by Jeffery Rahming, Contributing Writer
The Looney Tunes are some of the oldest entertainment icons around, but their modern-day popularity is always in question. In the past couple of years, a slew of Looney Tunes projects were developed for Warner Bros., before a massive restructuring resulted in many of them ending up in limbo, including The Day the Earth Blew Up. Luckily, independent production company Ketchup Entertainment agreed to distribute this film after it was stuck in the WB pipeline for three years.
The Day the Earth Blew Up is focused around Daffy Duck and Porky Pig, who are brothers in this story. The two were raised by a kind farmer, and as adults, they live together in the dilapidated house from their childhood. In a desperate attempt to get money to repair their home, they end up working at a gum factory and uncovering an alien plot to use the gum to take over the world. Now, our two unlikely heroes are seemingly the planet’s only hope.
Anybody who’s a fan of this franchise will enjoy this. Not only is it full of classic Looney Tunes gags and scenes, but it also works as a fun pastiche of ’50s sci-fi B-movies. For the most part, The Day the Earth Blew Up is an excellent example of just giving the core audience what they want. You can tell it was made by people who really love these characters and their long-running history. The voice actors are all on point, but Eric Bauza, who plays both Daffy Duck and Porky Pig, is especially impressive. Bauza has been the new voice of several Looney Tunes characters since Space Jam: A New Legacy. His impersonation of the original voices is uncanny, and the fact that a lot of this film is just one actor talking to himself is impressive when you see the seamless result.
While there is a lot of fun to go around, there just isn’t enough material to make this a full feature. It keeps you laughing enough that you don’t mind, but at only 90 minutes, it still drags on a little too long. It’s like a one-hour TV special padded with 30 extra minutes. There’s an especially weird scene where a conflict between Porky and Daffy suddenly pops up as if it had been the crux of the entire story. It’s mostly a cheap attempt at adding drama to a plot that doesn’t need any. Not to mention, the type of conflict is typical in almost every kid’s cartoon, and it’s a cliché we could’ve gone without. When the plot isn’t focused on classic Looney Tunes fare, it loses its way.
The weight of the four-year delay looms over The Day the Earth Blew Up, and it sometimes makes for an awkward experience. It accidentally feels like a 2021 time capsule, with many gags about influencers, dated viral trends, and twerking. Even the main plot has some jokes that are clearly about the COVID-19 vaccine controversies. These “modern” references are never natural, and they date the movie. They only serve to drag everything down, because the rest of the comedy works so well.
There’s undeniably an identity crisis going on here. Even though it just came out, in many ways, The Day the Earth Blew Up already feels like a product of its time; there just isn’t enough for it to be a full feature, despite its desperate desire to be. It never fully commits, but this is likely due to the several changes it went through while in development, rather than the fault of the creative team. In another time, this would be a holiday cult classic that aired in the morning on Cartoon Network. But in today’s media landscape, it’s hard for these classic cartoons to find a place to land.
Rating: It Was Just Okay
The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie is currently playing in theaters
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