ANI-MOVIES, *The Day The Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie

After being passed over from one distribution company after another, Ketchup Entertainment(which some otaku might remember as the same group that released the Captain Harlock movie to America)finally picked up the ball and got this rejected Warner Bros. production into theaters, if even for a limited run. The Day The Earth Blew Up is the first time Daffy Duck and Porky Pig from the Looney Tunes get their own feature-length movie. The two toons had a series of shorts together from the 1930-50s, but never their own full on solo adventure. Uncle Grandpa creator Peter Browngardt directed this film which had about a dozen writers behind the script, although there is a downside to having that many pens on the paper. Whereas your average Looney Tunes cartoon would be a little over five minutes long, this movie stretches it out to a full-length feature, and that does wear on the plot quite a bit. This is countered with some flashbacks and montages, one of which was done in the style of the Bob Clampett era of Looney Tunes. The movie was intended to premiere on HBO/Max, but Warner decided to free up the space on their largely limited streaming service by trying to sell it off, of which Ketchup Entertainment fished out and made only about a hundred grand in box office cash for. Browngardt intended this film to be a spinoff of the Looney Tunes Cartoons that also ran on HBO/Max for five years, although the movie is a stand-alone feature that is not directly connected to the revitalized TV series. The cool part is that the movie is a great gateway into old Looney Tunes, even though HBO/Max removed all their classic cartoons from their service the exact same week the film was released in theaters, so you can tell Warner Bros. was really willing to drop this hot potato just to cash out on this whole franchise so they can get back to making more unwanted Harry Potter material.

Mixing in modern day along with a 1950s sci-fi flick, we're shown how Porky and Daffy were adopted by Farmer Jim, a strange looking man with a realistic face that is barely animated. Farmer Jim eventually passes away by literally walking away into the sunset, leaving his "sons" to take care of the farm which over time gets gentrified part of an urban neighborhood. Their roof gets destroyed after an asteroid flies through it, so now they have to raise enough money to pay for the repairs otherwise they'll lose their house after a home inspection. The two talking farm animals fail at every job they try for, usually because of Daffy's lunacy. Seeking solace at a diner, Porky and Daffy have a chance meeting with Petunia, a lady pig who Porky takes a shining to who works as a scientist that gets them jobs at a nearby gum factory she works at. Things seem to be going okay until Daffy notices a man possessed by alien gum has sabotaged the machinery infesting it with parasitic living gum which takes over the host its chewed by. All this is the plot of a nameless alien that Daffy thinks is trying to take over the world, so he goes on a rampage trying to stop the alien's intentions resulting in him getting arrested and Porky using all their saved money to bail him out of jail. Daffy does eventually convince Porky and Petunia into believing him when the gum starts attacking them. This leads to the trio coming up with a plan to free everyone from the alien gum mind control, even though it's not what they think, and they have to clean up an even larger mess.

The Day The Earth Blew Up is a love letter to the Golden Age of cartoons while keeping it just creepy enough for old monster movie fans. Even though there is constant humor throughout the film, you can see how the writers had trouble trying to pad this out to give it enough screentime for a theatrical release. It's easy to see how this was intended to premiere on streaming, although you can understand why Warner was hesitant to put it out there just as they declined to give their animation/live-action movie of Coyote Vs. Acme a release even though it also got picked up by Ketchup Entertainment. Eric Buaza does a great job voicing both Porky and Daffy, even though he lacks the talent of Mel Blanc as both characters sound very similar, except that one has a lisp and the other one stutters. Since the film is now currently streaming on HBO/Max anyway, you might as well give it a watch and appreciate some old school cartoon nincompoopery.