Johnny Deadline: THE DAY THE EARTH BLEW UP

 by JB

SUFFERIN’ SUCCOTASH! You better move fast on this one, friends. How often do you get the chance to see a new Looney Tunes feature in a real, honest-to-goodness movie theater?

I was surprised last week when I discovered that Warner/Discovery/Ketchup Entertainment’s new Looney Tunes feature, The Day the Earth Blew Up, was getting a wide release and opening Friday. Thursday afternoon, my wife and I dutifully made the pilgrimage, and were very glad we did. The film is delightful, funny, and reverential towards its classic characters and source material.

Apparently, the film’s genesis can be traced to its director, Pete Browngardt, who directed a new series of Looney Tunes Cartoons five years ago for the MAX streaming service. He was asked if he had any ideas for a feature film and when Warner Brothers greenlit his 1950s Sci-fi idea, he was given free rein over the franchise. The new film has nine credited writers, but that’s because Browngardt generously gave writers’ credits to all the storyboard artists who worked on the film.

THE PLOT IN BRIEF: Porky Pig and Daffy Duck are lifelong friends after being raised as brothers by Farmer Jim—until the tearful day that Farmer Jim goes away, leaving his farmhouse to Porky and Daffy. One night, a comet-like projectile destroys half their roof, so the two friends must find jobs to pay for the repair. Their new friend Petunia Pig helps them find employment at the local bubble gum factory, where something just ain’t right with the newest gum flavor. Could a space alien have somehow turned the townspeople into... BUBBLEGUM ZOMBIES?

Seeing this film evoked a special kind of nostalgia; we both have fond memories of classic Looney Tunes shorts entertaining our eight-year-old selves on innumerable Saturday mornings. My wife even suggested that theaters showing the film should set up special concession stands, selling bowls of breakfast cereal and milk to fully recreate this past we share with all Baby Boomers.

We also noticed a suspicious lack of advertising preceding this movie’s release. Perhaps it was advertised on children’s programming that we don’t watch? I sure hope that Warner’s didn’t simply dump this delightful little film to somehow justify its inhumane handling of 2023’s Coyote Vs. Acme to stockholders: "Yeah, we tried another Looney Tunes property, but the market synergies and other commercial product tie-ins just weren't there..." Blecccchhhh.

The film certainly “hit all the buttons” for the two twenty-something males who sat in front of us in the theater and, I suspect, had consumed some "special" edibles before the show. They rarely stopped laughing.

That’s something I really appreciated about the new film—it's genuinely funny. What's even more important is that it is PACKED with jokes and visual invention. Don’t like a joke? (I’m a purist and I’m still not sure how I feel about a gag involving Daffy’s butt crack.) Simply wait 15 seconds and there will be another joke. I loved a cutaway showing the Alien Overlord so shocked by a turn of events that he pulls out his asthma inhaler. I loved the shout-outs to classic animators Tex Avery and Bob Clampett. I adored the fact that the Daffy seen here is “Classic Daffy” from the 1930s: not the bitter and angry Bugs Bunny nemesis from the 1950s and '60s, but the authentically deranged and psychotic Daffy from early Looney Tunes shorts. I am even tempted to quote my favorite line of Daffy’s dialogue, an audacious statement of fact that threw me for a loop, but I will err on the side of caution and NOT SPOIL THE FUNNIEST LINE IN THE FILM.

I also loved the stylization of the film, which roams between classic Depression-era (era) Warner’s animation, Chuck Jones-style “realism” of the 1950s, to Kricfalusi/Spumco “gross close-up” shots from the 1990s. But it all works. Porky and Daffy are very animated. The zombified scientist is very real. Farmer Jim is really creepy. It’s all good.

Fans of voice actors will also find much to love in the film. Eric Bauza essays both lead voices, so for much of the film he is essentially talking to himself. Candi Milo voices Porky’s love interest, Bubblegum Scientist Petunia. Seinfeld’s Wayne Knight voices the Town Mayor and SNL’s Laraine Newman voices Mrs. Grecht, the Neighborhood Beautification Lady. Ghostbusters II’s Peter MacNicol voices the Alien Invader, and even director Peter Browngardt gets in on the fun, voicing two minor characters himself.

After its first weekend in wide release, the film has earned just over $5 million worldwide and it is #5 at the domestic box office. To paraphrase one of the movie's heroes... that's NOT just... THOUR PERTHIMMONS!

If you are a very serious person, a too-cool-for-school teenager, or someone who detests whimsy in all its forms, The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie may not be for you. Otherwise, you owe it to yourself, your inner cartoon-loving child, and any real children in your life that like to laugh along with crazy ducks and looney pigs to see this one in a theater... and quick. I have a bad feeling that it won't be long before...

THA-THA-THA-THAT’S ALL FOLKS!