Looney Tunes: Back in Action (2003) User Reviews

Much Better Than Expected

[ccthemovieman-1 · 7/10 · 14 January 2006]

Even though I had heard good things about this film, I didn't expect that much....but was very surprised. It's good, very entertaining and worth watching. The humor is excellent with some very funny things in here and very clever in spots. It helps a lot to know your Looney Tunes characters and it helps a great deal to know your film history. References to old films and characters are everywhere. For that reason, I would recommend this film for classic movie fans. They'll be pleasantly surprised.

On the bad side, I found the film too loud, which is no surprise since cartoons tend to be that way. The loudest may have been Daffy Duck, who is a major player in this film. The female lead, Jenna Elman, is too hard-looking and just not likable to me.

The positives outweigh the negatives, however. If you can put up with the loudness and stupid acting (Steve Martin is brutal here in that regard), you'll still get a ton of laughs out of this movie.

Loved it, as will most fans of the classic cartoons

[supercygnus · 7/10 · 30 November 2003]

Back in Action really captured that snarky wit we all love from Bugs, the put upon egomaniac that is Daffy and many of the other great traits of the original crew from the glory days of the Looney Tunes. Dante really knows this territory and his affection for the material is very apparent. He is the ONLY logical choice for the director (watch his older films for countless references to the Looney Tune gang). The humans are all game, but never upstage the real stars (Bugs and the Gang of course), rather they simply add to the film and give us at least a few flesh and blood characters for us to relate to. Fraser is once again both heroic and likable/goofy, Elfman is sexy and a bit cynical in fresh change of pace from her more docile "Dharma" character from t.v. and Martin is like a human cartoon character himself. He hasn't been this "out there" and unpredictable since his celebrated stand-up days. He does anything but play it safe, and ends up with a memorable, if not a little eccentric performance. Timothy Dalton as Fraser's Dad is a real stand-out both referencing and spoofing his 007 past, without scuffing up himself or the good Bond name. The fact he plays it so straight really adds to the quality of his scenes and jokes (love the "slapping himself" scene!). There are some really inspired bits here; funny and clever. The scene in the Louvre was both gorgeous to watch and so funny I laughed harder than I have at the theaters for a while. The entire outer space sequence is also just jammed packed with so many great bits you'll need to see it twice just to take it all in. It's unfortunate this little gem of a flick has been gobbled up in the busy holiday release schedule, but fans should be pleased this film was made at all and will be able to own and enjoy it in the near future. I loved it, as did my 12 year old sister, my girlfriend and the theater I saw it with. Sad there will probably not be another large scale Looney production after this, but we have this one to treasure. I believe over time, and certainly on home video / DVD, Back in Action will find it's audience. Like all great cult films, it will probably take some time for it to be discovered, but fans will keep it alive. examples? Big Trouble in Little China, Tron, Buckaroo Banzai, Austin Powers, Swingers and F/X are just a handful of films that did very poor or just ok at the box office, but went on to great success on home video and in many cases garnered RABID cult followings that have made them favorites with fans even today.

Fun to watch but watch close

[KYWES · 5/10 · 14 November 2003]

The real fun of this movie is to see if you can catch all the gags in it such as the show frog eating flys and the man sneaking away with him as in the cartoon. I'll have to watch it again to catch them all. It was also fun to see them use stuff from other films and shows such as the Daleks saying "exterminate, exterminate" What a hoot. The movie is so so, good, not great IMNHO and they did give plenty of safe eye candy for the men in the audience.

Don't listen to the bloody critics

[TonyGoldmark · 16 November 2003]

(SPOILERS!!! SPOILERS!!! DON'T READ IF YOU DON'T WANT SPOILERS!!!)

I, like so much of America's population, grew up watching Looney Tunes. Those old classic cartoons are just about the only thing that I find just as funny now as I did when I was three, if not more so. When I walked into "Looney Tunes Back In Action" I realized that the people behind it were mere pretenders to the Chuck Jones throne. I braced myself for the fact that it might suck. Didn't matter. I consider myself an animation buff, and this was a Looney Tunes movie, a tribute to the funniest cartoons ever made.

I sat down, suffered through what seemed like three hours worth of ads (this was an AMC theater) and then, when the film began, I proceeded to grin like a loon for ninety minutes.

The film had everything. Terrific animation, direction and special effects that combined the live action and animation seamlessly, a breakneck speed that almost topped the original cartoons, and most of all great writing. When Jenna Elfman's character reminds Warner execs that her combined movies have grossed $950,000, their Simpsonian response is "That's not a billion." In a restaurant scene, Porky Pig and Speedy Gonzales lament the need to be PC while Shaggy and Scooby give Matthew Lilliard a deserved chewing-out. And having the villain be the head of the ACME corporation was a brilliant touch, and casting Steve Martin for the role was icing on the cake.

Brendan Fraser and Elfman do what they're there for, no more, no less. They set up the comedic pins for Bugs and Daffy to knock down. The cartoons are the true stars here, especially Daffy, who after decades of getting his beak blown off finally gets the chance to play the hero. I loved that the writers were able to find the perfect blend between the Bob Clampett "Woo-Hoo, Whoo-Hoo" duck and the Chuck Jones "You're Dithpicable" duck. And the voices are as dead-on as possible with Mel Blanc dead. I still slightly prefer Billy West's Bugs voice (in Space Jam) to Joe Alaskey's, but this is a minor quibble.

