Saturday, June 28, 2025

The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie

Tonight, on Max, I saw “The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie,” released theatrically in March, but released yesterday on Max. As a fan of the Looney Tunes, seeing how they were probably the first cartoons I saw as a child, I had to see this. How is this, seeing how this is getting pretty good reviews.

It’s strange to see that the Looney Tunes cast – the crazy cartoon characters who become identical with the name “Warner Bros” – has never starred in a fully animated feature-length movie before this new one.

Sean P. Means said in his review, “Then you watch the movie, which is packed to the gills with inventive gags and features two of the troupe’s most engaging characters, and see that sustaining the Looney Tunes’ antics for 90 minutes isn’t as easy as it looks.”

The movie tells us the origin story of Porky Pig and Daffy Duck (Eric Bauza, the current holder of Mel Blanc as the voice of many characters), brothers from another species who are raised since babies by friendly Farmer Jim (Fred Tatasciore). They live together in the house Farmer Jim left them, which has become the bane in the neighborhood – and is dilapidated after a sudden meteorite made a huge hole on the roof before landing just out of town.

An astronomer, voiced by voiced by Tatasciore, sees the meteorite and follows it to where it crashed, and realizes that it’s not a meteorite but a UFO. Before he can call the police, the green goo from the UFO turns him into a zombie, told to spread the brain-altering goo to all of Earth. How he is able to do that is through the town’s gum factory – where Porky and Daffy just landed entry-level jobs.

The story, which is a lot, starts when Daffy convinces Porky that there’s something evil about the factory’s new gum flavor. They ask the help of the factory’s taste tester scientist, Petunia Pig, voiced by Candi Milo, who doesn’t like the new gum flavor. The three find themselves going up against an alien, known only as the Invader, voiced by Peter MacNicol, who says he only wants Earth’s most precious resource. (No spoilers, but it is funny.)

Director Peter Browngardt and the 11 writers credited with the screenplay show how much they love the classic Looney Tunes characters and vibe, and largely succeed in showing that classic feel to a new audience. Means notes, “The movie opts to show Daffy in his more manic phase — the live wire of Robert Clampett’s shorts, rather than the cynical con artist of the Chuck Jones era — to match Porky’s nervous energy.” (One Easter egg comes when Porky and Daffy eat at a diner named after Clampett, and the waitress is voiced by Clampett’s daughter, Ruth.)

Means points out, “It’s notable that while Warner Bros. Animation made “The Day the Earth Blew Up,” Warner Bros. Pictures — who shelved the already completed “Coyote vs. Acme” as a write-off — turned over distribution to a smaller company, Ketchup Entertainment. It’s another sad sign that the corporate overlords at Warner Bros. have no love for the movies.”

Means continues, “The movie’s length exposes a paradox: The plot requires passages where the action slows down and the audience can take a break from that manic energy — but it’s that mania that makes the Looney Tunes who and what they are, so those slower moments expose the cracks in the facade.” When the Looney Tunes can create perfect stories in eight minutes, taking 90 minutes feels like a superfluous bonus, no matter how many jokes they can insert into that realm.

You have to see this on Max. If you’re a Looney Tunes fan, this is one for you. You will love this film a lot, as this is fully animated and no live action actors are put into this film. If you have Max, then find this and put it on because you will have a great time laughing at it, especially with the twist at the climax of the movie. I promise you, there is nothing in this movie that will upset anyone, hopefully.

Thank you for joining in on this review tonight. Stay tuned next month to see what I will review next.

No comments:

Post a Comment