THE DAY THE EARTH BLEW UP: A LOONEY TUNES MOVIE – Review by Valerie Kalfrin
With all the real-life lunacy in the world on any given day, it’s a balm for the soul to see a film about impending doom where a manic but well-meaning duck and two ham-fisted sweethearts can save us.
The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie is an absolute treat, full of eye-popping colors and laugh-out-loud moments. It’s also the first theatrically released Looney Tunes film based entirely on original material, not partly live-action (such as the Space Jam films) or compiling shorts—and done in hand-drawn animation to boot. Sufferin’ succotash!
The film is a love letter to this artistry and the humor that’s made these characters favorites for decades, and a zippy homage to sci-fi features of yore. I spied nods to Invasion of the Body Snatchers and The X-Files between an action sequence to the perfect REM song.
The film opens in the sleepy town of Grandview, where a spectacled scientist reading Very Advanced Astrophysics Theories sees a green capsule streak across the sky and crash nearby. Upon investigating, he becomes a shambling zombie with a mission: helping a bulb-headed alien (Peter MacNicol of Veep, in grumpy mode) control people’s minds worldwide through chewing gum.
It turns out Grandview is home to the Goodie Gum factory, which might expedite this plan, save for our hapless heroes. Porky Pig and Daffy Duck (both voiced by longtime voice talent Eric Bauza, Bob’s Burgers) were raised as brothers by kindly Farmer Jim (Fred Tatasciore, Family Guy), who took them in as foundlings. Jim looks and moves like a watercolor illustration from one of those Little Golden Books, a hilarious contrast to the toons’ elasticity.
As the deep-voiced Jim moseys off to a farm in the sky, he counsels his boys to look out for each other and the family farmhouse. The latter is a challenge, since Daffy screws up every job the two land after the space capsule rips a hole in their roof. But their luck seems to change when they cross paths with Petunia (Candi Milo, Tiny Toons Looniversity), a flavor scientist at the gum factory.
The often naive yet skeptical Daffy is the first to discover something foul is afoot, and naturally, no one believes him. But it’s not long before he, Porky, and Petunia are the only obstacles against what seems to be certain doom.
For a film with a team of eleven (!) writers, The Day the Earth Blew Up feels like a cohesive whole, not one schtick after another, and zings along through one hour 31 minutes. Among the writing team is director Peter Browngardt, who helmed the recent series Looney Tunes Cartoons on the streaming service Max. He has a steady hand on the setups, payoffs, sight gags and puns that make these toons tick.
I’ve missed the Looney Tunes, having grown up watching them on television. The Day the Earth Blew Up not only reintroduces their comedy but the stylings of hand-drawn animation, skillfully rendered by the background and story artists, down to little touches like the glowing green reflected in the scientist’s glasses and the alien’s yellow side-eye. The artists really flex in a fight with a pink gum monster that morphs from a blob to stretchy tentacles and an interlude where factory monotony segues into a split-screen number a la Busby Berkeley movies or Beauty and the Beast’s Be Our Guest.
The toons follow the familiar designs of longtime Looney Tunes animator and director Bob Clampett, with exaggerated features for the humans, including the mayor (Wayne Knight, Bookie). I could’ve done without some cheeky bits (one woman has breasts so huge, she has trouble squeezing into a car), but they’re minor compared with the film’s affection for Daffy, Porky, and Petunia.
Petunia is especially charming, a brainy girl pig comfortable in her hooves, whether she’s whipping a Bunsen burner out of her purse or stammering with nervousness. No wonder Porky is instantly smitten.
The Day the Earth Blew Up resolves all its tensions in an adorably wacky way before sticking its landing. It’s worth seeing in the theater, thanks to distributor Ketchup Entertainment, which saved it from airing solely on Max. As of this writing, the distributor is negotiating for the rights to release another original Looney Tunes adventure, Coyote vs. Acme, which Warner Bros. Discovery shelved in 2023 for a tax write-off.
Here’s hoping. If anything, The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie proves these toons still pack a comedic punch we sorely need.