Early on, when I heard that Eric Goldberg would be directing the animation, my trust in the project skyrocketed. Goldberg was the supervising animator of the Genie in Aladdin, a film which Jones himself called the funniest feature ever made. If there's anyone up to the job of remaking the Tunes for the new milloonium, it's him.

The film's piece de resistance, however, is a sequence that takes place in the Louvre in Paris, in which Elmer Fudd chases Bugs and Daffy through all the paintings, and as they run they take on the styles of Dali, Munch and Seurat among others. The scene's cultural knowledge recalls Chuck Jones in the best way.

With the exception of this scene (and perhaps without even that exception), the film does not aspire to be high art. It merely aspires to be fun, and succeeds triumphantly. It's definitely the best "classic cartoon characters interacting with live actors" movie since Roger Rabbit; it's far funnier and more focused than Space Jam, and it contains none of the saccharine lesson-learning that ruined The Adventures of Rocky And Bullwinkle. It's just plain fun.

There is the mandatory product placement, but even that is given its due for the film's never-ending speil of mockery: "It was sure nice of Wal-Mart to give us all this free Wal-Mart stuff in return for saying Wal-Mart so much." Some people have complained about this, but I say that the filmmakers are simply having their cake and eating it too. These same complainers pointed out that the film is chock full of cross-references to other Warner products like Scooby Doo and Batman. The fact is, after seeing this film I didn't want to see the next Batman movie, or suffer through the Scooby Doo sequel, or (shudder) shop at Wal-Mart any more than I did before the previews ended. Maybe I'm the exception rather than the rule, but I think companies who pay to have their products in movies are, for the most part, wasting their money.

This leads me to the bane of my existence: Bloody Critics, or BCs. Some of these reviews are from people who just didn't get it, and those reviews I can brush off. But the worst ones are from those who claim to be animation buffs, who for the most part rallied against the cheapening of the great works of art that were the original Chuck Jones cartoons. The kinds of people who took college courses that study these cartoons because they were too lazy for a real literature course. The people who hold Chuck Jones to be sacred, who consider it blasphemy to leave "What's Opera Doc" off the recent DVD set.

I say, these BCs have lost sight of something very important. Even though Chuck Jones would occasionally make a cartoon which made you think as well as laugh (Duck Amuck, What's Opera Doc, One Froggy Evening), I would say at least 75% of his output did not have such high aspirations, and was simply meant to be entertaining and fun. Occasionally they would make cartoons that spoofed Wagner and other classics, but more often they would spoof then- current pop-cultural entities like Buck Rogers and Errol Flynn. Look at those Road Runner cartoons: they're pretty much all the same! But does it matter? Of course not. What matters is how fun they are, and how much you laugh. I say, the same principle applies to this film. The film contains innumerable references to recent pop culture, and perhaps the best one of all is a shot of Bugs catching a fish and saying "Hey, whaddaya know - I found Nemo!" If you can't just sit back and laugh at that, and yet you consider yourself an animation buff, I shake my head and wonder why.

Bloody good fun

[mjw2305 · 7/10 · 21 January 2007]

Daffy Duck finally has enough of playing second fiddle to Bugs Bunny, he quits the Hollywood studio and teams up with Bobby Delmont (Brendan Fraser) an ex-stuntman; together they go on a mission to rescue Damian Drake (Timothy Dalton) a spy who has been captured by the evil chairman of the Acne corporation (Steve Martin)

With strong comic performances from Brendan Fraser, Steve Martin and Jenna Elfman, plus everyone's favourite Looney Tunes, this film is a good laugh for the whole family, and the blend between cartoon and real life is the best i have seen.

7/10

Yeah this movie is awful

[WasiReviews · 7/10 · 4 August 2020]

This is one of my greatest guilty pleasures and none of you can take it away from me.

Timing? We don't need no stinkin' timing.

[ews211 · 4/10 · 17 September 2006]

One can always rely on the classic Loony Toon cartoons for impeccable timing. But those artists are dead or gone, and this is what stands in their shoes.

Most gags fall flat. The references are either obscure or heavy handed. Characters appear without justification, as if the director were running down a marketing checklist. The wal-mart placement was too painful for words. The human actors were out of place and poorly directed. The excuse, of course, is that this is a Loony Tune and nothing makes sense.

The movie feels like it was created by a marketing committee. Whoever designed Kate's costumes should be fired. It was a chore to sit through the entire movie.

Very average

[bazmitch23 · 6/10 · 22 March 2013]

This is the film that crushed Warner Bros Animation. After the failure of Osmosis Jones, the studio needed just one hit to get themselves back on track. So they decided to do a Looney Tunes movie. Also, because of people's disappointment with Space Jam, they decided to make a better Looney Tunes movie. Unfortunately, it didn't work. This was released in '03, not many people were interested in Looney Tunes anymore. Besides, it had to go up against Finding Nemo.

However, this film has found it's audience on DVD. What do I think of it?

Meh.

Some things are good, like the old school gags, the FX, the animation, Brendan Fraser was good and I like the cartoony look.

Now here are things I hate about it:

-The pacing is TOO FAST! The opening is really hard to take in when the film is moving at 250 mph. SLOW DOWN! It's like Moulin Rogue were everything moves by so fast, you can't follow what's going on.

