Looney Tunes: Back in Action

Looney Tunes: Back in Action
Directed by	Live-action: Joe Dante Animation: Eric Goldberg
Produced by	Allison Abbate Bernie Goldman Joel Simon Paula Weinstein
Written by	Larry Doyle
Starring	Bugs Bunny Daffy Duck Brendan Fraser Jenna Elfman Timothy Dalton Joan Cusack Heather Locklear Steve Martin
Music by	Jerry Goldsmith
Cinematography	Dean Cundey
Editing by	Rick Finney Marshall Harvey
Distributed by	Warner Bros. Pictures
Release date(s)	November 14, 2003
Running time	90 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$80,000,000
Gross revenue	$68,514,844
Preceded by	Space Jam
Followed by	Marvin the Martian

Looney Tunes: Back in Action is a 2003 live-action/animated hybrid film that tells the story of a hapless stuntman, DJ Drake (played by Brendan Fraser), who stumbles his way into a plot to possess a mysterious blue diamond in the course of rescuing his famous actor father (played by Timothy Dalton). In his globe-trotting adventure, he is aided (and confounded) by his animated Hollywood friends, Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, as well as the studio executive who fired him (played by Jenna Elfman). Written by Larry Doyle and directed by Joe Dante, this film is essentially a feature-length Looney Tunes cartoon, with all the wackiness and surrealism typical of the genre.

Plot

Tired of playing second fiddle to Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck tries to take stardom of the new Bugs Bunny movie, but he is fired by the Warner Brothers and Kate Houghton (Jenna Elfman), VP of Comedy. Things are also difficult for stuntman and security guard DJ Drake (Brendan Fraser), son of action hero Damian Drake (Timothy Dalton) (a parody of James Bond, a role which Dalton previously played). While trying to escort Daffy from the Warner Bros. Studios, DJ accidentally sends the Batmobile crashing into the studio's trademark water tower, causing it to collapse. Kate has him fired as a result. Bugs suggests to a stressed Kate to bring Daffy back, but she ignores him. However, Kate is fired after Bugs is injured in a routine that depended on Daffy's presence (the "Rabbit Season/Duck Season" routine with Elmer Fudd). In order to get her job back, Kate reluctantly goes to find Daffy.

Returning to his father's home without a job, DJ finds Daffy has sneaked along for the ride. Together, they discover that DJ's father is actually a real superspy and he alerts DJ through a hidden video screen. He tells DJ that the Acme Corporation wishes to gain a special diamond called the Blue Monkey, and tells him to go to Las Vegas to find a woman named Dusty Tails (Heather Locklear). DJ and Daffy head out in Damian's junky AMC Gremlin to Las Vegas. Kate later comes to the house in search of Daffy. Bugs appears (and does an exaggerated reenactment of the famous shower scene from Psycho) and spills the beans to her about DJ and Daffy's new adventure. They head off after them in Damian's spy car, a TVR Tuscan. Daffy and DJ arrive in Las Vegas where they visit the Wooden Nickel casino and find Dusty Tails, a singer and secret agent. She gives them a playing card which is a clue to the location of the Blue Monkey. However, the casino's owner, Yosemite Sam, is an operative of ACME and pursues DJ and Daffy across the city in a car chase, which involves the meeting of DJ, Daffy, Bugs and Kate. Sam and his sidekicks, Nasty Canasta and Cottontail Smith give chase in the NASCAR racing vehicle belonging to Jeff Gordon. The four escape Yosemite Sam by activating rockets in the spy car, Yosemite Sam crashing into his casino.

