10 Times Doctor Who Appeared In Movies
Apparently, Disney loves Doctor Who just as much as we do.
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00:00 So, we've done two videos now covering different times Doctor Who has appeared in other TV
00:06 shows, and both of those videos will be linked in the description below.
00:09 But we thought, we've looked at TV shows, but we haven't really looked at movies.
00:14 So with that in mind, I'm Ellie with WhoCulture, here with 10 times Doctor Who appeared in
00:20 movies.
00:21 Number 10, a Shaun the Sheep movie, Farmageddon.
00:24 Shaun the Sheep's TV show was no stranger to Doctor Who references, like the hilarious
00:30 sight of a sheep cosplaying as a Dalek in series 2's Party Animals.
00:34 So Aardman Animation decided to continue with these shoutouts when Shaun made the leap to
00:40 the big screen in 2019's Farmageddon.
00:44 The sequel to 2015's Shaun the Sheep movie, Farmageddon includes several Doctor Who easter
00:49 eggs, from the alien creature Lula picking up a sonic screwdriver, to a man dressed as
00:55 the fourth Doctor exiting a portable toilet.
00:57 A sheep also disguises itself as a Dalek while attempting to sneak into the Farmageddon theme
01:02 park, bleating exterminate to the rather confused farmer.
01:06 And incidentally, the prolific Doctor Who writer and canine co-creator Bob Baker actually
01:12 wrote the Wallace and Gromit shorts, The Wrong Trousers, A Matter of Loaf and Death, and
01:18 A Close Shave, the latter of which introduced us to Shaun.
01:22 So these two British legends have quite the shared history.
01:26 9.
01:27 Looney Tunes Back in Action Right before Russell T. Davis and Robert
01:30 Sherman brilliantly reintroduced the Daleks in the 2005 revival, they made their appearance
01:37 on the Hollywood stage in 2003's live-action-animation hybrid Looney Tunes Back in Action.
01:45 Which is a brilliant film, and a film that I watched many a time growing up.
01:50 Appearing during a scene where Marvin the Martian unleashes a group of illegal aliens
01:55 that are being held in Area 52, the Daleks scream their signature catchphrase while attempting
02:00 to obliterate Bugs and the gang.
02:02 These Dalek props are actually the same ones used in the 1960's Peter Cushing Doctor
02:07 Who movies, which is why they look authentic, but also oddly outdated compared to their surroundings.
02:13 Now according to an online rumour, it was actually actor Steve Martin, who plays the
02:18 film's villain, who insisted that the Daleks make an appearance in this scene, due to the
02:23 fact that he is a massive Whovian.
02:25 Don't actually know if that's true though, I would take that with a pinch of salt.
02:28 I mean it would be cool if he is.
02:31 Not sure though.
02:32 8.
02:33 Cars 2 A much more subtle reference now, one found
02:36 in the finale of Pixar's Cars 2.
02:39 The British spy cars Holly Shiftwell and Finn McMissile are captured and tied up inside
02:45 Big Ben.
02:46 To escape, Holly determines that she must change the direction of the clock, or turn
02:50 back time as she puts it.
02:52 And while she's struggling to do this, she also states "If I can just reverse the polarity".
02:59 Reverse the polarity, as Who fans will know, is one of the most famous phrases in the show,
03:04 spoken by many Doctors across the classic and modern eras, though it's most associated
03:09 with John Pertwee's third incarnation.
03:11 Now considering the timey wimey context of this scene in Cars 2, there is no way that
03:17 this is anything but a nod to Doctor Who.
03:20 And now that Disney has a direct link to Doctor Who, it's kind of fun to look back on in
03:26 retrospect.
03:27 7.
03:28 The Theory of Everything The late Stephen Hawking was a big Doctor
03:32 Who fan, and he was even interviewed as part of Doctor Who Live The Next Doctor, the 2013
03:39 show that introduced Peter Capaldi as Matt Smith's successor.
03:42 Fittingly then, 2014's biopic The Theory of Everything, which chronicles Hawking's
03:47 incredible life, includes a couple of Doctor Who nods.
03:50 The first of these occurs immediately after the scene when Stephen's theory is approved.
03:55 Celebrating with his friend, Stephen is toasted as an esteemed and formidable Doctor, only
04:00 for someone to interject with the quip "Who?"
04:02 Then, when Stephen's condition worsens later in the film, there's a scene where he rolls
04:06 around in his wheelchair, with a paper bag on his head, using his voice synthesizer to
04:10 repeat "exterminate" as his nurse Elaine looks on and laughs.
04:15 I think this really goes to show how Doctor Who can appeal to everyone, from young children
04:21 to one of the greatest minds in the world.
04:24 6.
04:25 The Lego Batman Movie Batman plus Doctor Who.
04:28 I mean, it doesn't get much cooler than that, does it?
04:31 In 2017's excellent The Lego Batman Movie, the Daleks have taken a break from annoying
04:35 the Doctor and have ventured over to Gotham City, where they team up with the Joker and
04:40 attempt to destroy the Dark Knight himself.
04:42 The Daleks appear several times throughout the movie, usually squawking "exterminate",
04:47 alongside other recognisable villains pulled from the Lego multiverse, including Lord Voldemort,
04:52 Sauron and King Kong.
04:54 There's also a Doctor Who nod in 2019's The Lego Movie 2, the second part, where Rex Dangervest
05:00 uses a TARDIS to build his own time machine.
05:04 It can sometimes feel like Doctor Who is this small underdog franchise, but the fact that
05:08 the Daleks appear alongside some of the most renowned villains in pop culture, and in a
05:15 freaking Batman movie no less, it really does demonstrate how massive this show actually
05:21 is.
