Cartoony Caper A FISH CALLED WANDA

By RICHARD SCHICKEL

Think of Otto (Kevin Kline) as Daffy Duck, a fellow whose foot -- when it's not in his mouth -- is always obsessively pressed to the emotional floorboard. Think of Ken (Michael Palin) as Elmer Fudd, a stammerer whose mild manner hides a ferocious temper. Think of Wanda (Jamie Lee Curtis) as -- big leap here -- Bugs Bunny, all wisecracks and cool deceit. And think of A Fish Called Wanda as the next best thing to a Looney Tunes-Merrie Melodies summerfest.

In the old Warner Bros. cartoons, these types never formed alliances; their fate was always to awaken one another's madness and trigger the chase. It is the genius of John Cleese's plot to imagine them leagued together for a London jewel robbery, which they pull off perfectly. This is when Cleese, Monty Python's Minister of Silly Walks, enters the picture as Archie Leach, a barrister hired to defend yet another member of the gang. Though Cleese has written himself some nice screwball-comedy turns, Leach is no Cary Grant. He is really a grownup Tweety bird, an innocent with an iron will.

The movie blithely places live actors in situations usually the exclusive preserve of drawn figures. Kline, who plays dumb brilliantly, even gets run over by a steamroller and lives to yell about it -- at least until he is blown off the wing of an ascending airplane. Somehow, the admirable Crichton, a veteran director of postwar Ealing comedies (The Lavender Hill Mob), contrives to keep the cruelty as weightless as an animator's cel. Wanda defies gravity, in both senses of the word, and redefines a great comic tradition.