Review
LOONEY TUNES: BACK IN ACTION
Starring humans Brendan Fraser, Jenna Elfman and Steve Martin
Starring characters Daffy Duck, Bugs Bunny and Marvin the Martian
Directed by Joe Dante
Opens Friday, November 14
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The headline "Idiot duck goes on rampage" says it all.
In Looney Tunes: Back In Action, Daffy Duck demands more star-power and, as usual, makes a mess of everything with his manic lunacy. His demented demeanour is a foil to the cool backhanded humour of his arch rival, Bugs Bunny. In a very funny scene that is filled with movie-biz humour, Daffy is ejected from the Warner Brothers lot by the studio executive "in charge of humour," Kate Houghton (Jenna Elfman). Studio security guard and wannabe stuntman DJ Drake (Brendan Fraser) is given the thankless task of hustling the ridiculous little black duck off the property. He doesn’t get the job done without almost destroying the entire studio. DJ, too, is fired.
With time on their hands, Daffy and DJ find themselves free to chase after DJ’s kidnapped father and a huge diamond that has the ability to turn humans into monkeys. And who might be trying to thwart them? None other than the CEO of shoddy product manufacturer ACME (Steve Martin).
Looney Tunes is at its best and funniest when the toons are running wild, whether through the paintings in the Louvre or the casinos of Las Vegas. The live 3-D actors, though, seem to have a tough time relating to their colourful counterparts – the humans mostly come off as stiff or trying too hard.
It is hard to imagine Bugs et al. without their original creators Mel Blanc and Chuck Jones, but director Joe Dante is a fan, and he has managed to capture their unbridled spirit. Joe Alaskey is the voice for Daffy, Bugs, Tweety and Sylvester and he does an admirable job of getting the familiar voices right. Strangely, Marvin the Martian, a character much imitated by many, is the one he doesn’t seem to get. Mel Blanc has a posthumous cameo as the sound effects of DJ’s wreck of a car and the film is populated with stars such as Timothy Dalton, Heather Locklear, Joan Cusak and director Roger Corman.
Overall, Looney Tunes: Back in Action has many smart, funny salutes to the wisecracking animated ensemble and stays true to the original darkish humour, but the folks at Pixar don’t have to lose any sleep over this one. |
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