The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie

• Directed by Pete Browngardt
• June 11, 2024 (Annecy) / March 14, 2025 (US)

Voice Cast

• Daffy Duck, Porky Pig-Eric Bauza
• Petunia Pig, Old Lady-Candi Milo
• The Invader-Peter MacNicol
• Farmer Jim, Scientist-Fred Tatasciore
• Mrs. Grecht-Laraine Newman
• Mayor-Wayne Knight
• Waitress Maude-Ruth Clampett
• Floor Manager-Andrew Kishino
• Spaceship Computer, coffee shop customer-Kimberly Brooks
• Chewy-Keith Ferguson
• News Anchor, Gary-Carlos Alazraqui
• Town Kid-Rachel Butera
• Roofer Joe, Bully-Peter Browngardt
• Theater Audience Guy, Flavor Scientist-Nick Simotas

Daffy and Porky try to save the Earth from a mysterious alien scheme.

The story of The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie is an animated alien invasion homage to 1950s invasion B-movies that takes its cue on humor from the classic Looney Tunes shorts along with a heavy dose of the classic 90s series Tiny Toon Adventures. My favorite of those jokes is the origin of Porky Pig’s famous stutter. A special shout out goes to the crack joke too.

Much like the classics, the humor used is appropriate for children, but adults will get the complete joke if there is more to it. One that made it in much to my surprise was placed towards the climax. In a scheme to get him out of the way, Daffy is tricked by Porky in to stay behind and lay eggs so they can make rotten eggs. Given the day and age we are in I never thought it would come but eventually Daffy exclaims how difficult it is for a male duck to lay eggs!

Though reportedly inspired in design by animator Bob Clampett, I felt the characters came closer to the appearance of the previously mentioned Tiny Toon Adventures. Even so The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie conveys a similar frenetic/chaotic energy and charm as the classic theatrical shorts despite missing the look.

There are 50s science-fiction homages in the story along with a few to more recent examples of the genre. The possession aspect has overtones of the original Invasion of the Body Snatchers and the alien gum when active reminded me of the creature from John Carpenter’s The Thing. The reveal of the true threat and the solution was a silly version of Armageddon. None of this gets derivative since it is never executed in a painfully obvious way. You could easily miss the multiple nods with missing them affecting nothing.

Even so it keeps things pretty tame. I don’t need an edgy storyline or edgy animation or edgy jokes, but I think The Day the Earth Blew Up plays it a little too safe. While there is some more mature humor, it does do its best to keep things family friendly. The pace is not one joke after another. Unless you count weirdness as a joke in which case there are more jokes but it’s still not a steady beat of humor. There’s stuff that will make you laugh out loud but there is not nearly enough of the laugh out loud.

The turn of the alien (referred to as ‘The Invader’) from villain to would-be savior made sense but also was just a bit of a letdown. Then again he never quite rose to feeling evil or even dangerous. You need your baddie, whether it’s in a comedy or something more serious, to feel like they are a threat even if they ultimately turn out not to be. He just didn’t.

I was entertained. It just needed a little more focus and maybe some more classic Looney Tunes characters. The humor is good. The breaking of the fourth wall and other moments that acknowledge past bits of WB animated humor are nice Easter eggs for those who enjoy the classic cartoons. I would’ve liked to of seen the film populated with more WB characters. Certainly exclude Bugs Bunny from a major role but any number of other characters could’ve been used throughout this movie.

The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie isn’t a terrible movie. I don’t know why Warner Bros. shelved it almost completely. It should’ve gone to streaming rather than a theatrical release. It’s entertaining and cute but not as good as it could be.