Looney Tunes: Back in Action (2003)

The Looney Tunes search for a man's missing father and the mythical Blue Monkey diamond.

Director:

Joe Dante

Writer:

Larry Doyle

Stars:

Brendan Fraser, Jenna Elfman, Steve Martin

10 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Brendan Fraser	...	DJ Drake / Himself / Voice of Tasmanian Devil and She-Devil
Jenna Elfman	...	Kate
Steve Martin	...	Mr. Chairman
Timothy Dalton	...	Damien Drake
Heather Locklear	...	Dusty Tails
Joan Cusack	...	Mother
Bill Goldberg	...	Mr. Smith
Don Stanton	...	Mr. Warner
Dan Stanton	...	Mr. Warner's Brother
Dick Miller	...	Security Guard
Roger Corman	...	Hollywood Director
Kevin McCarthy	...	Dr. Bennell
Jeff Gordon	...	Himself
Matthew Lillard	...	Himself
Mary Woronov	...	Acme VP, Bad Ideas

Storyline

Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck are up to their feuding ways again. Tired of playing second fiddle to Bugs, Daffy has decided to leave the Studio for good. He is aided by Warner Bros.' humor impaired Vice President of Comedy, Kate Houghton, who releases him from his contract and instructs WB security guard/aspiring stunt man DJ Drake to capture and "escort" Daffy off the studio lot. Suddenly a sidekick without a hero, the duck decides to ally himself with DJ, whether he likes it or not. Consequently, Daffy is on the scene when DJ discovers that his famous movie star father was Damian Drake, known for playing suave international spies onscreen, is actually a suave international spy in real life--and has been kidnapped by the evil insane nerdy, prancing villain known as Mr. Chairman of the equally nefarious Acme Corporation. It seems that Damian knows the whereabouts of the mysterious magical and powerful Blue Monkey Diamond, and the Chairman will do anything to get his hands on it! With ...

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Plot Keywords:

diamond | duck | spy | monkey | rabbit | 

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Taglines:

The biggest animated adventure ever to hit real life

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Genres:

Animation | Adventure | Comedy | Family | Fantasy | Sci-Fi

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG for some mild language and innuendo

Details

Official Sites:

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. [Japan]

Country:

Germany USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

14 November 2003 (USA)

Also Known As:

Looney Tunes Back in Action: The Movie

Filming Locations:

Paris, France

Box Office

Budget:

$80,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$9,317,371, 16 November 2003

Gross USA:

$20,991,364

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$68,514,844

Company Credits

Production Co:

Warner Bros., Baltimore Spring Creek Productions, Goldmann Pictures

Technical Specs

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.39 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The sputtering car engine sound effect that Mel Blanc voiced in several Warner Brothers cartoons is heard in the background of DJ's AMC Gremlin.

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Goofs

The Louvre and the Eiffel Tower are on opposite sides of the Seine, unlike how they are shown here.

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Quotes

[the group is lost in the desert]
Bugs Bunny: I told you we should've taken that left turn at Albuquerque.
Daffy Duck: Now don't start that again.

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Crazy Credits

After the end credits, there is a deleted scene from the casino chase involving Daffy Duck, Nasty Canasta, and Cottontail Smith.

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Alternate Versions

When Broadcast on ITV and ITV2, several scenes involving violence are removed, including Sam shooting the banana skin in the casino scene, and Bugs placing the popcorn inside the marked alien during the Area 52 fight scene.

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Connections

References Speed Buggy (1973)

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Soundtracks

What's Up, Doc?
Written by Carl W. Stalling

User Reviews

Th- Th- Th- That's All Wrong, Folks

An almost total mess, and no-one wanted to like it more than me.

The live action sequeces are flat emotionally, photographically, dramatically and every other way: Dante seems have done the impossible by making Brandon Frase, Jenna Elfman, Steve Martin and Joan Cusack plus various culty walkongs (Roger Corman, Mary Woronov) unfunny, unbelievable, and uninteresting.

The model, curiously, is not so much Who Killed Roger Rabbit as Rodriguez's Spy Kids movies -- but without the heart or the inspired originality and ingenuity. Instead, it's mindsplitting, unrelentingly meta, carpetbombing the audience with more movie quotes than Tarantino has in "Kill Bill." You say, "Sure, I remember that cartoon well, and it was a helluvalot better than this."

What the film needs -- particularly since it's gotta be pointed at least partially at kids -- is some kid characters, interesting ones. Instead, it just has lame Hollywood jokes, lame Las Vegas jokes, lame Paris jokes, and lame movie auteur jokes that had my seven year old son wondering when it was going to be funny. Sure, it was sometimes: if you go to the well that often, you'll find water somewhere.

The one exception to the general sloppy anarchy is a wonderful sequence with Bugs and Daffy chasing through the Louvre, into painting after painting after painting (most of them not at the Louvre, but so what). I'd love to have it on a loop, with the rest of the film surgically removed.