For all of the success the cast of Looney Tunes have had on the silver screen, it’s rather surprising that they have never been given the chance to helm a feature in their native medium. Sure, we had Space Jam and Looney Tunes: Back in Action, but both were live-action/animation hybrid films with one of those centering on a real life wanna-be baseball player. The Looney Tunes are cartoons, first and foremost. They make the most of their medium with wacky, screwball, antics and while those traits are able to show up in a live-action hybrid, they’re still limited and hamstrung by the technology available at the time. And yes, there was a Bugs Bunny/Road Runner movie, but that was not a true feature. It was basically a package film where some shorts were grouped together to pad out a feature sitting – hardly an honest to goodness attempt at a Looney Tunes movie.
That has all changed with The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie, but it almost didn’t happen. The Peter Browngardt-helmed picture was conceived as an HBO Max exclusive back when Warner Bros. was going all-in on making the streaming platform a real Netflix competitor. The announcement came in 2021 and the first look at San Diego Comic Con in 2022, but following that things got murky. If you have been paying attention to the Looney Tunes franchise over the past few years, then you know how the franchise has been jerked around by Warner. A new set of cartoons were commissioned for theaters, but plans were quickly dashed and they were put on Max and Cartoon Network instead. Another live-action hybrid film was announced, Coyote vs ACME, and was allowed to go into production before ultimately getting cancelled. That film, which is finished or nearly finished, sits in limbo as a likely tax write-off for the horribly mismanaged corporation that is more than comfortable with turning its back on the stars that made it a household name.
The Day the Earth Blew Up was possibly heading for a similar fate, but was eventually allowed to be shopped around to find another distributor. In other words, Warner Bros. wasn’t going to distribute it on its own. Oh no, it felt better about taking someone else’s money for the privilege of doing so. The film’s budget is estimated to be at a mere 15 million, peanuts for a company of Warner’s size, but perhaps that’s what saved it. The Coyote vs ACME budget is estimated at somewhere in the neighborhood of 70 million making it a far more enticing tax write-off to the villains running the show. The fact that this little 2D animated film was so cheap is likely what saved it. And riding in to save it is Ketchup Entertainment. I don’t like pumping up corporations as heroes, but I’ll make an exception here. Ketchup acquired the North American distribution rights to the film and is the reason why the Looney Tunes property is getting a shot. I don’t know if it will pay off for them, but I’m doing my part to make sure that it does.
Now, most folks would have probably assumed that if a Looney Tunes movies was to happen it would be either helmed by Bugs Bunny or presented as an ensemble. It’s not. The Day the Earth Blew Up is a Porky Pig (Eric Bauza) and Daffy Duck (Bauza) vehicle that also brings Petunia Pig (Candi Milo) along for the ride. And it’s a smart premise to start from. Out of all the characters in Looney Tunes, the best, most logical, duo to center a film on is Porky and Daffy. Sure, they started out as adversaries with Porky in a hunter role and Daffy his would-be prey, but they would evolve over the years into unlikely partners. Often, Porky was the everyman of the group while Daffy was the instrument of chaos. His unpredictable nature would get Porky into trouble and foul things up. Later, Daffy would transition away from his looney roots to a schemer and Porky would be his sap. Sometimes, Porky got to be more of the comedic relief with Daffy a hapless protagonist as seen in the Duck Dodgers cartoons. For a sequence of cartoons that exist in increments of about 8 minutes, it’s pretty incredible how the relationship between these two has been presented over the years.
For this film though, we’re going back to basics. The Looney Tunes Cartoons which Browngardt oversaw were not shy about their affinity for Bob Clampett’s style. And it makes sense because the guys who outlived everyone (namely Chuck Jones and Friz Freleng) got to see their interpretations of the characters become the more recognized. Now, with everyone long gone, the animators of today are able to shine a spotlight on the guys who were left behind like Clampett and Tex Avery. Porky and Daffy are very much their Clampett interpretations with Porky a bit of a worry wart and Daffy his more looney self (and they get a lot of use out of that word in the movie). They’re given a backstory where they were found by a man named Farmer Jim (Fred Tatasciore) who raised them and eventually left his house and property to them with the advice to always stick together and take care of their home. In the modern day, they have stuck together, but have mostly let that house fall into a state of disrepair. A wayward asteroid puts a hole in their roof which proves a major problem for the pair as the local HOA rep (Laraine Newman) was due that day to come by and inspect the property.
Things do not go Porky and Daffy’s way and they’re given ten days to repair the roof or see their home condemned. The problem there is not only do they not have enough money for repairs, they don’t have jobs! This leads to a series of job failures by the duo until they eventually happen upon Petunia Pig who, as a flavor inventor for a local gum company, is able to get them factory jobs. Unfortunately, the hole in their roof was caused by an interstellar being (played by Peter MacNicol) who plans to use the factory’s gum and its much celebrated rollout of a new flavor as a way to seize control of the population! Daffy, Porky, and Petunia are the only beings on Earth capable of saving it, a prospect likely not to give anyone much confidence.
