Looney Tunes: Rabbits Run, a Direct to Video feature released in 2015, is a comic adventure that sends the characters on a wild chase in the tradition of It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.
Lola Bunny is a perfume salesperson who wants to create "the world's most beautiful fragrance". Her dream comes true when she uses the Flora Occulta, a rare flower gifted to her by her landlord, Speedy Gonzales, as the key ingredient in her latest experiment. However, Lola doesn't realize that the ultimate fragrance is also the ultimate weapon, because the Flora Occulta can turn people invisible — and now, so can her perfume! Lola befriends cab driver Bugs Bunny, and they find themselves wanted fugitives pursued by four separate parties: federal agent Elmer Fudd, who's working with army general Foghorn Leghorn to keep the flower out of the wrong hands; Cecil Turtle, who seems to be on Leghorn's team but is actually a Double Agent working for Marvin the Martian, who wants the flower for nefarious purposes; Giovanni Jones, Lola's boss, who tries to pass off her valuable formula as his creation (after he fires her); and Yosemite Sam, a "little hillbilly leprechaun" and would-be bank robber who has no idea what's going on, but goes after Lola and Bugs anyway because there's a price on their heads and he's broke. Along the way, rival cabbie Daffy Duck gets mixed up with Bugs and Lola for a while, and several other Looney Tunes characters appear.
Looney Tunes: Rabbits Trope:
- Accessory-Wearing Cartoon Animal: Daffy wears only a cap and a bow tie.
- Adapted Out: Looney Tunes staples such Taz, Granny and Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner don't appear at all.
- Ambiguously Gay:
- It's heavily implied that Mac and Tosh are in a relationship. They act Like an Old Married Couple, bickering but making up almost immediately. They're even seeing a therapist together.
- This interpretation fits Giovanni Jones as well; he has very campy mannerisms and an effeminate voice, and is very into fashion.
- And the Adventure Continues: Bugs suggests he and Lola go the playoff game. When told it's sold out, he says they'll get in and reveals he still has the invisibility formula.
- Arc Words: "Maybe it's time you/I had a new dream."
- Barefoot Cartoon Animal: Lola and Speedy, as usual.
- Big Applesauce: The action starts in New York City, where Lola, Bugs and Daffy all live.
- Big Bad: Marvin is easily the most powerful of the villains — not that it does him much good.
- The Big Damn Kiss: Towards the end of the film, Bugs and Lola share a long kiss between each other before Speedy Gonzales interrupts them.
- Bound and Gagged: Lola ends up like this after being kidnapped by Cecil and his henchmen.
- Butt-Monkey: Bugs fills the role. In a few scenes, he faces the brunt of a lot of slapstick.
- The Cameo: Pete Puma works for General Leghorn, Pepé Le Pew runs the House of Moufette, Witch Hazel appears in an Imagine Spot during "Smell in My Mind", Porky Pig shows up briefly in a New York traffic jam (and to deliver his standard "That's All, Folks!" line at the end), and Sylvester the Cat and Tweety Bird make an appearance on a poster in the background of one chase scene.
- Chase Scene: Several throughout the film as the characters pursue each other from New York to Paris to Mars.
- Composite Character: Lola's characterization in this movie is a mixture of her Cloudcuckoolander personality from The Looney Tunes Show and a more reasonable version of her role model persona from Space Jam.
- Damsel in Distress: Lola becomes one when Cecil tries to "smelt" her in a Nightmarish Factory. Bugs saves her (with very little help from Daffy).
- Disney Acid Sequence: Parodied. Lola has a bombastic "I Want" Song that flashes through a series of crazy scenes that seem to just be musical-style Imagine Spots, but then the movie cuts to reality and it's revealed that the whole time Lola was daydreaming she managed to destroy the store she worked in.
- Drives Like Crazy: Daffy to the extreme, staying one step ahead of the police chase and nearly giving Bugs a heart attack. When Bugs asks if he's crazy, Daffy says he's been told there is no appropriate word for his condition.
- Easily Forgiven: When Giovanni asks Lola to forgive him, she does — but she has her limits. When he asks for a hug immediately afterwards, she tersely replies "Don't push it."
- Even Evil Has Standards: Played with for laughs. Cecil doesn't necessarily have a problem with hurting people per se, but he came onto his job expecting not to and since it's pretty illegal to eliminate people and destroy the Earth he would really rather get paid a lot more for it than he is. His stint of Bond Villain Stupidity is also because he doesn't have the heart to stick around to and see someone get killed in a Death Trap.
- Foot Popping: Both Played Straight (Lola when she and Bugs do their First Kiss) and Played for Laughs (Bugs when showing off his flight attendant high heels).
- Full-Body Disguise: Cecil Turtle's two silent human Mooks are later revealed to be a couple of Marvin's Instant Martian birds in full-body human suits that unzip down the front.