-Jenna Elfman is TERRIBLE! She doesn't even try to give a good performance. I think she knew this film was going to flop and didn't care.

• Too many jokes are happening at once! It's hard to concentrate on one joke when there's something in the background you're meant to be looking at too. It's like the equivalent of having two friends talk to you at the same time and you don't know which one to talk to.

• Steve Martin is dreadful. I know he's overacting for the sake of being funny. But there's overacting in a good way and there's overacting in a bad way. Sadly this is the latter. I'm surprised him and Jenna didn't get any Razzie Nominations.

-The scene where Ron Perlman gets eaten by Taz and there's just his skeleton left was just too much. Sure, it's done in a non gory way, but....... it's just creepy.

-The Rabbit Season- Duck Season gag has been done a million times. ENOUGH!

Overall, this film is okay. Worth watching if you're a Looney Tunes fan. But maybe if the pacing was slowed down a bit, it would've been better.

Flat, disappointing and wooden

[duefiori · 5/10 · 29 December 2003]

Forget "Roger Rabbit", but forget also "Space Jam". It is so sad when three great actors like Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and Steve Martin blatantly "do it for the > money" (or the carrots, or whatever they pay Daffy with). All three of them do a really poor standard performance... The human villain thinks it's enough to act stupid to look like a cartoon, the two toons seem to justify wooden acting with pretending to be human. A recent Hollywood fashion is an attitude like "Hey, let's get something that worked in the past, cut some stupid expenses like a decent screenwriter, and let's be back in the big bucks again! Just put in some expensive-looking effects and the morons won't notice!" - Matrix 2.1 and 2.2 as a case in point. And the effects are marginally under standard, too. Bottom line, I definitely didn't like it; make it 5/10, and just thanks to the only true professional there: Vile E. Coyote, great as usual (and quoting himself, they pay him WAY too little).

Funny family film

[Spanner-2 · 7/10 · 1 December 2003]

Entertaining film, that takes the style of the old "Looney Tunes" cartoons and has Bugs, Daffy and company interacting with "real actors" such as Brenden Fraser and Jenna Elfman. Benefits mightedly from Joe Dante's satirical touch. An entertianing family film. GRADE: B

Disappointing, and a well deserved Box-Office Failure I'm afraid. ** out of *****

[Welshfilmfan · 4/10 · 26 December 2007]

It Pains me to say it, because I'm such a huge Looney Tunes fan, but sitting through this was truly painful.

The biggest reason why this flopped is It just isn't funny, we get the same old Psycho spoof we've seen a dozen times before and which the target audience would not get, we get 1 second cameos by people like Michael Jordan and we get Walmart/Product Placement jokes for pity sakes,

Every Human actor in this was woefully miscast, Jenna Elfman and Brendan Fraser both look really ill at ease, fail to work well with the Animation and are just annoying, Steve Martin in what must be a career worst performance had me reaching for the fast forward button every time his character appeared, and as for Timothy Dalton, who must have really fallen on hard times to appear In this is just embarrassing, though he's only on for about a total of 3 minutes if that.

The SFX are fantastic it's just really unfortunate the story and acting by all concerned is at best abysmal at worst embarrassingly awful

it had a $80m plus budget most of which must have been spent on the FX, and made only $21m stateside and it sadly it was lucky to make as much as that i'm afraid, Mel Blanc must be spinning in his grave

The movie tried to be a movie that adults/parents can also enjoy what with Dalton in Spy mode and certain jokes which were clearly aimed at older viewers but sadly that was a mistake as the script is utter garbage as anybody over the age of about 12 will find hard to raise a smile.

Should have been so much better! and deserves to be in the Bottom 100.

** out of *****

Slam dunks "Space Jam" and outdoodles "Cool World"

[filmbuff-36 · 8/10 · 22 November 2003]

Ever since "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" hit theaters in 1988, Hollywood has tried to replicate the formula of placing animated characters in the real world and vice-versa. "Space Jam" was loved when first released but now seems like a feature length commercial for Michael Jordan's career. "The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle" worked on a spot-the-cameo level but little else. "Cool World" has for the most part blissfully faded from memory.

Then along comes "Looney Tunes: Back in Action" and does the impossible - it manages to be funny, entertaining and lively while still slowing things down at times to be insightful. Loaded with numerous celebrities mugging for the camera, satirical jabs at Hollywood and pop cultural references out the ying-yang, the movie has the true frantic nature of a cartoon.

Daffy Duck (voice of Joe Alaskey) has become fed up by constantly playing second banana to Bugs Bunny (also Alaskey) for the past six decades. He makes an ultimatum - either he gets equal billing and pay alongside Bugs, or he's out of there. Warner Bros. Vice President Kate Houghton (Jenna Elfman) promptly gives the duck the boot, and while vindictively wrecking havoc on the studio lot, Daffy hooks up with ne'er do well security guard D.J. Drake (Brendan Fraser) who happens to be the son of famous movie spy Damian Drake (Timothy Dalton).

D.J. is fired as well for not be able to stop Daffy's rampage, and reluctantly goes home with the duck in tow. However, things go crazy when he discovers that his father really is a spy and has been captured by the evil President of the ACME Corporation (Steve Martin). D.J must take up his father's mission of seeking the Blue Monkey Diamond, a mystical jewel that - like all mystical items in such movies - can be deadly in the wrong hands. Daffy's eyes naturally light up with greed at the sound of the word diamond and joins D.J.

