The Day the Earth Blew Up: Could Afford To Be Loonier

The Looney Tunes are such an indelible staple in the history of Warner Bros. that it was only a matter of time before they would become a prime target for the studio’s recent, merciless crusade against all things art. And so it would come to pass that, not long after the now-infamous Coyote vs. Acme debacle, any property featuring the Tunes sans NBA superstars would be destined for the tax write-off aether. The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie narrowly avoided this fate, and for that we can thank distributor Ketchup Entertainment, who swept in and purchased the rights to distribute what was initially slated as a throwaway special for a throwaway Cartoon Network airing block on Max (formerly HBO Max).

But now that the Tunes have escaped (at least this once) the clutches of executive number-crunching, audiences are left to face the fact that, sometimes, that dismissive mindset may occasionally, if entirely accidentally, stumble towards something resembling a point. As with the previous Looney Tunes venture that failed to see the light of day, this one certainly deserves to stand trial as a public testament to the blood, sweat and tears of a crew working tirelessly to bring a vision of joy and laughter to the screen. That said, it may be even more tragic to find oneself getting so looney over a tune this pedestrian.

Playing less like a feature-worthy adventure for the Looney Tunes and more like a pilot/season finale of the nonexistent “Daffy and Porky Show,” The Day the Earth Blew Up sets its sights on those two most famous of Tunes (Bauza and… Bauza) as they’ve spent their entire lives under one roof, together. Sadly, things have come to a point where the roof in question is crumbling above their heads, thanks in no small part to a mysterious, goo-lined hole that has appeared overnight. With just 10 days to find the money to fix the roof or risk losing their lifelong abode, Daffy Duck and Porky Pig set out to find work, leading them to the local gum factory just as it’s set to unveil a long-anticipated new flavour.

Naturally, priorities begin to shift from the hole in the roof to what exactly caused it, as the duo’s new tenure at the factory leads them to the startling discovery of an alien plot to infiltrate this gum supply with a mind-controlling ooze that turns all chewers into mindless drones. With only the help of their new friend and gum researcher Petunia Pig (Milo), Daffy and Porky set out to save the town, and the world at large.

The first thing one may notice from that description is that The Day the Earth Blew Up hinges entirely upon the dynamic between only two of the Looney Tunes’ murderer’s row of iconic cartoon characters. That being said, this isn’t necessarily a downside as, by definition, all of the Merrie Melodies from which these creations originated only ever featured a handful of them at a time. And sure enough, the everlasting rapport between the screwball duck and the bumbling pig is just as propulsive as ever in director Pete Browngardt’s hands. That said, it would be a lie to say that this Looney Tunes movie—particularly as their first fully animated feature ever theatrically released—has a gaping, rabbit-shaped hole in its centre…

It’s not so much the absence of Bugs Bunny—an animated figure of such dominating charisma that he single-handedly makes the entire Mickey Mouse Clubhouse look like a bunch of squares—that marks The Day the Earth Blew Up as a subpar venture for the brand that rests partially upon his own distinct legacy, but rather the rote  atmosphere of tame hijinks that have replaced his timeless wit. Browngardt and his team of 2D animators have given Daffy and Porky some textured, fluid escapades to stamp as their own, but they largely read like precisely the sort of one-off TV special programming this film was initially conceived to be, rather than a towering display of the enduring Looney Tunes name worthy of a feature film.

Without the particular sort of cutting humour that has made the squad of hammy heroes so enduring for so long, The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie is forced to rest entirely on what it has to offer of its own—which is to say, cookie-cutter character additions (Petunia follows the Lola Bunny mould of “basically one of the existing characters, but female”), uninspired plotting, and functional but ultimately unremarkable gags. For a debuting filmmaker, Browngardt shows appropriate reverence for the legacy that kickstarted his first film, but perhaps that reverence is what keeps this particular tune from reaching the more adventurously manic pitch required to earn it a legacy of its own.

still courtesy of Ketchup Entertainment

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Julian Malandruccolo

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