.
Linda: (annoyed) Why?
Billy: I don't know why. Right now I wish I knew.