Meanwhile, Kate is facing her own dismissal following less then stellar studio reviews of the latest Bugs cartoon without Daffy, and must track down the duck with Bugs' help to convince him to return. The four unlikely heroes team up to stop ACME, save Damian Drake and patch up Bugs and Daffy's fractured partnership.

A lot of love went into this product and it shows. Some of the best jokes are attacks on numerous sensitivity issues that protest groups have mounted against cartoons in the past few decades. Porky Pig and Speedy Gonzalez lament the effect that political correctness is having on their careers while Daffy is told that his constant complaining makes him appealing only to angry bald men who live in basements.

Sight gags rain in as well, the most memorable being a wonderfully conceived scene in the Louvre Museum in Paris where Elmer Fudd chases Bugs and Daffy in and out of numerous famous paintings like "The Scream" and "Persistence of Memory."

The voice acting here is all near perfect. Alaskey does a much better job imitating Mel Blanc's famous Bugs Bunny voice then Billy West did in "Space Jam." Bugs is still the street smart Brooklyn hustler he has always been, and adds a nice bit of levity to the proceedings.

Daffy is still delightfully conceited and selfish, though in a nice change of pace he is actually allowed to be heroic at some points. Also, it should be noted that while Bugs clearly control every scene he's in, this in indeed Daffy's movie and he carries it well.

Fraser has a strong enough presence to play alongside cartoon characters but doesn't have much to do in the humor department. We're reminded that like in "Dudley Do-Right," Fraser just can't make a character funny without decent lines.

Elfman is also lively but remains wallpaper to her animated co-stars, as she should. Dalton on the other hand manages to be serious and goofy at the same time, and seems to be having a great time spoofing his own James Bond character.

But it's Martin who really puts in a performance here, playing the ACME President with a combination of Jim Carrey's loose-limbed gait and Robin Williams' rapid-fire dialogue. He's a truly unique character for Martin to play, a live action cartoon competing for screen time with Bugs and the others. Martin makes him Dr. Evil as played by Jerry Lewis.

Director Joe Dante films this with the same tongue-in-cheek abandon that he used to bring "Gremlins" and "The Howling" to life. The movie's success owes much to his respect for cartoons, and his desire to undo the harm that "Space Jam" did to the characters is a breath of fresh air.

Along with fellow Warner Bros. characters like Wile E. Coyote, Pepe Le Pew and Sylvester the Cat, the movie also makes room for cameos by wrestler Bill Goldberg, Joan Cusack and even legendary B-movie schlockmeister Roger Corman.

"Looney Tunes: Back in Action" lacks the same originality that made "Roger Rabbit" immortal, but still has the energy and wit to remain memorable for decades to come. The movie twists the legends of the Warner stable while still honoring their personalities, and as such the movie works as both an homage to and a wink-at-the-audience spoof of the classic cartoons. It's a movie even Daffy will love.

Eight out of ten stars. Funny toons makes up for some lifeless actors, and the Looney Tunes legacy is returned to its former glory. Nothing despicable here.

Weak Compared to Space Jam

[Hollywood_Yoda · 7/10 · 24 October 2018]

I'm not sure if this was meant to be a live action film with animation or an animated film with live action. This film is kind of a train wreck, the story isn't very good and the acting is terrible. It's easy to see why Brendan Fraser's career has gone down hill, along with Jenna Elfman and sadly, Steve Martin's as well.

The cameos from sports figures like Jeff Gordon didn't really do the film any justice. It's a film that kids won't be able to follow very well, the producers should have made the film completely animated. Unlike Space Jam, Looney Tunes: Back in Action wasn't made with the Looney Tunes in mind. It was more of a money grab!

They're despicable!!!

[PatrynXX · 4/10 · 15 April 2004]

(spoilers)

My what a major disappointment this was. Space Jam was funny and pretty good. So was Who Framed Roger Rabbit. But Back in Action is just rotten apples. My how far Branden Fraiser has fallen. I mean how bad can acting get? I thought the acting in Gili was bad. This is about 100 times worse. Gigli had a bad storyline true. But it didn't suffer because of acting...

Though the cartoon characters weren't bad, they didn't act like they used to. Some of the characters we sympathized with Taz and Coyote.. and very evil now.

It does have it's moments, but it's mostly an offensive movie where I have no idea why they did it.

4/10

Quality: 2/10 Entertainment: 6/10 Replayable: 6/10

Rather good, actually - and perfectly in tune with the original cartoons' spirit

[R. J. · 13 December 2003]

More than making up for the lame excuse for a film that was the

widely panned "Space Jam", this live-action/animation combination featuring Warner's cartoon characters perfectly

recaptures the classic Looney Tunes' wonderfully nonsensical,

freewheeling spirit. There isn't much in a way of an acceptable or

even decent plot, actually, but don't let that deter you since that's

precisely the reason why any attempt to fit the Looney Tunes gang

into a full-length film would flounder. Instead, director Joe Dante

and writer Larry Doyle erect a perilously teetering scaffold upon

which an insanely huge number of amazingly good sight gags and

verbal puns is set, while at the same time paying some sort of

warped tribute to classic sci-fi B-films of the fifties. The `plot' has

Daffy Duck fired from Warners by executive Jenna Elfman as

outdated, then proceeding to get security guard Brendan Fraser

fired along with him, and both embarking on a nutty drive to Las

Vegas to find the whereabouts of Fraser's dad, film star/spy

Timothy Dalton, eventually uncovering a dastardly conspiracy from

ACME chairman Steve Martin to use the Blue Monkey diamond to

enslave mankind. Of course it doesn't make sense, and that's fine

-- it's not meant to. You may point out that the live action/animation

combination doesn't always work, that the live actors never reach

the manic intensity of the cartoon characters (except for Joan

Cusack's wonderfully, ahem, daffy cameo), but really, that's beside

the point when the gratuitously violent and deliriously politically

incorrect free-for-all of the original cartoons is so perfectly

duplicated here.