The next day, the four are stranded in Death Valley after Kate crashes the spy car. They conveniently find a Wal-Mart (Bugs says it's probably product placement, to which Daffy increases this theory by saying name's of drinks probably in the store (Fresca, Mountain Dew, and ect.)) and recover by gaining appropriate clothes and beverages. Mr. Chairman (Steve Martin), head of ACME, sends their desert operative, Wile E. Coyote to stop the heroes. However, he fires a missile which redirects itself and blows him up. The heroes walk into the hidden base of "Area 52", the real name of Area 51, which is a facade to hide Area 52. This scene features cameos from various vintage science fiction movies: Robby the Robot from the film Forbidden Planet, the title character from Robot Monster, a Triffid, a bug-mutant from This Island Earth, a Dalek and many others. Head of Area 52, Mother (or Mom for short; played by Joan Cusack) gives DJ special gadgets to help him in his quest, as well as a video explaining that ACME intends on using the Blue Monkey to turn people into monkeys to manufacture ACME products so they can then buy them again as humans. However, before the heroes can set off, Marvin the Martian and a group of famous aliens attack. The heroes escape the base and head off to Paris upon realizing the card features the head of Mona Lisa.

In Paris, the heroes discover the card doubles as a viewing window, seeing a map of Africa hidden underneath Mona Lisa. They take a photo of it on a cellphone but Elmer Fudd appears. It is discovered he is secretly evil, and pursues Bugs and Daffy through the Louvre to gain the card (all the while running through, various, famous paintings such as "The Persistence of Memory", "The Scream", "A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte", and many more), while DJ pursues Kate up the Eiffel Tower after she is kidnapped by Mr. Smith (Bill Goldberg), Mr. Chairman's henchman. Elmer is defeated by Bugs when he steps out of a painting in the form of Pointillism art and gets blown apart by a fan. DJ saves Kate in a daredevil-like stunt, but the ACME Corporation gets their hands on the map. (althought Daffy blocked half of the map in the picture).

Journeying into Africa, the heroes find an ancient temple of large monkey statues and find the Blue Monkey. However, Granny, Sylvester, and Tweety, who escorted them to the temple, unmask to reveal themselves to be Mr. Chairman, Mr. Smith and the Tasmanian Devil (Mr. Smith is then revealed to be a female Tasmanian Devil), although Michael Jordan returns during one unmasking. Mr. Chairman teleports himself and the heroes to the ACME Corporation's headquarters where he hands the Blue Monkey to Marvin the Martian. Marvin takes it up into space, attaching it to the ACME Satellite. Bugs and Daffy battle Marvin, Daffy becoming Duck Dodgers. DJ and Kate battle a large robotic guard dog before saving DJ's father from being hit by the ACME Train of Death (Wile E. Coyote, who is driving the train, is blown up again in a train wreck caused by dynamite). Duck Dodgers destroys the satellite using his beak and destroys the Blue Monkey with it, although an energy blast falls to Earth and turns nobody but Mr. Chairman into a monkey. Marvin is defeated by his own bubble gun when Bugs uses his famous "finger in gun-hole" trick. Bugs and Daffy crash-land their way back to Earth, Daffy discovering the whole thing has been a film, something of which he did not wish to be in. Bugs decides to let Daffy be his equal. Daffy's "luck changing already" is ruined when he is flattened by the Looney Tunes ending iris. Porky appears, trying to say "That's All Folks" but he stutters so much that the screen goes dark by the time he has finished his line, and he instead says, "Go home, folks."

