Review of Looney Tunes: Back in Action (2003) by Liam C — 21 May 2015

'Looney Tunes: Back in Action' is, in a word, mad. Originally dubbed the 'Anti-Space Jam' because the director didn't like what that film did to those characters, this very much captures the madcap spirit of the show; and it even has a very excellent reference to 'Space Jam' in here and it was great to see. Not to say I agree with his opinion on 'Space Jam' because if you grew up in the '90s you loved it, no matter what. It is odd how 'Space Jam' has more of a positive consensus than this despite its lower score.

This film being a box office flop due to lack of marketing, pushed back release and heavy competition, maybe. But the reviews for this film make absolutely no sense and I can't even begin to understand where the critics are coming from, I rarely ever do but this is ridiculous. This film is absolutely packed with jokes and it fires them at such a rapid rate that if you didn't laugh at one, for whatever reason, there were already two more already told. The whole film is very well written and it treats its audience with respect, there are very many references and parodies to lots of other things but it doesn't call attention to them and they are just there for you to pick up on in if you're in the know. They are just little extras for the audience to laugh at, which is good because if those were the main jokes of the film that would be a bad idea, the main jokes of the film is just funny and well written and the little gags they do for the main jokes are so accessible that most likely everyone in the audience will know. For example, there is an excellent Psycho joke in this film that actually manages to make it fresh and new, which is unheard of now, and even that joke has another joke with what Bugs uses as Hitchcock used it as well. There was a joke where Bugs says, 'Hey I found Nemo', and that must have been put in pretty late because 'Finding Nemo' came out the same year as this. Also, good job the water tower didn't fall on the car. There is a joke in here where Shaggy is talking to Matthew Lillard and that was just gold; and of course, poor Daffy always gets the harsh treatment.

The film is also very self deprecating and aware of what it is, at one point Wal-Mart shows up, which I thought was a mirage at first, but they even poke fun at their own product placement which I thought was pretty funny, it isn't exactly a new thing to make fun of that, but given everything else the script does, it's just another positive to add. The jokes directed to the audience work, even if the cinema specific ones do not, but even with those they are still funny in their own right and it isn't like there are too many of them; it isn't like those specific scenes in 3D movies where they no longer work at home. The film's logic is also very weird but it adds to its charm, you might question why cartoon characters would be worried about crashing into a wall because it wouldn't hurt them but you have to go with it. I mean, Sam has a casino! Although, if you wanted to think about it, there was a scene in particular with dynamite and even though they were villains, wouldn't it make sense to keep it in the car where it wouldn't do really much of any damage to them at all as opposed to hurting humans? Even further on, when a human character touches something that is a cartoon like Daffy's ukulele, does it then turn real? It looked like it did when it broke, or when Daffy ate the real fish. I'm going too in-depth with it, I understand, but it is just something I thought about, it didn't bother me when I was watching it though. However, there is a scene early in the film where Daffy runs into a painting and DJ just walks right through it, so I guess that explains it all.

The cast for this film is very impressive, I thought I saw Harvey Keitel at the very beginning and given the talent in this film, it wouldn't surprise me, as well as the fact I could see him doing something like this. Brendan Fraser and Jenna Elfman are good leads and I liked the continued potshots that Fraser takes at himself, he also did the voice of Taz and the She-Devil as well! Steve Martin, wow, whilst reminding me of something out of an Austin Powers film, he absolutely jumps into character and just has an absolute blast with his role, I wish he was in it a bit more though. He actually had a rather good plan, while of course silly, it actually would have worked, I did expect his bodyguards to turn on him though when he said that he was going to turn everyone into a monkey apart from himself, though. And silly Daffy, of course that little monkey wasn't it! It didn't look like what it did in the explanation and of course we knew he was going to be in the picture of the map, and at least ACME got their abandoned ship back. Given the set up and just how these cameos work in these kinds of films, I expected Timothy Dalton to just show up at the end for the shock of him actually being in the film but he is actually in the film quite a bit and just seeing him in this film was nice and he did a great job. Although, in the final scene before they meet, he should have said that he was there sooner! That scene also had a giant robot dog that looked quite similar to the robotic toy pets that were popular at the time. The film also has other cameos and Ron Perlman was in a very small role in this for some reason, it was odd.

The film also has quite a number of references to 'Looney Tunes' past, with characters that have been used one time in a particular episode and it also has many pieces of dialogue that are from the show and puts them in well and in a funny way. It really shows that the filmmakers absolutely loved this property and did so much research into getting everything just right. At one point Daffy says something about all Bugs needs to do is munch on his carrot and people love you, I expected him to say his catchphrase at that part as well. It was also nice that some of Mel Blanc's archive voice-work was used. The music for the film is excellent and fits the Looney Tunes feel and even has an awesome remix of the classic 'Powerhouse' theme was such a delight to hear. The film also has good posters, although I dont know why Heather Locklear was on it, she was in the film, sadly, for one scene! Same with Sylvester and Tweety, they were on the poster and not the film much.

The film looked nice and the animation was very good, with special mention to a part where Daffy was covered with foam and that looked absolutely excellent, the way Brendan Fraser interacts with Daffy is a showcase of excellent animation. The film also had a monster in it at one point when our characters go somewhere and it looked like the kind of CGI from the 'Scooby Doo' movies. There was also a moving brain at one point that did something that seemed like a subtle wink to the face-huggers from 'Alien'. Although, while it wasn't terrible, I did notice that Bugs and Daffy did seem to have a tinge of green on them from time to time. When Wile E. Coyote showed up there seemed to be a rock in the background that looked like his head and I wondered if that was going to play into anything. There was a part where they jump into paintings and someone in one of them was painting in time with the music and that was great. However, there was something weird with the animation, at the start when the members of the Board had their mobile phones, they were oddly transparent and it looked like a part of the phone was missing, and the explosions they use in the film, sometimes look very obvious that they have come from a green screen, but perhaps because I have been around quite a lot of green screen I just noticed it easier.

I have absolutely no idea why what happened to this film, did. For a film that was oddly given no creative control, probably because of what the company wanted this film to achieve, it was very creative as well as being funny, well written, well acted and was a very unique and creative film. Like usual, the reviews for different sites indicate different things, the reviews are positive on metacritic with the critics on RT being 57% and the reviews on IMDb being 5.7, oddly enough, at this time. It's just sad to hear that this bombed so hard it caused the animation department of WB to shut down, it's unbelievable and slightly ironic. I was very nearly in this film and I wish that I had have been because this is a great unique film, although, I don't recall any, as I would have been at the time, child bit parts in this film.