Inexplicable Movie Review – Looney Tunes: Back in Action (on VHS!)

Because the Disney animated properties suck up so much oxygen, between their original creations and their purchasing of The Muppets, that tends to suffocate another valuable set of beloved cartoons – Looney Tunes. I oftentimes forget how much I enjoyed the classic cartoons, which were a staple of my Saturday mornings growing up.

I also had a bunch of the VHS collections of Looney Tunes, so, it was only appropriate that I watched Looney Tunes: Back in Action on tape, thanks to Karen scooping it up at some point from your old video store job. (Side note: I’m incredibly envious of her, because I applied to Blockbuster like a dozen times in my teens and early 20s, and never got the call. I just wasn’t Blockbuster material.)

It’s a funny but odd movie, in that it would have been much improved if the two human leads, Brendan Fraser and Jenna Elfman, weren’t involved. They kind of just gum up the works, and distract at times from what is otherwise strong, meta-based comedy about Hollywood and classic animation. It’s basically like the opposite of Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

The basic plot of the movie is that Daffy Duck feels unappreciated when it comes to his role at Warner Bros., and he needs to be mollified. This, however, spirals into a weird plot with a security guard / wannabe stuntman (Fraser) gets fired and then finds out that his dad is actually a secret agent. He and a clueless studio executive (Elfman) that fired Daffy then have to continue the secret agent’s work and save the world from the evil president of the Acme Corporation (Steve Martin!), who has a device that’ll turn all humans into monkeys.

Director Joe Dante and screenwriter Larry Doyle are clearly fans of the ole Looney Tunes gang, since they manage to cram pretty much every prominent character into the film for at least a cameo, and even some not-so-prominent characters like the dodo bird. However, according to Wikipedia, the production was a nightmare thanks to executive meddling, since they wanted things like Bugs Bunny rapping.

After finishing this the other night, I circled back to some other Looney Tunes content on YouTube and other places, and I was surprised at how well it held up. The further you can go back, the better, since there was definitely a fallow period. For the good stuff, check out this list. For me, I’ve always been most partial to “The Rabbit of Seville.”

The cliche of Towelie finally stale

When South Park is on, like it was last week, few shows are better. However, some episodes of the show just fall flat to me, and this week's with Towelie was definitely one of those. While the show still had some laughs, there was nothing special about it to elevate it past an average episode plucked from the show's back category.

As with most episodes, there were two simultaneously plots going on that kind of weaved together. First, shows like Intervention and Celebrity Rehab were mocked a bit, as Towelie was shown doing ridiculous things in order to get money to buy weed, crystal meth and other drugs. And second, there was a slight spoof of Warner Brothers, as all of the Looney Tunes were re-cast as retarded kids at a summer camp.

Unfortunately though, both plots felt stale to me. Every episode Towelie is in deals with his love of marijuana and how it interferes with his life, and this episode wasn't that different, except that he was now using hard drugs as well. (Note: Comedy Central has no problem with Towelie tying off his arm to do heroin, yet won't let South Park show Muhammad. Good times, good times!) On top of this, the whole addiction thing was tackled in the first episode of the season, with Tiger Woods.

As far as the second plot goes, the summer camp kids were on two different teams vying for a statue for the camp... which is suspiciously like "Up The Down Steroid" minus Cartman.

Although Jimmy and Timmy were the good guys this time, and the episode cribbed quite a bit from Looney Tunes while mixing in Intervention stills, but the whole thing just felt too close to previous episodes. Excluding the "200" and "201" episodes, this season of South Park has been a bit disappointing, and this episode doesn't buck the trend.

Grade: C-