A mix of animation with live action including a lot of rapid-fire surreal sight gags

[ma-cortes · 6/10 · 2 January 2023]

When the Warner Bros company studio in Hollywood announces a "Bugs Bunny: The Movie" starring the world's greatest cartoon characters, Daffy Duck doesn't like his roles and quits his Hollywood acting job . On the way he meets Kate Houghhton (Jenna Elfman) ,a studio exec powerful enough to send Daffy packing and recently fired security guard stuntman (Brendan Fraser) who's acting in Hollywood while his father has mysteriously gone missing . So the world's greatest cartoon characters team up with him and and go on a top secret mission quest to track his missing daddy . All of them are relentlessly pursued by the nefarious Mr. Chairman (Steve Martin giving a cosmically unfunny turn). The action boomerangs throughout Las Vegas , Paris , Africa , outer space , as Daffy hunts for the Blue Monkey diamond with superspy father and the planet's future hangs in the balance. Make Learning Exciting & Entertaining!.Step right up and come on in; here's where the fun begins !. Real life has never been so animated !How do they solve a mystery when they don't have a clue?.The biggest animated adventure ever to hit real life !

The ¨Piranha¨ filmmaker Joe Dante is a true mischief-maker ready to subvert corporate Hollywood chores , this time with the Looney Tunes search for a man's missing father and the mythical Blue Monkey diamond. Dante is an expert on frolics as well as jokes and his prospect gets his mitts on Bunny ans Daffy Duck , being Chuck Jones probably his biggest influence . Although , it contains some disappointings and the formula doesn't work at all and it never really gels . It packs some some inspired sequences to restore the flagging spirits such as Area 52 scenes and at the Louvre when the cartoons running into famous pictures from Salvador Dali, Munch , Manet , Toulouse Lautrec , among others. Mixing live action in Gremlins style with animation in the manner of Who framed to Roger Rabbit ? , the film kicks on the Warner Bros lot with two sympathetic protagonists as Brendan Fraser as is a lowly security guard and Jenna Elfman as a powerful studio exec along with the long team of Looney Tunes including the following ones : Bugs Bunny , Daffy Duck , Granny, Tweety Bird , Beaky Buzzard, Sylvester , Mama Bear Marvin the Martian , Speedy Gonzalez , Pepe Le Pew , Elmer, Porky Pig and special apperance of Shaggy and Scooby-Doo. The story is nothing more than a fleeble excuse to string together gags , silly sketches and several animated cameos , fast-paced set pieces . Dante is surely right to let his visual imagination run riot , but the scattershot Looney Tunes movement doesn't easily stretch to feature length and our starring and co-stars don't generate too much sympathy.

This watchable enough motion picture was regular but professionally directed by Joe Dante and Eric Goldberg, displaying their characteristic surreal wit and sense of amusement. Dante's most hits took place when found himself working alongside Steven Spielberg, John Landis and Australian director George Miller for the anthology movie ¨The Twilight Zone, The Movie¨ (1983) in which Dante directed the third segment .Steven Spielberg then hired him to work as director for ¨Gremlins¨ (1984) which was another box-office success. He directed some episodes for the Sci-Fi series "Amazing Stories" before directing his next Science Fiction feature which was ¨Innerspace¨ (1987) which, whilst critically well reviewed, was another box office failure. After directing five episodes of "Eerie, Indiana", Dante returned to the big-screen with the well-received ¨Matinee¨ (1993), an affectionate period satire set in 1962 against the background of the Cold War. Dante spent the next several years working for television and directed a satire on politics with ¨The Second Civil War¨ (1997). Dante's next two films, ¨Small Soldiers¨ (1998), and ¨Looney Toons: Back in Action¨ (2004) garnered good reviews but were not commercial hits. Rating : 6/10 . Only for Warner Bros Looney Tunes fans.

Too bad the Looney Tunes always have to co-star with humans in the movies

[philip_vanderveken · 7/10 · 19 April 2005]

I'm a big fan of the Looney Tunes, I always have been and always will be. I like all the 5-minute cartoons with Daffy Duck, Bugs Bunny, Roadrunner & Wile E. Coyote, ... which I grew up with, but I find it too bad that in recent years, they only appear in movies in which they have to co-star with human actors. It just isn't the same anymore.

This time Daffy Duck is more than fed up with the fact that Bugs Bunny once again gets all the attention. He has had it with Hollywood and even gets fired by Warner Bros. He decides that from now on he'll live with the recently fired stuntman Damien Drake Jr., whose father got kidnapped. So together with Bugs Bunny, Damien and Jenna Elfman, the woman who fired him, he embarks on a round-the-world adventure to find Damien's father and the missing blue diamond... They will have to stay one step ahead of The Acme Corp., who wants the diamond for their own evil purposes.