It’s an honest to goodness plot for the film rooted in 1950’s sci-fi movie tropes. If you were expecting something more scatter-brained and suited for their usual format, this isn’t it. This is a real feature that has real conflict, character growth, and a proper resolution. At 90 minutes, there are times when the film starts to feel a little long, but smart use of musical bits help break things up. No, this isn’t an actual musical, but it’s not afraid to use some licensed music to help speed things up and it’s usually done in a humorous way.
And humor is the film’s main goal as it never forgets its roots. The Day the Earth Blew Up is a very funny movie and it’s able to pull it off without an overreliance of recycled gags from the shorts. If you’re expecting a classic misdirection bit to occur between two characters then you may be surprised to hear there isn’t one. Less than 24 hours removed from seeing the film for myself, I’m having a hard time coming up with a bit lifted directly from an old short. There’s a reoccurring spit-take joke, but the spit-take is not a uniquely Looney Tunes gag so I’m not sure I’d count that. You’re going to get stutters from Porky and Daffy’s “hoot hoot” routine, but that’s expected. Instead, the film just relies on good timing and creative gags to induce laughter. It’s about as fresh as one could expect Looney Tunes humor to appear in 2025.
The voice cast and music do a great job of uplifting the movie. Eric Bauza has basically made himself a modern day Mel Blanc with how many characters he’s able to voice. I’ve seen some criticism of his Porky voice on the internet that I mostly don’t agree with. His Porky is not going to be mistaken for any other cartoon character. The stuttering has been toned down slightly, but I think that’s for the best since we’re talking 90 minutes vs 8. And his Daffy is just plain terrific. Do these characters sound exactly like they did in 1950? No, of course not, how could they? Mel Blanc is dead and has been for over 30 years. It’s my personal pet peeve when people criticize a film or show when the characters sound different either because a new actor took over or an existing one is aging. It’s what happens, folks. These characters get to outlive us all and it’s part of their appeal. The alternative is stitching things together with old tapes or A.I. which strikes me soulless. Or there’s recasting in the case of someone who is just getting old, but that’s taking away someone’s job. In short, yes, these characters sound different. Get over it!
In addition to Bauza we have Candi Milo as Petunia Pig. She does a fantastic job with the character, and unlike Porky and Daffy, she practically gets to start with a blank slate. Petunia was seldom used in the golden era, and when she was, she didn’t have much personality of her own. This film rectifies that making her a very ambitious scientist with a bit of a quirky side to her. The chemistry between she and Porky feels genuine and not tacked on and she’s allowed to be funny, just like the boys. MacNicol’s invader character, who is never given a name, is an interesting antagonist in that it’s allowed to remain somewhat mysterious while also getting to join in on the comic relief. Often with things happening to it as opposed to a result of something the invader does. Joshua Moshier’s score lives up to the reputation of the brand. He was able to record with a live orchestra and the film is all the better for it.
The star of the show is not really the characters or the voices, but the animation. Glorious 2D animation! If you have seen the more recent Looney Tunes Cartoons or the Animaniacs reboot on Hulu then you have a pretty good frame of reference for how The Day the Earth Blew Up looks. In my reviews of some cartoons from those respective shows, I’ve often come to the conclusion that they look as good as they possibly can for a modern production. Everything is digital, but with a hand-drawn flourish. This isn’t the puppet-like animation you find with adult animated sitcoms like Bob’s Burgers and The Simpsons. There’s actual squash and stretch animation here with exaggerated movements and excellent effects animation. Since this is a feature, it does look better than the TV counterparts, but not dramatically so. It’s a very interesting movie to look at and in some of the faster paced sequences it made picking out the visual gags and little touches more fun. I look forward to being able to watch this at home some day so I have the benefit of being able to linger on a scene a little longer than I could in a theater.
We had to wait a long time for a proper Looney Tunes movie, but The Day the Earth Blew Up was worth the wait. It’s another feather in the cap of this venerable franchise and it does nothing to harm its legacy, it only adds to it. It’s a funny, engaging, film that’s a treat for the eyes and should find little trouble in appealing to both kids and adults, provided both have at least some affection for Looney Tunes styled animation and humor. My two kids loved it, but I’ve also raised them on Looney Tunes (the Looney Tunes Golden Collection is one of the best purchases I ever made) and my daughter brought her well worn, much loved, Bugs Bunny plush to the theater with her so he could see his buddies in action. Unfortunately, the franchise is in the hands of Warner Bros. who can hardly be trusted as proper caretakers. For that reason, I’m skeptical we’ll get a sequel or another Looney Tunes movie in this style, but at least we have The Day the Earth Blew Up. If you’ve ever loved the Looney Tunes or 2D animation, then I urge you to check it out while it’s playing in theaters because who knows if we’ll ever get this chance again?
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