Looney Tunes: Back In Action

Looney Tunes: Back in Action is a 2003 Warner Bros. film that combines animation to tell 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.

Cartoon cast

 * Bugs Bunny
 * Daffy Duck/Duck Dodgers
 * Elmer J. Fudd
 * The Crusher
 * Instant Martians
 * Porky Pig
 * Petunia Pig
 * Speedy Gonzales
 * Scooby Doo
 * Shaggy
 * Sam Sheepdog and Ralph Wolf
 * Michigan J. Frog
 * The down on his luck guy from One Froggy Evening
 * Granny
 * Sylvester Cat
 * Tweety Bird
 * Owl Jolson the young owl from I Love to Singa, not Oliver Owl
 * Yosemite Sam
 * Foghorn Leghorn
 * Nasty Canasta and Cottontail Smith
 * Dogs
 * Willoughby
 * Charlie Dog
 * Spike & Chester
 * The Barnyard Dawg
 * Ham & Ex
 * Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner
 * Marvin the Martian
 * Pepé Le Pew
 * The Three Bears
 * Junyer Bear
 * Henery Bear
 * Mama Bear
 * Beaky Buzzard
 * Mad scientist based on Peter Lorre's character in Mad Love
 * Tasmanian Devil
 * Other Tweetys
 * Tasmanian She-Devil
 * Instant Martian
 * The squirrel from Much Ado about Nutting
 * Gruesome Gorilla
 * Hippety Hopper
 * Marc Anthony and Pussyfoot
 * Heathcliff from Dough Ray-Meow
 * Egghead

Alien and Robot cast at Area 52

 * The creature from This Island Earth


 * The Man from Planet X


 * The Ro-Man from Robot Monster


 * A Triffid from The Day of the Triffids


 * The Fiend Without a Face


 * Daleks from Dr. Who
 * Robby the Robot

People cast

 * 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."
 * Joan Cusack's character is called "Mother", a reference to the head of the spy organization on the TV series The Avengers.
 * Jenna Elfman's character, Kate Houghton, was named after Katharine Hepburn. Houghton was Hepburn's middle name.

Live actors

 * Brendan Fraser - Himself, D.J. Drake
 * Jenna Elfman - Kate Houghton
 * Steve Martin - Mr. Chairman
 * Timothy Dalton - Damien Drake
 * Heather Locklear - Dusty Tails
 * Joan Cusack - Mother
 * Jeff Gordon - Himself
 * Matthew Lillard - Himself
 * Mary Woronov - Acme VP, Bad Ideas
 * Marc Lawrence - Acme VP, Stating the Obvious
 * Bill McKinney - Acme VP, Nitpicking
 * George Murdock - Acme VP, Unfairly Promoted
 * Robert Picardo - Acme VP, Rhetorical Questions
 * Ron Perlman - Acme VP, Never Learning
 * Vernon Wells - Acme VP, Child Labor
 * Leo Rossi - Acme VP, Climbing to the Top
 * Peter Graves - Civil Defense Film Host (uncredited)

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
 * Grey DeLisle - Petunia Pig
 * Dee Bradley Baker - Road Runner
 * Maurice LaMarche - Wile E. Coyote
 * Mel Blanc - Gremlin Car (archive sound)
 * Danny Chambers - Cottontail Smith
 * June Foray - Granny
 * 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
 * Billy West - Elmer Fudd, Peter Lorre-like Scientist
 * Kath Soucie - Lola Bunny

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".


 * This was the second live-action/animated film ever to be based on classic Warner Bros. cartoon characters.


 * This film started out as a follow-up to Space Jam (1996). It was going to be called Spy Jam, and was going to star Jackie Chan.


 * 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 objects such as the spaceships, Wile E. Coyote's missile, the robot guard dog at the end, and Bugs' carrots in the cafeteria.


 * Film director Joe Dante nicknamed this project, the Anti-Space Jam movie, showing his hate for how Space Jam ruined the characters' personalities.

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

Cultural references
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.

Other cultural references

 * In the "Batman" stunt scene, Roger Corman, prolific B-movie director, 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 recognizable extraterrestrials from old Sci movies which are: The Creature from This Island Earth, Ro-Man the space ape from Robot Monster, The alien from The Man from Planet X, a Triffid from The Day of the Triffids, The Brain Creature from The Fiend Without a Face, and even the Dalek creatures from the Doctor Who television series.


 * 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".


 * 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.


 * 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.
 * At one point of the film, the Daleks from the Dr. Who TV Series are among the many alien monsters released by Marvin the Martian at Area 52, they even yell their catch phrase from the show, "Exterminate Them!''. Two of them later accidentally blast Marvin while he is trying to get the card from Daffy Duck.