For me personally, the real stars in this movie were the Looney Tunes. The actors weren't always very convincing and especially Steve Martin as the chairman of the Acme Corp. was clearly intended for the kids only. As I already said before, it's a shame that the Looney Tunes no longer get a movie of their own, without human competitors. Nevertheless this is an enjoyable movie for the entire family that is certainly worth a watch. I give it a 7/10.

Starts out great loses it halfway through

[roark183 · 5/10 · 15 January 2004]

I really like Jenna Elfman (Kate) as a comedienne. She generally does pretty well. She started off great in Looney Tunes searching for Daffy Duck to get him back to the studio, because her job depended on it. But then the plot morphs into Brendan Fraser (Drake) looking for his father and Elfman becomes simply a spectator in the second half of the movie. She becomes a prop on the set, rather than a character having something to do with the action.

After her trip to Las Vegas in the film, Kate serves pretty much as a prop rather than as a character. She does throw a monkey wrench and puts a piece into a puzzle. But after the trip to Las Vegas, Ms. Elfman is mostly just a prop on the set. When the camera goes to her, she is simply standing there watching at Brendan Fraser (Drake) do his part. Fraser does pretty well. He does act through out, but in the second half of the film Elfman is simply a prop.

I went to see this film as a fan of Ms. Elfman's. I heard Ms. Elfman on TV state that she wanted to do more films with Fraser. That will probably be a good thing. I know she can act as I have seen her in other films doing a great job. I think Elfman & Fraser will make a good pair, but Elfman has got to do more acting and less spectating. The definition of "act" is "do", not "spectate" or "watch".

I give the first half a 7 and the second half a 3 for an average of 5. After the first half I was just hoping it would end.

I would say this was about as good as Space Jam 2

[kevin_robbins · 7/10 · 6 August 2021]

Looney Tunes: Back in Action (2003) is a movie I recently watched on Tubi with my daughter. The storyline follows an unlikely pairing of a man in search of his long lost father who worked on unique science artifacts and the Muppets who are in search of a Blue Monkey Diamond. Working together they think they can solve each other's goals; unfortunately for them, another evil diabolical scientist will stop at every turn to foil their plans. This movie is directed by Joe Dante (Grenlins) and stars Brendan Fraser (The Mummy), Steve Martin (Three Amigos), Joan Cusack (Working Girl), Heather Locklear (The Return of Swamp Thing) and Jenna Elfman (Friends with Benefits). The storyline for this picture was just okay but the characters and settings were great. I loved Las Vegas, especially Sam's Casino. The cast was really well selected and I enjoyed Steve Martin as the villain. The "Illegal aliens" were awesome and the animation quality was better than Space Jam to me. I would say this was about as good as Space Jam 2. I'd score this a 6-6.5/10 and recommend seeing it once.

Awful, from head to feet

[rafaeldominguezo · 4/10 · 16 July 2005]

This one of the worst animated movies ever made, why?: Because of EVERYTHING! I don't know what the hell is happening in Shawn Watson's head, who commented about this film and said that this was the best movie ever made (maybe because he is a kid and he doesn't really know how to rate a film.

Let me remind him that there are many things that make a good comedy film: FIRST THE STORY: What was the point of the story in this movie, to get the blue monkey?, that's not a story, a good example for this is Tootsie.

THE JOKES: The jokes on this film were so stupid, I don't know how people like this film.

In conclusion: I recommend you to watch other kind of movies, don't waste your money in this like me, I'm WARNING YOU!

Has A Certain Charm To It.

[Movie-ManDan · 7/10 · 19 May 2020]

"Who Framed Roger Rabbit" Is the finest film ever made to combine live-action and animation. Nothing before or after has touched it. The two things that have come close to capturing its likeness are "Space Jam" and "Looney Tunes Back In Action." In LTBIA, some allusions are made to the two films and that's fine. This is perhaps the weakest of the trio, but there's still some good.

When LTBIA came out in 2003, I remember it being one of the hottest kiddie films and it would be shown all the time on Teletoon for years to come. I unfortunately swept it under the rug. It is probably a good thing because I now know more about film and can appreciate the artistry that went into this.

The rivalry between Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny reaches a breaking point where director, Kate (Jenna Elfman) fires Daffy. Bugs doesn't work well without him, so producers make her get Daffy back. Meanwhile, aspiring stuntman DJ Drake (Brendan Fraser) who tries to live up to his Bond-esque father (Timothy Dalton) gets tired from his day job as a Warner Brothers security guard. The best thing DJ has done is being Brendan Fraser's stunt double in "The Mummy" movies. This subplot is clever with many tongue-and-cheek references.

As Daffy consoles in DJ, they find out DJ's dad is a real spy who got kidnapped and must find the "blue monkey." Kate and Bugs eventually meet up with them in the Las Vegas area where the evil Chairman (Steve Martin) awaits. The "blue monkey" is a key to his diabolical plan to turn everyone in the world into working monkeys to make products, then turn them back into humans to buy them. Sounds like a bad plot eh? Well this is for kids.

One thing that made "Roger Rabbit" work was it's actors looked like they actually were looking at cartoons. We hardly get that here. Fraser and Elfman seem to be looking at air. "Roger Rabbit" also had such great detail that went into each frame to make it look like the cartoons existed in the same world. In this, they do a good job but not great. (There's a scene where Scooby Doo and Shaggy talk to Matthew Lillard that wasn't well done.) This features great energy, but seems to be style over substance. It is enjoyable, but it could have been better.

