Looney Tunes: Back in Action

In his review of Looney Tunes: Back in Action, Roger Ebert devotes a good deal of space to an analysis of the appeal and character traits of the classic Warner Bros. cartoon characters. He was never a fan of Elmer Fudd, he admits, while Daffy Duck was always his hero. While things always came easily for Bugs, Daffy had to fight every inch of the way. Bugs was insouciant. Daffy was outraged. Bugs was always a step ahead. Daffy was always a step behind. There's probably not a kid in the movie's audience who will entertainment similar thoughts while watching the movie, but then again, there's probably not a kid in the audience who will see it because of the critics' reviews. Most critics get down to the bottom line. Chris Kaltenbach in the Baltimore Sun says that the movie should leave young and old alike not only laughing, but wondering why cartoons can't always be this clever. However, Stephen Holden in the New York Times maintains that the Looney Tunes characters were never meant to star in feature-length films. Stretched out to 90 minutes, a movie that relies on sheer dizzying speed to camouflage its inconsistency can be exhausting to watch, he writes. Similarly, Jack Mathews in the New York Daily News concludes: Mostly, the film amounts to a noisy curtain call for the Looney Tunes menagerie. [A lot has changed since the heyday of Looney Tunes. Today a stuttering pig would evoke the wrath of The National Stuttering Association and a hyperactive cartoon mouse with a Mexican accent would be regarded as an offensive ethnic stereotype by Hispanic groups. Writes Gene Seymour in Newsday: It's hard not to like a movie self-aware enough to have Porky Pig and Speedy Gonzales sit in a studio commissary crying in their coffee over the tribulations of political correctness.