Quicknation    Looney Tunes: Back in Action

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Looney Tunes: Back in Action is a 2003 Warner Bros. film that combines live action and 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 cartoon, with all the wackiness and surrealism typical of the genre. Grossing around US$21 million (US$68 million worldwide), it was a considerably large bomb, but earned relatively positive reviews from critics.

Notably, the film was Jerry Goldsmith's last as composer. Due to Goldsmith's failing health, much of the film was actually scored by John Debney, though Goldsmith was the only credited composer.

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Daffy Duck is fired from his job at the Warner Bros. Studio by Kate Houghton (Jenna Elfman). Also, DJ Drake (Brendan Fraser), son of the famous Damian Drake (Timothy Dalton), is also fired after failing to escort Daffy out of the studios and causing mayhem in a film set and destroying the studio water tower is the process.

Bugs Bunny is also facing Kate's wrath as she is trying to change his usual pattern by getting a female co-star to act alongside Bugs in the new film. Bugs counters by doing his famous crossdressing act. Other characters such as Porky Pig and Speedy Gonzales are having difficult times.

DJ returns to his house and discovers Daffy hitched a ride. DJ accidentally activates a video screen and speaks to his father who is actually a spy, and is being attacked by evil villains in Las Vegas. He tells DJ to find the Blue Monkey, a special diamond with magical powers. Damian is then cut off, but manages to tell DJ to get to Las Vegas and ask help from Dusty Tails. DJ sets off to Las Vegas with Daffy in their old Gremlin Car.

Kate is fired from her job, after she and the Warner Brothers watch a new episode including the "Rabbit Season, Duck Season gag," but Elmer Fudd shoots Bugs after he gets confused with his lines. Kate promises to bring Daffy back to the studios, so she can get her job back.

DJ and Daffy drive through the desert and Bugs rings, but Daffy refuses to return to Los Angeles and tells Bugs his plan. However, the ACME Corporation have been listening to the plan and the evil leader of the corporation, Mr. Chairman (Steve Martin) wants the Blue Monkey for his own evil schemes.

Kate travels to DJ's house and finds Bugs waiting for her. The two go after DJ and Daffy to Las Vegas.

DJ and Daffy arrive in Las Vegas and stop in the Wooden Nugget Casino, owned by none other then Yosemite Sam who is actually a operative for ACME. DJ finds Dusty Tails (Heather Locklear) and she gives him a playing card and tells him about the ACME Chairman's plan. Yosemite Sam and two cowboys attack the group and DJ and Daffy flee from them. The two cowboys battle DJ, but they lose the playing card in the process. The card flies into a card game, run by Foghorn Leghorn. DJ and Yosemite Sam play and Sam keeps telling Foghorn to "hit him" and he literally does by hitting him with a plank. DJ gets the card and he and Daffy run into Las Vegas, their car exploded as soon as they started her up.

Bugs and Kate arrive in Las Vegas and find Daffy and DJ, who take over the car and drive through the city, with Yosemite Sam and his minions chasing them in a sports car. The heroes manage to escape them by activating some jet rockets on the spy car and fly into the sky, heading for a person known as "Mother." Yosemite Sam crashes into his casino and is blown sky high by a room full of dynamite.

The spy car crashes into the desert, thanks to DJ. The next morning, the heroes wander across the desert, searching for Mother. At the ACME Headquarters, Yosemite Sam explains what happened to him to the chairman who flings him out of the window. The Chairman's father, who is one of the vice presidents of ACME suggests that they get their "desert operative" to take care of the heroes. The desert operative is Wile E. Coyote, who is chasing Road Runner as usual.

Coyote gets a missile and fires it at the heroes, who are arguing over what they will do. However, the missile backfires and blows up Wile E. Coyote.

The heroes stumble into a secret building where there are a series of aliens, including Daleks and aliens from films. Mother (Joan Cusack) introduces herself and knows all about DJ, ever since he was a baby. At ACME HQ, Mr. Chairman shouts at Wile E. Coyote, who is forgiven but causes several accidents on his departure. The Chairman then phones Marvin the Martian who is imprisoned in Area 52, where the heroes are.

Mother reveals DJ's father's mission, which was to find the Blue Monkey and destroy it, as the Chairman wants it to turn people into monkeys, to manufacture ACME merchandise. Mother then gives DJ an assortment of equipment, and also a riddle to the card. Marvin the Martian attacks with an army of released aliens. The heroes fight against the aliens, but manage to escape by fleeing Area 52.

