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The Looney Tunes cartoons were always at their best when anarchy reigned — when Taz went wild, Bugs outwitted Elmer Fudd by dressing up like a girl, or Wile E. Coyote ran himself off a cliff. Director Joe Dante tries to maintain the anarchic spirit of the cartoons in Back in Action, but the humans keep getting in the way. This new adventure, which blends live action with animated characters, has an almost inconsequential plot that involves Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny in the search for a diamond that turns people into monkeys. Brendan Fraser and Jenna Elfman play the straight leads to Bugs and Daffy’s comic foils, but for the most part they just slow the story down. Only Steve Martin as the villainous head of the Acme Corporation even attempts to match his animated co-stars’ outrageousness, doing a kind of kiddie version of the Jerk that keeps his scenes interesting. The interactions between people and cartoons are seamless, but the movie takes off only when the cartoons take center stage — as when Bugs and Daffy are chased through various paintings in the Louvre, becoming by turns Surreal, Pointillist, and Renaissance as they jump from wall to wall. It’s a fun scene but not enough to sustain a film. (90 minutes.) At the Boston Common, the Fenway, the Fresh Pond, and the Circle/Chestnut Hill and in the suburbs.
BY BROOKE HOLGERSON
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