The Looney Tunes -- that Warner Bros. collection of such animated mischief-makers as Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and Elmer Fudd -- can't seem to exist these days without having the incessant urge to refer to their own heyday, decades ago. Yes, back then, they were brilliant. And so many of us, from people who viewed the shorts in theaters to those who watched them in syndication on TV, fondly remember our favorite moments. The Looney Tunes and the current people behind them remember what we remember. And they keep going back to the past -- even when supposedly offering us a new venture.

And that's what bugs me (pun not intended) about the Looney Tunes legacy. Referencing the old days was novel back when Who Framed Roger Rabbit came out. Then the syndicated Tiny Toon Adventures arrived, honing a balancing act of presenting new characters and stories while constantly referring to the old characters and their stories. It should have been left at that, but then the Cartoon Network emerged, and that channel makes its living out of referencing the past --   Warner Bros. cartoons included. If the pop culture bubble sported more sightings of the Tunes, in the form of commercials or t-shirts or something, these sightings would inevitably contain a reference to an old, cherished gag. We had the WB stores (now defunct, I think), which turned these memories into more accessible merchandise. However, things probably took a turn for the worst when the WB network debuted the frog from "One Froggy Evening" as its mascot. The frog did nothing new except sing about new shows, but we were supposed to be hooked merely because we really liked his original cartoon short and we didn't think anyone else was cool enough to remember it.

Of course, it was only a matter of time before the Looney Tunes were teamed up with director Joe Dante, Looney Tunes lover and reference geek extraordinaire. Dante plants movie and pop culture references all over his films -- Bugs Bunny himself has been referred to in Innerspace, Explorers, and probably others -- and Looney Tunes: Back in Action is  no exception. In fact, its quantity of references is super-sized. All this curiously contributes to the movie's overall feeling of dispossession -- it doesn't seem to exist for any other reason than to reference, in particular, Looney Tunes and Hollywood. Using the film as an opportunity to blend live-action with animation feels like a dubious proposition because there's almost no point to it. Brendan Fraser, Jenna Elfman, and Steve Martin are game, but they're not nearly as interesting to watch as Bugs and Daffy. The movie feels like an empty version of Who Framed Roger Rabbit, where issues about industrial classism have been replaced with, well, references for the sake of referencing.

Unfortunately, the references themselves have the attributes of being both random and off-target. They miss the bullseye of bringing us back to our memories of Bugs and Daffy because, in utilizing the beloved characters, Dante and writer Larry Doyle fail to include an important element that made the original comedy work. From their referrer's point-of-view, just showing a classic character repeat a classic shtick is the whole joke. In the old shorts, more of the comedy came from each gag's careful set-up. The punchline was exactly that -- a punchline. In Looney Tunes: Back in Action, we get mostly nothing but punchlines, and only occasionally a set-up. In fact, the "punchlines" sometimes come at a rapid-fire clip in what is apparently a concession to the current method of using whiz-bang pacing to hold the attention of young audience members.

The film is obviously meant to be kid-friendly, which not only seems to have discouraged the art of the well-written joke, but also creates a paradox -- that is, the movie is so filled with references to both Tunes history and non-Tunes movie history that only adults are going to "get" them. There's actually precious little left for the tykes as we visit Area 52, for example, in which old '50s sci-fi movie monsters are real and contained, and it's pretty funny, but what kid is going to relate to that? So, Looney Tunes: Back in Action is really a movie for grown-ups. It may have been consciously made for kids, but the filmmakers forgot to keep the kids in mind most of the time.

Still, I don't feel this flick is a lost cause. It's better than I expected -- some of those Hollywood references are always reliable for a laugh, albeit mostly for adult laughs. A few of the gags are quite funny, but much of the material just plain didn't work -- too many jokes felt like they were trying too hard. The rest were just throwbacks to Looney Tunes stuff we've seen before. Nevertheless, I did enjoy seeing the old gang; if nothing else, the film shows the Tunes still have the potential  to deliver great current comedy. I liked seeing them in new contexts, such as when Wile E. Coyote orders an ACME weapon using a laptop and the internet. I saw a few good new ideas executed well, such as a romp through the paintings of the Louvre. 

I'm also pleased to learn that all-new Looney Tunes shorts will be shown before selected movies in 2004. Bugs and company have a whole new world to make fun of, with new techniques at their disposal. They just need to stop reminding us how good they used to be and start showing us how good they can be now.

(Released by Warner Bros. and rated "PG" for mild language and innuendo.)

Review also posted at www.windowtothemovies.com.