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The Looney Tunes have had a rocky history at the movie theater. The few times their antics have extended beyond a few minutes of animated hi-jinks usually rely on either a clip show or live-action integrations. From the compilation of The Looney Looney Looney Bugs Bunny Movie to the medium-bleeding meta nature of Space Jam: A New Legacy, nearly every film has struggled to find something more to do than rehash the past or question the characters in the modern age.
source: Ketchup Entertainment
For these reasons, The Day The Earth Blew Up was like an exaggerated breath of fresh air. The film isn’t just good because it’s the first fully 2D-animated Looney Tunes movie ever made, but because it’s the only Looney Tunes film that understands the formula. You don’t need a cavalcade of characters or a smattering of pop culture parodies for the classic characters to be appealing. You only need a solid scenario for a few revered characters to perform their looney-tuney routine. The team behind Warner Bros’s recent Looney Tunes shorts understood that with their fantastic work and now have their formula blown up for the big screen.
The Duck & Pig Duo
The entire roster of Looney Tunes characters is not shoved into this picture, which gives the film enough time to make you care a little about Daffy beyond his hooting and Porky beyond his sputter. The two are established as brothers who were taken in by an old man (Fred Tatasciore) and raised into adulthood. When their adoptive father heads for the big barn in the sky, he leaves behind the house for his adoptive anthropomorphic sons.
source: Ketchup Entertainment
As with Looney Tunes shorts like Duck Dodgers and Rocket Squad, Daffy and Porky (both voiced in the film by Eric Bauza) have a natural mismatched dynamic. Daffy’s eccentricities lead to plenty of slapstick accidents while Porky scampers around as the straight man trying to put out Daffy’s fires (sometimes literally). Their chemistry makes household repairs a hilarious series of gags involving burning leaves and blown-out gutters. The energy of these characters and the theatrical-quality animation slathered upon them are such a joy to watch, but the gags are all the more exciting when you realize there are many minutes more.
Unlikely and Highly Looney Heroes
A solid story is present to give the characters more to do than galavant with physical jokes. With the house in need of repairs, Daffy and Porky seek jobs. After a montage of Daffy trying to sell his bouncy butt as an influencer, the two eventually land jobs at a gum factory. With Porky aiming to keep this job and impress the gum-scientist pig, Petunia (Candi Milo), he tries to keep Daffy in line so he won’t be fired. While Daffy tries his best, the silly duck stumbles into a plot of aliens trying to take over the planet through gum. Thus begins a battle not only for Earth’s survival but for the friendship of the duck and pig.
There is some romance between Porky and Petunia, but friendship remains the greatest force in this animated tale. I was surprised by how much I felt for the plight of these characters while they remained absurd. There is a rather touching moment when the two friends finally realize they’ve been nasty to each other and have a good cry. But if they’re going to cry, their eyes are going to burst like dams and have salmon swimming between their tears. That’s the best way to embrace an engaging story with such wild cartoon characters: by making us feel for them but get emotional at the goofiest of visuals.
source: Ketchup Entertainment
I also appreciated the goofy villain they must face: a hot-headed alien invader played by Peter MacNicol, who made an absolute meal out of his performance. He never feels out of place in this Looney Tunes world, becoming more of a stand-out antagonist for his over-the-top delivery and frustrations that could easily go toe-to-toe with the energy of Daffy and Porky (if they had toes). The script also gives him more to do than be the evil alien of this story, becoming part of a fairly clever twist that makes the adventure more enticing.
Clever Animation
As previously stated, the team behind the past Looney Tunes short have devoted their talents to this film and deliver stylish and hilarious animation, packed with exaggerated expressions and detailed shading. There’s a devotion to classic science fiction stories of the 1950s and 1960s, reflected in the old-fashioned attire of the human characters and the exaggerated presence of aliens invading Earth. The movie embraces this almost out-of-time environment akin to Batman: The Animated Series, adopting the old-fashioned style while still allowing for gags involving modern technology. This setting is beneficial as it enables the gags to be more funny on their face rather than constantly digging through a vault of pop culture for jokes. After enduring a Space Jam movie where it felt like every Warner Bros IP was dusted off the shelf, it was refreshing to watch a film that doesn’t have such reliance.
The Day the Earth Blew Up has a level of experimentation that can’t be ignored. During Daffy and Porky’s first day in the gum factory, they get into a rhythm to the tune of a classic cartoon song, Powerhouse. The familiar Looney Tunes style drops momentarily to embrace an industrial-art-style music video sequence that is a delightful detour. I also dug into the way the father of Daffy and Porky looks and moves like he was plucked right out of a Clutch Cargo cartoon with his limited animation.
However, one of the finest showcases of animation is how the animators frame the threat of gum monsters turning humans into zombies. The mutating candy looks grotesque with its adoption of eyes and teeth, like the offspring of The Blob and The Thing. It’s so brilliantly vicious that it feels like a real threat to Daffy and Porky rather than a goofy villain that Daffy could quickly whack with a mallet. There’s some real danger for the trio of Daffy, Porky, and Petunia, strong enough to make you care for them instead of writing off all dangers with cartoon logic. It’s also exciting to watch some theatrical 2D animation that is willing to be gross with chewing gum that has eyeballs and controls the minds of the people who chew it.
Embracing a Looney World
What I admire most about The Day Earth Blew Up is that it grounds itself in what makes Looney Tunes shorts stand the test of time. Audiences who may have gotten too used to the likes of Space Jam and Looney Tunes: Back in Action may be dismayed to learn that they won’t be treated to the usual onslaught of characters like Bugs Bunny, Sylvester, Tweety, Marvin, and so on.
But this is not what made Looney Tunes shorts great. Most of the Looney Tunes segments I’d watch on Saturday morning were usually reserved for a handful of characters and not a massive ensemble. Duck Rabbit Duck was hilarious because of the conflicting dynamics between Bugs, Daffy, and Elmer amid hunting season. Robin Hood Daffy faired just fine with Daffy and Porky instead of making a spot for every Looney Tunes character in the roster of Robin Hood. Heck, there was a whole show of Duck Dodgers that relied on little more than Daffy and Porky to carry the episodes, and that show was hilarious.
source: Ketchup Entertainment
Blowing up one of the old character-specific shorts for a long-form narrative is a gamble. However, if you understand the dynamic of what made those shorts so hilarious and enduring, it’s not as difficult as it may seem. The feature-length running time allows more room for gags and drama, where the characters become more compelling for what they’ll do instead of what slapstick antic they can get into next. The big team behind this movie has not only grasped the animated formula for a great Looney Tunes short but has learned how to perfect it for a feature film. The results are so remarkable that any cries of no reference to Marvin the Martian or Foghorn Leghorn just seem like added fat on a movie that doesn’t need any of that reference fluff.
Conclusion
The Day The Earth Blew Up is a loving and looney enough romp to be the best Looney Tunes movie ever. I understand that’s a relatively low bar, given that there’s never been a fully animated 2D Looney Tunes movie. It’d be easy to praise the film for its ambition alone, but the expertise on display is so bold and brave to treat the Looney Tunes more like characters than meta-commentary IP for the Warner Bros brand. The Looney Tunes never needed a postmodern retooling to be funny again. All they needed was an exemplary scenario to step into and the right group of creatives behind the frame to bring out the funny. Director Pete Browngardt and his massive team of writers understood the timeless appeal of these classic cartoons and deserve a firm salute for their contribution to making a Looney Tunes movie that is equal parts thrilling, emotional, hilarious, and all-together looney.
The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie will debut in theaters on March 14th.
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