The saga of The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie is remarkably stupid, and of course, it has to do with corporations. Specifically one corporation, Warner Bros. Discovery, which originally produced the film for release on HBO Max, then shelved it, then unshelved it, then retitled it, then reverted back to the original title, then released it overseas in theaters, then sold it to Ketchup Entertainment for U.S. release, who hoovered up a modest $15 million at the box office before contracting its streaming rights to… HBO Max. (Or Max. Or whatever the hell it’s called these days.) So it’s already a moronically convoluted Looney Tunes story before you even press play and watch Daffy Duck hoot and smash things with a mallet like a total maniac. Now, it’s great that we can watch this enjoyable cartoon movie, but of course we can’t follow it with a binge of classic Looney Tunes shorts on the Streaming Service Formerly Known As HBO Max And Then Known As Max And Now Eventually To Be Known As HBO Max Again Eventually I Think because WBD dropped 40 years’ worth of them earlier this year. Why? Because the corporation sucks ass from here to far beyond the point where you missed the turn at Albuquerque. And we haven’t even mentioned Coyote vs. Acme yet. Anyway. Let’s get more into why you should watch The Day the Earth Blew Up...
The Gist: Continuity wonks, dive into your sensory-deprivation tanks, because this might be painful for you. In this reality, Porky Pig (voice of Eric Bauza) and Daffy Duck (also Bauza!) were sad lonely rained-upon orphans still in their diapies when a weirdo named Farmer Jim (Fred Tatasciore) scooped them up and took them home and eventually croaked, bequeathing his home and property to them. I think they’re adults now? Who can tell? Are any Looney Tunes characters “adults”? I would say they don’t act like adults, but the aforementioned backstory about the release of The Day the Earth Blew Up was all about the actions of adults, and Daffy gleefully smashing everything with a mallet for no reason makes more sense than what they did.
Where was I? Right: Porky sleeps in a bed and Daffy sleeps in a scuzzy bathtub, on opposite sides of the same room. There will be no logical explanation for this, so don’t get hung up on it. Just get in the Looney mindset and stay there for 91 minutes. Porky and Daffy need to get jobs because the house is about to be condemned by a totalitarian inspector woman, who points out that something zoomed through the sky and took a big chunk out of their roof and left behind traces of space goo. Porky and Daffy slept right through the collision, and now they try to deliver newspapers and become influencers but Daffy can’t hold a job because he’s firmly entrenched in his role as an agent of chaos for chaos’ sake. His solution to everything is to smash things with a mallet, even if there’s no problem that needs to be solved. Mallet mallet mallet. I envy Daffy so intensely right now. You have no idea.
They end up meeting Petunia Pig (Candi Milo). While Porky gets smitten, she hooks them up with jobs at the local gum factory where she’s a flavor scientist. Wait, what clipped their house, exactly? Something from outer space? That left behind space goo? Yep. It seems an alien known as The Invader (Peter MacNicol) schemes to destroy Earth, and will do so by feeding all Earthlings tainted chewing gum that turns them into zombies. Hey, it’s as good a plan as any, right? And of course, it’s up to Porky, Daffy and Petunia to thwart the evil design. There’s a totally on-purpose confusing bit where Daffy lays some eggs, a don’t-even-ask scene where Porky ends up with Petunia’s hoof in his mouth, a brief lesson on the difference between stalactites and stalagmites, an Armageddon spoof and an inference that no cartoon conflict can be solved without wind-up chattering novelty teeth. Are you surprised by any of this nonsense? You should be – and you shouldn’t be. Predictable unpredictability is the Looney Tunes M.O., you know.
What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: The Day the Earth Blew Up is at least 2,000,000,000,001 times better than Space Jam 2, and about half that many times better than Tom and Jerry (2021). There’s also a scene that brought back the terror I felt when Owen Wilson and Lake Bell threw their children from one rooftop to another in a movie nobody saw called No Escape. No, really, it was terrifying. Dumb but true.
Performance Worth Watching: Daffy Duck 4 President. 2028. Make it happen.
Memorable Dialogue: “If it’s one thing I know how to do right, it’s pulling the crank!” – Daffy
Sex and Skin: None.
Our Take: Attempting to make sense out of The Day the Earth Blew Up is like trying to pick up a cat while it’s got the full-blown zoomies. There is no logic to it, and you’re gonna end up bloody. All you can do is accept it as an inalterable piece of reality. Such is the common thread of all Looney Tunes product dating back nearly a century – absolute manic-energy wackadoo azoozoo honkhonkhonk. You’ve got your sight gags, your double-entendres, your pop-culture references, your slapstick best measured in metric tonnage. Mad scientists, aliens, anthropomorphism, violence, hyperbole, R.E.M. on the soundtrack – all the classic stuff. There are moments when the movie tries a little too hard to be loony (it has, count ’em, 11 credited writers), but it never ceases being funny and endearing. Accept that this movie is going to absolutely GUN IT over the speed bumps, and you’ll enjoy it.
The primary reason why the film works has a lot to do with our pre-established love for these characters. I always liked Porky, who was at his best when he was a straight man with a funny voice in the classic shorts. But Daffy? That mofo is an icon. An all-timer. Hall-of-famer. Maybe even the GOAT cartoon character ever, No. 1 to Bugs Bunny’s 1A. Shit, I’d watch him read the phone book for 91 minutes. Would still be hysterical. And I insist the subtext of The Day the Earth Blew Up is a psychoanalysis of Daffy, who routinely engages in self-sabotage and proves himself to be terminally unemployable. Dude’s a complete shitshow, and you gotta love him. Accept him for his very loud and large torrent of faults blasting directly in your face with lotsa spittle flecks. He asks no forgiveness. Scorched earth every time. He is wholly himself and never anything else. A hero. A role model. A GOD.
Of course, this movie isn’t on par with the shorts from the 1940s and ’50s. Those are untouchable, and you’d be wise not to draw comparisons to stuff that’s embedded in decades of pop culture despite Warner Bros.’ recent moronic attempts to shove it aside. I dunno if The Day the Earth Blew Up will someday be considered an object of similar reverence. Most likely not. But it’s endowed with the crazed spirit of Looney Tunes, and that’s crucial. Now let’s hope that spirit haunts WBD CEO David Zaslav for the rest of his life. That guy. Mallet mallet mallet. Do it, Daffy. DO IT.
Our Call: FUN FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY, The Day the Earth Blew Up is. STREAM IT.
John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan.