Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		3.5

Looney Tunes: Back in Action Blu-ray Movie Review

Keeps the Toons; Fire the Studio

Reviewed by Michael Reuben December 5, 2014

If ever a director was born to make a Looney Tunes movie, it was Joe Dante, whose Gremlins and Gremlins 2: The New Batch were infused with the same enthusiastically anarchic spirit that had made Warner's classic cartoon franchise a favorite among young and old. But as Dante discovered when he tried to persuade Warner to make a film about the early career of legendary animator Chuck Jones, the studio wasn't interested in "old stuff". They wanted to "rebrand" the Looney Tunes characters for the 21st Century. The result, overseen by music video director Joe Pytka, was the 1996 release Space Jam, which was only modestly successful, primarily with kids who didn't know the old classics.

When Space Jam 2 fell apart, Warner asked Dante to helm a second live-action Looney Tune film initially titled "Spy Jam". Then the studio did what studios usually do when they're unsure of their choice—they undermined the director at every turn. The result, retitled Looney Tunes: Back in Action, satisfied neither Warner nor Dante and was booted from its planned summer release in 2003 into the fall, where it opened with little promotion to disastrous box office. The studio-induced failure prompted Warner to shut down its Feature Animation department, which is why Warner now produces animation solely for TV.

The taint left on Back in Action by this corporate mismanagement is undeserved, however, because, despite the many obstacles placed in his path, Dante managed to get far more of the original Looney Tunes spirit into the film than anyone might have expected. The script was penned by Larry Doyle, a veteran of The Simpsons and Beavis and Butt-head, and all the studio meddling in the world couldn't entirely purge its rebellious spirit. Unlike his corporate masters, Dante understood what the Looney Tunes characters were all about. If they were going to be "updated", it wouldn't be by some cheesy trick like having Bugs Bunny do hip-hop. It would be Dante's way, like having Porky Pig and Speedy Gonazles sit in the Warner cafeteria complaining to each other that political correctness was driving them out of work.

Back in Action has an overly complicated plot, but as in any good Looney Tune, the plot is mostly an excuse for slapstick mayhem that routinely defies space, time, biology, perspective, the laws of physics and every other inconvenient principle of reality. In a classically Dante-esque meta-comment, an ambitious Warner VP named Kate Houghton (Jenna Elfman) is attempting to "rebrand" Bugs Bunny for his next movie. "I was brought in to leverage your synergy", she insists in classic corporate-speak, and she doesn't particularly care if the star himself objects (which he does). Kate reports directly to the two interchangeable Warner Brothers, played by twins Don and Dan Stanton, who appeared as scientists in Gremlins 2, and who, as corporate moguls here, habitually give their subordinates instructions which they contradict within minutes. One such instruction is to fire Daffy Duck, when he demands top billing. As Bugs instantly foresees, none of his scenes work without his usual sidekick. Kate is ordered to get back the duck—or else.

But Daffy has already left Hollywood in the company of a Warner security guard named DJ Drake, whom Daffy managed to get fired in the chaos he caused during his exit. A stuntman by trade, DJ was Brendan Fraser's stunt double in The Mummy movies, which is convenient, because he's also played by Brendan Fraser (another meta-moment from Dante). DJ is also the son of Warner's biggest star, Damien Drake, hero of an endless series of spy blockbusters, but DJ won't trade on his father's name. In yet one more bit of meta-casting Damien Drake is played by a former James Bond, Timothy Dalton, and he turns out to be a real spy, who is using the role of an actor playing a fake spy as a cover story. Daffy Duck is, of course, the one who figures this out.

By the time Kate comes looking for Daffy, with Bugs shadowing her, DJ and Daffy are enroute to Las Vegas—to the sounds of Elvis singing "Viva Las Vegas!"—in search of Damien Drake, who has been kidnapped by the evil Acme Corporation. Yes, that's the same Acme Corporation from which Wile E. Coyote acquires all the gadgets that routinely fail to catch the Roadrunner. The head of Acme is the nefarious Mr. Chairman (Steve Martin), who (naturally) has a plan for world domination that DJ, Kate, Daffy and Bugs must foil.

Dante understands Looney Tunes pacing, which has to be efficient in its setups and snappy in its payoffs, and he also shares Chuck Jones's love of jokes that are casually thrown away in the background or at the edge of the frame (the sequence in the Warner cafeteria is full of them, including a portrait of Jones himself). Knowing that the plot is both ridiculous and unimportant, Dante fleshes out the story with sketches masquerading as subplots and special appearances both human and animated. Wile E. Coyote is summoned as an operative of Acme, as is Marvin the Martian and the Tasmanian Devil. Heather Locklear portrays a spy whose cover is that of an exotic dancer in Vegas called Dusty Tails. Joan Cusack (who, if "toons" really existed, would almost certainly be one) plays "Mother", the matriarch of Area 52 (don't ask) and a sort of combination between M and Q from the Bond films. Her headquarters are a living museum of relics from sci-fi films of the past, including Robby the Robot, a Dalek and a certain giant pod that will be familiar to fans of Fifties classics. Of course, Dante's stock company of players appear throughout, including Dick Miller, Robert Picardo and Dante's old boss, Roger Corman, as (what else?) a film director.

