- 17 minutes ago
The Doctor's influence is everywhere! Discover ten incredible Doctor Who references and Easter eggs hidden in popular movies like 'Shaun the Sheep,' 'Looney Tunes,' and 'Cars 2'.
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:00So we've done two videos now covering different times Doctor Who has appeared in other TV shows
00:06and both of those videos will be linked in the description below but we thought
00:10we've looked at TV shows but we haven't really looked at movies so with that in mind I'm Ellie
00:16with Who Culture here with 10 times Doctor Who appeared in movies. Number 10 a Sean the Sheep
00:22movie Farmageddon. Sean the Sheep's TV show was no stranger to Doctor Who references like the
00:29hilarious sight of a sheep cosplaying as a Dalek in series 2's Party Animals. So Aardman Animation
00:36decided to continue with these shoutouts when Sean made the leap to the big screen in 2019's
00:42Farmageddon. The sequel to 2015's Sean the Sheep movie Farmageddon includes several Doctor
00:49Who easter eggs from the alien creature Lula picking up a sonic screwdriver to a man dressed
00:54as the fourth Doctor exiting a portable toilet. A sheep also disguises itself as a Dalek while
01:00attempting to sneak into the Farmageddon theme park, bleating exterminate to the rather confused
01:06farmer. And incidentally, the prolific Doctor Who writer and canine co-creator Bob Baker actually
01:12wrote the Wallace and Gromit shorts, the wrong trousers, a matter of loaf and death and a
01:18close shave, the latter of which introduced us to Sean. So these two British legends have
01:24quite the shared history. Number 9 Looney Tunes Back in Action
01:28Right before Russell T Davies and Robert Sherman brilliantly reintroduced the Daleks in the 2005
01:34revival, they made their appearance on the Hollywood stage in 2003's live-action animation hybrid
01:42Looney Tunes Back in Action, which is a brilliant film and a film that I watched many a time growing
01:50up. Appearing during a scene where Marvin the Martian unleashes a group of illegal aliens that
01:55are being held in Area 52, the Daleks scream their signature catchphrase while attempting to obliterate
02:01bugs and the gang. These Dalek props are actually the same ones used in the 1960s Peter Cushing
02:07Doctor Who movies, which is why they look authentic, but also oddly outdated compared to their surroundings.
02:12Now according to an online rumour, it was actually actor Steve Martin who plays the film's villain
02:19who insisted that the Daleks make an appearance in this scene due to the fact that he is a massive
02:24Whovian. Don't actually know if that's true though, I would take that with a pinch of salt,
02:28I mean it would be cool if he is, not sure though. Number 8 Cars 2
02:33A much more subtle reference now, one found in the finale of Pixar's Cars 2. Here British spy cars
02:41Holly Shiftwell and Finn McMissile are captured and tied up inside Big Ben. To escape, Holly
02:47determines that she must change the direction of the clock, or turn back time as she puts
02:52it. And while she's struggling to do this, she also states, if I can just reverse the polarity.
02:58Reverse the polarity, as Who fans will know, is one of the most famous phrases in the show,
03:03spoken by many Doctors across the classic and modern eras, though it's most associated with
03:09John Pertwee's third incarnation. Now considering the timey-wimey context of this scene in Cars 2,
03:16there is no way that this is anything but a nod to Doctor Who. And now that Disney has a
03:22direct
03:22link to Doctor Who, it's kind of fun to look back on in retrospect.
03:27Number 7 The Theory of Everything
03:29The late Stephen Hawking was a big Doctor Who fan, and he was even interviewed as part of Doctor Who
03:35Live The Next Doctor, the 2013 show that introduced Peter Capaldi as Matt Smith's successor.
03:42Fittingly then, 2014's biopic The Theory of Everything, which chronicles Hawking's incredible
03:47life, includes a couple of Doctor Who nods. The first of these occurs immediately after the scene
03:53when Stephen's theory is approved. Celebrating with his friend, Stephen is toasted as an esteemed
03:58and formidable doctor, only for someone to interject with the quip, Who? Then, when Stephen's condition
04:03worsens later in the film, there's a scene where he rolls around in his wheelchair, with a paper bag
04:08on his head, using his voice synthesizer to repeat, Exterminate, as his nurse Elaine looks on and laughs.
04:15I think this really goes to show how Doctor Who can appeal to everyone, from young children to one
04:21of the greatest minds in the world. Number 6 The Lego Batman Movie
04:26Batman plus Doctor Who. I mean, it doesn't get much cooler than that, does it?
04:30In 2017's excellent The Lego Batman Movie, the Daleks have taken a break from annoying the Doctor
04:36and have ventured over to Gotham City, where they team up with the Joker and attempt to destroy the
04:41Dark Knight himself. The Daleks appear several times throughout the movie, usually squawking
04:46Exterminate, alongside other recognisable villains pulled from the Lego multiverse, including Lord
04:51Voldemort, Sauron and King Kong. There's also a Doctor Who nod in 2019's The Lego Movie 2, the second
04:58part, where Rex Dangervest uses a TARDIS to build his own time machine. Now, it can sometimes feel like
05:05Doctor Who is this small underdog franchise, but the fact that the Daleks appear alongside some of
05:12the most renowned villains in pop culture, and in a freaking Batman movie no less, it really does
05:18demonstrate how massive this show actually is. Number 5 Big Hero 6. Apparently, Cars 2 isn't the
05:26only Disney animation with a Doctor Who shoutout. In the underrated Big Hero 6, lead character Hero has
05:33the exact sort of messy bedroom you'd expect a 14-year-old to have, and on one of his toileted
05:38shelves rests a model of a white Dalek, nestled between a bunch of other action figures. Now,
05:43it does seem to be one of the chunky New Paradigm Daleks from Series 5's Victory of the Daleks,
05:48a redesign that didn't go down massively well with fans, but apparently someone at Disney felt
05:54differently about them. Number 4 Iron Sky. Over the years, Doctor Who has explored countless
06:00alternate histories and parallel worlds, most of them with rather grim consequences for humanity.
