Looney Tunes movie: It's what WB tried to make all along.

[vakkotaur]

It's actually good. Well, there is one bad point: Steve Martin's role is either just overwritten or he's trying too hard to be Peter Sellers being Mike Meyers or whoever. But that can be largely overlooked.

Daffy isn't always second banana through the film, sometimes being an equal, and more than equal, with Bugs. The live action and cartoon character mix actually works. There were more Cultural References than I could keep up with at times. The jokes seem to be aimed at adults - and nobody, not even WB, is spared by them. While there are some cliches, they're used in a such a way as to actually be funny.

Unlike Brother Bear, which I saw Monday night, there is no message or moral. It's just a comedy-action picture and doesn't pretend or try to be anything more. Not every gag is a visual one. It might not be a real knee-slapper, but it is solid. And it is good. This is what Space Jam so desperately wanted to be and was not.

I'm still smiling when I think about this film. I'm not wondering why I paid to see it. I'm not wondering why it was made and who committed it. I'm wondering when I can see it again - and I do plan to see it again (I do not normally see any movie more than once if at all. THAT'S how good this picture is), in the theater, at least once more. Maybe more. And I want the DVD when it comes out.

Summary: WB finally made an animated film worth the price of admission.

Comments

[willowisp.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I'm mostly wondering when they'll undo the damage kellner did to all of their good modern series -- TTA, A!, P&tB, F!, Road Rovers... even Earthworm Jim, though it wasn't my favorite.

I've picked up the Looney Tunes Golden Age 4-disc set (all of the other Looney Tunes DVDs have been panned) because WB has blatantly stated that if they sell enough they'll release more, including some of the classics not released on said DVD. I'm hoping if they make enough (and we, collectively) write enough letters, maybe they'll finally release A!/P&tB on DVD. I'm too jaded to hope for the others, but I'd be first in line to pre-order them if WB ever makes an offer similar to that of the Looney Tunes DVD.

Whee, I went back to the WB page for the first time in years. I can still find no trace of A! there. Hell, the show won awards and everything... why are they so loathe to admit it was one of theirs? Grrrrr. I wish the fans could all get together, but the bloody rights, and thumb our collective noses at WB when the DVD set we'd make made a mint. Oh, to dream.

Oops. Sorry, I know it's not nice to get political in elseone's journal. I am glad the movie is decent, though. How's the voice acting?

[vakkotaur.livejournal.com]

Kellner is still around, being a big idiot as ever. I think it was him who said not suffering through commercials was theft or breaking a contract. Seemingly it didn't occur that maybe if the commercials were good enough to watch, people would. Why should that occur to him, he never grasped the concept for the actual programming. (Insert one standard alt.tv.animaniacs anti-Kellner rant here if that wasn't enough.)

WB would have to rebuild a crew to do new TV animation right, though I think Tom Minton is still involved - which is probably why the new Duck Dodgers series is as good as it is. But he's about the last of the group from the A! & F! and such era. Earthworm Jim was made by Universal and so it's hardly a surprise that WB cut that as soon as they good. Still, EWJ was pretty good, I thought.

I do plan on getting the Golden Age DVD set (eventually - gotta pay for holidays & travel...). kinkyturtle has it and played the first 5 cartoons of the first disk this past Sunday. It was so good to see the cartoons unchopped and as they were meant to be. And heh, jmaynard got the iMac just to transfer A! (and PatB and F! and...) to DVD for personal archive. It's an ongoing project...

WB hasn't really acknowledged Animaniacs for some time. The WB Studio Stores were neat, at first, then they tried to diversify and include properties that weren't really WB as people knew them. It turned the WBSSs into K-Marts. And why pay more at a WBSS when K-Mart is cheap? Then the Studio Stores closed and WB wondered why. Sheesh.

That does remind me. There is an incident in the LT movie involving the studio water tower. While there were many references to other cartoons (even Speedy Buggy fercryinoutloud), there was no hint that I caught of the Siblings. So that was a missed opportunity. I wonder if anyone thought of it.

No problem with your politics on this. As for the voice acting, first I'll say that I am not much of a connoiseur of voice acting. Joe Alaskey does the main voicing, I think, and the rest all seem about right. Wile E. Coyote is properly unvoiced. Granny is voice by June Foray (of course), and there are even some effects (from stock) done by Mel Blanc. Nothing really threw me as "No, that's wrong." More often it was "Did they just do what I think they did?" which is a much better experience.

[jmaynard.livejournal.com]

Damn. Hope it's still running by the time I get back to Fairmont.