It's tempting to give The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie the benefit of the doubt simply because the movie is one of the victims of the artistically destructive policies of Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav. Unlike fellow Looney Tunes feature film Coyote vs. Acme, The Day the Earth Blew Up hasn't been shelved indefinitely. Instead, WBD sold it off to small-scale distributor Ketchup Entertainment, which is why it's opening in theaters this week. That's a win for creativity, but it doesn't mean that The Day the Earth Blew Up is a good movie.
It's not a bad movie, either, but it's a mostly forgettable outing for a few classic Looney Tunes characters that struggles to justify its existence as a feature film. Technically, this is the first original feature-length, fully animated Looney Tunes movie to be released in theaters, since past theatrical films have either been compilations of existing shorts or live-action/animation hybrids like Space Jam and Looney Tunes: Back in Action.
Maybe characters like Daffy Duck and Porky Pig are inherently suited to short-form storytelling, because they don't lend themselves to meaningful arcs or complex narratives. There are occasional funny moments in The Day the Earth Blew Up, but it mostly feels like a TV episode that won't ever end. That makes sense, since it comes from the creative team behind the Max series Looney Tunes Cartoons, led by director and co-writer Pete Browngardt. Browngardt is among the movie's 11 credited writers, who come up with a rudimentary story about Daffy (Eric Bauza) and Porky (also Bauza) fighting off an alien invasion.
As the title implies, The Day the Earth Blew Up takes inspiration from 1950s sci-fi movies, but its aesthetic is thoroughly modern, and Browngardt and the creative team do little to emulate the films they draw from. The alien known only as the Invader (Peter MacNicol) has an appealing vintage look, but not much personality, and it's tough to excuse a Looney Tunes movie about extraterrestrial incursion that leaves out Marvin the Martian.
Marvin isn't the only major Looney Tunes character who's missing in The Day the Earth Blew Up. Petunia Pig (Candi Milo) rounds out the main cast alongside Daffy and Porky, but there aren't even cameos from other familiar Looney Tunes faces. Shifting focus among various characters is fine for a TV series with dozens of episodes, but for such a rare foray into bigger-budget filmmaking, it's a misstep to bypass so many iconic creations.
The Day the Earth Blew Up provides a new origin story for Daffy and Porky as adopted sons of a human farmer, but their bond is pretty weak, and their emotional journey is underwhelming, as they learn to stand by each other just as the late Farmer John always instructed them. Daffy's hyperactive destructiveness is much more palatable in short bursts, and both he and Porky become more annoying than endearing over the course of 90 minutes.
Their antagonistic dynamic is largely one-note, and neither Petunia nor the Invader make much of an impression. The movie begins with a lengthy set-up about Daffy and Porky in danger of losing their house, before they meet Petunia and get jobs at a local gum factory, where Daffy discovers the nefarious alien plot. Even that isn't quite enough to stretch the story to feature length, and the nature of the threat shifts in the final 20 minutes to drag things out further.
The 2D animation is refreshingly retro, and the filmmakers offer a couple of visually inventive sequences, including a montage of Daffy and Porky trying out various jobs that's presented like an old Merrie Melodies cartoon, and an almost abstract Art Deco style musical interlude when they start working at the factory. Most of the movie is straightforward and simple, which isn't a problem, but also doesn't particularly distinguish it from various Looney Tunes-related TV projects.
"It's time for this duck to go amok!" Daffy exclaims during a moment of crisis, but The Day the Earth Blew Up pales in comparison to the self-reflexive cleverness of Chuck Jones' landmark 1953 short "Duck Amuck." The humor is mostly stale, with a handful of mildly amusing meta gags, plus an unfortunate moment of Daffy twerking.
Bauza gives impressively distinctive performances as both main characters, and there's a sense of good-natured enthusiasm to the entire endeavor. Browngardt and his team clearly have great affection for the Looney Tunes characters and their history. Merely getting this movie into theaters is a triumph over corporate greed and inequity, and that's cause for celebration. If only the movie were more worth celebrating on its own. ♦
The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie
Rated PG
Directed by Pete Browngardt
Starring Eric Bauza