Cartoon Cast

• Bugs Bunny - The most popular character in the Warner Bros. Studios.
• Daffy Duck/Duck Dodgers - A disgraced duck who leaves Hollywood to have real adventures and gain the Blue Monkey for himself.
• The Bugs Bunny prototype - Deleted scene
• Elmer Fudd - An initially friendly hunter who hunts Bugs and Daffy in Paris.
• Lola Bunny (Movie poster)
• The Crusher - A wrestler who is one of the judges at DJ's audition.
• Instant Martians - Marvin the Martian's henchmen.
• Porky Pig - A pig with a speech impediment.
• Speedy Gonzales - A fast-moving Mexican mouse.
• Wolf and Sheepdog - Two background characters. Ralph tries to eat a sheep, only to receive a beating from Sam.
• Michigan J. Frog - A dancing and singing frog.
• Shaggy and Scooby Doo - talking to Matthew Lillard
• The down on his luck guy from 1955's One Froggy Evening
• Granny - The owner of Tweety and Sylvester.
• Sylvester Cat - A cat who wishes to eat Tweety.
• Tweety - A small singing canary bird.
• Owl Jolson the young owl from 1936's I Love to Singa. He appears during the Acme Chairman's fight with the television.
• Yosemite Sam - A tiny cowboy who owns the Wooden Nickel casino in Las Vegas and is employed by the Acme Corporation as a bounty hunter.
• Foghorn Leghorn - An employee in Yosemite Sam's casino.
• Nasty Canasta and Cottontail Smith - Yosemite Sam's minions.
• Dogs - These dogs appear playing poker, DJ crashlands on their table.
  • Russian Dog (from 1944's Hare Ribbin')
  • Charlie Dog
  • Spike & Chester
  • The Barnyard Dawg
  • Ham & Ex
• Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner - Wile E. Coyote is the Desert Operative of the Acme Corporation. Road Runner has a minor role.
• Marvin the Martian - An agent of Acme trapped in Area 52.
• Pepé Le Pew - A French lovestruck skunk who acts as a policeman in Paris.
• The Three Bears - They appear as tourists in Paris. DJ steals Papa Bear's trousers.
  • Junyer Bear
  • Henery Bear
  • Mama Bear
• Beaky Buzzard - A dumb buzzard who flies a helicopter.
• Mad scientist based on Peter Lorre's character in Mad Love
• Gossamer (Deleted Scene) - He is seen in Area 52.
• Tasmanian Devil - A monstrous operative of Acme.
• Other Tweetys
• Tasmanian She-Devil - A female version of Taz, who is Mr. Smith's real form.
• The squirrel from 1953's Much Ado about Nutting
• Gruesome Gorilla
• Hippety Hopper
• Marc Anthony and Pussyfoot
• Heathcliff from 1948's Dough Ray-Meow
• Egghead
• Dalek - A fictional extraterrestrial mutant from the science fiction television series Doctor Who.

Actors

Live-action actors

• Brendan Fraser - Himself, D.J. Drake - A stuntman who wishes to make his father proud (and get rid of Daffy) who later falls for Kate.
• Jenna Elfman - Kate Houghton - The icy VP of Comedy at the Warner Bros. Studios with a secret crush on Damien and blossoms a romance with D.J.
• Steve Martin - Mr. Chairman - The immature and comedic head of the Acme Corporation; he plans to find the Blue Monkey diamond and use it to control the world.
• Timothy Dalton - Damien Drake - A famous action filmstar and DJ's father.
• Heather Locklear - Dusty Tails - A friend of Damien who works in Las Vegas.
• Joan Cusack - Mother - A scientist at Area 52.
• Bill Goldberg - Mr. Smith - Mr. Chairman's minion who turns out to be a Tasmanian She-Devil in disguise.
• Jeff Gordon - Himself
• Matthew Lillard - Himself
• Mary Woronov -Herself, Acme VP, Bad Ideas - A stuttering woman whom Mr. Chairman likes.
• Marc Lawrence - Acme VP, Stating the Obvious - Mr. Chairman's father.
• Bill McKinney - Acme VP, Nitpicking - A brown-haired VP.
• George Murdock - Acme VP, Unfairly Promoted - An elderly VP who sits at an angle in his chair.
• Robert Picardo - Acme VP, Rhetorical Questions - He asks rhetorical questions, but in a deleted scene, he forgot to press his buzzer and is wrapped up in plastic tape.
• Ron Perlman - Acme VP, Never Learning - A spectacled VP who is eaten by Taz and left as a skeleton.
• Vernon Wells - Acme VP, Child Labor - A cruel man who dislikes children.
• Leo Rossi - Acme VP, Climbing to the Top - A bearded VP.
• Dick Miller - Studio Guard
• Peter Graves - Civil Defense Film Host (uncredited)
• Michael Jordan - Himself (uncredited) -(N.B. The footage of Michael Jordan is archive footage from a previous Looney Tunes film "Space Jam", he is not credited as he is technically not in the film.)

