Daffy Duck and Porky Pig (both voiced by Eric Bauza) have a bit of a problem, as the roof of their farmhouse has been shaven clean of (by a UFO, but they don't know that yet), and if they are unable to fix this within one week, the place will be deemed uninhabitable and they'd be evicted. Roofers cost money though, and so they have to do what they've never done before: Get a job. Now fortunately, jobs are out there aplenty, but unfortunately, Daffy manages to blow it every time thanks to his reckless behaviour. And then they meet (Porky's later love interest) Petunia Pig (Candi Milo), an aroma scientist at the local gum factory, and since she likes the two she gets them a job at the conveyor belt - something they're surprisingly good at. So everything's perfect ... until Daffy catches a guy (Fred Tatasciore) pouring some green goo into the dough the company's latest chewing gum is made out of - and this goo turns those who eat it into mindless gum-crazy zombies. He tries to warn everyone, but of course nobody believes him - until Petunia does some testing in her lab and finds out the goo is of extraterrestrial origin. Nos she, Porky and Daffy try to warn everyone, only to find out the rest of the city has already been zombiefied. They next make an effort to turn the locals back to normal, but are ultimately captured by the alien invader (Peter MacNicol) behind the whole scheme who wants to envelope the entire world in a chewing gum bubble. But why does he want to do this? And are his motives really as malevolent as they sound? And will Daffy and Porky manage to make things even worse before they get better?

Now as popular as the Looney Tunes characters still might be today, their high times were in the 1940s, and much of what made them great back when wouldn't work anymore today, thanks to changing audience tastes and also target audiences. So what I'm trying to say, don't expect The Day the Earth Blew Up to in any way or form a continuation of the shorts of old, as the film is somehow hampered by the mere fact that it is a feature film, meaning the characters are thrown into a congruent story rather than just a vehicle to hang ones jokes on, beloved quirks of the characters now become traits and the characters now have fully fleshed out arcs, none of which are the characters' strength.

Now taking all this into accoung, The Day the Earth Blew Up is actually a pretty good movie, as it tries to retain at least some of the anarchic charme of the original shorts, tries to keep Daffy and Porky in character, keeps the syroupy scenes (that seem to be mandatory for anmated features in today's day and age) at a minimum, and (for a change) avoids going for nostalgia bait by having other Looney Tunes characters pop up in every second scene (or at all, really). And yes, the film's actually pretty funny, and makes an entertaining 90 minutes.

Interestingly enough, the film's production house Warner Brothers planned to shelve the film upon release and only after fan proests even agreed to have it shopped around to other studios - a behaviour that doesn't do the film the least bit of justice. Sure, it might not be perfect, but it's not as if Warner Brothers hadn't actually released much bigger clunkers in the 2020s.

Looney TunesThe Day The Earth Blew Up will be coming to UK and Irish cinemas from February 13th, 2026.

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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