Looney Tunes: Back in Action

Summary

“Duck Dodgers to the…”

In the Nineties, Joe Dante tried to have the script he cowrote with Chuck Jones, Termite Terrace, produced by Warner Bros. That script would have breathed new life into lots of the iconic characters from the Looney Tunes cartoons, Tex Avery cartoons, and more. Unfortunately, Warner Bros. decided to go another direction. That direction was the film Space Jam. Space Jam was a box office success, but it was not in the spirit of what made the Looney Tunes so enjoyable. After trying unsuccessfully to make a sequel to Space Jam for a few years, Warner finally went back to the person who was best fit to make a film revolving around Looney Tunes – Joe Dante. His work on Gremlins and friendship with Chuck Jones and understanding of the characters made Joe Dante a natural choice. Chuck Jones had passed away and Joe took the job with the hope of keeping the characters from doing hip-hop and with the hope of doing a great Looney Tunes film. Unfortunately, with a huge budget of $80 million, the executives at Warner Bros. constantly interjected themselves into the creative process for the film which made the film a painful process for the director. 

I had admittedly avoided this film when it was released. At the time, I did not realize that one of my favorite directors was even involved with the film. I was also at a point in my life (senior year of high school) where I had no interest in seeing anything family friendly. My years of being banned from seeing R-rated films had led to an explosion of watching the most R-rated films possible. I finally watched the film the other night and, probably because of my low expectations, I ended up pleasantly surprised by it. 

The plot of the film is pretty convoluted, but I will give it my best shot. Daffy Duck is fired by the two Warner Brothers (Dan and Don Stanton) based on the recommendation of Vice President Kate (Jenna Elfman.) On his way off the Warner lot, Daffy bumps into DJ Drake (Brendan Fraser,) a stunt man and sometime security guard. DJ attempts to escort Daffy off the lot. This goes disastrously and Daffy manages to basically destroy the Warner lot. When DJ is stripped of his security guard patch and sent home, he sees that Daffy has stowed away from him. It turns out that DJ is the son of a famous actor named Damian Drake (Timothy Dalton) who has played a James Bond style spy in numerous films. It turns out that Damian really is a spy and is in trouble. He mentions singer Dusty Tails (Heather Locklear) and something about a Blue Monkey.  Daffy and DJ follow his advice and head to Las Vegas in a Gremlin that Daffy is convinced is a spy car. Meanwhile, the filming with Bug Bunny is going terribly without his comedic foil. Kate is told by the Warner Brothers that she will be fired if she does not locate Daffy by Monday. Bugs and Kate visit the house, they see that Daffy and DJ are in route to Vegas and they take the actual spy car to bring them back. Meanwhile, the nefarious Mr. Chairman (Steve Martin) who oversees ACME Corporation tries to foil their attempts to save Damian Drake and acquire the Blue Monkey diamond.

While not every single aspect of Looney Tunes: Back in Action works, a good amount of the film is enjoyable. I imagine that this film took a tremendous amount of work to accomplish. Utilizing one of the greatest cinematographers – Dean Cundey – the film manages to make a world full of Looney Tunes characters work as well as Cundey’s work on Who Framed Roger Rabbit? Asde from a few scenes that look a bit weak, there was some real technical wizardry that went into the grand scale set pieces of this film. Dante has always understood how to wield mayhem in his films, and matched with Cundey they made everything come to life. The stumbling blocks of the film have nothing to do with the meshing of live action with cartoons, but actually come from the meshing of Dante’s humor with a more broad and forced corporate humor. There are sequences that are obviously showcasing Joe and sequences that showcase the twenty five gag men that Warner employed to add gags for some odd reason. It is the tale of two films within Looney Tunes: Back in Action. The standout sequences involve an huge set piece sequence in Vegas, an amazing animation sequence at the Louvre, and a great sequence at a secret government base that is full of Dante’s easter eggs (including a very recognizable creature from This Island Earth.) The film also features the final score by the legendary composer Jerry Goldsmith. He was an absolute genius and is missed.

At the end of the day – while not perfect – it is an admirable attempt to continue the legacy of the great Looney Tunes characters and the brilliant Chuck Jones. Joe should hold his head up high for the amount of good things in the film.

Video

The Warner Bros. Blu-ray release from 2014 features a strong looking transfer in 2.40:1 aspect ratio with an MPEG-4 AVC encode. This film has probably not properly received attention for the fantastic job that cinematographer Dean Cundey did with the material, but the visual wizardry of blending the cartoons into the real world fairly seamlessly is really impressive. Aside from a somewhat lackluster visual effects scene on the Eiffel Tower, I was really impressed by how the film looked. The Blu-ray from Warner still looks sharp.

Audio

Looney Tunes: Back in Action features a DTS-HD MA 5.1 surround track that uses the surround effects well for all the zany things happening in the film. The final score by Jerry Goldsmith is a good send off for the legendary composer. Dialogue is clear. This is a good sounding track.

Supplements:

• A Duck Inside Looney Tunes: Back in Action 
• Behind the Tunes 
• Bang Crash Boom 
• Looney Tunes Out of Action: Best Scenes You’ve Never Seen
• Duck Dodgers in Attack of the Drones 
• The Whizzard of Ow 
• Cock-a-Doodle-Duel 
• Hare and Loathing in Las Vegas
• Museum Scream 
• My Generation G. . . G . . . Gap 
• Yosemite Sam with TNT 
• Trailer

Overall Scores:

Video – 4.5/5

Audio – 4.5/5

Supplements- 3/5

Overall – 3.5/5

Looney Tunes: Back in Action was a difficult experience for director Joe Dante. It is a project he has noted as being compromised. That said, I had hesitated to check out this movie for years and I found myself pleasantly surprised. The cinematography by Dean Cundey is brilliant. The characters from Looney Tunes are for the most part true to what we grew up with. There are plenty of enjoyable Easter eggs that adults will enjoy. It isn’t perfect, but I would totally watch this movie with my kids. The Warner Bros. Blu-ray features solid video and audio and numerous short films featuring Looney Tunes characters.