Voice actors

• Joe Alaskey - Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Sylvester, Beaky Buzzard, Mama Bear
• Jeff Bennett - Foghorn Leghorn, Nasty Canasta, Yosemite Sam
• Bob Bergen - Porky Pig
• Mel Blanc - AMC Gremlin car (archive sound)
• Danny Chambers - Cottontail Smith
• June Foray - Granny
• Dee Bradley Baker - Road Runner
• Brendan Fraser - Tasmanian Devil, Tasmanian She-Devil,
• Stan Freberg - Baby Bear
• Eric Goldberg - Marvin the Martian, Speedy Gonzales, Tweety Bird
• Casey Kasem - Shaggy
• Bruce Lanoil - Pepé Le Pew
• Danny Mann - Robo Dog, Spy Car
• Will Ryan - Papa Bear
• Frank Welker - Scooby-Doo, The Monkey,
• Billy West - Elmer Fudd, Peter Lorre, The Scream Man
• Dalek - Himself

Songs

• "Play That Funky Music" - Vanilla Ice (plays in Batmobile scene)
• "Viva Las Vegas" - Elvis Presley (plays during Bugs Bunny and Kate's journey to Las Vegas)
• "Move Your Feet" - Junior Senior (plays as Daffy and D.J. approach Las Vegas)
• "Hey Driver" - Lucky Boys Confusion (plays during the chase scene)
• "Come Fly with Me" - Michael Bublé (plays as the spy car is flying)
• "Shake Your Coconuts" - Junior Senior (end credits)

Production

• Notably, the film was Jerry Goldsmith's last as composer. Due to Goldsmith's failing health, the last reel of the film was actually scored by John Debney, though Goldsmith was the only credited composer in marketing materials. John Debney got a small credit at the end as "Additional music by".

• To date, this is Joe Dante's only film produced by Warner Bros. that was not executive produced by Steven Spielberg or have any involvement with Amblin Entertainment.

• This was the second live-action/animated film ever to be based on classic Warner Bros. cartoon characters. (Warner Bros. characters were also featured in Who Framed Roger Rabbit, which possesses a similar combined live action/animation theme.)

• This film started out as a follow-up to Space Jam (1996).

• Brendan Fraser did such a good job doing an impersonation of Taz that he was allowed to do the voice.

• During filming, Brendan Fraser was completely terrified at having to hit Bill Goldberg; Goldberg constantly told him to go ahead and do it, telling him, "It's what I do for a living."

• The character animation in this film was traditionally hand-drawn. Computer technology was used to color the animation drawings in, add tone mattes and shadows to the characters, and composite them over the live-action backgrounds. 3D Computer animation is used on props that are held by the cartoon characters, such as a magnifying glass, a screenplay, and Bugs' carrots in the cafeteria, as well as larger objects, such as the spaceships, Wile E. Coyote's missile, and the robot guard dog at the end.

• Film director Joe Dante nicknamed this project, the Anti-Space Jam movie, showing his disdain for Space Jam.^[1]

• Deleted scenes on the DVD release reveal that the film's opening and closing scenes were much different. In the original opening, Daffy gives a plot to the Warner Brothers involving him being a superhero and fighting Elmer Fudd dressed as an insane clown riding in a large robot which is destroyed by Daffy. The brothers and Elmer object to the fact Elmer is killed in the story. The film's ending ended in the monkey ruins in the African jungle. Tweety accompanies DJ, Bugs, Daffy and Kate to the temple but is blasted by the Blue Monkey and falls into a lava pool to his death. However, he rises again as a prehistoric pterosaur who eats Mr. Chairman and the Blue Monkey. Most characters temporarily de-evolved in this scene due to being hit by the Blue Monkey's ray: Bugs into earlier animation models, Daffy into an egg, Damian Drake into a monkey, and Kate into a cave-woman.