- Furry Confusion: Daffy watches non-anthropomorphic ducks in the zoo...and eventually joins them.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus:
- When Lola falls out her apartment window while being shot at by Cecil's men, as she falls while spraying the invisibility spray she passes by The Great Gildersneeze from "Hare Conditioned" tickling Dora Standpipe's feet from "The Dover Boys", The Little Man From The Draftboard from "Draftee Daffy" taking a bath, and Red Hot Ryder and his horse from "Buckaroo Bugs".
- During one of the car chase scenes, a theatre is showing Looney Tunes: Rabbits Run.
- Fugitive Arc: Lola and Bugs become "the two most wanted rabbits in the country" and are continually chased around.
- Genius Ditz: Lola is as much of a scatterbrained Cloudcuckoolander/Talkative Loon here as in The Looney Tunes Show, but she knows what she's doing when it comes to creating perfumes.
- Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal: Bugs and some of the other furry characters.
- "I Want" Song: "Smell in My Mind", about Lola's desire to "make a real difference" by creating the ultimate fragrance.
- Imagine Spot: During "Smell in My Mind", Lola fantasizes about visiting the United Nations to create world peace with her perfume. Hillary Clinton is visible among the diplomats. In the process, she trashes the entire mall resulting in her being fired.
- Insane Troll Logic: While Bugs and Lola evaded the feds, Sam got arrested for his attempted bank robbery. He insists that not sitting on a pile of cash means he didn't actually commit a crime and should be let go. Elmer ignores him.
- Invisibility: The plot revolves around it. Interestingly, Lola and Bugs both turn themselves invisible with the formula several times without realizing it, since it washes off with water.
- Know-Nothing Know-It-All: Daffy is broke because he doesn't realize that cab drivers are paid by the fare, not through a salary. He shows Bugs and Lola some of NYC's tourist attractions: the St. Louis archesnote , the Washington Monument, Fisherman's Wharf, Old Faithful, the Space Needle...
- Lazy Bum: When Daffy discovers that ducks live at the zoo "rent free, meals, everything taken care of" instead of having to work, he's very interested. He winds up sharing a pond there with the wild ducks.
- Literal-Minded: One of Lola's quirks. When she first meets Bugs, he uses his catchphrase "What's up, Doc?" and she replies "Oh, no, I'm not a doctor." Later, when Yosemite Sam is kidnapping them:Sam: You're not a-goin' anywhere. Now get in the truck!
Lola: I thought you just said "You're not a-goin' anywhere".
Sam: What?
Lola: You said, "You're not a-goin' anywhere!" So do you want us to go anywhere or not a-go anywhere? - MacGuffin: The Flora Occulta, and the perfume Lola makes while unwittingly using it.
- The Makeover: Mac and Tosh give one to Lola during their musical number, "Girl, You're Fabulous".
- Manic Pixie Dream Girl: It's not given a lot of attention, but Lola is this to Bugs. At the beginning, he's been a disappointed cynic since a high rise was built over his rabbit hole, and all he wants is to find another hole and grump around alone. Lola shows him that there are better ways to live.
- Merging Machine: The Martian teleporters become this when everyone tries to use one of them at the same time. Hilarity Ensues as heads and bodies are randomly switched, and the characters' attempts to get back to normal just make things worse.
- Moment Killer: After being saved from Cecil, Lola thanks Bugs and says she hoped he would be the one to rescue her. This bit of Ship Tease is squashed when Daffy points out he's there and claims to have helped out, too.
- Mooks: Cecil is accompanied by two silent henchmen who turn out to be Martian birds in disguise.
- Mundane Utility: Speedy uses his Super-Speed to do routine actions, like getting a snack in Paris.
- My Beloved Smother: Mac's mother asks him for money and hates Tosh, which is why Tosh repeatedly tells Mac to "Cut the cord!"
- Mythology Gag:
- Remember the Yosemite Sam truck mudflaps? Here, they exist In-Universe.Bugs: Is that you on those mudflaps?
Sam: They were a side business. I took a bath on those things! You want a set?
Bugs: I'm good. - Lola and Giovanni work at the Acme department store.
- The ship they use to escape Mars is the "Martian Maggot" rocket from Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century.
- At one point during the climax, the various characters constantly switch their body parts with each other. For a brief moment, Daffy makes a cameo, appearing in his flower-headed, quadrupedal form with a screwball flag on his tail from Duck Amuck.
- Lola and Bugs' exchange regarding him dressing as a female flight attendant is lifted almost word-for-word from The Looney Tunes Show episode "Spread Those Wings and Fly" (only with Daffy dressed as a female flight attendant).
- In their human disguises, Cecil's twin henchmen resemble Steve Brody from Bowery Bugs.
- Remember the Yosemite Sam truck mudflaps? Here, they exist In-Universe.
- Never Say "Die": Marvin orders Cecil to "eliminate" Lola and Bugs. Averted with Lola, when she brings up the probability of people dying in an invisible world.
- No MacGuffin, No Winner: The invisibility formula is seemingly destroyed at the end. Then Bugs admits to Lola that he saved some of it for himself and has been using it all along...
