Looney Tunes: Rabbits Run (2015)

(On Cable TV, November 2022) It would be too easy to cry sacrilege at Looney Tunes: Rabbits Run—it doesn’t feel like a classic Looney Tunes, what with Bugs Bunny being borderline obnoxious, Lola Bunny being an airhead and the rest of the crew hammered in ill-fitting roles within a loose spy-caper framework. But since I haven’t been paying attention to the Tunes universe since the first few seasons of Animaniacs, so what do I know? Still, this straight-to-DVD feature-length animated adventure is merely adequate at best: As Lola Bunny invents an invisibility potion and gets the help of taxi-driving Bugs Bunny (no relation) to escape gangsters and government agents, it’s an excuse for some very mild Looney Tuns antics. Rabbits Run is meant to be a theatrical-troupe kind of thing where the characters play roles for the story, so don’t expect the usual personalities of the characters to be strictly followed. (Still, I wish they had leaned more on the “playing other characters” aspect for comedy and continuity.)  It’s all right if your expectations are kept in check: Rabbits Run is not much of a movie, but its release was so low-profile that, for one thing, it’s unsurprising you happily lived your life without knowing about it; and second, ensure that your expectations are not of a top-notch Looney Tunes movie. At least it keeps the franchise alive for Warner Brothers, and that’s that.