Movie Review: Looney Tunes: Back in Action**

If you're at all like me, you just started giggling as soon as each commercial began airing promoting the long-awaited return of Bugs, Daffy, and the rest of the gang to the silver screen. I confess. I'm mad about the Warner Brothers cartoons. I love Bugs. Daffy. Pinky and the Brain. And their takes on Batman, Superman, and to a lesser extent "Justice League." I just wish the movie were better.

"Back in Action" begins with Daffy Duck in fierce renegotiations with the studio. He's tired of Bugs raking in the money, while he's relegated to being shot, bludgeoned, and generally disgraced in each picture. Taking the cue from the actual brothers, Kate (Jenna Elfman) has Daffy evicted from the studio. The poor sap of a security guard (Brendan Fraser, who resembles the actor for no apparent purpose to the plot)gets sacked himself when Daffy's shenanigans causes the infamous WB watertower to empty out into Kate's sportscar.

Daffy hitches a ride back to D.J.'s dad's house. Dad (Timothy Dalton) just happens to be a spy whose cover is that of a movie ... spy. Get it? Before long, D.J. and Daffy are looking for the kidnapped spy, while Kate and Bugs are trying to find Daffy, since Bugs refuses to work without him.

We are hard pressed to find any of the characters in the WB canon who are not represented. Porky, Foghorn Leghorn, Yosemite Sam, Speedy Gonzales, Pepe le Pew, and Marvin the Martian all appear, as do such non-WB denizens as Scooby Doo and Shaggy, and even "Doctor Who" nemeses the Daleks.

Unfortunately this mishmash never quite reaches the manic frenzy of the original eight-minute shorts. It's almost as if the human beings in the script hold back the characters. The movie plods along, with the cartoon characters trying to blend in with the live action, rather than the other way around.

The genius of "Roger Rabbit" was that the real actors had to adhere to the conventions of a cartoon world. Here, the formula is reversed, and Bugs and Daffy have to deal with studio politics and product placement.

Steve Martin is terribly miscast as the evil chairman of the ACME corporation, making me VERY nervous about his assuming Peter Sellers' role in the new "Pink Panther" film.

There is a particularly clever sequence as Elmer chases Bugs and Daffy through paintings in an art gallery, and the characters blend in with each different painting style. There are also several very funny one-liners and sight gags along the way.

But "Looney Tunes: Back in Action" pretty much serves as a reminder that, sadly, the days of cutting edge anarchic animation may very well be behind us.