Brendan Fraser, Daffy Duck, Jenna Elfman and Bugs Bunny in a scene from the movie "looney Tunes: Back In Action'.
LOONEY TUNES: Back in Action is a festival of fun for Looney Tunes fans.
At the centre are the immortal Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, who have been joined by Brendan Fraser and Steve Martin. The movie comes quite close to the infectious energy of the original sketches, though it does not make it all the way.
Animated movies have now gained a sophistication which the Looney Tunes continue to stick out their collective exaggerated tongues at. No one learns anything at the end of a Looney Tunes cartoon, if they did, you would never have another sketch, because in each sketch the same thing happens over and again, only the setting changes.
At the end of G.I. Joe (and other more ambitious cartoons of that ilk), the soldiers would gather together about whatever lesson there was and say, "And now you know and knowing is half the battle." In Looney Tunes you go into battle completely unarmed. Looney Tunes: Back in Action celebrates this orchestrated nonsense.
NOT UPGRADED
The clearest sign that not much has changed comes in with that Bugs has not been upgraded by all the politically correct notions that have been floating around. Fortunately, Bugs can still get away with chomping on a carrot (which seems to replace a cigar) and call a woman 'toots'. His brand of manhood would certainly make Bill Maher, and other men complaining about the feminisation of the world, proud.
Looney Tunes: Back in Action is a semi-haphazard, frantic movie without much of a plot. As it is a Looney Tunes flick, regardless of the placement of a few humans, that makes it perfect.
The movie almost surrounds Daffy and Bug's age-old rivalry. Daffy Duck has had to play second fiddle to Bugs Bunny for the decades that their careers have spanned. What's more, this is a fiddle that gets smashed at the end of every session. No reason has ever been given for what happens to poor Daffy. Sure he is obnoxious, but other than that he spits uncontrollably when he talks, he is not that much more different from Bugs.
The movie therefore uses Daffy's understandable resentment and anger as the ACME launching pad for the plot. This aspect of the plot seems to have often been forgotten, however, as the movie takes a very circuitous path, skating toward the scrolling of the big arrow which reads 'This Way To The End'. Indeed, the plot seems merely an excuse to string together some of the best loved sketches and one liners from countless Looney Tunes.
Many of the beloved Looney Tunes characters make a cameo, such as Foghorn Leghorn, Yosemite Sam, Pepe Le Peu, Wily Coyote, the Tazmanian Devil, Tweety, Granny, Sylvester and others.
DERANGED
Steve Martin, who plays the villian, the chairman of ACME gives a performance which is quite worthy of being in a Looney Tunes movie. He is evidently deranged, and simply evil because he is evil.
The movie attempts to marry the real world and Looney Tunes land by adding in a bit of a spy formula. This is a perfect marriage as the outlandish possibilities from spy movies are not that far removed from the outlandish possibilities of Looney Tunes.
Brendan Fraser plays DJ Drake, the son of a spy, who works undercover as an actor who plays a spy. Timothy Dalton plays this actor/spy, Damian Drake.
One of the signs that the Tunes have grown up just a little is that it manages to make fun of Hollywood and its marriage with the world of commerce. Thus it pokes fun at product placements, Mission Impossible, and the Pepsi Twist commercials among others. Indeed, Dalton's very presence, given his attrocious run as James Bond, may well be a part of the joke.
The characters, are also given something of a different spin. The villians are more clearly set as villians, showing a more deliberately darker side than what normally comes through in the sketches. Rather than ruining the simplicity of the cartoons it makes them more interesting, especially as if one is a Looney Tune fan, you can almost quote the script already.
