Action 'toon

Tired of playing second fiddle to Bugs, Daffy has decided to leave the Warner Bros studio for good.

He is aided by Warner Bros' humour-impaired Vice President of Comedy', Kate Houghton (Jenna Elfman), who releases him from his contract and instructs WB security guard/aspiring stuntman DJ Drake (Brendan Fraser) to capture and "escort" Daffy off the studio lot.

Suddenly a sidekick without a hero, the duck decides to ally himself with DJ, whether he likes it or not.

Consequently, Daffy is on the scene when DJ discovers that his famous movie star father Damian Drake (Timothy Dalton), known for playing suave international spies onscreen, is actually a suave international spy in real life and has been kidnapped by the nefarious Mr. Chairman (Steve Martin) of the equally nefarious Acme Corporation.

It seems that Damian knows the whereabouts of the mysterious and powerful Blue Monkey Diamond, and the Chairman will do anything to get his hands on it.

With Daffy in tow, DJ hits the road in a desperate attempt to outrace the evil Acme employees to the diamond and save the world from their evil clutches. Unbeknown to the two neo-spies, they are also being followed by Kate and Bugs the studio brass has decided that the rabbit needs a comic foil after all, and Kate's job is on the line if she can't get Daffy back to work ASAP.

Their chase sends the foursome around the globe to meet up with various undercover operatives, from Dusty Tails (Heather Locklear), a showgirl at Yosemite Sam's glitzy Las Vegas casino, to Mother (Joan Cusack), the stern but loving caretaker of the various other-worldly creatures housed at Area 52 a location so extraordinarily top secret that Area 51 (a reported top-secret U.S. government facility) was invented just to hide it.

Then it's off to the lights of Paris and the treasures of the Louvre, and finally into the deepest jungles of Africa, where they must beat the dastardly Chairman to the deadly diamond or it's That's all, folks!' for the world as we know it.

Looney Tunes: Back In Action marks the first time Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and the entire Looney Tunes menagerie have starred in a feature film set entirely in a live action world and interacted with live' 3-D co-stars throughout the picture.

"There hasn't been a combination live-action/animated movie this complicated since Who Framed Roger Rabbit," notes Back In Action director Joe Dante.

"Back In Action isn't just a bunch of characters shot on a blue screen and inserted into the film. It really looks like an action movie that just happens to co-star Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck."

Brendan Fraser was the filmmakers' first choice for the role of hapless security guard and stuntman wannabe DJ Drake. Fraser was thrilled to share the screen with such a legendary cast. "Who wouldn't jump through the ceiling at the opportunity to work with Bugs and Daffy?

"I'm the kid that you'd find Saturday morning with a bowl of Cheerios watching cartoons. The Looney cartoons are probably where I learned everything that I think I know about comic timing."

He adds: "I owe a debt of gratitude to the original creators of the Looney Tunes cartoon shorts. Whether I knew it or not at the time, they introduced me to classical music, comedy timing, the art of joke set-up and delivery, and it all came together in an animated short.

"They were always in tune pardon the pun with what was going on in the day, politically and in pop culture. The cartoons are easily consumed by children, but the jokes are sophisticated enough that adults appreciate the humour, too. They entertained me in ways that I'm not sure if animation has really been able to recapture until now, of course."

Jenna Elfman jumped at the chance to star alongside cartoon characters. "Growing up, what I loved about them is that they were so rebellious and feisty," she says. "It seems that there was a period of time where that got diluted a bit, so I was excited that they were going to bring that type of personality back to these characters."

Steve Martin plays the villainous Mr. Chairman, evil head honcho of Acme Corporation. Asked about the evil corporate titan's inner qualities, Martin says: "He's certainly an egomaniac. He thinks he's pretty handsome. But he's a frustrated businessman and he gets a little aggravated when things aren't going his way. Basically, it's just hard being an evil empire-runner."