The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie review – great goofy pastiche minus Bugs

Would you believe that The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie (out in cinemas next week) is the first ever fully animated Looney Tunes feature film?

Yup. And before you ask ‘what about the 1996 classic sports comedy movie Space Jam?’ I’ll remind you that was a composite of live action and 2D animation, you absolute fool (how good is that website, though?). Who Framed Roger Rabbit? as another example, is not a fully animated feature film either.

Created all the way back in 1930, the Looney Tunes cartoons are as ubiquitous with American culture as apple pie and shouty patriotism. Their name is actually a parody of the even older Disney cartoon series, Silly Symphonies, and I think it’s fair to say that describes their whole vibe: a sassier, anti-Disney collection of witty animations.

And now, for the first time ever, they have their own fully animated film releasing in cinemas – it only took 95 years, which is sort of inspiring: it’s never too late to give up on your dreams!

When you think Looney Tunes you probably think Bugs Bunny – and that’s fair: he is literally the poster boy of the franchise (and top billed right after Michael Jordan in Space Jam). It’s interesting, then that The Day the Earth Blew Up shelves the wascally wabbit’s presence entirely.

This time, it’s up to just Porky Pig and Daffy Duck, that classic odd couple, to save the world – minus the help of their famous cartoon comrades.

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When their home – and the entire world – is threatened by alien invasion and mind-controlling bubble gum, Daffy and Porky must put aside their differences and work together to save the day. But perhaps more threatening than the Invader and his evil plot is their ability to get on each other’s nerves. Will they win against all odds, or is it ‘That’s All, Folks!’ for the duck and pig?

Watch the trailer for The Day the Earth Blew Up:

The Day the Earth Blew Up is a strange beast of a film. It’s odd that it took 95 years for Looney Tunes to get an animated film in theatres. It’s odd that it only stars Porky Pig and Daffy Duck. And it’s odd that Warner Bros. Animation decided not to take responsibility for distributing it, instead handing over the releasing rights to Ketchup Entertainment in the states and Pinnacle Films in Australia.

It seems like faith in the almost 100-year old brand has significantly declined, especially since Space Jam 2 was such a box office flop (probably because it didn’t have a cool website).

Directed by animation veteran Peter Browngardt, who’s also known for Uncle Grandpa and Adventure Time (and got his first job at 19 working on Matt Groenig’s Futurama!), this movie boasts a whopping 11 screenwriters.

That sort of thing tends to make a keen-eyed cinephile nervous: after all, what in the film’s PG-rated 91 minutes could possibly take eleven writers to accomplish? I still don’t know the answer to that, but I will say this: The Day the Earth Blew Up is good.

The Day The Earth Blew Up: what works

It’s funny. It looks great. And it zips along at a breakneck pace, only stumbling over its webbed/hooved feet when it gets too tangled up in plot at the expense of goofs. Porky and Daffy have a timeless frenemy relationship that informs a lot of the humour, and also fuels enough emotional stakes to make the audience invested in their mission.

They also sound great, thanks to the dual talents of Eric Bauza, who provides the voices for both. Bauza’s about as Mel Blanc as you can get without a necromancer. A number of vocal talents round out the cast, with Candi Milo as Porky’s love interest Petunia Pig (no relation), Peter MacNicol as The Invader (an alien with a penchant for bubble tea), and Fred Tatasciore as both The Scientist and the duck and pig’s pseudo-father, Farmer Jim.

The Day The Earth Blew Up: goofs and gags

The gags are aplenty, with varying levels of success. The best ones, in my opinion, are those that carry on the great animated feature tradition of jokes that are funny to kids, but even funnier to adults that understand their double meanings.

For example: a bit where Daffy Duck attempts to raise money by becoming an online influencer and is promptly cancelled for his content got my first out-loud laugh of the whole film.

Other bits that got me giggling were lines like ‘you can tickle my taste buds anytime’ (said by Porky to Petunia and quickly followed up with ‘for science!’) and Daffy’s Winston Churchill-inspired ‘you can probe us on the beaches, in the supermarket aisle, and in the truck stop bathroom’.

This film doesn’t quite have the timeless charm it’s going for: instead it lands somewhere between 1950s B-movie pastiche and nostalgia-fuelled TV special. The bit where they change the screen to a square format and recreate the old cartoons is both nice and indulgent.

My own memories of growing up with such cartoons make it had to assess The Day The Earth Blew Up without rose-tinted glasses.

I think where I end up is: I’m glad this film exists, but I’m still bitter about what happened to Coyote vs ACME, and would have preferred to have seen that. If you don’t know, that’s the other Looney Tunes film that was scheduled to come out this year but got axed for tax write-off reasons (its fate could change soon though).

The Day The Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie is in Australian cinemas from 27 March.