alt title(s): Looney Tunes Back In Action
What am I talkin' to you for? All you gotta do is munch on a carrot and people love you.
—Daffy, to Bugs
The second feature film attempt at reviving the
Looney Tunes franchise since the fall of the original
Warner Bros. cartoons, after
Space Jam. Another good example of the
Roger Rabbit Effect. Daffy is fired from the Warner Studio and falls in the middle of a search for a mysterious Blue Monkey diamond that the secret agent father of a security guard is also trying to find before the Head of Acme does. Without Daffy, Bugs just can't do his job, and he heads out across the world with the VP of Comedy to retrieve him. Brendan Fraser and Jenna Elfman star as said security guard and VP, Joe Alaskey voices both Bugs
and Daffy, and
Steve Martin * is a live-action villain who is the Head of the
Acme Corporation that apparently invents all the malfunctioning devices known to cartoon-dom. Joe Dante directs. Eric Goldberg, who animated
Aladdin's Genie, directs the animation.
Rumor has it that Dante made this revival in response to his deep hatred for the previous film incarnation, calling this the "anti-
Space Jam". Ironically, its working title was
Spy Jam, and had an action-oriented,
James Bond-like feel to it, instead of spoofing sports movies. The secret agent story remains, but Bugs and company are
Animated Actors under contract at the Warner Studios lot, instead of otherworldly residents separate from our own. Rather than make all of them friends, they cast Elmer Fudd and the other supporting Tunes as enemies of Bugs and Daffy, several of which live around the world.
Financially, it performed even worse than
Space Jam—the series of brand new cartoon shorts planned for the theatre were all canceled. This film made the company realize there doesn't seem to be any clear future for the Tunes, except for the occasional television special,
a faithful new TV series and
some controversial updates. Still however fans have been known to state the movie is much better then
Space Jam, bringing the characters back to their roots, and has gained a cult following on DVD. In fact, many claim one of the main reasons the film failed at the theaters was due in part to the lousy marketing of Warner Bros.
Also worth noting that this is the last film to be scored by composer
Jerry Goldsmith before he passed away after a long struggle with colon cancer.
This film provides examples of:
- Adam Westing: Besides playing D.J. Drake, Brendan Fraser also plays...Brendan Fraser. Who ends up being a complete Jerkass and punched in the face by D.J.
- Animated Actors
- Art Shift: Shaggy and Scooby Doo both have a short cameo talking with actor Matthew Lillard over his live-action portrayal of the former. They are rendered in a slightly rougher animated style than the rest of the toons in the film.
- Arguably the best scene in the whole film: the Louvre chase, where Elmer chases Bugs and Daffy through each and every painting in the hallway, taking on each of their styles.
- Butt Monkey / Chew Toy - Daffy's status as this is what causes him to quit his job.
- Cameo: Numerous, occasionally pitting celebrities playing themselves.
- Celebrity Paradox: See Art Shift above.
- Cool Car - The Spy-mobile
- Disaster Dominoes - On a smaller scale than most disasters, but Daffy still makes a big mess when he crashes the Batmobile into the Warner Water Tower.
- Duck Season Rabbit Season: Both played straight at the beginning, and later subverted later on after Daffy's been fired from Warner Bros.
Elmer Fudd: Say your prayers, wabbit! It's wabbit season!
Bugs Bunny: Duck season!
Elmer: Wabbit season!
Bugs: Duck season!
Elmer: Wabbit season!
Bugs: Wabbit season!
Elmer: Wait a minute... *looks at script*
Bugs: See, I told you this wasn't gonna work without- *Elmer shoots him*
- One would think this evidently leads to The End Of The World As We Know It, since it ends Bugs' historic survival instinct (besides cross-dressing which he was discouraged from doing anymore due to how modern audiences perceive the act). He gets better though.
- Efficient Displacement - The cartoon characters, of course.
- Gravity Is A Harsh Mistress - When the flying car runs out of gas, it stays in the air until someone points out that laws of physics says they should be falling.
- Averted when they stop the car from crashing, mere inches from the ground, by applying the brakes.
- Ho Yay: Whether or not Bugs is really that depressed without Daffy, he certainly goes to pretty great lengths to get him back. His less-than-family-friendly humor is also lampshaded by the female executive:
Kate Houghton: Okay, about the crossdressing thing - then, funny; now, disturbing.
Bugs Bunny: Lady, if you don't find a rabbit wearin' lipstick amusing, then we ain't got nothin' to say to each other.
- Idiosyncratic Wipes: Bugs gets the heroes from one location to the next by simply lifting the current shot to the next one.
- Lampshade Hanging: Lots of it.
- Massive Multiplayer Crossover: The Area 52 scene, featuring a Triffid plant, the eponymous Robot Monster, the mutant from This Island Earth and even Daleks, among others. Those last ones were accidentally included without the consent of the Terry Nation estate, for the record. (Keep in mind that the movie was released in 2003 whereas Doctor Who would only return in 2005.)
- Picture Pastiche - During the art museum chase; it's also revealed via x-ray glasses that the Mona Lisa has a bra.
- Political Correctness Gone Mad - Porky and Speedy Gonzales are seen commiserating that they can't find work because of this trope.
- Product Placement: Lampshaded when Bugs mentions this very trope while noticing a Walmart in the middle of a desert.
- "How nice of that Walmart to give us all these free Walmart merchandise and Walmart beverages in return for saying Walmart so many times"
- Rape As Comedy: Parodied by Pepe Le Pew (big surprise there)
DJ: There's a... man whose got a woman. She's tied up in a burlap sack. He's taking her to the Eiffel Tower.
Pepe: Ahh! It is spring. Is it not?
- Road Movie
- Shout Out: "Hey, whadda ya know? I found Nemo!"
- Slapstick
- Split Screen Phone Call: Bugs and Daffy do this when Bugs has plans to help Daffy get his job back. And they even push the split-screen line back and forth, into one another!
- Starring Special Effects
- The Alleged Car - The first car that Daffy and DJ get into when they try to leave DJ's house. It falls apart as soon as they try to start the engine.
- They Wasted A Perfectly Good Plot - Surprisingly little is done with the Blue Monkey's magical power of turning people into monkeys. At least in the finished film. The DVD special features give us an alternate climax where the Blue Monkey's powers are used to create some truly wild and over-the-top situations.