Reception

Budgeted at $80 million, but grossing only around US$21 million (US$68 million worldwide),^[2] Looney Tunes: Back in Action was a large bomb at the box office,^[3] and received mixed to positive reviews from critics.^[3][4][5] As of October 27, 2009, the film scores a 56% "Rotten" rating at Rotten Tomatoes;^[6] however, at Metacritic, the film ranks 64, with "generally favorable reviews".^[7] The film's poor box-office results discouraged Warner Bros. from releasing the newer Looney Tunes shorts that Warner Bros. Animation had completed, and cancelled those in production. ^[1]

Interestingly, since the release of the film, Warner Bros. has attempted to move the spotlight more onto Daffy Duck than Bugs Bunny, as shown with the recent releases of the Duck Dodgers animated series (which does not feature Bugs Bunny at all, though he is briefly mentioned in two episodes), and Bah, Humduck! A Looney Tunes Christmas, which casts Bugs in a very minor role.

The film was nominated for Saturn Award for Best Animated Film, Annie Award for Best Animated Feature and Satellite Award for Best Animated or Mixed Media Feature.

Cultural references

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One of the most entertaining features for adults is the plethora of cultural references in Back in Action. A considerable number of classic movies are referenced in quick throwaway scenes, many famous works of art are shown out of their normal context, and many other primarily American cultural jokes appear in the course of DJ Drake and his cartoon associates' adventures.

Looney Tunes gags

• The film begins with the classic "Rabbit Season, Duck Season" gag, first employed in Chuck Jones's Rabbit Fire (1951), which involves Bugs and Daffy trying to convince Elmer Fudd to shoot each other by aiming his rifle in the other target's direction, Bugs usually winning through clever word trickery. Daffy is shot multiple times by Elmer, each one with a comical outcome. This scene is later rehearsed by just Bugs and Elmer after Daffy is fired, causing confusion with the gag which concludes with Elmer shooting Bugs instead of the absent Daffy.

• During one gag in the opening scene, Bugs reappears in the matador outfit that he wore in Chuck Jones's Bully For Bugs (1953).

• At one point in the board meeting, Daffy performs a series of combat moves similar to the "Guard, turn, dodge, parry, thrust, spin" routine from Chuck Jones' Robin Hood Daffy (1958).

• Bugs briefly crossdresses as a woman, a running gag in many cartoons featuring Bugs.

• Sylvester does not speak in any sequences where he shares the screen with Granny, a reference to many Tweety cartoons where Sylvester remained more or less mute while Tweety got the lion's share of the dialog.

• Bugs impersonates the two Warner Brothers by dressing in their attire and mimicking their movements. Bugs has performed similar gags in cartoons, although this can be just another form of his disguising talents.

• The suit Bugs wears in the spy car is similar to the suit he has worn during musical-themed cartoons such as Chuck Jones' Long-Haired Hare (1949).

• Wile E. Coyote's opening scene has him freeze in mid-run and a caption appears reading "Coyote: Desertus Operatus Idioticus". This is a reference to the scientific captions that describe both Coyote and Road Runner during each of their cartoon appearances. The Coyote does not speak and communicates by holding up speech signs, another reference to the cartoons. The music during his scenes also matches his movements or emotions. Coyote is also caught in numerous ACME weapons including a missile, dynamite and off-screen fireworks, a safe and a glass window.

• Foghorn Leghorn at one point strikes Yosemite Sam with a plank of wood after the latter asked him to "hit me". Yosemite Sam was actually referring to a term used in a card game. Twisted words are often used in Looney Tunes cartoons for gags.

• A banana peel trips up Yosemite Sam during the chase scenes in Las Vegas; Yosemite Sam angrily shooting it and referring to it as a "slapstick cliché". The banana peel is a common gag item used for slapstick scenes.

• Bugs mentions upon meeting Elmer Fudd that they have made 35 cartoons together. This is a fairly accurate approximation of the number of Bugs and Elmer cartoons made during the golden age of Looney Tunes.

• During the scene where Bugs, Daffy, DJ, Kate, Sylvester, Tweety and Granny travel through the African jungle, a group of wild multicoloured Tweety birds appear. They tweet like normal birds but through subtitles they reveal that they are saying Tweety's catchphrase, "I tawt I taw a puddy tat".

