Since the conclusion of the theater shorts program, the Looney Tunes have been featured in numerous television specials and film compilations, appeared as guest-stars in Robert Zemeckis’ ground-breaking 1988 film Who Framed Roger Rabbit, and most recently graced the big screen in the hit 1996 feature Space Jam, starring alongside basketball legend Michael Jordan. And of course, their early work can still be seen on Saturday mornings in the original shorts.
Continuing this distinguished tradition, Warner Bros. Pictures will release brand-new Looney Tunes animated theatrical shorts in front of a selection of the studio’s feature films in 2004.
At the forefront of the Looney Tunes band of entertainers are wisecracking comedian Bugs Bunny and his famously jealous co-star Daffy Duck. Ever since Chuck Jones first paired them together in the landmark film short Rabbit Fire, Bugs and Daffy have endured one of the world’s most entertaining and enduring screen rivalries. This rivalry – perpetrated primarily by Daffy – forms the foundation for Looney Tunes: Back In Action.
A Cast & Crew of Characters
The filmmakers’ ultimate goal for Looney Tunes: Back In Action was to stay true to the time-honored tradition of rebellious, clever humor that made the Tunes stand out from the pack when they were first introduced, and which has allowed them to remain popular with fans of all ages for decades.
“I think the Looney Tunes endure because they are so funny, so politically incorrect,” says Back In Action screenwriter Larry Doyle, former supervising producer for The Simpsons. “This film emulates the irreverence, the biting humor, the nuances in the characters’ personalities and the specific style of animation developed by the legends of the classic Looney Tunes era.”
Producer Paula Weinstein feels that Doyle’s script captures the Looney Tunes particular witty brand of magic. “Larry created a story that has the edgy humor that one would expect from the Looney Tunes,” she compliments. “They are so funny and beloved largely because they personify qualities that are within all of us: greed, ambition, laziness, humor.”
“The Tunes are vaudeville,” adds producer Bernie Goldmann. “They have that sense of zaniness. There’s so much to make fun of in the world today – there’s a lot of targets out there, which gives the Looney Tunes so much fodder to look at us and make fun. And that’s why it’s great to set them in Hollywood, a place where people are a little self-important and a little full of themselves.” Indeed.
Looney Tunes: Back In Action begins on the Warner Bros. back lot, where world-renowned movie stars Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck are taking a meeting with the studio brass, including stiflingly-serious Vice President of Comedy Kate Houghton, played by Jenna Elfman.
When Bugs’ ever-envious sidekick lobbies the identical Warner Bros. chiefs Mr. Warner and Mr. Warner’s Brother to rewrite their latest comedy as a starring vehicle for himself, Kate is ordered to fire the duck and find a new screen partner for Bugs. She instructs Warner Bros. security guard and aspiring stuntman DJ Drake, played by Brendan Fraser, to physically eject Daffy from the Studio. Naturally, Daffy finds this decision “dethspicable” and leads the security guard on a wild-duck-chase across the lot, which inevitably leads to the expulsion of them both.
Looney Tunes: Back In Action marks the first time Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and the entire Looney Tunes menagerie star in a feature film set entirely in a live action world and interact with “live” 3-D costars throughout the picture.
“There hasn’t been a combination live-action/animated movie this complicated since Who Framed Roger Rabbit,” notes Back In Action director Joe Dante, who first became known to audiences for helming the 1984 Warner Bros. Pictures hit Gremlins, one of the most successful films of the 1980s. “Back In Action isn’t just a bunch of characters shot on a blue screen and inserted into the film. It really looks like an action movie that just happens to co-star Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck.”
“Joe has made movies employing every type of technology that we brought to this film,” says executive producer Chris deFaria. “But that wouldn’t mean anything if he didn’t have the sensibility for this kind of movie. What’s really at the core of Joe Dante is that he’s a big kid and he truly gets a kick out of making movies. It comes across every day.”
“There’s some darkness to the Looney Tunes humor that Joe completely gets,” observes producer Bernie Goldmann. “There’s a subversiveness – that little glint in their eye. If you take a look at Joe’s films, you’ll see that sensibility.”
“Joe knows it all,” says Fraser. “He’s an animation buff and has an almanac’s knowledge of film in general. Actually, I think he might be a cartoon character. I’m halfway expecting Joe Dante to pull a zipper on his forehead and a little cartoon genius to pop out.”
Fraser was the filmmakers’ first choice for the role of hapless security guard and stuntman wannabe DJ Drake. As Dante says, “There’s nobody better suited for this part. Working in a live action/animation film is difficult because the actors spend most of the shoot addressing characters that aren’t there, so there’s an element of fabrication that the actor has to provide. Brendan has a unique talent for doing that and remaining believable – I can’t think of another person as good in this role.”
