Looney Tunes

  • Teen Titans Go! See Space Jam (2021)

    Teen Titans Go! See Space Jam (2021)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On TV, July 2021) If the corporations’ encroaching stranglehold over intellectual property is teaching us anything, it’s that given time, corporate-controlled pop culture will eat itself. Any takedown will be allowed if it can be profitable, or if it gives the semblance of boosting another more recent project. There’s no other way to explain the existence of Teen Titans Go! See Space Jam, a weird cultural artifact that can only exist when a single entity (Warner Brothers) controls three different Intellectual Properties (Space Jam, Teen Titans and Looney Tunes) and has a hot new project to promote. Obviously scheduled to coincide with the release of Space Jam: A New Legacy, this “film” consists in having the Teen Titan Go! crew do a comic riff on an abbreviated version of the original Space Jam (keeping the special effects and cartoon characters, explicitly fast-forwarding through the duller material between humans), with a minimal amount of framing material in having the alien Nerdlucks visit the Teen Titans and watching the film. Inspired by Mystery Science Theater 3000, they interject commentary over the original film (sometimes freeze-framing the action), break for commercial and poke fun at 1990s moviemaking conventions. The irreverent humour of the Teen Titan Go series is there, but it’s clear that for all of the poking at the original Space Jam, it’s a piece of IP meant to prime the kiddie audience in being interested in the newest sequel. The comedy is limited, and much of the film is really about rewatching Space Jam in abbreviated form. It’s far more interesting as an artifact of how far tie-in product owners are willing to go, even in derision, when a conglomerate has its tentacles squeezing tightly around popular culture.

  • Looney Tunes: Back in Action (2003)

    Looney Tunes: Back in Action (2003)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On TV, September 2020) I somehow missed Looney Tunes: Back in Action when it was first released in theatres (it had the misfortune of coming out in November, a month where I wrote rather than watched: looking at the release schedule, I probably saw Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World that week), and I still can’t believe I waited so long before catching up. I’ve always had a fond spot for Bugs Bunny and his friends, so seeing them in a feature film was like unearthing a time capsule prepared just for me. The one thing that distinguishes Looney Tunes: Back in Action from most of the movies is the sheer pedal-to-the-metal pacing of the jokes—barely five seconds go by without some kind of gag, and the anarchic humour comes with an added dimension of metatextual movie humour. Highlights include a reference-crammed visit to ‘Area 52,’ closely followed by the technical marvel of a painting-hopping sequence set inside Le Louvre. Brendan Fraser does well in the lead role, with some decent assistance from Timothy Dalton (playing off the Bond archetype) and an ensemble cast of supporting players. I’m not so happy with Jenna Elfman (wow, remember her?), who’s used more like a clothes rack for a suspiciously high number of outfit changes rather than an actress with comic timing (although that Paris outfit—whew). The animated characters do better, but then again, they could be redrawn until perfection. Yet, for all the nice things I can say about its pinwheel of gags, Back in Action isn’t quite what it could have been. Director Joe Dante has spoken cryptically about being heavily constrained during production, which is probably inevitable considering the special effects requirements and the characters being one of Warner Bros’ crown jewels. Still, there’s a stiffness, rarely technical but nonetheless perceptible, that stops the action from being as involving as it should be—some annoying characters are given too much time (yes you, Steve Martin) and some sequences don’t play as well as they should. Still, I liked much the result, and would have liked to see it upon release… even there’s some value into discovering something so long after.