Thufferin' thuccotash! Old cartoon formula bubbles with action

By Moira Macdonald
Seattle Times movie critic

	SUZANNE HANOVER Daffy Duck, Jenna Elfman, Brendan Fraser and Bugs Bunny in Warner Bros. live-action adventure comedy "Looney Tunes: Back In Action."
	E-mail this article Print this article Search archive

Watching "Looney Tunes: Back in Action" feels a bit like getting caught inside a giant pinball machine; the noise and color and nonstop gags just keep coming, bouncing off each other at a dizzying rate. But what kid wouldn't want to step inside a pinball machine, at least for a few minutes? This movie, with all its hopped-up, sugar-rush action, provides plenty of fun for a young audience. And grown-ups with fond memories of Looney Tunes cartoons might find themselves giggling as well.

Purists will note that "Back in Action" can't begin to compare with classic cartoons because of one crucial element: legendary voice actor Mel Blanc, who spoke the words of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Sylvester and many other Warner Bros. characters, died in 1989. He's been replaced here by Joe Alaskey, whose tones are a tad lower, but nonetheless he is quite creditable as Bugs and Daffy. A handful of other actors voice the remaining melee of characters; aficionados will be happy to see a brief turn by Blanc's colleague June Foray (now in her 80s) as Granny.

Movie review Showtimes and trailer *** "Looney Tunes: Back in Action," with Brendan Fraser, Jenna Elfman, Steve Martin, Timothy Dalton, Joan Cusack, Heather Locklear. Directed by Joe Dante, from a screenplay by Larry Doyle. 92 minutes. Rated PG for some mild language and innuendo. Several theaters.

Like "Who Framed Roger Rabbit," "Back in Action" is a blend of animation and live action, and director Joe Dante ("Gremlins") has goofy fun with the clash of the cartoon world against the cartoony world of movie studios. Bugs and Daffy, longtime contract players on the Warner Bros. studio lot, are feuding as the film begins; Bugs is an established star, Daffy a frustrated sidekick who feels his many talents are being wasted (and who notes jealously that Bugs gets all the perks — and the "goils").

Soon, Daffy's been kicked off the lot by a frustrated stuntman/security guard (Brendan Fraser) following studio orders. And he's caught up in a mysterious plot, as D.J. the stuntman learns that his movie-star dad (Timothy Dalton) has been kidnapped by the evil chairman of Acme Corporation (Steve Martin), for reasons involving a giant diamond ... but never mind all that, just hang on to your popcorn bag as we go careening off to such exotic locales as Las Vegas, Paris, Africa and the Warner Bros. commissary. (The latter is the site of some funny throwaway gags, particularly Porky Pig and Speedy Gonzalez sharing a table and lamenting political correctness.)

Though the movie runs out of energy before its conclusion, it supplies more laughs than most comedies on screen these days — many of the self-spoofing variety. Posters tell us that Dalton, nicely sending up his Bond persona, is the star of such movies as "Olly Olly Oxen Spy" and "More Is Never Enough"; Fraser, his gee-whiz charm in full flower, tells Daffy that he was stuntman for the "Mummy" movies but that "the Brenmaster does his own stunts." (Just a bit of an eyeroll accompanies this statement — he's aware that he's talking to a duck.)

Jenna Elfman is perky and frantic as the studio executive caught up in the chase, and Martin is wildly pretzel-ish as the weirdly posturing Chairman. He, like everyone else, knows what kind of movie he's in. Watch out, he calls off screen — "some men are moving a safe." Crash. Giggle. Move on. "Back in Action" is formula, but sometimes old formulas work just fine.

Moira Macdonald: 206-464-2725 or mmacdonald@seattletimes.com

Copyright © 2003 The Seattle Times Company