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Looney Tunes: Back in Action

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Recap of Looney Tunes: Back in Action.


In a cold open, we are treated to Elmer Fudd beginning the familiar Duck Season, Rabbit Season sequence. Familiar star characters for the routine Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck play it out as expected, ending with Daffy getting blasted back to back.

An off-screen voiceover of Daffy Duck concludes the sequence. We cut to the real world - as it turns out, Daffy (portrayed throughout the film as one of many toon actors in the Warner Bros. studio) is participating in a pitch review for an upcoming Looney Tunes film, clearly displeased with his frequent status as the Butt-Monkey. Daffy interjects to the Warner Brothers and the studio board that he does not enjoy playing second fiddle to Bugs Bunny, at which point Bugs shows up at the meeting. Bugs entertains the idea that Daffy Duck should indeed score a lead role in a future film, but when Vice President of Comedy Kate Houghton, an executive producer with a favorable track record in the studio, shoots down the idea, Kate highlights Bugs's stellar appeal with fanbases of multiple key demographics vs Daffy's meager popularity. Multiple failed attempts of Daffy trying to impress the executives culminate in his dismissal, and Kate begins to escort him out of the property.

Aspiring stuntman DJ Drake, who works as a security guard on the studio, comes out of a failed tryout with the order from Kate to eject the duck off the lot. Surprised at the prospect that Daffy Duck had been fired from Warner Bros., DJ merely claims that Kate had only fired Daffy at the behest of her superiors rather than any personal initiative. The ensuing brief combination provides Daffy the chance to escape Kate's grip, and when DJ points this out, Kate chastizes DJ for perceived incompetence. A lengthy chase ensues through the studio lot, which ends in the film set of an upcoming Batman movie, DJ performing an impromptu building stunt jump on an airbag to the ire of the director. When Daffy sees the Batmobile staged on set, he attempts to ride it off to escape the studio, but is stopped by DJ. However, the Batmobile had been started, causing it to run away with no driver at the controls. It crashes into the studio water tower, causing it to overturn. DJ is also fired as a result.

We cut to the studio cafeteria, where a handful of tables feature various studio stars: Porky Pig lamenting that political correctness would affect his role and career as an actor to Speedy Gonzales, who agrees sincerely; Shaggy and Scooby-Doo chastizing Matthew Lillard for a mediocre performance in Scooby-Doo (2002); and Bugs and Kate talking about the script for an upcoming Bugs Bunny film - Kate particularly has ire in that "there's no heart, no cooperation, [and that] nobody learns anything." Bugs casually brings up Daffy in this discussion, which irritates Kate. Kate proposes that to better leverage Bugs' brand identity, he ought to be partnered with a female co-star, to which Bugs remarks that he frequently crossdresses (irritating Kate further) as part of his routine. Further mention of Daffy prompts Kate to attempt to tell Bugs to forget the duck once and for all. Bugs' immense accolades profile (eight Oscars, plus a star on the Walk of Fame) are used to rebut Kate, the award statuettes exclaiming that they want Daffy back.

DJ arrives home from being fired, but Daffy manages to hitch a ride inside his backpack. Alternating between pessimism on how the recent incident has tarnished his career and his typical mischievous hijinxes, Daffy eventually realizes that DJ is the son of super-spy actor superstar Damian Drake. However, Daffy seemingly takes the "super-spy" part too literally, which angers DJ, but before he can act excessively on that anger, a remote control rings in the house. DJ uses it to turn a hidden projector on, which projects a video call of Damian Sr. onto a hidden video screen behind a painting. DJ asks what's going on, but there is no time to explain - except that Damian is entrusting DJ with a clandestine mission. In the midst of a fight between him and several thugs, Damian tells DJ to find an accomplice of his named Dusty Tails in Las Vegas to search for a diamond named the Blue Monkey. Daffy is entranced by the possible riches of discovering an elusive diamond, but DJ sees the situation for what it is - his dad is in danger - and starts to head to Las Vegas, the only lead he has to save him. Daffy tags along (kind of against DJ's insistence), excited about a partaking in a possible spy caper as well. They board an old AMC Gremlin with DJ driving (Daffy thinking that this is some sort of super-spy car despite DJ's insistence that it is just an ordinary car). As they pull out, however, a second car is revealed from beneath the driveway: a shiny, right-hand-drive TVR Tuscan - unbeknownst to the heroes, the actual spy car in question.

In the screening room at the studio, Kate and the Warner brothers are viewing a test take of Kate's new script. The same Duck Season, Rabbit Season routine fails tremendously without Daffy's presence, and the Warner brothers fire Kate on the spot, on the grounds that she got rid of Daffy. Attempting to defend herself, she ends up getting an ultimatum to bring Daffy back by the following Monday or face termination herself. However, this proves to be a difficult task as Daffy is on the road with DJ heading to Las Vegas, which Daffy proudly boasts during a call from Bugs imploring him to return to the studio. Bugs is left confused as to what Daffy was talking about with "Daffy Duck's Quest for the Blue Monkey", but ultimately knows that Daffy is with DJ heading to Las Vegas.