• Mr. Smith, Mr. Chairman's bodyguard, is armed with a disintegration pistol. He uses it to disintegrate Bugs, Daffy, DJ, Kate and Mr. Chairman to the ACME Headquarters and reassemble there. The disintegration pistol is a weapon previously seen used by both Marvin the Martian and Daffy Duck in Chuck Jones' Duck Dodgers in the 24 1/2th Century (1953).

• Wile E. Coyote uses a large number of classic ACME weapons to try and kill Damian Drake include dynamite, a 200 ton anvil and also a Pendulum of Doom which Mr. Chairman describes as overkill. This is reference to the over-the-top weapons used by Wile E. Coyote and other characters in the cartoons.

• Duck Dodgers flight into space is similar to his introductory announcement, involving him leaping into the air with a light shining behind him.

• As Daffy tries to fly out of the space shuttle to save the world, jetpacks on his back continuously explode without warning. This is a common gag seen in the cartoons, which involves items exploding without any igniting or source.

• The film ends with Porky Pig trying to bid farewell with his catchphrase "That's all folks!", but he stutters so much that the screen turns dark. He instead folds his arms and angrily says "Go home folks!"

Cinematic references

• In a nod to WB arch-competitor Disney and their current rival Pixar's Finding Nemo (2003), after a water tower floods the studio lot, Bugs, fishing in a boat in back of Kate's Alfa Romeo, declares, "Hey, whadda ya know? I found Nemo!", at which a small orange fish pops out of the water on his line.

• In the WB cafeteria, a cartoon Scooby-Doo and Shaggy from Hanna-Barbera's Scooby-Doo, Where are You! series (Shaggy appropriately voiced by Casey Kasem, respectively), argue with Matthew Lillard, who plays Shaggy in two live-action movies, about Lillard's movie performance (Shaggy threatens to come after Lillard if he performs similarly in Scooby Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed).^[1]

