The Day the Earth Blew Up

Rated PG • Theaters

Looney Tunes has been delighting audiences for 95 years with witty repartee and slapstick violence. The franchise, led by the carrot-chomping Bugs Bunny, was the faster, brasher alternative to Disney’s Mickey Mouse. In a Looney Tunes cartoon, we expect to see breakneck chases and falling anvils served up with plenty of sass.

Generations of Americans grew up on these animated classics, so it’s a little surprising that, until now, the franchise has never produced a noncompilation feature film for theaters. That changes with The Day the Earth Blew Up, a 91-minute homage to the science-fiction B-movies of the 1950s starring Porky Pig and Daffy Duck.

The film begins with the odd couple Porky and Daffy living in a dilapidated farmhouse in need of numerous repairs. The two friends must bring their home up to code to avoid its condemnation by the city, and while Porky is a conscientious sort of fellow who works with a plan, Daffy is quite the opposite. In fact, he’s just loony. And his looniness puts their home improvements in jeopardy.

The situation becomes even more dire when a UFO crashes into their home, taking the roof off the building. With a municipal-imposed deadline looming, Porky and Daffy need a new roof fast, but they can’t afford to hire a roofer. Their only option is to get jobs to make some quick cash to save their home.

Their quest for gainful employment has its share of hiccups, most of which are brought on by Daffy’s erratic behavior, but things begin looking up for the friends when they meet Petunia Pig. Petunia is a scientist at the local gum factory, and she gets Porky and Daffy jobs on the production floor.

This zany adventure kicks into high gear when Daffy discovers an alien plot at the gum factory to turn the world’s population into mindless zombies. Will Daffy and Porky be able to save the world by thwarting an extraterrestrial mastermind? Or will the unpredictable Daffy gum it up again?

It might seem odd that the first Looney Tunes theatrical feature-length film doesn’t include the franchise’s signature character Bugs Bunny, but the film wasn’t originally intended for cinemas. Warner Bros. Animation developed The Day the Earth Blew Up as fodder for the Max streaming service, but changes at parent company Warner Bros. Discovery—which started prioritizing profits over subscriber growth—led to the film’s theatrical release by distributor Ketchup Entertainment.

There’s a risk in taking Looney Tunes characters whose natural habitat is the 10-minute sketch and asking them to carry a feature-length film. After all, hasn’t every attempt to turn a Saturday Night Live skit into a movie been a failure? But the filmmakers of The Day the Earth Blew Up managed to craft a story that doesn’t wear thin while cramming in the slapstick gags and action sequences set to music that audiences have come to expect.

The Day the Earth Blew Up is rated PG for the kinds of things that have characterized Looney Tunes throughout its 95 years: cartoon violence and rude humor. Characters get pummeled, launched, run over, and exploded. There are also a number of jokes involving derrières. And Daffy engages in some unintentional double entendre that feels like a 21st-century update meant to replace the kinds of mildly risqué moments that sometimes popped up in the classic cartoons.

What doesn’t feel updated is the visual style, which takes its inspiration from the Golden Age of Warner Bros. Animation. Top animation studios, like Illumination and DreamWorks, have recently begun to move beyond the visual tyranny brought on by Pixar’s computer-driven revolution in animation, but The Day the Earth Blew Up proves that what was once old has become new again. Its 2D hand-drawn style manages to feel both refreshing and nostalgic at the same time.

And the film isn’t merely pleasant to look at. It has a genuinely appealing story. We sympathize with Porky who desperately looks for ways to minimize Daffy’s chaos while simultaneously hoping to impress the lovely Petunia. But we also sympathize with Daffy who, despite the mayhem he causes, is hurt when he discovers how others view him. This relational arc, coupled with an out-of-this-world plot twist, makes The Day the Earth Blew Up a full-hearted, madcap good time.