Also, Steve Martin's insane character is one I cannot tell is a bad performance or a good one. It is hard to tell when someone is truly over the top.

So do I love this? No. It does not approach "Roger Rabbit" calibre. The visual mixture is pretty impressive for the most part, and the goofy energy is something we can enjoy.

3/4

Breathless tribute to the Warner cartoons

[Leofwine_draca · 5/10 · 26 August 2016]

LOONEY TUNES: BACK IN ACTION was Joe Dante's live action tribute to the Warner Brothers cartoons he loved as a kid, made in respect to Chuck Jones, the famous animator who had recently died. Dante went on record to say how much he had hated SPACE JAM for ruining those cartoon characters (and it's hard to disagree with him), so this was his chance to make amends. The problem with the film is, ironically, Warner Brothers themselves. They refused to give Dante much in the way of creative control so what we get is largely a generic piece of junk. Certainly the scenes involving the constantly mugging actors Brendan Fraser and Jenna Elfman are largely wince-inducing and never have you seen such irritating lead characters. And the less said about Steve Martin's villain the better - what on Earth was that all about, anyway?

Where LOONEY TUNES: BACK IN ACTION shines is in the cartoon characters themselves. Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny share equal screen time and they're a real hoot when thrown into the real world. Even better, this must be the ultimate 'reference' movie of Dante's career; there are bit parts and supporting roles for literally dozens of Warner-owned cartoon characters, new and old (mainly old). Catching the references is ever a delight, but there are also some imaginative highlights in the main plot, too. The sci-fi attack by classic sci-fi monsters is great stuff, and the chase through the paintings in the Louvre is hilarious. Sadly, the dumb humour and main actors drag this film down quite considerably, but Dante's heart is in the right place and the references make it worth a watch.

Of course, you realize this means war!

[Thomas_Veil · 10/10 · 20 July 2004]

I have to admit having approached this movie with as much trepidation as anticipation. After all, Mel Blanc is gone, Chuck Jones is gone, and the hallowed Looney Tunes franchise now resides in the hands of younger players.

Think about all the things that could have gone wrong. The voices might not be quite the same. The animation might be done on the cheap, like a lot of modern "cartoons". The writers might opt for the kind of witless "humor" that seems to be in vogue today.

Happily, all my fears were unfounded. "Looney Tunes - Back in Action" is EXACTLY as good as I hoped it would be.

Not only are the animation and voices superb (the latter being indistinguishable from the originals), but "Looney Tunes" turns out to be a veritable showcase of variations on all those goofy gags you remember from the old cartoons. Characters walking into paintings, horribly defective ACME products, the running "rabbit season/duck season" feud...they're all here, with every bit of comic timing and inventiveness that you remember, and then some.

Fans of the old cartoons will have a field day catching glimpses of all sorts of minor players in the background. (Watch for Sam and Ralph, the sheepdog and wolf who pummel each other -- but only between 9 and 5 -- in the background of the cafeteria scene.) The writer, Larry Doyle, miraculously manages to cram dozens of minor Looney Tunes characters into the story, yet without making it seem awkward or contrived.

Of course, for the human characters, one needs actors almost as cartoony as the venerable WB rabbit and duck, and Brendan Fraser, Jenna Elfman and Steve Martin work beautifully in their roles. Fraser of course already has "George of the Jungle" and "Dudley Do-Right" under his belt; Jenna Elfman always WAS something of a cartoon; and after so many movies that underutilize his comic talents, what a joy it is to see Steve Martin turned loose to perform the "wild and crazy" kind of comedy we haven't seen since the beginning of his career!

There are also gag appearances by Timothy Dalton as a James Bond-ish spy (hmmm...) and Heather Locklear as one of his covert cohorts. Both actors show a nice flair for comedy. (Casting directors, please note.) There are also a few surprise cameos which I wouldn't dare to spoil.

The plot (for those who apparently weren't paying attention) involves the head of the evil ACME corporation (Martin) and his attempt to find a magical diamond which can change humans into monkeys. Recently-fired Fraser and Daffy are hot on the trail of Fraser's father, a spy who was captured while attempting to stop Martin's diabolical plot. Elfman and Bugs follow. The trail leads the foursome to clues in Las Vegas and Paris, before reaching its climax in outer space. It's pretty much your standard James Bond plot, except that it's scads wittier. (For those who expected something meatier, please check the IMDb for the following references: KUBRICK, STANLEY...WELLES, ORSON...and BERGMAN, INGMAR.)

Half the fun comes from seeing the various "operatives" that ACME throws up against our heroes: Yosemite Sam, Elmer Fudd, Marvin the Martian, Wile E. Coyote, et. al. And if that wasn't enough, there's a secret lab wherein Robby the Robot, Kevin McCarthy ("They're coming! Beware!"), and an assortment of recognizable 1950s bug-eyed monsters reside.

There's even a nice subtext involving Daffy's frustration at always playing straight man to Bugs, and the whole love/hate relationship between the two characters. Clearly, writer Doyle knows this material inside and out.

There are inherent dangers in taking characters that were, after all, short subjects, and expanding them into a 90-minute movie. Doyle overcomes these nicely, thank you, by moving Bugs, Daffy, Fraser and Elfman from one set-piece to another. He also eschews the all-too-common tendency nowadays to make an action movie fastfastfast, without any change of pace so we can catch our breaths. But no matter whether the characters are involved in an action sequence or just standing around talking, the gags come thick and fast.