I still can't believe that Dante got away with the Wal-Mart sequence. Dying of thirst in the desert, our gang of heroes is suddenly saved when the ubiquitous discounter materializes in front of them. "Is that a mirage, or just product placement?" wonders Bugs. Ever the practical one, DJ turns to Kate and asks, "Is this your idea?" To which she replies: "The audience expects it. They don't even notice this kind of thing anymore." Now that's a good update. All that's missing is for Daffy to go crazy and trash the place, as he does the Warner lot.

Looney Tunes: Back in Action Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Probably because of his experience on Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, cinematographer Dean Cundey (Jurassic Park) was assigned to shoot the live-action portions of Looney Tunes: Back in Action. Given the elaborate compositing work required to integrate the animation, it is not surprising that the film was finished on what was then still the relatively new procedure known as a digital intermediate. Warner's 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray was presumably sourced from the same digital files created in 2003, which would account for its smooth but detailed surface, which has to strike the right balance between the relatively simple textures of the animated characters and the more complex surfaces of the real world. The colors are subtly shaded so that the dull tones of the corporate boardroom at both Warner and Acme transition easily to the bright, glittering neon of Las Vegas (the older Las Vegas, before most of the luxury resorts opened), the hot intensity of the Nevada desert and the bright greens of Africa. Densities and saturation look appropriate, and the only digital manipulation in evidence is whatever was done at the DI stage.

In a surprising move for Warner, the 92-minute film hasn't been squeezed onto a BD-25, but has been allowed a BD-50. In a not-so-surprising move for Warner, vast amounts of space on the BD-50 have been left unused, so that the average bitrate clocks in at 25.93, which is adequate. But why does Warner Home Entertainment consistently aim for such rates even when it doesn't have to?

Looney Tunes: Back in Action Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Back in Action's aggressive 5.1 mix, encoded in lossless DTS-HD MA, provides all the boing that one could want from an action cartoon, as Bugs, Daffy and friends run, drive, fly, crash, explode and generally do all the physically impossible things for which they are known and loved. The human actors do more than a few such stunts as well. The sound designers have used the expansive dynamic range of modern digital sound and the steering potential of discrete multi-channel systems to open out the possibilities of Looney Tune antics without betraying the spirit and sensation of the original adventures. The voice work is impressive, and it's all intelligible, except when it's not supposed to be.

The score for Back in Action is the last one credited to the late Jerry Goldsmith, although parts of it had to be completed by John Debney. The score's freewheeling style is a fitting tribute to the great composer, who echoes his own Gremlins score when Daffy and DJ hop into DJ's heap of an auto for the drive to Vegas. The car is, of course, an AMC Gremlin.

Looney Tunes: Back in Action Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The extras have been ported over from Warner's 2005 DVD release of Looney Tunes: Back in Action, with a few additional cartoons. Missing are the DVD-ROM features, which, according to information at IMDb ("Alternate Verions"), contained ten more deleted scenes.

• A Duck Inside Looney Tunes: Back in Action (480i; 1.33:1; 13:04): An entertaining EPK featuring Dante, Elfman, Fraser, Martin and Dalton (among others).



• Behind the Tunes (480i; 1.33:1; 8:48): Bugs and Daffy take the audience on a behind-the-scenes tour.



• Bang Crash Boom (480i; 1.33:1; 7:26): Bugs and Daffy explain the film's special effects, including both the combination of live action and animation and traditional action sequences with cars and other big props.



• Looney Tunes Out of Action: Best Scenes You've Never Seen (480i; 1.33:1 & 2.40:1; 10:38): Bugs and Daffy introduce a collection of deleted scenes, including an alternate opening.



• Duck Dodgers in Attack of the Drones (480i; 1.33:1; 7:37): This short was part of a group produced by Larry Doyle for Warner in 2003 that the studio chose not to release in theaters. Any resemblance to the Star Wars universe is purely coincidental.



• The Whizzard of Ow (480i; 1.33:1; 7:10): Doyle's take on Wile E. Coyote and the Roadrunner.



• Cock-a-Doodle-Duel (480i; 1.33:1; 6:46): Foghorn Leghorn confronts a genetically engineered rival.



• Hare and Loathing in Las Vegas (1080p; 1.78:1; 6:30): Bugs has a good day at Yosemite Sam's casino.



• Museum Scream (1080p; 1.78:1; 7:00): Sylvester tries to capture a now-rare Tweetie bird on exhibit in a science and natural history museum.



• My Generation G. . . G . . . Gap (1080p; 1.78:1; 6:14): How many disasters can befall Porky Pig when he takes his daughter to a rock concert? The best part is the final commercial for Porky's album, Now That's What I Call Songs by a Stuttering Pig!



• Yosemite Sam with TNT (480i; 1.85:1; 0:09): This fragment from the film serves no apparent purpose other than providing a bang.



• Trailer (480i; 1.78:1, enhanced; 1:33).

Looney Tunes: Back in Action Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

We will never know what Looney Tunes: Back in Action could have been if Dante had been allowed a free hand, but what's here deserved much better than the back of the hand that Warner gave it at the time. Especially among the supporting players and in the margins of the frame, there's a lot to appreciate, and the Blu-ray treatment is certainly very good. While nothing can compare to the classic Looney Tunes of old, recommended.