Revered Looney Tunes finally 'Back in Action'

0 Comments | Gazette, The (Colorado Springs), Nov 14, 2003 | by CRAIG OUTHIER

Mel Blanc has died and gone to that big voice-over booth in the sky, but Warner Bros. keeps on churning out cartoons populated by the wacky critters whose voices he invented and so long supplied: Bugs, Daffy, Sylvester and my Franco-American homeboy, Pepe Le Pew.

On the big screen, at least, the post-Blanc Looney Tunes era has drawn a blank, owing in large part to the witless celebrity worship fest that was "Space Jam" (1996).

"Looney Tunes: Back in Action" is better - much better, actually: a droll, unruly kick in the pants that frequently captures the bent, irreverent spirit of the original TV cartoons.

Set behind the scenes on a fictional WB backlot, "Back in Action" finds disgruntled Daffy Duck embroiled in an acrimonious labor dispute with studio brass. Fed up with absorbing shotgun blasts and other painful indignities as Bugs Bunny's much-abused whipping-fowl, Daffy hands the studio an ultimatum:

"It's me or the rabbit!"

Naturally, the duck is given his walking papers.

Say this about Bugs: He knows which side his bread is buttered on. Deprived of his favorite foil, the wascally wabbit persuades studio executive Kate Houghton (Jenna Elfman) to rehire Daffy.

First they have to find him, which might not be easy, since he's hitched a ride to Las Vegas with failed stuntman DJ Drake (Brendan Fraser) to save Drake's superspy/movie star father (Timothy Dalton, aping his Bond days) and prevent a magical gem from falling into the evil clutches of the Acme Corp., led by the nefarious Mr. Chairman (Steve Martin, in adenoidal Andy Dick mode).

As the bumbling hero, Fraser is less insufferable than usual, while Elfman (of TV's "Dharma and Greg") gives a performance technically sexier than should be legally allowed in a family movie.

Heather Locklear has a brief and unengaging cameo as a Vegas showgirl who works in a casino operated by everybody's favorite redneck dwarf, Yosemite Sam.

Directed by creature feature veteran Joe Dante, "Back in Action" boasts the smoothest blend of animation and live footage since "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" and the wittiest script - by former "Simpsons" writer Larry Doyle - of any big-screen Looney Tunes offering to date.

The rampant product placement is, of course, irritating - the filmmakers even attempt to make light of it, to humorless effect.

Still, it's hard not to be charmed by a movie where Porky Pig and Speedy Gonzales sit in the WB cafeteria and lament the career- damaging consequences of political correctness.

Looney Tunes: Back in Action

RATING: B-

Starring: Brendan Fraser, Jenna Elfman, Steve Martin

Director: Joe Dante

Playing at: Tinseltown, Carmike, Chapel Hills, Cinemark

Rated: PG (language, innuendo)

Running time: 1 hour, 30 minutes