Everything is rounded out with some nice special effects, and a zippy music score by the ever-reliable Jerry Goldsmith, who manages to beautifully integrate several classic Carl Stalling and Raymond Scott cues. (Yeah, you remember Scott. His music was that piece they played whenever they showed some sort of giant conveyor belt or monstrous contraption.)

As for those who didn't find this movie funny, all I can do is quote Bugs: "...If you don't find a rabbit wearing lipstick amusing, then we ain't got nothing' to say to each other."

Or in the words of Daffy: "Youuuuuuuuuu're despicable!"

Why we were taught discipline

[StevePulaski · 6/10 · 11 June 2012]

Looney Tunes: Back in Action may or may not be what you'd expect from a modern day film focusing on some of the most iconic animated characters in the history of animation. The film is a hybrid of animation and live action, which sometimes works and sometimes doesn't. Here, it provides us with moments of interest, but also, moments that are void of humor and purpose.

Still, the look is relatively welcomed, although I can't say I'm wholly fond of these characters being brought into the digital age. It would've been more fitting to see this gang in a live action film in their traditional hand drawn style of animation. But time is fleeting and the patience for craftsmanship like that is thin. I might as well have wished for a Looney Tunes movie done in claymation.

The story is simply a cacophony on film. We begin by seeing Daffy Duck, who is sick of always playing secondhand man to Bugs Bunny (both voiced by Joe Alaskey). After demanding his own film to Warner Bros. studios, he is hastily fired by VP of Comedy Kate Houghton (Jenna Elfman). Security guard of Warner Bros. lot, DJ Drake (Brendan Fraser), is also fired after causing trouble trying to escort Daffy off the property.

Something of a spy plot brews, when DJ discovers his famous father was a secret agent. This inspires both him and Daffy to drive down to Las Vegas, where more of their camaraderie will surely take place, as they get in trouble with a corporation called "Acme," ran by a barely recognizable Steve Martin, and begin to stumble upon a slew of inventions created for inevitable mishaps. There's also a nice trip to Area 52, and that's not a typo.

Just like the infamous Warner Bros. cartoons, Looney Tunes: Back in Action follows the anarchic blueprint of the shorts, making them as zany and as logic-defying as possible. Is it faithful to the original shorts? Yes. It is always fun to watch? Not quite. To prepare myself for this event, I watched a couple of the classic shorts, including Rabbit Seasoning and What's Opera, Doc?, both directed by the late and great Chuck Jones. There's something captivating and compelling about the shorts that the film sort of lacks. I believe it's the transportation into the real world that jumbles the film up. It's made a tad more mainstream than it should be, and sort of obscures the obvious non-reality the shorts occupied.

What too makes the shorts so sweet and charming is the waves of nostalgia that bleed off of them and the fact that they're so clearly cartoons. Trying to incorporate them in the real world doesn't work as well. In the Looney Tunes original feature film, Space Jam, it worked a bit better, maybe because the action on the court was very reminiscent of the one-setting shorts the characters starred in. Here, they are given such a wide range and such little discipline that, after a while, the event is exhausting and monotonous.

Brendan Fraser works well in his lead, as he clearly has respect for the franchise and the legacy of the "Tunes" (and loves to take punches at himself). Jenna Elfman and Steve Martin work well in the supporting cast, and the voices of all the characters, as well as their appearances, do not fail to provide everyone's face with a smile.

I chuckled a few times and sort of smiled when the film became stylistic (particularly during the scene where Elmer Fudd, Daffy, and Bugs are jumping in and out of famous portraits in Paris). But those smiles and chuckles quickly turned to moot feelings when the film became too concerned with snappy witticisms and indescribably chaotic sensibilities. Little, little kids might enjoy it, but it's hard to say where lifelong fans will stand. Two and a half stars seems like a fair compromise from someone who enjoyed the characters enough to give their ninety-one minute anarchic piece a try.

Starring: Brendan Fraser, Jenna Elfman, Steve Martin, Timothy Dalton, Heather Locklear, and Joan Cusack. Voiced by: Joe Alaskey. Directed by: Joe Dante.

Bugs Bunny at the Low Point of his Career

[AS-69 · 3/10 · 15 December 2003]

This movie is just another example of a loveless attempt to cash in on a successful trademark. It is simply a crude collage of recycled gags from the old looney tunes cartoons and maybe hundreds of other movies without a spark of originality (e.g., the light swords of Star Wars are quoted for the hundredth time, who can call this "intellectual"?). Even technically, the movie is weak. Mediocre actors are overcharged with imagining the later inserted animated characters (just look at Jenna Elfman holding Duffy Duck in the first scene). It is by far more rewarding to watch the old "Looney Tunes" cartoons (Tex Avery, Chuck Jones's Wile E. Coyote, ...), or "Who framed Roger Rabbit" (so far, the masterpiece in the mixture of life action and animation), or some episodes of "The Simpsons" (to see how one can cleverly quote other movies - not just for hiding one's lack of imagination). Well, the fact that the theater was empty at a Sunday afternoon during the first week of the movie's screening and that even the kids stopped laughing after a few minutes is the only hope that this kind of movie will not be repeated too many times.