Film Review: "The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie"
The new feature starring Daffy Duck and Porky Pig is a fitting homage to the characters' golden age of yore and a triumph in its own right.
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Warning: Full spoilers for the film follow.
I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not a huge fan of many of the more recent Looney Tunes productions. Call me old-fashioned, but I think that it’s impossible to live up to the very high standard set by Warner Bros. during the golden age. Personally, I consider this to have been the 1940s to the 1960s, and to this day I don’t think any voice actor comes close to Mel Blanc’s versatile brilliance. Some productions come close to capturing that original magic, but none so far have met or surpassed it.
Thus, I went into The Day the Earth Blew Up with somewhat limited expectations. The trailers had made it clear that this film was definitely going to lean into the ludic antics that we associate with some of the earliest examples of Looney Tunes, which I’ve never enjoyed as much as I have those that are more notable for their wordplay. While I see their value, and while I understand why others might enjoy them, they’ve never been my cup of tea.
However, it quickly becomes clear that this film is something special and, while there are a few bumpy spots here and there–with some pretty significant plot developments that don’t hold up to too much scrutiny–I will admit that I had a huge smile on my face the whole time. It’s the kind of animated feature that is just a hell of a lot of fun, immersing you in a world that is zany and wacky and, not to put too fine a point on it, quite looney.
When the film begins, Daffy and Porky (both voiced by Eric Bauza) are adopted by a strange figure known as Farmer Jim (voiced by voice acting stalwart Fred Tatascore). After their benefactor walks away into the sunset, they’re left with a house that slowly falls into disrepair. After trying to get a job so they can afford repairs, they end up working in a gum factory, where Porky starts to fall in love with Petunia (Candi Milo). All three of them are then faced with a sinister alien being known as the Invader, who intends to spread over the world via bubblegum that’s been seeded with a zombifying agent. Chaos and mayhem ensue.
Of the two, Daffy is of course the one who is more, well, looney, as the film itself points out again and again. He is prone to losing control and just going off and engaging in all sorts of batshit antics, and though his lunacy can be a bit grating, there’s something endearing about it, too. In no small part, this stems from the fact that both his character design and his behavior, which are clearly meant to evoke the earliest days of Daffy’s existence. I also give the film a lot of credit for managing to weave Daffy’s unhinged personality into the plot, so that he is just as responsible for saving the day as the more conservative Porky.
The Day the Earth Blew Up manages to strike the right balance of looking back to the Golden Age of Animation while also being thoroughly modern (or perhaps postmodern?) in its sensibilities. As a result, it has a great deal of slapstick, which will surely appeal to both the young and the young at heart, as well as some more adult-oriented humor and jokes that share some DNA with its predecessors from the 1940s and 1950s. When it comes right down to it, witty wordplay and repartee have always been one of the things that set these characters apart from their counterparts, so it’s nice to see it make a comeback. Darrick Bachman and his colleagues (the script is attributed to several of the animators as well) has crafted a story that never talks down to or panders to its audience, and it has some genuine emotional stakes. There’s even a very clever plot twist in the third act that changes everything, and I quite enjoyed the way it was handled.
I was also very glad that they decided to use traditional animation rather than the CGI route that is all the rage in Hollywood, and I’m likewise glad that they decided to use character designs that are clearly reminiscent of the originals. I know that CGI is still all the rage in Hollywood–particularly among the big studios–and I also know that many recent Looney Tunes productions have sought to update their look, with very mixed results. There’s a fluidity to the motion of the type 2-D used in The Day the Earth Blew Up that no CGI film has yet managed to capture, and I’ll admit that the kid in me enjoys getting to see it brought to life on the big screen again. It might be old-fashioned to some, but to me that’s precisely what makes this film such a delight.
And then there’s the story’s major villain, known simply as the Invader. On the one hand, I loved everything about this creature, from his sinister introduction to his design to the utterly unhinged performance that Peter MacNichol gives in his delivery (including the same mad cackle that he used to such devastatingly hilarious effect in Veep). On the other hand, as other critics have also pointed out, I did find it a bit strange that they didn’t just use Marvin the Martian, since he’s already been established as a key part of the Looney Tunes stable. However, given that Marvin tends to be a bit more ridiculous than terrifying, I can see why they would go this route.
In the end, of course, it all comes out okay, though the characters have to go through quite a lot in order to save the world from people that have been turned into zombies by bubble gum. There are some nicely unsettling and sometimes downright frightening moments, many of which are clear homages to such body horror classics as The Thing (if you see the film, you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about). While the film certainly works well on its own and sees all of the various plotlines nicely resolved, there’s always room for a sequel, and I’d be happy to see these characters return for more shenanigans, so long as they’re given a story like this one that doesn’t talk down to its audience and nicely appeals to both children and adults.
At a broader level, I’m very glad that Ketchup Entertainment rescued this film from the oblivion that would surely have been its fate if it had been left to the idiots who are currently in charge of Warner Bros. Discovery and clearly have absolutely no idea what to with the brands of which they are custodians. I find this eternally baffling, given the way that David Zaslav in particular has been so devoted to mining other, far less interesting, IPs for money (see also: the utter waste of time and money that is the new Harry Potter TV series). The fact that this studio can’t seem to find anything useful or meaningful to do with the various characters associated with Looney Tunes is particularly galling, considering that they have long been key parts of the Warner Bros. brand. But, alas, such is the state of corporate Hollywood today.
In sum, The Day the Earth Blew Up is quite simply a delight. I don’t think it’s going too far to say that this is just the type of animated film that we need right now, and I hope that someone–whether Warner Bros. Discovery or someone else–has the good sense to give the Looney Tunes characters the types of films they, and we, deserve.