Review of Looney Tunes: Back in Action (2003) by Paul D — 28 Jul 2012

Unlike "Space jam" the Looney Tunes characters actually act like Looney Tunes characters and this bizarre mixed bag of tricks that offers a lot of fun, whimsical cartoon logic and enough classic pop culture references ripped from Joe Dante's childhood to make this movie actually work on some weird level. It's great to see the Looney Tunes reenacting some of their best gags and it is a treat to see Robby the Robot from "Forbidden Planet", a Dalek from "Dr. Who", a Star Trek alien, the bug mutant from "This Island Earth", and Marvin the Martian set loose on Area 52 to the tune of "The Powerhouse" right after we've seen a hologram of Peter Graves sum up the key plot device in about 4 seconds. This film doesn't aim to be great, but it pays homage to so much and has so much fun and Dante orchestrates the mayhem in such a vibrantly attractive manner that I can forgive many of the film's shortcomings.

I think you really have to be a die-hard "Looney Tunes" fan to really appreciate it, but then you will also be disappointed it doesn't live up to the wonder of the classic cartoons from Clampett, Jones, Freleng, McKimson, and the rest. Joe Alaskey and Billy West do a good job of recreating some of memorable voices, but we still miss Mel Blanc.