The Looney Tunes return to the big screen
Daffy and Porky star in limited-run, 2-D animated movie
"The Day The Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie" is the first Looney Toons movie with no live action elements added. It's pure 2D animation! The film follows Daffy Duck and Porky Pig as they find themselves needing a job in order to pay for a new roof for their house.
They meet Petunia Pig at a coffee shop and she offers them a job at a gum factory. Little do they know that an invader from outer space has hatched a plan to use the gum as a mind control device to take over the world! Daffy, Porky and Petunia are all that stands in his way and they have a plan of their own to stop the invasion.
This movie is coming out at an important time for animation. Warner Bros. still have no idea what to do with their licensed products as this was originally supposed to start streaming on Max last year. Instead Warner Bros. sold this film to a third party production company, Ketchup Entertainment, who have graciously released it into theaters for the world to see.
This film was hilarious from top to bottom. It knows its audience and panders to it well. This movie felt like it came from the heydays of the franchise in the 1960s.
There's a lot of humor you expect from Daffy and Porky. With the inclusion of the long forgotten toon, Petunia, the dynamic shifts in an entertaining and exciting way. I thought all three characters played very well off each other and Eric Bauza, who does the voice work for both Daffy and Porky, does a wonderful job honoring these two beloved icons.
Petunia's voice actress Candi Milo is also great in the movie, as she is known for many cartoon roles in such projects like "Dexter's Laboratory" and "Cow and Chicken".
I also loved hearing Wayne Knight's voice as the Mayor. It was refreshing that he was the only celebrity cameo and the rest of the voice-work is performed by long working voice actors.
Peter MacNicol was also great as the Invader but he had very limited screen time, which was disappointing.
All the animation in this movie is 2D hand animated cells, which is ridiculously impressive, considering the movie had the budget of $15 million and the movie runs at an hour and 45 minutes. I loved every frame of this movie, especially some of the hand-painted cells that had the same stylistic humor as some early "SpongeBob" episodes.
I also loved the Gum-Thing Alien that is shown halfway through the movie, and I admired the creature's very cool and unique creature design. This movie is also packed with references to several films ranging from John Carpenter’s "The Thing" to "2001: A Space Odyssey." The variety was entertaining and kept me on my toes.
My only negative of the film is that due to restrictions on Looney Tunes copyright placed by Warner Bros., we don't get any cameos from any other toons such as Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd, which saddened me as I would have loved to see them appear.
Overall, if you like Looney Tunes, you'll love this movie. This film is currently being played in theaters for a limited time until April 5, so I implore you to go out of your way to see this wonderful art-piece and to stand with animators everywhere and support creative art such as this. To me, this movie gets a 10/10.
Carter Salley is Central Michigan Life's resident film reviewer and co-host of the popculture podcast "Raving Geeks." He is majoring in media arts.
