Sources: Wikidata · OpenAlex · Library of Congress. The record of the motion picture, not an assessment of this cell.
FILM NOTES
FILM NOTES
Released in 2002 by MGM, The Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course brought Steve Irwin's television persona to the big screen, blending his Animal Planet documentary energy with a fictional spy-chase plot. It arrived at the height of Irwin's global fame, capitalizing on the Crocodile Hunter brand built through Australia Zoo and years of wildlife programming. The film served as both an introduction and a tribute to his singular on-screen presence, marketed to families and longtime fans alike, and remains a time capsule of early 2000s wildlife entertainment crossing into mainstream cinema.
This cell preserves Steve Irwin himself, the figure whose name carried the entire production. Collectors seek frames like this because they hold the man rather than a manufactured character, a rare instance where the star and the persona are one and the same. As a film cell, it functions as a direct artifact of his likeness on theatrical stock, a physical fragment of the movie built entirely around his identity and legacy.
This original motion picture film element has been examined and authenticated by Crown Grading in partnership with National Film Vault, and encapsulated for archival preservation.
Why so little survivesRelease prints were leased to theaters, not sold. When the run ended they went back to the distributor to be destroyed, and most were. What collectors hold today came from the prints that escaped that order, and no new 35mm prints of these films are being struck.
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