To a certain generation, Warner Bros. will always be 'that company who makes cartoons,' and for decades, that was an accurate description. It's not anymore. Back in 2003, Warner Bros. decided to get out of the animated films business for good, and it was 'Looney Tunes: Back in Action' that convinced them to do it. 'Looney Tunes' should have been a 'Greatest Hits' album for Warner, featuring all of their most famous animated characters, and giving them time to shine. Instead, it came across as a lazy and bored band trudging through their back catalog, and going through the motions.
The movie blended cartoons with live action footage, and even had the always-popular Brendan Fraser on screen. Even that wasn't enough. Despite the $80m production cost, and the high hopes for one of the biggest hits of the whole year, 'Looney Tunes: Back in Action' just didn't capture peoples' hearts the way that the characters used to back in the 1950s. It made $68m back, and Warner Bros. officially stopped making cartoons.