Latest Looney Tunes feature stands out like an ACME anvil-hit sore thumb

By creammagazine, March 19, 2025

I’m not sure why or for whom Warner Bros. made their latest animated feature, The Day the Earth Blew Up. Don’t get me wrong, so far as classic animation goes, it’s a quality, fun cartoon and – at an hour and a half – I’m sure that plenty of ardent, careful labour went into the making of it. Or perhaps a few sketches of each character were made on paper and the rest of it was composited via AI, I’m not really sure how animation is created these days.

But so far as content is concerned, there is nothing really new here. In an age where television shows and film are delving into the great beyond – from The Upside Down in Stranger Things to all manner of parallel universes in comic book film adaptations, it’s a wonder that Warners have kept two of their main characters – Daffy Duck and Porky Pig – predominantly analogue and earth-bound.

There is a climactic scene where our heroes dive into the core of a flying asteroid but even the premise of that looks more humble than many of Looney Tunes previous out-there offerings.

The plot is a simple yet out-of-this-world one. Daffy and Porky are adopted by a down-home farmer named Jim, who soon enough passes away and leaves his home behind for the Looney Tunes pair to look after. Out of nowhere, a meteorite of generous-enough size smashes into the roof of their farmhouse, making the authorities order them to fix it or it’ll be deemed condemned.

After about 10 minutes of watching the happenings in this rural setting you’re ready to ask yourself if this is actually set in modern times (even the real estate matron is dressed a la 1950s). Then suddenly you’re hit with reference after reference of the postmodern kind: twerking and toilet humour; zombies and conspiracy theories; women in athleisurewear chatting on mobile phones; spottings of iPad-type devices, and so on. It’s like a sudden future-shock – one that offers our protagonists the opportunity to really have fun with hilarious intertextual referencing. But it doesn’t go far enough, and it really could have gone all-out The Simpsons meets South Park.

Daffy and Porky end up getting jobs in a chewing gum factory to pay for the damaged roof, getting into all sorts of strife, especially when they encounter an alien who is apparently trying to save Earth for the sake of obtaining what he considers to be the Holy Grail – a giant cup of Boba, or bubble tea. Somewhat messy storylining? Yes. Could it have been more exciting and perhaps even more challenging for the adults who are supposed to be taking their kids to see this movie? Yes and yes.

This is not a bad cartoon but so far as substantial enough content for a feature film, I think it’s lacking. After decades of selling us great animated shorts, Warner Bros. have plenty of funds under their belt to play with, and in an age of AI and ultimate fantasy being realised in film and on TV, there really was no excuse to see this feature become something truly extraordinary. Really, though, its story is something that could have been edited down to a few minutes and saved for a Saturday morning commercial television slot.

Even some fun live action/animation, a la Who Framed Roger Rabbit or the reboot of The Lion King, might have been nice. Or maybe it’s just because good ol’ Bugs Bunny was totally lacking that I found this animated feature a little on the mundane side.

Well, that’s enough bitching from me. Until the next heavily suggested sequel, eh-the-th-th-th-th-that’s all folks.

Antonino Tati