- Noodle Incident: After the yearlong Time Skip, Bugs reveals to Lola that he still has the invisibility formula and has used it at least a couple of times.
- "Oh, Crap!" Smile: Daffy does this when seeing Elmer (who just chased Bugs and Lola through the zoo) pass by. Elmer doesn't appear to know who Daffy is or why the duck's smiling like that, so he himself does this out of confusion before running off.
- Outlaw Couple: Elmer thinks Bugs and Lola might be married; after all, they have the same last name. Cecil adds that they might be brother and sister instead.
- Paris: Lola and Giovanni are both on their way there to sell the valuable perfume to the House of Moufette, "the pre-eminent perfumery in the industry".
- The Prankster: Bugs and Lola use the invisibility formula to mess with ordinary Parisians.
- Punch-Clock Villain: Elmer is just a federal agent doing his job and has no issue with Bugs or Lola after he thinks the formula has been destroyed.
- Running Gag: Marvin mentioning something, only to find out he's misplaced it.
- Saying Too Much: Yosemite Sam keeps announcing that he's a bank robber at the worst possible times — such as when he's about to rob the bank and isn't ready yet, or when the authorities are listening.
- Serious Business: Lola thinks of perfume this way, even before she winds up chased around the world because of it.Lola: A scent needs to transport you, needs to caress you, evoke memories, make you feel like you're not alone. A scent should envelop you, take care of you, love you.
- Sharp-Dressed Man: Elmer wears a snappy black suit and bowler hat instead of his iconic hunting outfit. Cecil's henchmen also dress this way (minus the hat) while in disguise.
- She Cleans Up Nicely: Lola is already pretty cute on her own, but when Mac and Tosh give her a makeover, she's stunning. Bugs is understandably impressed.
- Sleep Cute: Bugs and Lola on the plane.
- The Smurfette Principle: Lola may be the film's star, but she's also the only major female character.
- Speaks Fluent Animal: When Lola and Bugs are stuck in the ocean, Lola says she can "speak dolphin" and asks the creatures to send "a nice yacht, a big one, with a Jacuzzi" to rescue them. Mac and Tosh's yacht immediately appears — and of course, they're already headed for Paris. However, it's an Ambiguous Situation since the only "dolphins" we see are actually sharks.
- Super-Speed: Speedy's power, as usual. It's mostly used for gags, but it also kicks off the plot, as Speedy uses it to grab the Flora Occulta just as Leghorn's people are about to take it.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Cecil attempts to make a clean getaway at the end of the movie. Being a turtle, he runs very slowly and Elmer Fudd catches him just by walking up to him.
- Teleportation: Marvin teleports everyone to Mars, and a chase scene takes place at a "Teleporter Depot".
- Tempting Fate: After she gets fired, Lola tries to think of one thing to be grateful for, and decides on the weather: "It's a beautiful, sunny day". It immediately starts raining.
- That's All, Folks!: Courtesy of Porky, as usual. Daffy then stops by to comment on this, prompting Porky to attack him.
- Time Skip: The epilogue takes place one year later, with Lola being a success in the fashion industry and Bugs in a far better mood.
- Toilet Humor: When Giovanni steals the perfume and heads to Paris, "flight attendants" Lola and Bugs serve him a lot of high-fiber foods so he'll be forced to go to the bathroom and they can get the perfume back while he's gone.
- Took a Level in Badass: Elmer Fudd, notorious for his inability to catch Bugs, is now a tough fed who's actually pretty competent.
- Trailers Always Spoil: The film treats Marvin's climactic appearance as The Reveal, but if you see the trailer or the DVD cover, you'll already know he's in the movie. Also, the blurb on the DVD box gives away pretty much the entire plot.
- Tuckerization: The theatre showing Looney Tunes: Rabbits Run is named after producer and director Jeff Siergy.
- Unwilling Suspension: Lola is suspended from the ceiling at the beginning of the scene where she's bound and gagged.
- What You Are in the Dark: After leaving the sewer, Bugs insists he's done with Lola and going his own way. When he sees her getting abducted soon afterwards by Cecil, he begrudgingly goes after her.
- Wholesome Crossdresser: Bugs does this yet again when he and Lola both pose as female flight attendants. Lola lampshades it.Lola: Okay, you know there are male flight attendants.
Bugs: Yeah, but I like the height the heels give me. - World-Wrecking Wave: A variation. Marvin still wants to get rid of Earth so he can see Venus clearly, but instead of destroying the planet, he wants to use the Flora Occulta to make it invisible.
- World-Healing Wave: Also a variation. Bugs switches the bottle of pure invisibility spray with the identical bottle of Lola's perfume that it was extracted from, so all Marvin does is make Earth smell really nice for a while.
- Yank the Dog's Chain: Upon learning that what they have is actually an invisibility formula, Bugs is impressed and proclaims it an amazing accomplishment. Lola, however, is crushed because it means she once again failed at achieving her dream.
- You Have Failed Me: Marvin pulls this on Cecil at the end, causing him to switch sides and help the heroes escape.
