The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle – the 2000 live-action film

November 22, 2023

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The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle is a 2000 live-action/animated adventure slapstick comedy film directed by Des McAnuff and produced by Universal Pictures, based on the television cartoon of the same name by Jay Ward. The animated characters Rocky and Bullwinkle share the screen with live actors playing Fearless Leader (played by Robert De Niro, who also co-produced the film), Boris Badenov (Jason Alexander), and Natasha Fatale (Rene Russo) alongside Randy Quaid, Piper Perabo, Kenan Thompson and Kel Mitchell. June Foray reprized her role as Rocky, while Keith Scott (no relation to original actor Bill Scott) voiced Bullwinkle and the film's narrator. The film also features cameos from performers including James Rebhorn, Paget Brewster, Janeane Garofalo, John Goodman, David Alan Grier, Don Novello, Jon Polito, Carl Reiner, Whoopi Goldberg, Max Grodenchik, Norman Lloyd, Jonathan Winters and Billy Crystal.

The film follows a young FBI agent named Karen Sympathy who enlists the help of Rocky and Bullwinkle to stop Boris, Natasha, and Fearless Leader from taking control of the United States. Released on June 30, 2000, the film was a box office flop, grossing $35,1 million worldwide against a $76 million budget (making it one of the biggest box office flops in history) and received critical reviews mixed with criticism of the writing, plot, and humor, while praising the performances, visual effects, and faithfulness to the source material.

The film opens with the melancholy lives of Rocky the Squirrel and Bullwinkle J. Moose, as their television series was canceled in 1964. Their animated home, Frostbite Falls, has been deforested, Rocky can no longer fly, and the narrator of the show, Lived with his mother. Meanwhile, their archenemies, Fearless Leader, Boris Badenov, and Natasha Fatale, have all lost power in Pottsylvania following the end of the Cold War. They escape by tunneling into a Hollywood movie studio, where they trick executive Minnie Mogul into signing a rights deal for their series and greenlighting a potential film, dragging the villains from the animated world and turning them into live-action characters.

Six months later, Fearless Leader and his minions founded RBTV (“Really Bad Television”), a cable television network in New York City programmed to control the population by brainwashing American viewers into voting Fearless Leader as the next President of the United States United. FBI Director Cappy von Trapment assigns Agent Karen Sympathy to recruit Rocky and Bullwinkle to stop RBTV's planned broadcast. Karen travels to a film-generating lighthouse in Los Angeles, summoning Rocky, Bullwinkle, and the narrator to the real world.

Upon learning of Rocky and Bullwinkle's return, Fearless Leader sends Boris and Natasha to destroy them. He is given the CDI, a laptop-like weapon that can trap cartoon characters inside the Internet. The bad guys' truck is stolen by Karen, who is immediately arrested by the Oklahoma State Police when Natasha pretends to be her. Boris and Natasha later steal a helicopter to continue their pursuit.

Karen is sent to prison, but manipulates a lovelorn Swedish warden named Ole into helping her escape. Rocky and Bullwinkle are picked up by students Martin and Lewis, who attend Bullwinkle's university. Boris and Natasha enact an elaborate plan to assassinate Bullwinkle, donating a check to the university in his name, inspiring the academic council to award Bullwinkle an honorary “Mooster's Degree”. While Bullwinkle gives the students a speech, Rocky regains his ability to fly, preventing Boris from killing Bullwinkle with the CDI. Boris and Natasha chase Rocky and Bullwinkle through Chicago, but blow up their own helicopter. Karen is reunited with Rocky and Bullwinkle, but the trio are arrested again by numerous police officers. They are tried for numerous misdemeanors in ten states, but the presiding judge drops the charges recognizing Rocky and Bullwinkle, informing the district attorney that celebrities are above the law.

The trio buys an old biplane and runs away from Boris and Natasha again. The two villains consider retiring, lying to Fearless Leader that they have defeated Rocky and Bullwinkle, confident that they have already won. Meanwhile, Fearless Leader's plan goes into action and broadcasts brainwashing programs to most of the country. Bullwinkle accidentally lands the plane outside the White House in Washington, D.C., and discovers that the President has been brainwashed by RBTV programs, to which Bullwinkle is immune thanks to his natural stupidity. Cappy finds Bullwinkle and scans him into the White House computer system, then emails him to the studio just as Fearless Leader addresses the nation, interrupting the broadcast, and a chaotic brawl breaks out, leading to the capture of the villains. Karen, Rocky, and Bullwinkle then ask the American public to replant Frostbite Falls, and Bullwinkle accidentally activates the CDI, transforming the villains into their animated forms and banishing them to the Internet forever. Meanwhile, Rocky and Bullwinkle's careers are renewed on RBTV, renamed "Rocky and Bullwinkle Television", and Karen dates Ole while Rocky, Bullwinkle, and the Narrator return home to a regenerated Frostbite Falls.

The film received mixed reviews, with negative criticism of its plot and humor, but praising the performances, visual effects and faithfulness to the original source. Despite flopping at the box office, the film still had a lasting cultural impact for fans of the original series and those nostalgic for the '60s.

Source: wikipedia.com