Sir Michael Palin's gregarious character in this movie was intended to make up for his character in A Fish Called Wanda (1988), who had a severe stutter and could barely speak.
The theatrical trailer opened with the statement "The following preview has not been tested on animals." The main cast is introduced as "Oscar winner" Kevin Kline; John "Absolutely no chance of an Oscar" Cleese, Jamie Lee "My mom and dad almost got an Oscar" Curtis and Michael "I know someone called Oscar" Palin. The trailer ends with a clip from the deleted ending in which Kline's character Vince McCain is hit in the groin by a charging rhino and sent flying.
In the final scene, Rollo Lee (John Cleese) mixes up the name of Jamie Lee Curtis' character, calling Willa "Wanda" once - a reference to A Fish Called Wanda (1988), and perhaps specifically to a scene in that movie where Cleese's character mixed up Wanda's name with his wife Wendy's and called Wendy "Wanda".
Preview audiences disliked the original ending, and a decision was made to re-shoot it. Unfortunately, Sir Michael Palin had already embarked on an eight-month voyage around the Pacific Ocean for the BBC documentary Full Circle with Michael Palin (1997), and director Robert Young had begun his next movie. Fred Schepisi, who was already talking to John Cleese about a movie based on Don Quixote, was chosen to re-shoot the ending when Palin returned from his trip.