Porky Pig just turned 90. His first cartoon was released on March 2, 1935; his tormentor and eventual foil Daffy Duck came along a couple of years later. These Warner Bros. comedic chaos agents were wild ripostes to Disney’s arguably saccharine Mickey Mouse. And after years of entertaining adults in the movie theaters of the early- and mid-20th century, television exposure turned Porky and Daffy, along with Bugs Bunny and others, into inspirations for generations of young wiseacres.
The 20th- and now 21st-century pictures featuring these toons are a mixed bag. The least-inspired iterations of the characters, in the “Space Jam” movies, have been the most popular. Joe Dante’s wonderful “Looney Tunes: Back in Action,” from 2003, had the spirit of the older cartoons — it appreciated the value of dropping anvils on coyotes’ heads, and more — but failed to find box office favor.
Which feels especially weird because the style in which our heroes are depicted comes directly from the Looney Tunes of old. The movie’s technical aspects are largely admirable, and it pays homage to the greats of the animation department once known as Termite Terrace by naming the movie’s restaurants after the past masters Robert Clampett and Tex Avery.
Early on, the young BFFs Daffy and Porky are instructed by a creepy character that if they “stick together,” all will turn out right for them. Sticking is a major motif here, as an alien goo renders a new brand of chewing gum irresistible. It also makes its consumers mindless zombies. With the help of a “flavor expert,” Petunia Pig, Daffy and Porky scurry to save the world from, yes, blowing up like a gum bubble. The action is frenetic and gleefully vulgar; at one point a dome of bubble gum emerges from a dog’s rear end. There’s also some old-school slapstick; chattering fake teeth turn out to be practically world-saving.
But the movie’s energy doesn’t pay off in dividends of real pleasure. Anarchy has never been so mere as it is ultimately rendered here.
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