Rating: PG | Runtime: 91 minutes
Release Date: March 14th, 2025 (USA)
Studio: Warner Bros. Animation / Ketchup Entertainment
Director(s): Peter Browngardt
Writer(s): Darrick Bachman, Pete Browngardt, Kevin Costello, Andrew Dickman, David Gemmill, Alex Kirwan, Ryan Kramer, Jason Reicher, Michael Ruocco, Johnny Ryan, Eddie Trigueros / Pete Browngardt (series “Looney Tunes Cartoons”)

Stinkin’, thinkin’, and savin’ lives!

Considering what David Zaslav did to Coyote vs. Acme (erasing it from existence for a tax write-off despite very positive reactions), we’re lucky that Peter Browngardt’s The Day the Earth Blew Up found its way to Ketchup Entertainment to become the first Looney Tunes film not released by Warner Bros. since 1975’s United Artists documentary Bugs Bunny: Superstar. Why Zaslav decided to shop this one around upon deciding not to release it on Max as originally planned (or why someone was willing to buy it) and not Coyote vs. Acme, is anyone’s guess. It’s probably just some algorithmic equation Wall Street fed him to ensure another few million dollars entered his own pockets.

Browngardt and original screenwriter Kevin Costello (who are ultimately joined by nine storyboard artists to fill out a whopping eleven-person writing credit) took inspiration from 1950s-era science fiction B-movies to hatch an alien invasion plot that only the unlikely duo of Porky Pig and Daffy Duck (both voiced by Eric Bauza) can thwart. While the over-arching narrative design hews close to the threat inherent to films like The Day the Earth Stood Still or Invasion of the Body Snatchers, however, this remains a Looney Tunes property and thus needs a joke premise behind it. Queue the introduction of the Goodie Gum bubblegum factory and its potential to manufacture a stick that’s able to mind control the entire planet with humanity’s propensity to chew.

First things first: two prologues. One to introduce The Invader’s (Peter MacNicol) arrival at the back of an asteroid and his first victim, an unsuspecting scientist (Fred Tatasciore) who bravely chases a crash landing only to walk right into the villain’s trap. A second to introduce Porky and Daffy’s origins as infants raised by a matte painting (except, distractingly, in two specific instances despite already establishing his intentionally static nature as a visual gag) known as Farmer Jim (also Tatasciore). Think of this latter bit of exposition as a reminder of canon for the two characters’ friendship and just how often Porky’s plans for normalcy are upended by Daffy’s inability to control his worst impulses. We even get a “Merry Melodies”-esque montage to drive this dynamic home.

Between that short-within-the-feature and another gorgeously rendered retro-futurist sequence depicting our heroes’ first day working at Goodie Gum (thanks to the recruitment by Candi Milo’s equally awkward and chaotic Petunia Pig) I really hoped for more turns into disparate aesthetics and references that sadly never came. Once that first day moves from success to disaster (Daffy’s curiosity leads him to unwittingly figure out The Invaders plans with the perfect amount of hysteria to ensure no one will ever believe him), Browngardt and company settle into a straightforward narrative of action, suspense, and absurdist comedy. Because it’s not enough to just save the day. Porky and Daffy are so unfortunate that saving the day from an external foe often means ruining things badly enough to need saving it again … from themselves.

Besides a penchant for butt jokes, I really enjoyed the sense of humor that runs throughout. Petunia provides a nice foil to the main duo as her position as romantic interest for Porky and fabricator of Daffy’s wild ideas makes it so she proves crucial to keeping them together rather than tearing them apart. They do the latter all by themselves once frustrations grow to a fever pitch and force Porky to undermine Daffy’s involvement and Daffy to lose confidence in his instincts. You can’t blame this result either considering Daffy too often single-handedly destroys any momentum they have earned. It’s only natural that Porky would blow-up and that Daffy would feel so ashamed that he won’t want to risk enduring a second helping of steam whistle rage.

Anyone who knows Looney Tunes, however, knows Daffy’s idiocy as a secret weapon is as important as its ability to create conflict. Because the more he undermines the realistic nonsense solutions hatched, his unrealistic nonsense ultimately becomes the solution. We’re dealing with gum-chewing zombies controlled remotely by The Invader through a telekinetic bond with space goo-infused candy. There’s also a not-so-hidden worse danger looming in the shadows and a ruthless house inspector (Laraine Newman’s Mrs. Grecht) gleefully preparing to wipe Porky and Daffy’s dilapidated house off the map. Put all that together and you need a bit of insanity to go with a closet full of novelty teeth, Brian Adams-backed flashbacks, REM-fueled action. Because being too safe (Porky) or too demented (Daffy) never succeeds. You need a bit of both.

---

A scene from THE DAY THE EARTH BLEW UP; courtesy of Ketchup Entertainment.