Before "Looney Tunes: Back In Action" debuted last weekend, it had the great distinction of having what was easily the worst trailer of the year. The preview was unfunny and just plain embarrassing to watch. The good news is the movie is not bad. The bad news is the movie isn't that great either.

The plot of the film is skimpy at best, leaving lots of room for the hundreds of gags. Brendan Fraser plays a security guard, D.J., at the Warner Brothers studio while Jenna Elfman plays the vice-president. Since this film occupies the same world of "Who Framed Roger Rabbit," toons and people intermingle alike. At the current moment, Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny are the two biggest stars on the lot, but Daffy is getting tired of playing second fiddle to Bugs. Even worse, Daffy is fired when the movie begins and Fraser is asked to eject him from the lot. Things go horribly wrong, of course, and Daffy gets D.J. fired too.

From then on the plot goes on autopilot. It turns out D.J.'s dad, who plays a James Bond-like character, really is a spy. He is captured by the head of the ACME corporation, played by Steve Martin. It turns out D.J.'s dad was trying to stop a mystical device called the Blue Diamond from falling into the evil ACME's hands. Of course D.J,. along with Bugs, Daffy and Elfman, has to go save the dad and destroy the Blue Diamond.

The plot is really of no consequence to this film as, like any good old-fashioned Looney Tunes, it is all about the gags. Thankfully, most of the gags are surprisingly amusing. The main reason is because instead of doing jokes just for the kids, many of the jokes are quite clever and irreverent. Most of these jokes will go over kids heads. Watch for the sequence where the toons chase each other through the paintings in Le Louvre in Paris. This ingenious sequence not only displays the clever humor aimed at adults, but also demonstrates what a great movie this could have been.

The eventual downfall of this film is because of two very important components. The first problem is the acting. Fraser, Martin and Elfman can all be very funny people, but they are at a complete loss here. For this kind of warp speed zany humor, the acting also needs to be giddy and irreverent. None of the actors seem to catch onto this and flounder in their roles. At times, they almost seem to be acting in another film. The saddest part is watching a great comedian like Steve Martin give a truly unfunny performance. The only people who seem to get it are the wonderful Joan Cusack who pops in for a five minute cameo, and, surprisingly, the toons themselves.

Another problem is that while the film has a great gimmick, that is about it. "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" realized this and therefore gave the audience an engaging and complex plot that also worked as film noir homage. "Looney Tunes" lacks any kind of narrative momentum, restricting the film to only be amusing.

If only the makers strived for a better film. They had the material,

Elon University Pendulum © 2003