• There are also many live-action television and movie references. Some run throughout the film, but most are only brief scenes which merely show the characters, challenging the viewer to recall where they have seen that familiar face. An incomplete list of such amusing references, in rough order of appearance, includes:
  • The concept of Area 51 being only a cover for Area 52 was first used in the television program NewsRadio, in the third season episode "President."
  • The Maltese Falcon can be seen on the shelf in the WB office scene.
  • Batman and the Batmobile from the film version of Batman (1989).^[8]
  • The scene of DJ being fired was inspired by the opening of the 1960s TV series Branded.
  • Daffy Duck quoting Jack Nicholson's Marine colonel Jessup ("You can't handle the truth!") from A Few Good Men (1992).
  • Timothy Dalton as Damien Drake, a very James Bond-like secret agent, who also happens to share a last name with British spy John Drake from Danger Man (Secret Agent in the United States). Dalton was James Bond in The Living Daylights and Licence to Kill.
  • The sound effects made by the Gremlin car are actually archive recordings of legendary Looney Tunes voice actor Mel Blanc, voicing the sound effects of Jack Benny's Maxwell.^[1]
  • Bugs Bunny's black-and-white shower scene evoking the Alfred Hitchcock thriller Psycho (1960), down to the dozens of odd angles and close-up shots, and using cartoon-appropriate chocolate syrup for fake blood. (Alfred Hitchcock reportedly used chocolate syrup for the blood in the original scene, presumably because the combination of color-tone and consistency worked well in a black-and-white film).^[3][1]
  • A road trip to Las Vegas with Elvis Presley on the radio, singing the eponymous theme song to Viva Las Vegas (1964).
  • Dusty Tails (Heather Locklear), after a Britney Spears-style performance, zips up in leather like Sydney Bristow (Jennifer Garner) from TV spy show Alias. "I also work for the Agency. Professional assassin."
  • The graffiti "Hi There" on Wile E. Coyote's missile alludes to the nuclear bomb from Dr. Strangelove.
  • Most of the aliens and monsters in the Area 52 scene are actual monsters from other films, including an appearance of Robby the Robot, and creatures from The Day of the Triffids (1962), Robot Monster (1953), This Island Earth (1955), The Man from Planet X (1951) and Fiend Without a Face (1958).
  • The alien cyborgs yelling "Exterminate them!" are Daleks from the British sci-fi series Doctor Who; more precisely, the models used are from the non-canon films Dr. Who and the Daleks and Daleks - Invasion Earth 2150 AD (distinguishable from the TV versions by the "vapor spray" weapon, although there seems to got circle-shaped death-Ray with it). It was at the insistence of Steve Martin that Daleks be used in that scene. This was the cause of a minor legal issue as the Daleks are owned by the estate of Terry Nation and are not in the public domain as was assumed.
  • Kevin McCarthy reprises his role as Dr. Miles Bennell from the original Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), even appearing in black-and-white and carrying a pod creature. He repeats his plaintive warning from the end of that movie: "They're already here! You're next! You're next!"^[1]
  • A sly reference to another B-movie, The Eye Creatures (1965), features an uncredited Peter Graves as a Civil defense narrator for the Blue Monkey video briefing, similar to his uncredited flying-saucer film briefing narration in the 1965 movie.
  • The weapons cabinet which suddenly pops into place evokes a similar scene from The Matrix (1999).
  • The snapping plant is from the sci-fi movie .
  • The Jerry Lewis poster at the Eiffel base which reads "OÙ TROUVEZ-VOUS LA GUERRE?" ("Where do you find the war?") comes from Which Way to the Front? (1970). The movie poster displaying Lewis open-mouthed in German officer attire is authentic.
  • The Blue Monkey diamond at the heart of the film's plot is most likely a reference to the Pink Panther diamond at the heart of the plot of the eponymous film, especially since a successful animated character developed from the concept. Steve Martin would go on to star in the 2006 and 2009 remake.
  • In Las Vegas, when Daffy and DJ rush to the Gremlin car, being chased by Yosemite Sam, the first few notes are from the theme from Gremlins (1984).
  • The cartoon ACME aide who looks and sounds like Guillermo Ugarte (Peter Lorre) from Casablanca (1942) is a variation on Warner Bros.' frequent allusions to Lorre's memorable character.
  • When multicolored Tweety birds attack Sylvester, the original Tweety, dressed in colorful African garb, yells, "Cwy fweedom!", an obvious reference to the film Cry Freedom (1987).
  • In the monkey village scene, the booby-trapped "Barrel of Monkeys", the darts, and the rock that creates a "pressed duck" all pay homage to Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981).
  • The ACME chairman's third disguise in the monkey village scene is basketball star Michael Jordan, who also played with the Warner Bros. cartoon cast in Space Jam (1996) (Daffy, in a sly dig at the film's bizarre plot, exclaims "This doesn't make a lick of sense.").
  • In a possible allusion to the final act of Flash Gordon (1980), Bugs and Daffy crash through the windows of the ACME tower with their stolen spaceship.
  • The ACME Train of Death exploding seems to be a reference to another Warner Bros. film, The Fugitive (1993), as well as another explosive animated train wreck, in Don Bluth's Anastasia (1997).

• A possible reference is after Damien Drake throws a grenade, the guard lets out the Wilhelm Scream.

• There are also a number of Star Wars saga riffs throughout Back in Action:
  • When Marvin the Martian reaches the satellite, Bugs says, "Eh, what's up, Darth?"
  • Bugs makes a double reference to the film series as he absentmindedly battles Marvin with a lightsaber while reading The Force for Dummies (which also alludes to the famous "For Dummies" series of instruction books).
  • In the monkey village, when the ACME chairman pulls off his second costume and shows himself as Damien, he says, "Look into your heart. You know it's true." DJ Drake replies, "No, it can't be true." This recalls similar dialog between Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker in The Empire Strikes Back (1980).
  • When Marvin finally spins off into space after accidentally "bubbling" himself, he says, "Darn Dark Side!". This is reminiscent of Darth Vader's tumbling departure from the Death Star in the original Star Wars (1977).

