The Day The Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie (2025) Written Review

 

The Day The Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movies

Cast: Porky Pig, Daffy Duck, Petunia Pig

Writers:  Too many to list in one line.

Director: Peter Browngardt

*** and a 1/2 *'s out of Five

In a plot twist even more bizarre than the main one involving alien mind control.  Long time enemies, Daddy Duck and Porky Pig are now friends in this tribute to classic Sci-Fi films.

It’s inspection day as Daffy and Porky (Eric Bauza) get a visit from the housing committee.  Who informs them of their roofing issues because… well they have none. They have to come up with funds to fix their roof fast or lose their home.  After a series of jobs gone wrong(all done in a great montage that highlights the style  of classic Looney Tunes).  They meet Petunia Pig(Candi Milo) who gets them a job at a bubble gum factory. Meanwhile an Alien(not Marvin the Martian, sadly) bent on total supremacy is using a mind control substance in the form of chewing gum.   Daffy is the first to uncover this plot to take over the world but of course no one believes him.  Both friends are going to have to work together if they are going to save the world from being blown up.

 

Let’s just get the biggest problem of this movie out of the way and ask the most important question you have while reading this review.  Why isn’t the main alien villain, Marvin the Martain.  As far as UFO’s go in the LTU(The Looney Tunes Universe),Marvin is iconic .  There is not a cartoon where he isn’t searching for dominance not just on earth but the whole galaxy as well.   This new guy doesn’t even have an interesting name.  He is just simply,  The Invader (Peter MacNicol). Marvin doesn't even show up in a post credit scene.  Huge franchise opportunity missed with that one.

As for the rest of this feature, it is fine. The interactions between Daffy and Porky are great and it’s fun to see some good classic slapstick associated with those old cartoons.  The way they animated Farmer Joe(Daffy and Porky’s care taker) to appear like an illustration from a book rather than just being animated added some great visual comedic elements to it as well.  Expanding this story into a ninety minute feature (when an hour special would be sufficient enough) isn’t terrible, but there are moments when the story continues when it should be wrapping up. 

Fans of Looney Tunes will most likely enjoy but not fully love this feature. It has a lot of charm and seeing a hand drawn animated feature on the big screen is always a delight.  There were some missed opportunities to play homage to The Thing and even Invasion of The Body Snatchers.  It would have been great to see Daffy run around screaming, “They’re Here, They’e All Around Us!!) like Kevin McCarthy did in the original Snatchers flick.  The whole mind control element by chewing gum felt like it would be a great homage to The Stuff which used frozen yogurt to turn people into zombies.  But they don't for copyright issues, possibly,  Not sure how much kids will fully enjoy this because it’s not clear they even like or even know about these classic cartoons anymore. 

Jason "The Vern" Hemming is a proud member of the Minnesota Film Critics Association (MNFCA).  Read other great film reviews by other amazing writers

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