It's Time We All Admit Looney Tunes: Back In Action Is BETTER Than Space Jam

Looney Tunes Back in Action
Warner Bros.

Back in Action's plot centers around Daffy who gets fired from Warner after demanding equal billing with Bugs. He finds himself entangled in a plot to retrieve a magical diamond before Mr. Chairman (Steve Martin), of the ACME corporation, gets a hold of it to fulfil his nefarious goals. Meanwhile, Bugs, having lost his spark, sets out with Warner's banal VP of comedy (Jenna Elfman) and Brendan Fraser's stuntman, (played by Brendan Fraser) to find Daffy and get him his job back.

Since the film takes place in a postmodern meta-reality where the cartoon characters are just as real as the people, much of the humor is more abstract and referential, like an early episode of Family Guy. Matthew Lillard is seen talking with both the animated Shaggy and Scooby; a conveniently placed Wal-Mart becomes the butt of a product placement joke, and Daffy along with Bugs become distorted as they find themselves running through a Salvador Dali painting.

The whole film has an energy about it that makes it feel like it was really put together by a true fan of Looney Tunes, with inside jokes galore, and even an introspective look back at the character's history, along with where they can go moving forward. Thanks to improved technology, the cartoon characters all look much more natural interacting with the sets and the actors, as opposed to Space Jam whose CG looks like a cutscene from a PlayStation 1 game.

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A former NCAA runner turned writer, and an ardent aficionado of all things academic, aesthetic and athletic.