Review of Looney Tunes: Back In Action (Widescreen)

Introduction

Let me first say that I told you all I was looking forward to this movie, and I haven`t been disappointed. I thought it looked fun from the trailer and the advanced publicity stuff circulating towards the end of 2003. Now I`ve got the R2 disc in my sticky little paws, and I`m happier with it than I was the R1 edition.

The ever-dependable Brendan Fraser heads the non-toon cast, as security guard and wannabe stuntman JD Drake. He finds himself at the centre of a diabolical scheme of world domination when his movie star father Damian Drake is kidnapped having been revealed as a super secret agent of the type he portrays on film. Drake Sr. (former 007 Timothy Dalton showing he isn`t such a moody b*gger after all) has been on the trail of a fabled blue diamond called the Blue Monkey. The chairman of the sinister Acme Corporation intends to use the diamond`s supernatural powers for his own ends, and JD must get the diamond before him.

Of course, matters are complicated by the involvement of that cwazy wabbit and the little black duck. Daffy throws a movie-star tantrum and gets himself dismissed from Warner Brothers Studio. In the process of throwing the duck out of the studio, JD accidentally wrecks the studio and soaks the VP of Comedy (delectable Jenna Elfman from TV`s Dharma and Greg). He is fired for his pains.

The cast includes Steve Martin as the Chairman of the Acme Corporation (doing a Ruprecht-redux of the character from Dirty Rotten Scoundrels). His board of directors includes Mary Woronov (seventies exploitation movie queen), Star Trek Voyager`s Holodoc Robert Picardo, Hellboy himself Ron Perlman and the almost impossibly ancient Marc Laurence (Diamonds Are Forever`s Mr "I didn`t know dere was a pool down dere").

Heather Locklear makes an appearance as "Dusty Tails", a cabaret artist at Yosemite Sam`s Las Vegas casino (inspiring one of the best lines in the picture when she changes into a Mrs Peel style catsuit and Daffy enquires "How many galoshes died to make that little number?"). Joan Cusack also appears as "Mother", head of the mysterious Area 52.

As I suspect you can guess from the above comments, the movie is an obscure film reference freak`s dream. There are references from every movie from Star Wars to Psycho and a million in between. You have to be really tuned in to get them all, and multiple viewings may be required.

Video

An absolutely spotless 2.40:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer with glorious colour and immaculate contrast. (The R1 version is officially 2.35:1, but appears identical to this version. Maybe Warner UK are simply more accurate with the tape measure). All the best Warner Bros cartoon characters make appearances in the movie: Bugs, Daffy, Yosemite Sam, Roadrunner, Wile E. Coyote, Granny, Sylvester and Tweety, Marvin the Martian, and of course the Tazmanian Devil.

Audio

The sound comes in Dolby Digital 5.1 and the full capabilities of the soundstage get a workout as sounds are thrown in all directions. On a number of occasions, the soundtrack utilises the back speakers as much as the front and of course your subwoofer comes into play when things blow up (which they do frequently).

The score for the movie is by frequent Dante collaborator, the late Jerry Goldsmith, and is as playful as Carl Stalling`s original Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies soundtracks. Only this time they`re in 5.1 digital.

Features

There`s a brand new Roadrunner cartoon called "The Whizzard of Ow"; a short behind-the-scenes tour of the movie set; a special effects piece called "Bang, Crash, Boom"; a theatrical trailer and most importantly a raft of deleted scenes including an alternative version of the climax. Everything is subtitled.

Conclusion

For many aficionadoes of the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons, the flavour-of-the-month cash-in known as "Space Jam" is best pushed into the deepest recesses of the psyche in an effort to forget such horrors. One such aficionado is director Joe Dante, best known for his `eighties comedy-horror "Gremlins". When he signed up to make the initially untitled Looney Tunes movie, he christened the project the "Anti-Space-Jam Movie" such was his personal dislike of the Michael Jordan - Bugs Bunny basketball adventure.

"Looney Tunes: Back In Action" as it was eventually titled, came in for its own fusillade of flak from the fanboy crowd on its initial release in the States, and sadly as a result did not fare as well at the box office as it might. This DVD release may redress the balance.

Terrific fun. Chortled all the way through it.