The conversation is intercepted by a satellite owned by the villainous ACME Corporation. Mr. Smith, monitoring the satellite, gets wind of the conversation, and promptly reports to the bumbling, eccentric Mr. Chairman, who realizes that Damian Drake had passed information along about the Blue Monkey. He chimes in with a handful of henchmen who are interrogating Damian. When one of his board members points out that Daffy was also in view, the Chairman simply replies, "Extra crispy."

Kate attempts to locate DJ at his house to try to ask him where Daffy went, but is unsuccessful, finding Bugs in a dramatic recreation of the shower scene from Psycho. Frustrated, she walks into a hall of posters pointing DJ as Damien Drake's son, ultimately realizing her wrongdoings at work throughout the day. Bugs does reveal where DJ and Daffy are going, and the two take a ride in the TVR Tuscan from earlier - the two also not realizing this is a spy car - and head to Las Vegas in pursuit. On the road, however, Bugs takes glee in all the features the car has - and quite overenthusiastically and overzealously tries them out, much to Kate's displeasure.

DJ and Daffy arrive at Las Vegas and find out that Dusty Tails will be performing at the Wooden Nickel Casino owned by fellow toon Yosemite Sam. Sam is instructed by the ACME Chairman to take whatever measure to ensure that DJ and Daffy do not leave the casino alive. Watching the Dusty Tails performance, DJ attempts to speak to Dusty, sneaking into backstage to do so with no avail. However, an opportunity arises when the Yosemite Sam backup dancers are moving on stage; DJ snatches one from behind and puts the mask on and dances on stage to get within earshot of Dusty. Figuring out DJ's relationship to her accomplice Damian, Dusty brings DJ and Daffy in the green room.

As Daffy tries to search the room for the diamond, presuming Dusty has it stashed somewhere in the room, Dusty reveals that she too is a secret agent who works with Damian, and figures out that Damian must have been in trouble when he didn't show up to pass information about the Blue Monkey mission to her. Once she changes out of her performance attire (and into her spy gear), she shows DJ a Queen of Diamonds card with the Mona Lisa's face applied. DJ asks for it, but Dusty warns DJ the dangers of the mission he has now gotten entangled in. Daffy, unfazed, begins to exit the room, but behind the door is Yosemite Sam and his goons (Nasty Canasta and Cottontail Smith), who are standing beside a lit cannon ready to fire on the heroes. Everyone dives for cover, but Daffy gets blasted into the distance; he lands into a foam extinguisher. DJ, card in hand from Dusty, runs out of the room as Sam and his henchmen give chase; Dusty fights and briefly knocks out Smith and Canasta.

The chase goes all the way through the casino, Yosemite Sam dead set on acquiring the card from DJ and co. Recovering from their beatdown from earlier, Smith and Canasta fight DJ over the playing card (losing yet again), and in the scuffle, the playing card flies off in the air, directly above the table floor. DJ attempts to jump for the card, but fails, landing on a poker table where several dogs are playing cards. The Queen of Diamonds card flies through the air and eventually lands in a shuffler for a blackjack table where Foghorn Leghorn is dealing.

Both DJ and Sam arrive at Foghorn's table, who deals them in. DJ gets first turn. He starts off with an ace and two, and asks for the hit. Getting low cards back to back, Yosemite Sam gets frustrated as DJ is playing, and eventually gets (literally) hit by the dealer, reduced to verbal anger as a result. One more hit afterwards produces the special Queen of Diamonds; noticing this, DJ grabs it and quickly storms out, Daffy in tow. Yosemite Sam resumes his pursuit, and DJ and Daffy arrive back into their car. As DJ attempts to start the car, however, it breaks down. They have no option but to continue the chase on foot through the Vegas strip. Meanwhile, Jeff Gordon is reclaiming his famous race car from the valet when Yosemite Sam and his henchmen hijack it in order to continue their chase on the heroes.

Kate and Bugs arrive in Vegas, and right as they are lamenting on Vegas's sheer scale, Daffy appears right in front of them, plastered against the windshield of the Tuscan. DJ follows behind him, and makes Kate allow him to commandeer the Tuscan as the DuPont Monte Carlo Number 24 follows right behind them, the chase going through the streets of Las Vegas and briefly involving dynamite. Eventually, both cars turn into an alleyway that terminates into a dead end, but when Daffy quietly whimpers, "Mother," the Tuscan reveals wings and jet engines and begins flying above the alleyways, leaving Jeff Gordon's car with nothing to do but ram into the building (Yosemite Sam's casino) and launch Sam into a room full of dynamite, which eventually explodes; Sam is sent flying. The Tuscan continues its airborne journey to "Mother" (Daffy finally realizing that it is the spy car he had been rambling about). However, DJ, attempting to regain control of the situation, inadvertently stops the car's flying mode, and it crashes in the dead of night in the middle of the desert (briefly stopping when it supposedly runs out of gas, much to Kate's astonishment); the two set up an impromptu campfire overnight. At camp, Daffy and Bugs confide in each other how the studio had been begging for Daffy to return shortly after his removal, with Daffy lamenting that it takes much more effort for him to be popular versus Bugs.

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