The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie
Search “cartoon villain” in the dictionary and you might find a picture of David Zaslav. He has already scrapped two feature length Looney Tunes films since taking over at Warner Bros. Discovery: last November’s live action/animated hybrid Coyote vs. Acme, which got the Batgirl treatment (only, unlike that film, this one was finished, so the tax write off excuse doesn’t track), and WB Animation’s hand-drawn Porky Pig and Daffy Duck stand alone The Day the Earth Blew Up, made for Max but put on the block last fall, it’s still seeking U.S. distribution.
Fortunately, that didn’t stop the Annecy Animation Festival from giving The Day the Earth Blew Up its world premiere and, one hopes, a better chance to see the light of day (WB Germany will release it on Aug. 1, with several other international markets to follow). As it turns out, it’s funnier than any film credit produced by this studio since The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part and rarer than seeing Porky and Daffy do something other than play basketball or move merch. This time around, they reflect their amped up 21st century selves as featured in a recent run of small screen Looney Tunes shorts (the film’s director Peter Browngardt oversaw no fewer than five of them).
The script is credited to 11 writers who deliver a plot involving an alien mind-control scheme by which chewing gum infected with extraterrestrial goo threatens to turn earthlings into zombies. It ain’t Shakespeare but definitely feels loony enough for the stuttering pig and duck-billed blabbermouth who share a two story house bequeathed by Farmer Jim. A swarthy supportive father figure who took both animals under his wing when they were kids (or piglets/ducklings as the case may be).
Browngardt earns big laughs early on sharing childhood vignettes from Porky and Daffy’s days, as well as presenting a montage of disastrous attempts to find employment, framed as a classic Looney Tunes cartoon. While it’s great to be reunited with these two old friends signature spuh spuh speech impedimenthhhh and all there’s something about the way they talk and act that suggests how stylistic innovations from Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network have shaped the Looney Tune-iverse, particularly SpongeBob SquarePants (no coincidence five of the screenwriters have worked on that franchise).
Just look at the fact that these characters cry more in one movie than they did in eight previous decades combined, during which time Looney Tunes shorts were nominated for 12 Oscars, winning two. Vocal MVP Eric Bauza (who performs both Porky and Daffy) brings a manic energy to the pair that wouldn’t sound out of place coming from SpongeBob himself; meanwhile, the green skinned alien Invader (Peter MacNicol) comes off like a taller version of SpongeBob schemer Plankton until the film’s big third-act twist anyway. In fact, with just a few small tweaks, it wouldn’t be hard at all to imagine this whole thing centered around a pineapple under the sea rather than Porky and Daffy’s rickety farmhouse.
As soon as it begins, “Day” throws two space oddities at Earth: an asteroid that could destroy the planet and a CG flying saucer, which drops a big blob of glowing goo through Porky and Daffy’s roof. The intergalactic ectoplasm voiced by Fred Tatasciore, who also voices the Scientist attracts (and later takes over) the lab coat clad Scientist. The goo turns people into zombies, which is bad news because the Scientist pours a briefcase of it into Goodie Gum’s newest flavor, Super Strong Berry.
Soon, everyone on Earth is popping the bubblicious new release, which takes control of their minds and makes them susceptible to Invader’s commands. Daffy here is a wild-eyed conspiracy nut who’s primed to spot such a plot when he sees it. The trouble comes in trying to convince the world that Goodie Gum has been infiltrated by aliens from outer space, so Daffy, Porky and newfound love interest Petunia Pig (Candi Milo) will have to save the world themselves. Petunia works as a flavor sampler for the gum factory and taste tests everything from old socks to rotten eggs; she’s a hyper capable nerd next to these two bumbling idiots, and they work well together.
As ridiculous as things get, “Day” keeps viewers engaged emotionally by sticking with three relatable ideas. First is Porky and Daffy’s lifelong friendship, threatened by this whole Earth blowing up thing. Second is their love for their house or home or whatever you might call it again, threatened by you see where this is going. And third is the buh buh budding romance between Porky and Petunia ahem blossoming amid all this. Daffy (whose dream in life is just to smash stuff with his wooden mallet) gets on your nerves after a while, but the whole thing including several fun fourth wall shattering asides is put together with affection and a genuine reverence for the franchise. Stay through the credits for a sequel promise the current WB regime has no intention of keeping.
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