The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie is a true throwback in many senses. First of all, it is entirely hand-drawn, now a rarity in Western animation. It features Daffy Duck and Porky Pig in its lead roles, characters that first began appearing in Looney Tunes cartoons in the late 1930s.
Its plot is a throwback as well, spoofing and paying homage to the great science fiction movies of classic Hollywood, especially B movies from the 1950s. So to those of us who grew up with Looney Tunes and have a deep connection to film history, this movie is a treat.
It is, of course, a children’s movie – and children famously have neither the ability nor the inclination to distinguish hand-drawn images from computer-generated ones. The reference points from film history will also fly over their heads.
Still, I believe even young souls can sense when something was crafted with care, when humans use a tactile medium to express ideas and stories that are meaningful to them. My five-year-old daughter, however, gave the film what I thought was a fairly dismissive review of “not the best thing I’ve seen but not the worst either.”
In The Day the Earth Blew Up, Daffy Duck and Porky Pig’s home is set to be condemned after a mysterious and extraterrestrial hole appears in their roof. Needing funds for the repairs, they meet Petunia Pig (who has the definitely real job of flavor scientist) and gain employment at the bubblegum factory where she works. When a new flavor of gum causes the zombification of the town, they discover that an alien ominously named The Invader is plotting … something, and form a plan to stop him.
Well, more accurately, Porky and Petunia form a plan while Daffy acts entirely on instinct, manically flailing his way through the movie, and often causing more harm than good. This difference between Porky and Daffy forms the inner conflict of the movie, and drives the engine of its humor too.
This formula and its execution, with an inner conflict to be resolved as well as an outer threat, is probably the biggest strength of the movie. It is pleasingly familiar, but also phenomenally realized, not veering too far into sentimentality except in one self-consciously ironic sequence. Basically, it pulls off the spoof of a classic movie formula while also utilizing the things that made it a formula worth using in the first place – which is a very tight line to walk.
The laughs also come easily under a familiar Looney Tunes format, though are also some light gestures towards modernizing the humor. An early sequence shows Porky and Daffy attempting a series of jobs to earn their money and getting fired at each one. The first job they attempt is delivering newspapers (which appear to be some sort of printed-out website they used to make in the 20th century). But the jobs quickly become more modern, including becoming rideshare drivers, and then social media influencers in a particularly funny bit.
The movie does suffer a bit from being so jam-packed with jokes – there are some real highs, but also some real groaners. The consistent zany humor might be the hardest thing to recreate about classic Looney Tunes – and this film approximates it, nailing it at times, but something just feels slightly off.
The hand-drawn animation really does pop off the screen. It is a return to the familiar Looney Tunes style that also takes some welcome diversions. One sequence in the factory takes a diversion into classic spy animation that resembles a James Bond title credits sequence, for example. Importantly, though, these diversions never remove us from the hand-drawn style or the tactile nature of the film. They are more in line with classic Looney Tunes, which could also have wild swings in animation style within the course of a ten-minute short.
So altogether, The Day the Earth Blew Up is a loving hand-drawn homage to brands and ideas that have long since passed cultural relevance. Though it doesn’t always nail the humor, it has enough heart to make up for it. In other words, it’s not the best thing I’ve seen, but not the worst, either.