• In the scene where Daffy Duck and DJ Drake are making their way to Las Vegas, DJ tries to convince Daffy that he is not a full time security guard as believed and tries to make himself sound good by claiming that he is a stuntman. While Daffy laughs, DJ tries to sell this as fact and says "Have you seen them Mummy movies? I'm in there more than Brendan Fraser is." This is a reference to The Mummy and The Mummy Returns in which Fraser (DJ) stars.

Art references

In the scene at the Louvre, where Elmer Fudd maniacally pursues Bugs and Daffy into and out of paintings, many famous works of art are abused in classic zany cartoon style.^[8][5] A partial list of those works include:

• Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci
• The Persistence of Memory by Salvador Dalí
• The Scream by Edvard Munch
• La Goulue by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
• Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte by Georges Seurat

Other cultural references

• Jenna Elfman's character, Kate Houghton, was named after Katharine Hepburn. Houghton was Hepburn's middle name. Ironically, Hepburn died the same year the film was released

• In the "Batman" stunt scene, Roger Corman, prolific B-movie director and the man who started Dante's career, essentially appears as himself.

• The secret government facility, "Area 52", pokes fun at the mysterious "Area 51" facility on the Nellis Air Force Range, unacknowledged by the U. S. government, where the military is rumored to hold evidence of extraterrestrials.

• The alien tickling scene recalls Ray Santilli's infamous "Alien Autopsy" videotape, still a popular subject of ufologists despite its lack of credibility.

• During the chase in Yosemite Sam's casino, the participants run across some dogs playing poker, much like in Looks Like Four of a Kind by C. M. Coolidge, an oil painting better known as "Dogs Playing Poker".^[1]

• Jeff Gordon appears as an unnamed race car owner, driving his No. 24 DuPont Chevrolet Monte Carlo. A DuPont Chevrolet was painted with a Looney Tunes paint scheme in promotion of the movie for Gordon to drive in the 2002 Chevrolet Monte Carlo 400; however, in final practice, Gordon crashed the Looney Tunes car, and the backup car only had the regular paint scheme. Special movie decals added to the regular DuPont "flame" design in 2003 for a Gordon car to promote the movie.

• The scene with a Wal-Mart store in the middle of the desert mocks not only Wal-Mart's ubiquity, but also general commercial product placement in films. The heroes hold a conversation peppered with Wal-Mart slogans and product names.

• The ACME laptop that Wile E. Coyote uses to order his missile system has a browser that looks suspiciously like Microsoft's Internet Explorer (a rival of Time Warner's Netscape). The website he orders it from blares an offer for free gift-wrapping that looks very much like Amazon.com's system.

• Joan Cusack's character is called "Mother", a reference to the head of the spy organization on the TV series The Avengers.

• Among the secret Area 52 VHS videotapes locked up inside Robby the Robot are "THE BLUE MONKEY", "MOON LANDING DRESS REHEARSAL" (alluding to the rumored faking of the Apollo moon landings), "HOW SAUSAGE IS MADE" (a humorous riff on the common expectation that people might not want to eat this popular food if they observed its preparation), and "CONGRESSMEN GONE WILD VOL. 6" (the "WILD VOL." is mainly a guess as the title is partly obscured, in probable reference to the softcore erotic Girls Gone Wild series).

• In the opening shots of Paris, two nuns can be seen walking alongside several pairs of girls in blue dresses. This is a direct reference to the Madeline series of books by Ludwig Bemelmans.

• In one scene, DJ Drake fights with Yosemite Sam's goons, and Daffy tells him to "bite his ear!" This is a reference to boxer Mike Tyson, who bit off a portion of Evander Holyfield's ear during a boxing match, which was also in Las Vegas.

Notes

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See also

• Merrie Melodies
• "Powerhouse"
• Space Jam

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Looney Tunes: Back in Action

• Looney Tunes: Back in Action at the Internet Movie Database
• Looney Tunes: Back in Action at Rotten Tomatoes
• Looney Tunes: Back in Action-Warner Bros. site.
• Wikiquote: Looney Tunes: Back in Action