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This roller-coaster of a flick has been carefully calibrated to entertain both adults and their kids, but I'm betting that the adults will get a bigger kick out of it.
Review by John T.D. Keyes This roller-coaster of a flick has been carefully calibrated to entertain both adults and their kids, but I'm betting that the adults will get a bigger kick out of it. What passes for plot in this mix of live action and animation has the venerable Hollywood studio Warner Bros keep Bugs Bunny on the payroll but fire Daffy Duck on the basis of audience research indicating that the wisecracking fowl (or should that be "foul-mouthed fowl"?) only appeals to "fat angry guys in basements." The Warner Bros honcho who wields the axe on Daffy's career is played by Jenna Elfman, who tells a studio guard, played by Brendan Fraser, to throw the sack of feathers off the lot.
Timothy Dalton, playing Fraser's actor father, turns out to be a James Bond-like spy. Joan Cusack has a brilliant cameo as a Q-like figure, dispensing quirky advice and gadgetry. She's everyone's favourite mad-scientist-cum-wacko-sister, whose silly-me façade hides a razor-sharp Miss-Moneypenny wit.
In the course of things, just about every cartoon character Warner Bros. ever packaged a show around gets his, her or its moment in the sun. There's the Coyote who chased the Roadrunner, there's Foghorn Leghorn, there's the Tasmanian Devil, Elmer Fudd – you name it, your favourite's gonna show up sooner or later, so just be patient.
The kids at our preview audience seemed delighted by it all, but the heartiest laughs came from the grownups.
The beauty of animation is surely its complete flexibility. Skate on the ceiling? But of course, my leetle kumquat. Get squashed flat by a giant roller, then blown back up into your former shape? Thuffering Thuccotash, ith-that even pawthible? As full-length animation goes, this ones a winner, and -- however subtle the sight-gags and clichés -- one you can take small children to without fear of (undue) violence, cussin' or loose women, although there might be one or two varmints here and there. More New Reviews... See evalu8.org's other film reviews and previews.
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This rude reversal in Daffy's fortunes triggers a chain reaction of stunts and effects involving Elfman, Fraser, Daffy and Bugs in a story riffing on the classic chestnuts of the Warner Bros. cartoon oeuvre. Steve Martin is transformed into an evil executive – part Dr. Evil, part Bill Gates – who wants to take over the world using his company, the Acme corporation, as a smokescreen.
It's a pleasure to watch her lips curl around each syllable, as she adds her zany touch to a brilliant central scene that tries to explain the inexplicable: How the cartoon world and the real one collide. The whole thing is silly but brilliant.
There is some truly inspired stuff in this movie – a fantastic chase through the Louvre, during which the characters disappear into famous paintings (Dali, the Impressionists, Munch, etc.) stepping back into the "real world" still fully captured in pointillist style; and a whiz of a spoof on Hitchcock's Psycho. There's no way the kiddies could have understood the significance of the parodies, although they do work as great action gags all by themselves.