Looney Tunes: Back in Action (film)
- For other uses, see Looney Tunes: Back in Action.
Looney Tunes: Back in Action | |
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We're back, baby! | |
Production company | Warner Bros. Feature Animation Baltimore Spring Creek Productions Goldmann Pictures |
Release date | November 14, 2003 |
Run time | 1:31:39 |
Starring | Brendan Fraser Jenna Elfman Timothy Dalton Joan Cusack Bill Goldberg Heather Locklear Steve Martin |
Executive producer(s) | Chris DeFaria Larry Doyle |
Music composed by | Jerry Goldsmith |
Screenplay by | Larry Doyle |
Director(s) | Joe Dante |
Art director(s) | John Kleber |
Title card | |
Looney Tunes: Back in Action is an American live-action/2-D animated spy comedy film based on the Looney Tunes theatrical shorts from 1930 to 1969. It was distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures in theaters on November 14, 2003. It was written by Larry Doyle, produced by Paula Weinstein and Bernie and Goldmann, and directed by Joe Dante.
In a spoof of action and spy films, Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck are tangled in a plot by the Acme Corporation Chairman, who plans to turn all of the world's population into substandard monkies with the Blue Monkey diamond. With the help of stuntman DJ Drake and WB executive Kate Houghton, they go on journey to thwart the Chairman, which also doubles as a mission for Drake to find his missing father.
Detailed summary
Memorable quotes
Characters
Organizations
- Spy Productions (mentioned)
- Acme Corporation
- Acme Rubber Co. (mentioned)
Locations
- Earth
- United States
- California
- Burbank
- Warner Bros. lot
- Drake residence
- Burbank
- New York (mentioned)
- Nevada
- Washington, D.C. (postcard)
- California
- Mexico (mentioned)
- Africa
- Egypt (mentioned)
- Italy (indirectly mentioned)
- Rome (postcard)
- Iraq (indirectly mentioned)
- Baghdad (postcard)
- France
- United States
Objects
- The Hollywood Reporter
- Legend of the Blue Monkey
- Acme Annual Report
- Acme Missile Launcher
- Blue Monkey
- Mona Lisa
- Acme Relocator Gun
- Acme satellite
- Acme Bubble Gun
- The Force for Dummies
- Acme Tunnel Paint
Vehicles
- Batmobile
- Kate's car
- Damian's spy car
- Martian Maggot
Production
Development
Filming
Music
The music was composed by Jerry Goldsmith.
Songs
- "I Love to Singa" - Jackie Morrow
- "Viva Las Vegas" - Elvis Presley
- "If You Want It to Be Good, Girl (Get Yourself a Bad Boy)" - Heather Locklear
- "Move Your Feet" - Junior Senior
Crew credits
- Executive producers: Chris DeFaria, Larry Doyle
- Animation producer: Allison Abbate
- Animation director: Eric Goldberg
- Director of photography: Dean Cundey
- Production designer: Bill Brzeski
- Editors: Marshall Harvey, Rick W. Finney
- Casting directors: Mary Gail Artz, Barbara Cohen
- Costume designer: Mary Vogt
- Visual effects supervisor: Chris Watts
- Production manager: Ronald G. Smith
- First assistant director: Jeffrey Wetzel
- Second assistant director: Courtenay Miles
- Visual effects producer: Anne Kolbe
- Special effects supervisor: Scott F. Johnston
- Art director: John Kleber
- Visual effects producer: Lori J. Nelson
- Associate producer: Steven Wilzbach
- Visual effects supervisors: Anthony Mabin, Jason Piccioni
- Lead animators: David Brewster, Anthony Derosa, Bert Klein, Frank Molieri, Jeff Siergey
Release
Dates are in order of release:
- United States: November 14, 2003
Behind the scenes
- At the Warner Bros.' office there are posters of the Looney Tunes theatrical shorts Hair-Raising Hare (1946) and Rabbit of Seville (1950).
- There are parodies of other Warner Bros.' movies, such as The Bodyguard (1994), in which Bugs and Lola take on the roles of Kevin Costner and Whitney Houston, respectively; and Lethal Weapon Babies, which lampoons the non-kid friendly Lethal Weapon (1987) with two babies taking on the roles of Mel Gibson and Danny Glover.
- There is also a poster for the real, non-parodied 1942 film Casablanca, starring Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Sydney Greenstreet, and Peter Lorre. Incidentally, Warner Bros. did release a parody titled Carrotblanca in 1995.
- License to Thrill is a parody of the 1989 film License to Kill, which was the second and final installment in the James Bond franchise to star Timothy Dalton (Damian Drake) as the lead character.
- The Batman movie that Roger Corman is directing is an allusion to the films directed by Tim Burton in 1989 (Batman) and 1992 (Batman Returns), in which Michael Keaton played the title character. However, Batman's suit is a black version of the Sonar Suit from Batman Forever (1995), which was instead directed by Joel Schumacher. The Batmobile featured is the one that appeared in Burton's Batman films.
- When Kate finds Bugs in the shower and he overreacts by falling and pulling off the shower curtain, he reenacts a scene from the 1960 film Psycho.
- At the casino, some Looney Tunes dogs are playing poker like in the famous 1894 painting Dogs Playing Poker by Cassius Marcellus Coolidge.
- A number of classic aliens and other sci-fi characters make cameos at the Area 52 scene, which include:
- Robby the Robot from the 1956 film Forbidden Planet.
- the plant-like Triffid from The Day of the Triffids (1963).
- The Robot Monster from Robot Monster (1953).
- The brain-like creature from Fiend Without a Face (1958).
- The Man from Planet X from the 1951 film The Man from Planet X.
- The Metaluna Mutant from This Island Earth (1955).
- The Daleks from the Doctor Who television series, who are depicted in their prop design from the 1960s Peter Cushing films; Dr. Who and the Daleks from 1965, and Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. from 1966.
- Peter Graves is uncredited for his role as the film reel host. The way he reports the film is in a manner similar to how his character Jim Phelps would be assigned missions in the 1960s TV series Mission: Impossible.
- Dick Miller, Robert Picardo, and Kevin McCarthy were frequent collaborators with Joe Dante on his previously directed movies.
- Bugs opens up his carrot like a lightsaber, the sacred weapon of the Jedi in the Star Wars movies that began in 1977. The book Bugs reads called The Force for Dummies is also a reference to their innate power which comes out in some form of telekinesis and mind manipulation.
Errors
Marketing and promotion
Everlasting influence
Critical reception
In other languages
Language | Name | Meaning |
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Home availability
- In the United States:
- In the United Kingdom and Ireland:
Trailers
- First trailer
- Second trailer
- Third trailer