05:22 5.
05:23 Big Hero 6 Apparently Cars 2 isn't the only Disney animation
05:28 with a Doctor Who shoutout.
05:29 In the underrated Big Hero 6, lead character Hero has the exact sort of messy bedroom you'd
05:34 expect a 14-year-old to have, and on one of his toileted shelves rests a model of a white
05:39 Dalek, nestled between a bunch of other action figures.
05:43 It does seem to be one of the chunky New Paradigm Daleks from Series 5's Victory of the Daleks,
05:48 a redesign that didn't go down massively well with fans, but apparently someone at Disney
05:54 felt differently about them.
05:56 4.
05:57 Iron Sky Over the years, Doctor Who has explored countless
06:00 alternate histories and parallel worlds, most of them with rather grim consequences for
06:05 humanity.
06:06 The 2012 action flick Iron Sky did something similar, cranking up the crazy and telling
06:11 a story about a group of Nazis who survived World War 2 and fled to the moon.
06:16 Over the decades, these Nazis built a fleet of ships and used them to attack Earth in
06:20 2018.
06:21 Somehow, things get even more insane when you realise that time travel might also exist
06:26 within the Iron Sky universe, as evidenced by the easy-to-miss sight of a TARDIS, which
06:31 can be seen in the background of Earth's own fleet.
06:34 Commenting on the TARDIS' cameo, one of Iron Sky's writers took to Reddit a couple
06:39 of months after the film was released, contrasting the film's space Nazis concept with the
06:45 Doctor Who episode "Let's Kill Hitler".
06:48 He said, "When 'Let's Kill Hitler' came out, I was
06:50 scared to death Moffat might outdo us with space Nazis only a few months before 'Iron
06:55 Sky' comes out.
06:56 I'm still incredibly happy he didn't, but kind of disappointed at the same time.
07:00 Was that Steven Moffat accused of playing it safe?
07:03 Well, I never thought I'd see the day."
07:05 3.
07:06 Bad Taste Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson is
07:09 a big Doctor Who fan, and was even courted to helm an episode in the Peter Capaldi era.
07:15 Unsurprisingly, he's occasionally slipped Doctor Who easter eggs into his own movies,
07:20 as was the case with his 1987 feature debut Bad Taste, the film that put him on the map
07:25 and helped him progress into the Hollywood big leagues.
07:28 In the film, Jackson plays a character called Derek, who wears a multi-coloured scarf that
07:32 was intended as an homage to the one worn by Tom Baker's fourth Doctor.
07:36 There's also a line of dialogue speculating that the aliens in the film might have arrived
07:40 in a telephone box, which is a cheeky wink towards the TARDIS.
07:44 Later in his career, Jackson did get to work with 7th Doctor Sylvester McCoy when making
07:50 his Hobbit trilogy.
07:51 And as for this Doctor Who episode that he supposedly wants to direct?
07:55 Well in 2018 he did mention that he is still up for it, so maybe one day.
08:01 2.
08:02 Bumblebee It wasn't really a high bar to clear, thanks
08:04 to the lacklustre efforts of Michael Bay, Shia LaBeouf and Mark Wahlberg, but 2018's
08:11 Bumblebee spin-off is easily the best Transformers movie ever made.
08:16 And because Doctor Who makes everything better, Bumblebee gets some extra brownie points for
08:20 this blink and you'll miss it reference.
08:22 When lead characters Charlie and Memo enter Memo's bedroom midway through the film, we
08:26 see that his walls are adorned with various pop culture posters befitting of the movie's
08:32 1980s setting, like Indiana Jones and The Thing.
08:35 But when Memo sits on the bed beside Charlie, we see what is obviously the greatest poster
08:40 of the lot, a fuzzy haired Tom Baker wearing that unmistakable multicoloured scarf.
08:45 He isn't on screen for very long and he's blurred out half the time, but it's definitely
08:50 him.
08:51 I should note here, but in the 1977 serial Robots of Death, the fourth Doctor quits,
08:56 I'm rather fond of Bumblebees.
08:58 Now obviously he's not referring to a Transformer hit, but it's still a fun coincidence that
09:03 he then appears in a Bumblebee movie more than 40 years later.
09:08 1.
09:09 Encanto Disney's Encanto is one of the most beloved
09:12 movies in recent times, and if you don't have at least one family member who can't
09:16 stop singing about that Bruno fella, well then you're in the minority.
09:20 In fact, I've had that song stuck in my head ever since I read this title on this
09:24 article, so thank you very much for that Danny.
09:26 Early on, the Madrigal clan hosts a ceremony for young Antonio, who gains the ability to
09:30 communicate with animals.
09:32 He opens his own magical door, steps inside and is greeted by a lush jungle habitat, bursting
09:37 with lights, flora and a wide array of animal life.
09:41 Amazed that such a huge environment can fit inside a seemingly normal sized room, one
09:45 of the kids behind Antonio exclaims "it's bigger on the inside" as she walks through
09:50 the door.
09:51 Now of course Doctor Who fans will recognise that phrase as something that's said quite
09:55 a lot when characters first step into the TARDIS.
09:58 And as he explained on Twitter, Encanto director Jared Bush is a massive Doctor Who fan, and
10:04 so this line was indeed an intentional nod.
10:07 A tip of the fez, if you will.
10:09 And that concludes our list.
10:11 If you think we missed any, then do let us know in the comments below.
10:14 And while you're there, don't forget to like and subscribe and tap that notification
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10:21 Also head over to Twitter and follow us there and Instagram as well.
10:24 I can be found on Twitter @elittlechild, on Instagram @elli.littlechild and TikTok as
10:30 well.
10:31 In the words of River Song herself, goodbye sweeties.