06:06The 2012 action flick Iron Sky did something similar, cranking up the crazy and telling a
06:11story about a group of Nazis who survived World War II and fled to the moon. Over the decades,
06:16these Nazis built a fleet of ships and used them to attack Earth in 2018. Somehow, things get even
06:23more insane when you realise that time travel might also exist within the Iron Sky universe,
06:28as evidenced by the easy-to-miss sight of a TARDIS, which can be seen in the background of Earth's
06:33own
06:33fleet. Commenting on the TARDIS' cameo, one of Iron Sky's writers took to Reddit a couple of months
06:40after the film was released, contrasting the film's Space Nazis concept with the Doctor Who episode
06:46Let's Kill Hitler, he said.
06:48When Let's Kill Hitler came out, I was scared to death Moffat might outdo us with Space Nazis
06:53only a few months before Iron Sky comes out. I'm still incredibly happy he didn't, but kind of
06:58disappointed at the same time. Was that Steven Moffat accused of playing it safe? Well, I never
07:04thought I'd see the day. Number 3 Bad Taste. Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson is a big
07:09Doctor Who fan, and was even courted to helm an episode in the Peter Capaldi era. Unsurprisingly,
07:15then, he's occasionally slipped Doctor Who easter eggs into his own movies, as was the case with his
07:211987 feature debut Bad Taste, the film that put him on the map and helped him progress into the
07:27Hollywood big leagues. In the film, Jackson plays a character called Derek, who wears a multicoloured
07:32scarf that was intended as an homage to the one worn by Tom Baker's fourth Doctor. There's also a line
07:37of dialogue speculating that the aliens in the film might have arrived in a telephone box, which is a
07:42cheeky wink towards the TARDIS. Now, later in his career, Jackson did get to work with 7th Doctor
07:48Sylvester McCoy when making his Hobbit trilogy. And as for this Doctor Who episode that he supposedly
07:54wants to direct? Well, in 2018, he did mention that he is still up for it, so maybe one day.
08:01Number 2 Bumblebee. It wasn't really a high bar to clear, thanks to the lacklustre efforts of Michael
08:07Bay, Shia LaBeouf and Mark Wahlberg. But 2018's Bumblebee spin-off is easily the best Transformers
08:14movie ever made. And because Doctor Who makes everything better, Bumblebee gets some extra
08:19brownie points for this blink and you'll miss it reference. When lead characters Charlie and Memo
08:24enter Memo's bedroom midway through the film, we see that his walls are adorned with various pop culture
08:29posters befitting of the movie's 1980s setting, like Indiana Jones and The Thing. But when Memo sits on the bed
08:37we see what is obviously the greatest poster of the lot, a fuzzy-haired Tom Baker wearing that
08:43unmistakable multicoloured scarf. He isn't on screen for very long and he's blurred out half the time,
08:48but it's definitely him. Now, a random note here, but in the 1977 serial Robots of Death,
08:55the fourth Doctor quits, I'm rather fond of Bumblebees. Now, obviously he's not referring to
09:00a Transformer here, but it's still a fun coincidence that he then appears in a Bumblebee movie more than 40
09:06years later. Number one, Encanto. Disney's Encanto is one of the most beloved movies in recent times,
09:13and if you don't have at least one family member who can't stop singing about that Bruno fella,
09:18well then you're in the minority. In fact, I've had that song stuck in my head ever since I read
09:23this title on this article, so thank you very much for that, Dani. Early on, the Madrigal clan hosts a
09:28ceremony for young Antonio, who gains the ability to communicate with animals. He opens his own magical
09:33door, steps inside and is greeted by a lush jungle habitat, bursting with lights, flora and a wide
09:39array of animal life. Amazed that such a huge environment can fit inside a seemingly normal
09:44sized room, one of the kids behind Antonio exclaims, it's bigger on the inside as she walks through the
09:50door. Now, of course, Doctor Who fans will recognise that phrase as something that's said quite a lot when
09:55characters first step into the TARDIS. And as he explained on Twitter, Encanto director Jared Bush
10:02is a massive Doctor Who fan, and so this line was indeed an intentional nod, a tip of the fez,
10:08if you will. And that concludes our list. If you think we missed any, then do let us know in
10:13the
10:13comments below. And while you're there, don't forget to like and subscribe and tap that notification
10:18bell so you never miss a Who Culture video again. Also, head over to Twitter and follow us there and
10:22Instagram as well. I can be found on Twitter at elittlechild, on Instagram at ellie.littlechild,
10:29and TikTok as well. In the words of Riversong herself, goodbye, sweeties.