Review: THE DAY THE EARTH BLEW UP Is A Looney Time For Kids

The animated short films produced by Warner Brothers from the 1930s into the 1950s have been rightly revered by animation fans for decades. Many of the characters created at the Warners lot’s animated studio – affectionately nicknamed “Termite Terrace” by the animators working there – have gone on to have long lives in the public’s conciousness, entertaining generations. The problem, though, is that beyond the initial Golden Era, incoming creators would often have mixed results in capturing the elusive spirit that made the originals so magical. More often then not, trying to put a new spin on Bugs, Daffy and the crew comes off as pointless as reinventing the wheel. (Looking at you 2018’s New Looney Tunes.)

The Day The Earth Blew UP: A Looney Tunes Movie had a dual mission – to move some of the classic Looney Tunes characters out of their usual short film format into a feature length story and make its three central Looney Tunes characters – Daffy Duck, Porky Pig and Petunia Pig – feel modern and classic at the same time. The results are somewhat mixed, though in total the film is more entertaining than not.

Raised as brothers by the kindly Farmer Jim, Daffy Duck and Porky Pig find their home in danger of being condemned after a meteor takes a big chuck out its roof. Faced with no other choice, they go to get jobs, eventually finding employment at a nearby chewing factory. There they meet flavor scientist Petunia Pig, with whom Porky is immediately smitten. No mention is made of their marching last names. The trio soon stumble across a plot to add an unknown substance into the gum, which may just be the first step in an alien invasion. It is, of course, up to these unlikely heroes to save the day.

Director Peter Browngardt certainly is well schooled in his Looney Tunes. The relationship between Daffy and Porky rings similar to their infrequent team-ups in the classic cartoons. He even also manages to strike a balance between the two different early characterizations of Daffy – the loco Daffy and the cantankerous Daffy. Petunia gets an understandable overhaul, updating her from the shy love interest in the classic cartoons to a more modern, confident character. It may rankle some hard core fans, but their discomfort is perhaps a small price to pay for girls to have a hero character of their own. And its kids who are the main audience here. Some of the humor does feel a bit timeworn to us old timers. A number of jokes seem to be the easiest and most obvious, while a few are callbacks to the classic Looney Tunes shorts of yore.

One thing that the movie does have in its favor is a rather ingenious third act twist. I won’t spoil it here, but it was one I didn’t really see coming.In retrospect, though, the film did play fair and left a couple of clues to it along the way.