Looney Tunes: Back in Action opened on this day 20 years ago. Directed by Joe Dante of Gremlins fame, the film’s plot is set in motion when Daffy Duck gets fired from Warner Bros., which somehow leads to security guard and wannabe Hollywood stuntman Brendan Fraser also being fired, which somehow leads to them embarking on a quest to save Fraser’s father Timothy Dalton from evil Steve Martin, who wants to take over the world using a mystical diamond with the power to turn human beings into monkeys.

Now, if you tell most people about this movie, they think you’re just making it up, as Back in Action, somewhat inexplicably, has fallen into almost total pop culture obscurity. This is probably at least in part due to it bombing in a big way, grossing only $20 million stateside against a production budget of $80 million. It was the fifth and final film from the extremely short-lived Warner Bros. Feature Animation, which just couldn’t catch a break at the box office with flops like Quest for Camelot, The Iron Giant, and Osmosis Jones. Their only hit, fittingly enough, was their first film, which just so happened to be Space Jam, meaning they lived and died on the shoulders of Bugs Bunny right until the very end (some internet databases wrongly cite Cats Don’t Dance and The King & I as their work as well, but Warner Bros. was only a distributor on those). It was also the last movie from a major studio to be helmed by Dante. Hollywood can be a cruel industry.

You would still expect for Back in Action to have developed a notable cult following by now given the talent involved, but not even that has happened, really. And whenever people do bring the movie up, they tend to have weirdly strong opinions on it, for whatever reason, which doesn’t make much sense to me since ultimately it’s just a goofy and very hyper Looney outing with plenty of great gags and some fantastic special effects. You could make the case that it can potentially leave the viewer exhausted–it never stops, like ever–but it’s an entertaining ride which succeeds at what it’s trying to do. Perhaps audiences were tired of spy spoofs at the time (this was just after three Austin Powers flicks), perhaps Warner Bros. didn’t know how to sell it, or most likely, the movie’s terrible release date is what killed it, with Back in Action competing against Brother Bear, Elf, The Cat in the Hat and The Haunted Mansion for the attention of ticket buyers.

There was a solid marketing campaign, but finding the ads in good quality on YouTube is unfortunately almost impossible. I guess the demand for “Brendan Fraser sells AOL to kids” isn’t in very high demand? Anyway, here’s Brendan Fraser selling AOL to kids…

Did that commercial make you feel old? Well, then I’ll keep it up. Here’s a Sprint ad in which Daffy Duck saves the life of “Sprint Guy” (was that his name?) during the filming of a commercial by hogging the spotlight and getting himself blown up in the process. I say, I say, Foghorn Leghorn is also in this, and the big selling feature of the commercial is that the phone has…a camera. Yup. I’m feeling older than dirt right now. Also, sorry for the terrible video quality here.

Finally, we have a Wendy’s promotion. This one shouldn’t make me feel old, except it does, because it makes me miss the days of yellow Wendy’s. WHY CAN’T YOU BRING THAT PACKAGING BACK, YOU CORPORATE MONSTERS?!?! Anyway, they had a special spicy sandwich sauce to sell the movie (because that’s a stable of the Looney Tunes, I guess?), along with a set of kid’s meal toys. I sadly don’t have any of these, but as I always say, perhaps I’ll remedy that on eBay someday (and maybe order some yellow Wendy’s napkins like the weird nostalgic fucker I am).

That’s all, folks! Have a great night!