Peter Browngardt’s “The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Film” is an enthralling, antic and superbly crafted animated movie that generously faucets into the impressed silliness of the supply materials.
The film tells us that Daffy Duck and Porky Pig grew up collectively in a Norman Rockwellian farmhouse getting ready to foreclosures. Whereas Porky succeeds at discovering jobs, Daffy, who’s mainly a lunatic, is the one who at all times messes issues up for each of them.
When Porky falls in love for the primary time, he understandably braces himself with the expectation that Daffy will do one thing to spoil all the things for him.
In the meantime, an alien invader takes over a chewing gum manufacturing unit and partakes in a weird plot for world domination.
There are plot strands and visible references from “The Blob” (1958), “Invasion of the Physique Snatchers” (1956 and 1978), “Evening of the Creeps” (1986) and even “Armageddon” (1998), although the movies are properly by no means identify checked and the satire isn’t overly introduced.
Evaluate that to the “Pulp Fiction” gag in “House Jam” that was hilarious in 1996 however now appears extraordinarily misplaced.
It might be argued that the humor right here is extra akin to “Animaniacs” (1993) than the old-fashioned Tex Avery/Chuck Jones/ Friz Freleng cartoon masterpieces that had been typically voiced by Mel Blanc. The jokes that don’t join are all mercifully temporary modern references – I’m undecided why the Daffy Duck would reference twerking movies on Instagram.
Fortunately, the gags come so quick, for each joke that doesn’t land, there’s one a number of seconds later that does the trick.
The pairing of Porky and Daffy is considerably odd since Daffy is such a wild character and Porky is, nicely, only a speaking pig who stutters. I want Daffy had been teamed with that everlasting wiseass Bugs Bunny or an actual oddball like Marvin the Martian,
A minimum of the buddy comedy dynamic is firmly in place.
If Daffy is utilized particularly nicely right here, it’s as a result of A. all of us have one good friend like Daffy, the wildcard who’s endearing and embarrassing, and B. the plot leans on Daffy acknowledging how he overdoes all the things and would higher reach life if he reconsiders his private strengths.
It’s a refreshingly sincere contact in a film that includes chewing gum that sprouts eyeballs.
Additionally, there’s a scene the place Daffy has a public breakdown and offers a ranting speech on stage, fully bare, which is so weird, humorous and precisely what you’d anticipate from him.
As of 2025, we now have but to see the shelved, reportedly great “Coyote Vs. Acme,” the shot in 2022, half stay motion, half animated comedy starring John Cena, Will Forte and Wile E. Coyote (the latter is my favourite Looney Tunes character).
I hate that we might by no means see “Coyote Vs. Acme” (somebody, fairly please, drop it on MAX), however I’m delighted {that a} absolutely animated, completely loopy and trustworthy in spirit Looney Tunes film has arrived within the age of primarily CGI animated works.
I grew up relishing each time “The Looney Looney Looney Bugs Bunny Film” (1981) would play on HBO, however that movie (and those that adopted) had been largely a compilation of the most effective cartoons airing Saturday morning.
I nonetheless take pleasure in “House Jam” however couldn’t stand the sequel.
Since “Coyote vs. Acme” is in some type of company limbo (if it hasn’t been erased, as rumored, then it’s been indefinitely shelved, a preferable standing), then that is presently the most effective of the Looney Tunes films thus far.
Porky Pig and Daffy Duck carry this right into a sublimely foolish state of Nirvana.
Nevertheless, if it’s successful and one other Looney Tunes animated buddy comedy is introduced, I hope Warner Bros. Animation pairs up Yosemite Sam and Pepe Le Pew, two colourful weirdos who I’d fortunately watch in completely something.
Of all issues, this film made me consider how weird chewing gum is: it’s been round in some kind for hundreds of years and is an business of constructing flavored strips that we chew and discard when it turns into a sticky, stale mess.
Gum is a frequent grocery store impulse purchase for me. Why on Earth do we promote one thing that’s greatest identified for showing undesirable and caught beneath a desk? Till I noticed how aliens use pink bubble gum on this film to attain their weird targets, I don’t assume I’ve ever thought a lot about gum in my life.
Thanks, Porky and Daffy.
Three Stars (out of 4)