Looney Tunes: Back At It Again

Looney Tunes: Back At It Again (also known as Looney Tunes 2) is a 2012 American computer-animated adventure comedy fantasy film directed by Joe Dante and co-directed by Eric Goldberg. It is produced by Spike Brandt and Troy Cervone and co-produced by Christopher DeFaria based on a screenplay by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller and a story by Kevin Hageman and Dan Hageman.

Based on the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series' by Warner Bros., it is a direct sequel to Looney Tunes and stars Joe Alaskey as Bugs Bunny, the main character, along with Kath Soucie, Jeff Bennett, Billy West, Eric Goldberg, Bruce Lanoil, June Foray, and more. Guest appearances included Amy Poehler, Steve Carell, Ed Asner, Hugh Jackman, and many others, all having their first appearances as voice actors in the Looney Tunes films.

Looney Tunes: Back At It Again was produced by Warner Bros. Animation and Buddy Studios, with Reel FX Animation Studios providing animation services, and was released theatrically on January 24, 2012 by Warner Bros. Pictures. It received positive reviews from critics, praising its animation, visual effects, voice cast (particularly Alaskey, Soucie and West), musical score by Christophe Beck, humor and emotional weight, but criticized the plot. It was a box office success, grossing $989 million worldwide on a $160 million budget, but lost an estimated $200-$235 million due to Warner Bros. Pictures marketing the film poorly before it was released. Two sequels were released: Looney Tunes: Tune World Multiverses in 2015, and Looney Tunes: Dimensions in 2021.

Plot
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Cast
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Development
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Voice casting
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Animation
The animation was handled at Reel FX Animation Studios in Dallas, Texas, with additional visual effects provided by British-Indian visual effects company DNEG.

Soundtrack
The score for the film was composed by Canadian composer Christophe Beck. The music was scored at the Sony Pictures Scoring Stage at the Sony Pictures Studios complex in Culver City, California. The music was recorded from 2011 and wrapped in 2012, and was released on January 24, 2012 coinciding with the film's release, through Atlantic Records. The score's album peaked at #5 worldwide on the US Billboard 200.

Release
Looney Tunes: Back At It Again was originally scheduled for an August 2011 release, but the film needed more time for animation rendering, so it was pushed back to January 24, 2012, and Paramount Pictures released Magic School Bus on August 4, 2011. Looney Tunes: Back At It Again first had its premiere at the Dolby Theatre on January 15, 2012, and was later theatrically released on January 25, 2012 in the United States, opening in 4,385 theatres. The film was rated PG by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) for slapstick violence, rude humor, peril, mild language, and mild references to drugs.

Marketing
The first material of marketing of Looney Tunes: Back At It Again first appeared in supermarket retailers, with toys and other products sold and manufactured by Funko, Hasbro and Mattel. The first promotional poster was revealed on September 17, 2010, with the caption "Can you handle the Looneyness? How crazy can this get?!", and included its original release date of August 4, 2011. However, when word of Magic School Bus was coming out on the same day, Warner Bros. Pictures pushed its date back to January 25, 2012.However, Warner Bros. began to lose interest of the film and began marketing it poorly, after having its high confidence of the film performing well.

Buddy Studios, the production studio behind the film, took reign in marketing the film better unlike Warner Bros. Pictures, and on the day of opening, the film reportedly had over 158.5 million tickets bought worldwide, excluding Mainland China and North Korea. Additionally, McDonald's and Burger King began selling exclusive toys in Happy Meals (McDonald's) and Kids Meals (Burger King). In marketing budgets, the toys sold reportedly hit stocks of $950 million by the time the film was released. Around 2014, the toys' marketing budgets peaked at over $3.15 billion, and were discontinued in December 2014, due to promotional material of Looney Tunes: Tune World Multiverse being marketed by Warner Bros. Pictures.

Critical response
On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 76% based on 198 critics, with an average rating of 6.5/10. Its critical consensus reads: "Beautifully animated, action-packed, heart-pounding, and definitely much better than its 11-year-old predecessor, though with some predictable parts in its plot, Looney Tunes: Back At It Again is, despite its flaws, is a good sequel to a good film from the early 2000s. Bugs knows how to crack a laugh." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 67 out of 100 based on 18 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore assigned the film an average grade "A-" on its A+ to F scale.

Box office
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Trivia
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