Looney Tunes was the more mature answer to the Disney cartoons of the era. Before the spread of television in the 1950s and 1960s, the cartoons were shown in movie theaters. Even though the Hays Code kept a lot of subject matter very clean, Looney Tunes and its spin-off Merrie Melodies, seemed to mix jokes that both adults and children could enjoy.
The rowdiness of Bugs Bunny along with the crazy antics of Daffy Duck were a bizarro version of Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck that didn’t pay by the clean rules of Uncle Walt. The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie is the first original fully animated movie in almost 100 years. There were several compilation movies like The Looney Looney Looney Bugs Bunny Movie and Daffy Duck’s Fantasy Island that were assembled frame stories over previously released cartoons.
The fact this movie even made it to the movie theaters is a long journey that almost never happened as the movie was intended to be released on HBO Max in 2021. Then the restructuring at Warner Bros. with the merger with Discovery almost meant the movie would be destroyed for a tax write off. But it was later acquired by Ketchup Entertainment, an independent studio distributor, and it’s already received rave reviews even though the box office returns aren’t impressive.
But don’t let that deter you. This is a great movie that harks back to the style of the old Looney Tunes shorts directed by Bob Clampett mostly. However, if you’re expecting all your favorite characters, you’ll be let own. This is a Daffy and Porky Pig movie. And the two used to make a good combo in the older cartoons, before Daffy became more of a narcissistic and condescending character often foiled by Bugs. It’s like the animators forgot why he was originally called “Daffy.”
Daffy and Porky (both voiced by Eric Sauza) are introduced as two orphans adopted by the kind Farmer Jim who raises them with love. He leaves them the house, which as they grow up falls into disrepair mainly for Daffy’s sloppy way of doing things. There’s something hysterical and clever about him using a pizza box to fix a hole in the porch steps.
But little do they know at first that a meteor has destroyed the roof to their house and the housing inspector Mrs. Grecht (voiced by Larraine Newman) says they have 10 days to fix it or else they’ll lose the house. So Porky and Daffy get jobs resulting in hilarious antics that all end in them getting fired mainly because Daffy can’t do them in a serious way.
Yet, they meet Petunia Pig (voiced by Candi Milo) who works at the nearby Goodie Gum factory designing new flavors. She gets them a job for which they actually excel at. However, Daffy witnesses a mind-controlled scientist (voiced by Fred Tatasciore) pouring some green goo into the vat that makes the gum. It’s the same goo Daffy realizes from their house where the meteor struck. And he tries to warn people against it.
However, Porky sees this as another way Daffy is trying to ruin their jobs. But Daffy is correct as the gum with the green goo ingredient turns everyone who chews it into a mind-controlled zombie. This is a plan by an alien invader (voiced by Peter MacNichol). And once through the help of Petunia, Porky sees what the gum’s effect is and they try to stop the invader.
What makes the movie work so well is that it manages to tell a great story for fans of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies without being too self-aware. My main problem with Space Jam and its horrible sequel was you got the sense the movies were winking too much at themselves and putting the characters in modern pop culture references that didn’t work well. There’s one scene where Daffy hands Petunia a copy of the script because it will take to hard for Porky to explain what has happened. Yet, the originals used to slyly break the fourth wall and get on with the rest of the story without it feeling like Jim from The Office always looking at the camera.
Also, director Pete Browngadt, who co-wrote the movie with 10 other writers, know how to tell a story that can just utilize Daffy and Porky without us wondering where Bugs, Sylvester and Froghorn Leghorn are. By keeping the story isolated to only a few famous characters, they don’t become supporting characters in their own story which was the problem with the Space Jam movies as well as Looney Tunes: Back in Action. There’s no need for the live-action human characters to take over the story because there’s no live-action human characters.
It’s also nice to see Porky carry a story as the straight lead character. Too often, Porky became just another supporting character to Bugs after a while. Nothing against Bugs, but it seemed the animated cartoons all seemed to revolve around him. For a while in their early years, Porky and Daffy were in cartoons themselves forming a bromance. I liked the idea of them growing up together.
Some people have questioned why wasn’t Marvin the Martian used as the movie includes an alien invasion story but I think that would also be a distraction. The animation style is two-dimensional which is actually a relief because three-dimensional animation can be a distraction when done wrong. Another distraction would be to load the movie down with too many well-known celebrities. Newman and MacNichol are just well known enough that you can recognize their voices but it doesn’t take away from the story. Wayne Knight also voices the mayor.
I don’t know how Coyote vs. Acme will be as Ketchup has acquired the distribution rights as well. But maybe this movie and that one will convince studio executives to give audiences what they want. Too many animation movies now are trying too hard to reach too many people because they’re very expensive that they lack any creativity and imagination.
What do you think? Please comment.
Zane Says 