Director: Jeff Siergey
Distributor: Warner Bros Animation
Duration: 71 minutes
Looney Tunes: Rabbits Run (DVD) – Movie Review
The Looney Tunes came to life in the 1930’s and Warner Bros is still producing the iconic cartoons today. Of course, once in a while we get to see many of the famous toons in a movie as well. Sadly, these movies often lack what makes the short cartoons as great as they are. Nonetheless, we were wondering how Bugs and Lola bunny had aged over the many years. That being said after watching the movie, another question came to mind when it came to ‘Rabbits Run’, namely will you stay or run away from this movie.
The story starts off with a mission in a secret base. The military, or rather Foghorn Leghorn (Jeff Bergman), has set their eye on an extremely rare flower, which blooms only once every 200 years. When they try to grab it with the specially designed mechanical arm, it is swooped away with such a speed. This really ticks off Leghorn causing the military to start an investigation as to who stole this precious item.
We get to see Lola Bunny (Rachel Ramras) next as she is working in a shopping centre. It is clear that she takes her job as perfume specialist serious. Her boss Giovanni (Michael Serrato) isn’t too happy with Lola giving in to her emotions nearly every day, seeing she tends to wreck the place. Her last rampage made Giovanni fire her, as he couldn’t stand her attitude anymore, as well as the repair costs. Utterly defeated, she takes a taxi home and this is where she meets Bugs Bunny (Jeff Bergman), the lonesome driver. Arriving at her house, it seems that she forgot her purse at the store. Thank God she has a hidden jar of money … somewhere. Going upstairs, she sees her landlord Speedy Godzales (Fred Armisen) and it seems that he has gotten her a big surprise, namely a super rare flower. This will surely help her obtain her biggest dream: making the best perfume toonkind has ever seen. She immediately starts on the recipe, forgetting about poor Bugs. When she finishes the perfume, she instantly knows that her creation is truly the best perfume ever. What she doesn’t know is that it has a side-effect as well, namely that the sprayed parts become invisible. The military eventually finds her and things are bound to get rough. As expected, Bugs get dragged into the adventure as well and they will meet loads of other popular Looney Tunes figures like Daffy Duck (Jeff Bergman), Porky Pig (Bob Bergen), Marvin the Martian (Damon Jones) and many others.
Overall, the plot of Rabbits Run isn’t that thick and you might get bored quite easily. Some of the parts could have been shorter or just be deleted as they don’t have any real purpose in the grand picture. For example, Porky Pig has a really small part in this movie which was unnecessary. We reckon the creators wanted to give many of the famous characters a bit of time to shine, albeit it only for reference purposes. A good thing is that you can watch Rabbits Run without worrying much about the plot. Then again, this is a children’s movie, but a thicker plot for many of the adult fans would have been nice as well.
Looney Tunes cartoons and movies have a particular style and Warner Bros chose to use this for their latest title as well. Although it is great to see that they stick to the same setting, it would have been nice if they upgraded some of the animations. Some parts feel quite old and the younger audience might not see the connection with the good ol’ days. The same goes with the jokes that are used, as some of them are really predictable and old-fashioned and aren’t very appealing. Then again, slapstick humor tends to work for many younger fans.
Since the characters are all famous, the voices need to be good. The actors are outstanding as they’re used of doing these speeches in previous titles. They really fit each character and the intonation is just right as well. Although the animations might be off, the voices make up for it.
Bonus wise, there are five small cartoons you can watch. These have more updated animations and give you a short story of some of the Looney Tunes characters. Next to that, there isn’t anything else this DVD edition has to offer.
Conclusion
Rabbits Run is probably one of those movies that might be really appealing for older fans or children that just like the animal characters. The plot is not a very attractive one, but the overall qualitative voice acting and appeal of the original characters tends to make up for quite a bit. Sad to say is that the bonus cartoons might be slightly more fun than the actual longer feature film. Nonetheless, Looney Tunes fans might want to try their luck with this one, first time viewers, not so much.
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