Fraser was thrilled to share the screen with such a legendary cast. “Who wouldn’t jump through the ceiling at the opportunity to work with Bugs and Daffy? I’m the kid that you’d find Saturday morning with a bowl of Cheerios watching cartoons. The Looney cartoons are probably where I learned everything that I think I know about comic timing.”
A diverse career including starring roles in the blockbusters George of the Jungle and The Mummy series, as well as the critically acclaimed films Gods and Monsters and The Quiet American, illustrates that not only is Fraser a talented and versatile performer, he’s also no stranger to the challenge of working in films imbued with a plethora of special effects and CGI characters. This combination made him a natural fit to play the heroic straight man to the madcap Looney Tunes crew.
“It’s not easy to pull off what Brendan was asked to do,” says deFaria. “Not only did he have to act against nothing most of the time, but more important and equally difficult is to actually carve out a real relationship with Daffy Duck. The circumstances didn’t make it easy, but Brendan’s great achievement is the wonderful sense he created of he and Daffy in this odd partnership.”
Weinstein, who worked with Fraser on his first movie, With Honors, says, “Rarely have I seen an actor grow as fantastically as Brendan has. He is the Cary Grant of our times. He’s funny and self-deprecating – he even does his own stunts. And he and Jenna have amazing chemistry. They’re very funny with each other and their characters follow an old-fashioned love story without being overly sentimental.”
Jenna Elfman had wanted to work with Fraser ever since she first saw him starring in Encino Man. “I specifically remember sitting there going, ‘Who is that? Because that guy is brilliant.’ I was so taken by his belief, by the way he played the character for real.”
As soon as she heard that the film was going to highlight the Looney Tunes’ trademark acerbic wit (and that a lot of that wit would be directed at her stuffy corporate character), Elfman was hooked. “Growing up, what I loved about them is that they were so rebellious and feisty,” she says. “It seems that there was a period of time where that got diluted a bit, so I was excited that they were going to bring that type of personality back to these characters.”
“I think Jenna has a strand of DNA borrowed from Carol Burnett or Lucille Ball,” Fraser marvels. “She has an amazing facility for physical comedy, and a spitfire delivery. She’s a pro all the way, and easy to work with because she enjoys being there. She really likes her job, which I think is part of what makes her so good at it.”
Looney Tunes: Back In Action introduces a brand new live action villain into the Looney universe: Mr. Chairman, evil head honcho of Acme Corporation, manufacturer of the ridiculously ineffectual products that Wile E. Coyote consistently employs to bone-crushing effect. The all-powerful leader of the multinational conglomerate is played by comic legend Steve Martin, award-winning actor, screenwriter, director, author and producer.
Martin was drawn to the project when, upon reading the script, he developed an immediate affinity for the unlikable Acme titan. “I liked the Chairman,” he recalls. “As I read him, I had this little vision pop into my head of what he would look like. And I’ve always loved Daffy and Bugs and Elmer – I grew up with them. So right there were three guys I really wanted to work with.”
The filmmakers presented Martin with the unique opportunity to completely create the character as he saw fit. “The villains in these kinds of movies are always the most difficult to play because they do the most expected things in the picture,” says Dante. “And what’s worse, Mr. Chairman is a corporate fellow, a guy behind a desk, and it’s difficult to make that kind of character interesting in a comedy. But Steve took this very conventional character and concocted a truly daring, over-the-top presentation of him.”
“I can’t even begin to explain the performance Steve delivered,” deFaria enthuses. “It’s this strange sort of angry schoolboy whose development was arrested somewhere in private school back East. And now he’s going to punish the rest of the world for that. It’s a very, very funny performance.”
Asked about the evil corporate titan’s inner qualities, Martin says, “He’s certainly an egomaniac. He thinks he’s pretty handsome. But he’s a frustrated businessman and he gets a little aggravated when things aren’t going his way. Basically, it’s just hard being an evil empire-runner.”
From his penthouse lair, Mr. Chairman presides over a hapless board of directors, comprised of a who’s-who of Joe Dante film veterans and seasoned character actors. Members of the board include Vice President Rhetorical Questions (Robert Picardo), V.P. Bad Ideas (Mary Woronov), V.P. Never Learning (Ron Perlman), V.P. Stating the Obvious (Marc Lawrence), V.P. Child Labor (Vernon G. Wells), V.P. Nitpicking (Bill McKinney), V.P. Clawing Way to Top (Leo Rossi), and finally, V.P. Unfairly Promoted (George Murdock).
With his enormous silent henchman Mr. Smith by his side – played by former professional wrestler-turned-actor Bill Goldberg, known in the wrestling world simply as Goldberg – Mr. Chairman has hatched a deplorable plot that will culminate in total world domination. (The diabolical monopolist plans to transform the world’s population into monkeys and put them to work manufacturing shoddy Acme products – then turn them back into humans and sell them the products they made at ludicrous prices.)
