Looney Tunes: Back in Action

image for Looney Tunes: Back in Action

Short takes

Not suitable under 5; parental guidance to 7 (violence, sexual references)

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This topic contains:

  • overall comments and recommendations
  • details of classification and consumer advice lines for Looney Tunes: Back in Action
  • a review of Looney Tunes: Back in Action completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 7 December 2003.

Overall comments and recommendations

Children under 8 Not suitable due to violence and sexual references.
Children aged 5–7 Parental guidance recommended due to violence and sexual references.
Children aged 8 and over Ok for this age group.

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Australian Government Classification Board and the associated consumer advice lines. Other classification advice (OC) is provided where the Australian film classification is not available.

Name of movie: Looney Tunes: Back in Action
Classification: G
Consumer advice lines: None
Length: 92 minutes

ACCM review

This review of the movie contains the following information:

A synopsis of the story

D.J. Drake, a security guard at Warner Bros. studios, is a “wannabee” stunt man who wants to take after his father, Damian Drake, a famous actor. Unbeknownst to D.J. his father is really a spy who has been captured by the evil men at ACME to reveal the whereabouts of the Blue Monkey Diamond. This diamond has the ability to change men into monkeys which is the reason that the Chairman of ACME wants to get his hands on it. He intends placing it on a satellite and beaming down its supernatural powers to turn all people into monkeys, excluding himself of course, so that he can rule the world.

D.J.’s mission is to find the diamond before the evil ACME men do and in so doing, save the world. Daffy Duck, who has been fired by Warner Bros. for being too demanding, comes along for the ride creating much hilarity and mayhem. The third member of the rescue team is board member Kate whose decision it was to fire Daffy. Unfortunately it was a bad decision and Kate has to try and make Daffy reconsider. Their quest takes them on a long journey that ends in the jungles of Africa where the Blue Monkey is hidden. The discovery causes further chaos as both sides struggle for control of the mysterious diamond.

Use of violenceinfo

Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.

Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.

There is a lot of violence in this movie, including:

  • There is a lot of violence in this movie that is mostly set in a comic context, performed by an attractive hero (Brendan Fraser) is successful and has no real life consequences. There is a lot of punching, kicking, karate chopping, strangulation, gun blasting, dynamite blowing, etc.
  • One scene that is more realistic is when Kate is kidnapped by a burly, evil bodyguard and carried off in a sack. When he lets her out she tries to defend herself but her punches are ineffectual against such a large man.

Material that may scare or disturb children

Under fiveinfo

Children under five are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations.

Children in this age group may be frightened by the comic and some not so comic violence in the movie including the following scenes:

  • Bugs Bunny kicks Daffy’s eyes out
  • D.J. Drake falls off a balcony and lands heavily on the ground
  • D.J. performs a stunt jumping off a building but lands on an air bag
  • Granny cuts off Sylvester’s tail with a knife
  • Bugs Bunny is in bandages after being shot
  • D.J. continually punching and strangling Daffy
  • Damien Drake is kept captive and beaten by bad men
  • Daffy’s tail sets on fire
  • Brendan, Kate and Daffy enter an invisible barrier into Area 52 which is where the American Government “keeps things from the American people”. It is full of very weird alien creatures who are quite scary looking.
  • Daffy’s head gets chopped off and he crawls around without it
  • Daffy is melted by a laser gun and sucked up in a tube
  • Kate falls from a rope ladder hanging from a helicopter
  • Damien Drake is kept in an electronic torture cell where he’s made to hit himself
  • Tasmanian Devil is very vicious
  • Scary looking totem poles
  • D.J. is turned into a monkey
  • Chairman and bodyguard do a number of body changes into different characters
  • Damien Drake is placed on a crate with a pendulum of doom swinging over him
  • A large robotic dog tries to prevent D.J. and Kate from saving D.J.’s Dad.

 

Aged five to eightinfo

Children aged five to eight will also be frightened by scary visual images and will also be disturbed by depictions of the death of a parent, a child abandoned or separated from parents, children or animals being hurt or threatened and / or natural disasters.

  • Younger children in this age group may also be frightened by the scenes described above.

Aged eight to thirteeninfo

Children aged eight to thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic threats and dangers, violence or threat of violence and / or stories in which children are hurt or threatened.

  • Nothing further noted.

Product placement

  • None noted.

Sexual references

There are a few sexual references including the following:

  • Bugs turns into a female and the boss says that “cross dressing is out”.
  • Dusty, a singer, strips into underwear.
  • Showgirls appear in brief clothing.
  • Brendan lands on top of Dusty in a compromising situation.
  • Brendan and Kate spend the night together in the desert.
  • Kate’s outfit is very revealing.
  • A card lets D.J. see the Mona Lisa in her underwear.

 

Nudity and sexual activity

  • None noted.

Use of substances

  • None noted.

Coarse language

There is some coarse language in this movie, including:

  • There is not really any coarse language except for occasional use of the word ‘butt’.

In a nutshell

Looney Tunes: Back in Action is a mix of animation with reality, and as a result the violence is more realistic than if it were just a cartoon. For this reason it is not recommended for children under 5 and children aged 5 to 7 would need parental guidance to view this film.

This is a movie that is just made for laughs and as such has no take home message or any values that parents may wish to encourage.

The main value that parents may wish to discourage is that violence is a good way to solve problems.