Weird alien goo has attacked Earth. What are a pig and a duck to do?

Well, if the pig is Porky and the duck is Daffy, then the results are bound to be loony. And in the case of The Day the Earth Blew Up, the loony factor is maddening.

Directed by Peter Browngardt—from a script credited to 11 writers and four story consultants—The Day the Earth Blew Up is a manic homage to classic Looney Tunes cartoons and 1950s sci-fi B-movies. Sadly, an homage in intent, not in execution.

Eric Bauza voices both Porky and Daffy, who are raised by the benevolent Farmer Jim (Fred Tatasciore), a Green Giant-esque figure with a frozen face and occasional human lips. He dies and leaves the farm to Porky and Daffy, charging them with maintaining it. They don’t, and the home is condemned by a government official, Mrs. Grecht (Laraine Newman), a squat woman with a cartoonish-sized chest to balance out her equally bulbous rear.

At this point in the story, it’s obvious The Day the Earth Blew Up is not intended for kids but adults nostalgic for the halcyon days of Warner Bros.

Porky and Daffy take a job at the Goodie Gum Company factory, where Porky meets and falls in love with Petunia (Candi Milo)—who is in search of the perfect gum flavor—and save the Earth from a mysterious goo that transforms all Earthlings into mindless zombies. Oh, and there’s an alien invader (Peter MacNicol), a plot to cover the world in chewing gum, and the glossed-over point that Porky and Daffy grew up on a farm but now live smack-dab in the middle of town without moving their beloved home.

The Day the Earth Blew Up is not good. It’s plagued by the same affliction that made Space Jam 2 terrible, keeps The Muppets from getting a proper reboot, and condemns Mickey Mouse to a bizarre series of shorts that are closer to Ren & Stimpy than Disney. Odd, these beloved franchises that filmmakers don’t know what to do with. You can feel the affection for the source material in all of them, but not an understanding. So they mine a bunch of old jokes, amp up the mania, and hope it translates to a new generation. It does not.

The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie (2024)
Directed by Peter Browngardt
Screenplay by Kevin Costello, Alex Kirwan, Peter Browngardt, Darrick Bachman, Andrew Dickman, Eddie Trigueros, David Gemmill, Ryan Kramer, Johnny Ryan, Jason Reicher, Michael Ruocco
Story consultants: Katie Rice, Guy Bar’ely, Josie Campbell, Gilli Nissim
Produced by Bonnie Arnold
Voices by Eric Bauza, Candi Milo, Peter MacNicol, Laraine Newman, Fred Tatasciore
Ketchup Entertainment, Rated PG, Running time 91 minutes, Premiered June 11, 2024 at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival

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