WMG / The Rescuers Down Under

Cody from The Rescuers Down Under is Cody Martin

• I mean think about it! They're both blond, sorta timid and obviously American. I think that he was taken by his dad to Australia because that's the only place where he could get a gig. Cody wanders away, gets found by the poacher and goes on the adventure. His parents, finding out what had happened, takes him back to America. And Cody, obviously scarred by the adventure, never ever wants to think about it again.
  • I wouldn't call Cody timid.
    • Cody doesn't live with his dad, but with his mom. He even clearly tells Marahute that his dad is "gone". And if this theory is true, then where was Zack during the events of the movie? Cody never mentions him.

Cody's father was a ranger.

Even for a young, impressionable, naive kid who has the whole Australian outback as his playground, Cody seems very attached to and concerned about the animals, and he is constantly throwing the threat of the rangers in MacLeach's face; this suggests at the very least that Cody has either been taught by his mother or teachers a great respect for rangers, or he's seen them in action. If his father was a ranger, though, this would explain Cody's feelings and loyalty in a more personal manner, particularly if his father was killed by one of the poachers he was hunting down. (No, not necessarily MacLeach, who might have recognized Cody or who might have recognized him, though it could have been.) This could also explain the mysterious ability Cody has to talk to animals (assuming it isn't some special talent only children have), if it's a talent rangers have and Cody inherited it.

Cody's mother is actually his stepmother.

Considering he has an American accent, he was actually born and raised in America, while moving to Australia with his biological dad.

• Alternatively she is his biological mother but was Dad was American and she's Australian, he grew up in America but his mother moved back to Australia with his mother only recently after his Dad died to be closer to her parents for support and he and hasn't picked up the accent.

McLeach is the villain from Wolf Creek.

Or perhaps related to him or an apprentice. Cody should thank his lucky stars he managed to escape...

• McLeach obviously has an American accent. Perhaps he and McLeach were buddies during Vietnam who went mad there. (Wolf Creek's sequel establishes that the villain served in Vietnam.)

McLeach is a Serial Killer.

1) The crocodiles immediately gather below Cody, as though they're learned to associate dangling humans with food.

2) The radio report states that Crocodile Falls has claimed yet another victim.

• Everything suggests Cody wasn't the first person McLeach tried to feed to crocodiles, merely the last.

Marahute can talk

She just prefers not to, for whatever reason. Cody, being Cody, can still understand her, though.

• Alternatively, large predatory animals do not speak the same language as prey animals. Marahute, Joanna, the crocodiles and the snake that attacks Bernard and Bianca never speak, but most other animals do. Maybe prey animals specifically evolved a language in order to communicate with each other and warn each other against potential threats. Humans were originally prey, too, but lost the ability except for a few special people (particularly kids such as Penny and Cody).
  • Reinforcing this is the fact that Cody and Marahute understand each other just fine. Humans didn't evolve as solely prey animals- we're also apex predators. He's essentially bilingual.

Joanna is actually a hound

The other characters just see her as a goanna because she's repulsive, bad-tempered and willing to work for a psychopath like McLeach.

The fate of the other animal prisoners

Cody's last seen saying "Let's go home." Off-screen though, as they were flying back, he probably suddenly remembered the other animals McLeach had captive and told the rest of the group about them, causing them all to take a detour to go and free the animals on the way back to his house.