Help Big Boy Get His Feet Back On The Ground Sync

Certainly, any Bond fan recognizes that the Austin Powers films is a parody based heavily on the James Bond films. However, there are more references to the Bond films than many a Bond fan may realize.

Some things in the first film, Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery are quite easily identified as based on the film, You Only Live Twice. They include Dr. Evil's appearance based on the Donald Pleasence version of Blofeld. That and his white Persian cat, Dr. Evil's version named Mr. Bigglesworth.

Other things may only occur to the Bond fan if he/she has seen the film recently. For example, Austin Power's extremely hairy chest is based (in parody) on the story element of Tiger Tanaka commenting on Japanese men having beautiful bare skin compared to Connery's hairy chest.
An of a smaller detail is the positioning of an (as of yet) unseen Blofeld, where his cat is shown before he is.

YOLT:


Austin Powers:

Or women driving sporty convertibles with small video monitors that show you the face of the person you're talking to.

There are other secrets for the Bond fan to figure out and discover, involving the hidden soundtrack for You Only Live Twice (and other Bond films). In another entry in this blog I show how the Bond filmmakers did a full film sync to the album Help! This is reference by the Austin Powers film.

For example, to the song "Ticket To Ride", we have Bond escaping danger by getting into Aki's white convertible and Austin Powers escaping women by jumping into Mrs. Kensington's Jaguar convertible.

Some things weren't apparent to me on first viewing. For example, we get a look at a sign for the London Underground) to the lyrics "I do appreciate you being round".

And while I caught the reference to the same "I do appreciate you being round" to round also being Austin Powers sticking out his backside, I missed the arrow on the woman's shirt, helping to point out the clue.

We also have Austin Powers running from a group of women, that references The Beatles's films Help! and A Hard Day's Night while also commenting on Aki running away from James Bond in "You Only Live Twice" to the same song. The Underground also references Tiger Tanaka's private underground railroad as well as his assumption that M (in London) may have the same setup.

To the song "Help, some little touches are:

My independence seems to vanish in the haze

To the vapor passing over Dr. Evil as he is locked away in a freeze chamber.

Help me get my feet upon the ground

To Big Boy's big feet in liftoff

Or a more subtle reference of Austin Powers climbing the stairs (thus feet off the ground) plus having the leg of a woman in a airborne swing in the shot.


Here is the video to the two songs: