Looney Tunes: Back in Action
3/4
Starring: Brendan Fraser, Jenna Elfman, Steve Martin, Timothy Dalton, and the voice of Joe Alasky
Rated PG for Some Mild Language and Innuendo
To me, the Looney Tunes were the ultimate cartoons. They were clever, well drawn, and often very funny. The Disney canon was sweet, but they didn't make me laugh as often or as hard. It's a pity that today's kids are growing up with the utter garbage on Cartoon Network, but I digress...
Anyway, after their stint playing basketball in "Space Jam," which I liked as a kid, but haven't seen since, the Looney Tunes are back in their own big budget movie. This time, the filmmakers were truer to the source material. Really, the only way to describe it is a cross between "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" and "Scary Movie" (I'm only speaking in terms of structure...there's nothing in this movie that isn't entirely suitable for the whole family). The connecting story is a spy spoof, but the real meat of the story is the little skits and asides.
DJ Drake (Fraser) is a wannabe stuntman working in Hollywood. His dad is megastar Damien Drake (Dalton), but DJ wants to work his way up on his own. He's going to get into a bit of a pickle with Warner Bros. two biggest stars, Daffy Duck (Alasky) and Bugs Bunny (Alasky). You see, Daffy has had it with Bugs stealing all his thunder, so he wants executives to work out a new deal or he walks. When Kate, the Vice President of Comedy (Elfman) calls his bluff, she fires him. She orders DJ, who works as a security guard until his career gets going, to throw him out. That's when DJ and Daffy discover that his father doesn't just play super-spies, he is one. Apparently, he was trying to prevent something called the Blue Monkey from falling into the hands of the Chairman of ACME (Martin), but was caught. Now it's up to DJ and Daffy to save the day, plus Bugs and Kate (eventually).
Let me state one thing up front: the connecting story is pretty lame. It's a generic spy spoof, but the genre has been done to death (I kept thinking of "Austin Powers"), and the filmmakers don't do much that's original with it.
That being said, that's not where their interest lies. Or ours. Audiences want to see the Looney Tunes characters, and the filmmakers deliver. There's always something going on, even if it's in the background, and it's usually amusing. Sight gags, ironic plays on words, cartoonish violence, it's all here, and usually with a self-referential twist. For example, Yosemite Sam owns a casino in Vegas with Foghorn Leghorn as an emcee and casino dealer. Marvin the Martian is an exhibit at Area 52 (don't ask). And the careers of Porky Pig and Speedy Gonzales are over because their characters aren't politically correct. The best bits are about the rivalry between Daffy and Bugs.
"Looney Tunes: Back in Action" isn't afraid of taking potshots at a wide variety of targets. Big business, virtually everything related to Hollywood, political correctness and politics are just a few areas that the film throws relatively innocent, but still incisive, gags and one-liners at.
As amusing and numerous as this stuff is, it's rarely uproarious. The timing and the jokes are a little lacking, which causes them to provoke smiles rather than full-bellies laughs. Stars Brendan Fraser and Jenna Elfman appear a little lost too (Elfman more so), probably because they're interacting with characters that weren't onscreen during filming. Steve Martin is awful. He's so over-the-top that I felt embarrassed for him. Thankfully, the voice acting is great. The men and women who play the Looney Tunes characters are almost dead ringers for Mel Blanc, who voiced just about every Looney Tunes character (Blanc died in 1989).
This isn't great art, but it's great fun for the entire family. It wasn't a box office success, which surprised me, but box office numbers don't always correlate to success. Rent this one from Netflix.
Starring: Brendan Fraser, Jenna Elfman, Steve Martin, Timothy Dalton, and the voice of Joe Alasky
Rated PG for Some Mild Language and Innuendo
To me, the Looney Tunes were the ultimate cartoons. They were clever, well drawn, and often very funny. The Disney canon was sweet, but they didn't make me laugh as often or as hard. It's a pity that today's kids are growing up with the utter garbage on Cartoon Network, but I digress...
Anyway, after their stint playing basketball in "Space Jam," which I liked as a kid, but haven't seen since, the Looney Tunes are back in their own big budget movie. This time, the filmmakers were truer to the source material. Really, the only way to describe it is a cross between "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" and "Scary Movie" (I'm only speaking in terms of structure...there's nothing in this movie that isn't entirely suitable for the whole family). The connecting story is a spy spoof, but the real meat of the story is the little skits and asides.
DJ Drake (Fraser) is a wannabe stuntman working in Hollywood. His dad is megastar Damien Drake (Dalton), but DJ wants to work his way up on his own. He's going to get into a bit of a pickle with Warner Bros. two biggest stars, Daffy Duck (Alasky) and Bugs Bunny (Alasky). You see, Daffy has had it with Bugs stealing all his thunder, so he wants executives to work out a new deal or he walks. When Kate, the Vice President of Comedy (Elfman) calls his bluff, she fires him. She orders DJ, who works as a security guard until his career gets going, to throw him out. That's when DJ and Daffy discover that his father doesn't just play super-spies, he is one. Apparently, he was trying to prevent something called the Blue Monkey from falling into the hands of the Chairman of ACME (Martin), but was caught. Now it's up to DJ and Daffy to save the day, plus Bugs and Kate (eventually).
Let me state one thing up front: the connecting story is pretty lame. It's a generic spy spoof, but the genre has been done to death (I kept thinking of "Austin Powers"), and the filmmakers don't do much that's original with it.
That being said, that's not where their interest lies. Or ours. Audiences want to see the Looney Tunes characters, and the filmmakers deliver. There's always something going on, even if it's in the background, and it's usually amusing. Sight gags, ironic plays on words, cartoonish violence, it's all here, and usually with a self-referential twist. For example, Yosemite Sam owns a casino in Vegas with Foghorn Leghorn as an emcee and casino dealer. Marvin the Martian is an exhibit at Area 52 (don't ask). And the careers of Porky Pig and Speedy Gonzales are over because their characters aren't politically correct. The best bits are about the rivalry between Daffy and Bugs.
"Looney Tunes: Back in Action" isn't afraid of taking potshots at a wide variety of targets. Big business, virtually everything related to Hollywood, political correctness and politics are just a few areas that the film throws relatively innocent, but still incisive, gags and one-liners at.
As amusing and numerous as this stuff is, it's rarely uproarious. The timing and the jokes are a little lacking, which causes them to provoke smiles rather than full-bellies laughs. Stars Brendan Fraser and Jenna Elfman appear a little lost too (Elfman more so), probably because they're interacting with characters that weren't onscreen during filming. Steve Martin is awful. He's so over-the-top that I felt embarrassed for him. Thankfully, the voice acting is great. The men and women who play the Looney Tunes characters are almost dead ringers for Mel Blanc, who voiced just about every Looney Tunes character (Blanc died in 1989).
This isn't great art, but it's great fun for the entire family. It wasn't a box office success, which surprised me, but box office numbers don't always correlate to success. Rent this one from Netflix.
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