The gang then discover that the card has a photo of Mona Lisa. They then travel to Paris and to the Louvre where they discover a map of Africa behind the Mona Lisa. Elmer Fudd attacks them and chases Bugs and Daffy around the Louvre, in and out of paintings. The Chairman's minion, Mr. Smith appears and kidnaps Kate. DJ chases him, meeting Pepe Le Pew along the way, and up to the top of the Eiffel Tower. DJ also bumped into The Three Bears, after his trousers fell off, and stole Papa Bear's instead. Mr. Smith steals Kate's camera and he flies off in a helicopter, piloted by Beaky Buzzard. Bugs and Daffy flee from Elmer, who chases them into another painting, but comes out in a pointalism form, which is dissolved by Bugs using a fan. The gang then head off to Africa.

At the ACME HQ, The Chairman discovers where the Blue Monkey is and tortures Damian Drake. He then releases his most vicious operative, Taz, who eats one of the vice presidents. The heroes venture into the heart of Africa and meet up with Tweety Bird, Sylvester the Cat and Granny who are exploring the jungle on an elephant.

The group then discover a mysterious monkey temple which contains the Blue Monkey. Granny, Sylvester and Tweety then unzip suit disguises, to reveal themselves as Mr. Chairman (the film's second act of crossdressing), Mr. Smith and Taz. The Chairman tells Mr. Smith to teleport himself and the heroes to the ACME Headquarters using a disintergrating pistol. Taz roars at Mr. Smith who reveals himself to be a female Tazmanian Devil. The two get married and start roaring.

The heroes and villain arrive back at the headquarters and Mr. Chairman reveals that he will kill Damian Drake with a ACME Train of Death and a bunch of TNT Barrels. DJ hands over the Blue Monkey to the Chairman who gives it to Marvin the Martian who takes off to the ACME Satellite which will be used to turn every into monkeys. Daffy and Bugs pursue him, while DJ and Kate go to save Damian. They run into a giant robotic dog, who battles them.

DJ manages to save his father and blows up Wile E. Coyote (and the train) at the same time.

Bugs and Marvin fight in space, but Bugs loses. Daffy becomes Duck Dodgers and saves the day by turning the Chairman into a monkey. Bugs manages to blast Marvin into space. Daffy and he venture back to Earth. Everything returns to normal, but at the end of the film, Porky Pig's finishing line is cut off by the closing of the studio.

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

Besides the appearance of most of the well-known Warner Brothers cartoon characters and many of their best lines ("I told ya we shoulda made that left toin at Albuquerque!"), there are visits from two other famous cartoon studios:

(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.

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've seen that familiar face. A not-necessarily-complete list of such amusing references, in rough order of appearance, includes:

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.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 When the Gremlin car is first revealed the soundtrack reprises the first few notes of the theme from (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.)The four-eyed green spider creature in "Area 52" has sharp legs and moves abruptly like the arachnoid enemy of 1997 film In one of the funniest classic allusions, Kevin McCarthy reprises his role as Dr. Miles Bennell from the original (1958), 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!" (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 conical robots yelling "Exterminate them!" are Daleks from films based on the British sci-fi series The Jerry Lewis poster at the Eiffel base which reads "OÙ TROUVEZ-VOUS LA GUERRE?" ("Where do you find the war?") comes from (1942Looney Tunes: Back in Action 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 In the monkey village scene, the booby-trapped "Barrel of Monkeys", the darts, and the rock that creates a "pressed duck" (ha-ha) all pay homage to The ACME chairman's third disguise in the monkey village scene is basketball star Michael Jordan, who also played against a Warner Bros. cartoon cast in Bugs makes a double reference to the film series as he absentmindedly battles Marvin with a lightsaber while reading 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 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

In the hilarious 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 by Salvador Dalí. The characters find themselves slowing and melting much like Dalí's famous surreal clock. by Edvard Munch. Bald-headed Elmer Fudd finds himself imitating the original screamer when his foot gets stomped on. by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (the bold watercolor dance hall), in which Bugs and Daffy, in flowing skirts, kick Elmer's can in a can-can., with Elmer's sprayed shotgun blasts, Bugs and Daffy splattering dots when they exit the painting, and Bugs lecturing about pointillism and finally dispersing Elmer with a fan, to which Elmer replies "Oh, cwud!".

Also, in the frenetic scene where Bugs, Daffy, and Elmer dash in and out of various doors in a hallway, they appear in many characterizations of famous art works.

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 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 In the desert, Daffy's beak is so hot, he cooks an egg on it, alluding to the expression "hot enough to fry eggs on the sidewalk".The scene with the Wal-Mart in the middle of the desert mocks not only Wal-Mart's ubiquity, but also general commercial product placement in movies. 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. 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 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.