By Mark Fields
First Looney Tunes Feature
I don’t know that anyone was asking for a full-length Looney Tunes animated feature, especially one focused on a relatively uninteresting Warner Brothers character (Porky Pig) and an annoying one (Daffy Duck). But if they felt the need to make such a movie, they could have done worse than The Day The Earth Blew Up.
The plot of the movie is a simple and familiar one. After retconning a shared backstory for Porky and Daffy (both voiced by Eric Bauza), the two characters are thrust into a goofball narrative about a nefarious alien and his/its plan to take over the world through doctored bubble gum. Daffy and Porky, the only ones in town aware of the scheme, must overcome their familial differences and collaborate with Petunia Pig (Candi Milo) to defeat the Invader (Peter MacNicol).
The Day The Earth Blew Up cleverly throws back to the classic Warner Brothers cartoons of 1930s, ‘40s and ‘50s, full of frenetic, nonsensical energy and off-kilter camera work. There is a healthy amount of referencing to 1950s “invader” movies, such as The Day The Earth Stood Still (clearly evoked in the new movie’s title), The Thing, and others, complete with a Theremin-heavy musical score. And for the Looney Tunes fanboys and girls, the movie also contains a number of enjoyable easter eggs. Beyond the throwbacks to Looney Tunes of old, perhaps the interesting detail of the movie is that one talented voice artist, Eric Bauza, performs as both Daffy and Daffy.
Who knows if this curiosity of a film will find an audience? It seems unlikely to cut through the morass of available fare to catch the attention of the modern child filmgoer, especially when the target demographic is really the parents (or even more likely the grandparents) who were raised on Looney Tunes on our TVs. Perhaps those initiated oldsters will drag their children to see The Day The Earth Blew Up for nostalgia’s sake. We’ll see if the gonzo antics of the Looney Tune characters (and their eccentric creators) will capture the imaginations of a new generation of animation fans.
Official Trailer
