Just a while ago, a new promo clip forRick and Mortylive action was released featuring Christopher Lloyd as Rick Sanchez.
Ever since the show came out, fans have been wondering whetherRick And Mortyis based onBack To The Futuremovie that was released back in 1985.
With the announcement of Christopher Lloyd joining the team for a live-action episode and all the previous references forBack To The Futurewe have observed in the show, it’s not hard to connect the dots between the two.
How IsRick And MortyRelated toBack To The Future
It is true that the basic plot ofRick and Mortywas conceived out of Justin Roiland’s earlier Channel 101 ideas titledThe Real Animated Adventures of Doc and Mharti.And this cartoon started out as a parody ofBack to the Future.
The humor inDoc and Mhartiwas much cruder and simplistic. But the core premise and the voices remain the same. One would question why a random teenager would hang out with a mad scientist anyway. But by the time Rick and Morty shaped up, their relationship evolved beyond that and they become grandfather and grandson in the show.
If you watch the journey ofRick and Mortyas well asDoc and Mharti, it’s not hard to figure out that the relationship between Rick Sanchez and Morty Smith is similar to Doc Brown and Marty McFly fromBack to the Future.
However, Roiland’s idea added a lurid twist to the original theme ofBack to the Future. There was a point in Roiland’s career where he was simply daring lawyers to come after him taking a dig at big studios. And the X-ratedDoc and Mhartipretty much proves this point.
Even though the final form ofRick and Mortyis now safe from the legal and PR nightmare that could arise from Roiland’s original cartoon, we can still see some of the raw energy in the voice-overs of the characters, especially for Rick with his random burps.
The Hidden References ToBack To The Future
If you have watchedBack to the Future, you can pick up some of the references inRick and Morty. Here are a few of them:
- The names
This is the biggest clue and hard to miss. Even though the show has come a long way from its origin which was a lewd, crude little short film called Doc and Mharti — The names are still the same and it matches Doc Brown and Marty McFly from the movie.
- The time-traveling device
Apart from the classic mad scientist hair and incredible talent for creating an array of gadgets, we can definitely draw some parallels between the movie and the show. They both create time-traveling devices as Rick has the gun with fluid that powers it whereas Doc develops the Flux Capacitor in the movie.
- Morty wearing Marty’s puffed red jacket
We have already seen the concept of numerous Ricks and Morties from different universes. So does the same principle apply to Doc and Marty. Alternatively, one can also ask if Doc and Marty are the alternate versions of Rick and Morty. Here’s one such reference to this concept:
In the “The Ricklantis Mixup” episode, we can see one of the background Morties wearing the red puffed jacket which is similar to Marty’s jacket inBack to the Future.
And this is just one of the examples. There have been multiple other references to the movie in theRick and Mortyshow. So it’s hard to deny that there is some connection between the two.
