In its heyday, Warne Bros’ Looney Tunes was the de facto cartoon. After all, we’ve been with Buggs, Daffy, and company since the 1930s and they have entertained us for decades and decades with their wild antics. Fu-Schnickens and Shaquille O’Neal (Shaq Diesel) even had a rap song “What’s Up Doc?” which I’m not embarrassed to have pumped in my stereo back in the day, so Looney Tunes is absolutely universal. While the new Space Jam movie was cute, Warner Bros also canceled their in-the-can Coyote vs. Acme film for tax write-off purposes, almost signifying that this franchise just might be past its prime. But low and behold, Warner Bros isn’t done just yet with their new release The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie.
Buggs Bunny is nowhere to be found as The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie instead focuses on Daffy Duck and Porky Pig (Eric Bauza pulling double duties) as they not only grow up together as brothers, but then when an alien invasion centering on chewing gum that turns the planet into mindless zombies (yes you read that correctly), it’s up to them to save the day. The only problem is that they are also driving each other insane with their hijinks and antics. The film begins very reminiscent of the only alien invasion films as a lonely scientist discovers at first an asteroid, but that turns out to be a UFO that crash lands right on top of the home that Porky and Daffy will inherit from their father.
Then we are treated to a segment showing Daffy and Porky as they grow up on Farmer Jim’s (Fred Tatasciore) farm. They get bullied in school, they play with Acme rockets, and get into all sorts of shenanigans. But when Farmer Jim passes on, the duo are left to manage the farm, and we know they aren’t going to keep it up to code. After attempting to fix up the home, they still fail a home inspection… because there’s a giant hole in the roof from the UFO crash. Determined to keep their home, the duo work at a chewing gum factory, and they start to notice something strange going on there.
Turns out The Invader (Peter MacNicol) who crash-landed at the beginning of The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie has a plan for global domination. A new line of chewing gum being introduced is of extraterrestrial origin and has the side effect of mind-controlling whoever starts to chew it (even dogs… even though you shouldn’t give your dog chewing gum) into mindless zombies that The Invader can control for his own nefarious purposes. At first, Daffy is the only one who notices things are strange, then Porky does as well, who loops in his crush Petunia Pig (Candi Milo) and the trio begins plans to try and combat The Invader…if only Daffy and Porky can get along as brothers sometimes don’t.
The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie would probably work better as a TV episode or if they needed to stretch it out into a 1-hour special, that might have better suited the film. Deciding to make such a flimsy story into an hour-and-a-half feature-length film feels more like a stress test to see how much you will tolerate Porky and Daffy bickering than an actual film. The lack of any additional Looney Tunes characters is also very glaring, which kind of serves the argument that WB doesn’t seem to have faith in this franchise anymore, as evident by selling the film rights away to Ketchup Entertainment instead of releasing it themselves. Between The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie and the shelving of Coyote vs. Acme, this may be it for theatrical releases for our favorite Looney Tunes characters. In the age of streaming, perhaps they can find a new audience by doing a few specials or a new series on Max.
That doesn’t mean that The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie doesn’t have some highlights. The animation and voicework is great. Eric Bauza doing both Porky and Daffy wasn’t noticeable at all, and a credit to his voicework capabilities. The banter between Porky and Daffy proves fun (for a time) and I’m sure was a fun challenge for Bauza to do in the booth while recording. As stated, the animation is also great, especially all the chewing gum with giant alien eyeballs in themed scenes.
So is the Looney Tunes franchise dead? Probably no. After all, it went from the 1930s to 1969, then took a break until the late 1970s to today. Perhaps Warner Bros may have a strategy session to decide where to take the franchise for a new age. It seemed they were on that track with Leboron’s Space Jam (which I enjoyed), so perhaps more modern films like that vs classic animation may be the way forward.
The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie is currently playing in theaters