A secret group of covert operatives, portrayed by Looney Tunes characters Yosemite Sam, Wile E. Coyote, the Tasmanian Devil and Marvin the Martian – just to name a few – have been strategically placed around the world to secure the mysterious Blue Monkey Diamond. To this end, they have kidnapped the man who holds all the clues to the secret location of the Diamond – DJ’s father Damian Drake, world-famous star of a slew of popular spy films.
In casting the character of Damian, the filmmakers approached Timothy Dalton, who is, of course, a world-famous star of the most popular slew of spy films ever made. “We sort of threw it out to Timothy and hoped he would bite,” says deFaria. “‘Hey, would you play a movie star who plays a spy all the time? Do you think he’ll notice that we asked him to play himself?'”
Dalton notes that his character is “certainly a kind of echo or reverberation of my own history.” The actor grew up watching Looney Tunes, and now enjoys watching the cartoons with his own children. “They have fantastic comic timing, are full of marvelously imaginative ideas, and they work just as well today as they ever did.”
Bernie Goldmann notes that while Dalton turned in a very funny performance, he plays a pivotal role in the movie. “Damian Drake is the emotional center of the film – as DJ’s goal is to save his father – but he’s also the hero who ultimately must pass the torch to his son. By taking his part really seriously and playing it totally straight, Timothy’s scenes just couldn’t be funnier.”
After DJ and Daffy discover that Damian is missing, they head off to connect with his secret agent contacts around the globe in a desperate attempt to beat Mr. Chairman’s Acme goons to the Diamond. First stop is beautiful Las Vegas, Nevada, where at Yosemite Sam’s Wooden Nickel Casino, DJ meets a shapely cowgirl singer named Dusty Tails, played by Heather Locklear. Dusty is not only one of Damian’s connections, she’s also star of the Yosemite Sam Revue stage spectacular. “Her character doesn’t seem so outlandish to start with, until you learn that she’s also a hired gun for the CIA,” says deFaria.
Locklear was thrilled when asked to appear as the singing, dancing showgirl. “I grew up watching Looney Tunes, and I was really excited when they asked me to be part of the movie.” Locklear and Fraser trained and rehearsed their number for three days with the film’s choreographer, three-time Emmy Award winner Marguerite Derricks. “Brendan was a great dance partner,” Locklear raves. “He is so good it made my part easy. We had a great time. I would do it again in a heartbeat.”
Once they complete the Las Vegas leg of their mission, our heroes get themselves stranded in the middle of the scorching desert, where they luckily stumble into the mysterious Area 52 – a government facility so top secret that Area 51 was created just to cover it up.
Area 52, whose motto is “Keeping Things From The American People Since 1947,” is devoted to the containment of alien creatures. The operation is the domain of Mother, its eccentric chief scientist and head administrator, played by Joan Cusack. “She’s the caretaker to the extraterrestrials,” says deFaria. “A bumbling, forgetful scientist who’s in charge of saving the world from aliens.”
“The character of Mother was originally based on Q from the James Bond films, and M as played by Judi Dench,” says Cusack, who herself is a big fan of the world of science. “I have to keep all these aliens in line, so I’ve got to be tough.” However, with two young kids of her own, Cusack decided to infuse her character with a loving, accessible, parental attitude. “It’s so hard to find those movies that you can go to with your family and have a good experience. I’m thrilled to have been part of it.”
Ultimately, the filmmakers have set out to make a fresh and funny film that the whole family can enjoy. Says Chris deFaria, “It’s a sprawling comic adventure, featuring two of the best loved characters in the world starring alongside an exemplary live cast. It’s an effects extravaganza, a romantic comedy, a tour de force for animation, and in the end, I hope, a classic.”
Dante hopes the film will take moviegoers to a place they haven’t been in awhile. “I hope that when the audience leaves the theater they feel that they have caught some of the spirit of how the Looney Tunes affected them when they first saw them.”
Looney Tunes: Back in Action
Directed by: Joe Dante
Starring: Brendan Fraser, Jenna Elfman, Steve Martin, Joan Cusack, Heather Locklear, Timothy Dalton, Bill Goldberg, Robert Picardo
Screenplay by: Larry Doyle
Production Design by: Bill Brzeski
Cinematography by: Dean Cundey
Film Editing by: Rick Finney, Marshall Harvey
Costume Design by: Mary E. Vogt
Set Decoration by: Lisa K. Sessions
Music by: Jerry Goldsmith
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for mild language, inuendo.
Studio: Warner Bros. Pictures
Release Date: November 14, 2003