The Day the Warners Forgot about the Looney Tunes

GREETINGS, TOON-A-THONS!

Have you heard the word? There’s a LOONEY TUNES film out in theaters right now? It’s got the glorious title of “The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie!”

Porky & Daffy. Friends to the End... most of the time.

Now, there have been Looney Tunes movies in the past, but those movies have either been compilations strung together over a flimsy narrative with new (at the time) animation like a cruise gone wrong, or a film about one of the characters playing up their Hollywood lifestyle akin to an autobiography. Then, there were movies that were essentially live-action/animation hybrids that focused more on the human actors while the ‘toons were left in the background (Space Jam, Back in Action, Space Jam: A New Legacy). Outside of two instances I can recall (Tweety’s Big Adventure and Rabbits Run), there was never a fully animated Looney Tunes film. And there especially hasn’t been a fully animated Looney Tunes film made for theaters… until today!

It's like B-Movie Sci-Fi... but crazy!

If you haven’t heard of it, the movie essentially is about Porky Pig and Daffy Duck working in a gum factory, only to later find themselves fighting aliens. The plot is about as Looney as you can imagine, with twists and turns left and right that you literally need a second viewing to properly take in everything. And to be honest, that works to the film’s advantage!

There’s a lot of great gags! The pacing is quite fast, allowing for plot twists to turn itself around, throw itself over a cliff, come back, then shoot itself off the same cliff. Does it make sense? Oh, heck no. Is it fun to watch? You bet! Without spoiling anything, the film is like watching Cartoon Network back in the day when they used to do specials and shorts based on classic properties they acquired and hired people who wanted to honor the work. It happened recently with Mickey Mouse with his dedicated modern series (Mickey Mouse 2013, and The Wonderful World of Mickey Mouse) thanks to guys like Paul Rudish. It happened in both 2003 and 2012 with both 4KIDS's and Nickelodeon’s first and second reboot of the TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES animated series thanks to Lloyd Goldfine and Ciro Nieli. And even with SpongeBob right after Sponge Out of Water (No, I won’t argue it here. Sorry).

What I enjoyed about the film is its pure love for the style of Looney Tunes as a whole. I shouldn’t be surprised as it's from the same crew who worked to revitalize classic Looney Tunes (Peter Browngardt and everyone at Warner Bros. Animation) thanks to the series, Looney Tunes Cartoons. If you haven’t seen the series, you really should. The show takes much of its inspiration from the early 1930s and 1940s versions of the characters. Basically, the show honors the works done by guys like Bob Clampett, Tex Avery, Friz Freleng, and the like! If you’re more accustomed to the later works from guys like Robert McKimson and Chuck Jones, you get a slice of that in the series, but it's mainly the former inspirations that take center stage. 

I absolutely love Daffy’s slapstick crazy persona. I’ve been wanting that to return for a long time, and both LTC and the current film gave me that.

To be fair... he DID return in 2015's Wabbit/New Looney Tunes. But don't lie. We all forgot or never knew it existed until right now.

I’m actually happy this show came about because it's from the same guy who created UNCLE GRANDPA and Secret Mountain Fort Awesome. And I’ll be honest, Uncle Grandpa is actually funny. Around Season 2, the show really got its bearings and was pretty fun to watch. Why it only got three seasons is beyond me, but if it meant that we got Peter to work on Looney Tunes… I accept it. Wholeheartedly!

It’s not often you get to see a new traditionally hand-drawn 2D animated film in theaters. Heck, the last time we got one in America that was a major release was Disney’s Princess & The Frog in 2009, Disney’s Winnie The Pooh back in 2011, and 2015’s The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water. That is how far we’ve come. Any time 2D animation was on screen was either for small segments or it was a hybrid that imitated 2D animation, but was pure CGI. It also helps that this is a film made for American theaters in a time where most American animation is just 3D/CGI. If there was a NEW 2D animated film being released these days, it's either just for streaming, or it's a limited release from either Europe or Asia. Remember, 2D Animation can still be as effective in theaters in the modern day as computer-animation. It’s a medium. A tool, even. Why limit yourself to one form when telling a story?

If you haven’t seen the movie yet, I wholly recommend you see it! It is a blast of animation joy, and is that pure blend of comedy, slapstick, and a bit of heart that we all need in this world.

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Oh, on a side note. If you haven’t heard, HBO MAX and Warner Bros. are having a fit right now. The studio has been gutting animation left and right (on top of other content they deem worthless), and both Looney Tunes and Cartoon Network are on the chopping block. It hasn’t been nice to hear, especially since it just adds to a feeling I’ve had where the content I’ve enjoyed recently have often been abandoned or thrown out for slop. That’s the nature of corporate entertainment, I guess. It’s not (er, not always) the bad content that sinks the ship, its corporate mergers. I won’t pretend to understand corporate studio business, but I can say that having this one Looney Tunes movie in theaters thanks to an outside distributor (Ketchup Entertainment) means that someone cared enough to keep this movie, and the Looney Tunes, alive just a little longer.

But if you haven’t seen the movie yet, I highly recommend you check it out! And if you have already, let me know your thoughts. Is there anything you liked or didn’t like about the film? Is there other Looney Tunes movies you'd like to see in theaters? (Maybe Coyote Vs. Acme? Wink wink~) Maybe you had a different idea for the film or are curious about other possible 2D animated films that could hit the big screen. Personally, if we’re sticking with Warner Bros. properties, I’d LOVE to see a fully 2D animated DC Comics film hit the big screen. The last time that happened was Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (both its original 1993 airing and the 2024 re-release) So if we get a new DC animated feature for theaters, I’d love to see them tackle someone like Superman, Batman, Green Lantern (Hal Jordan or John Stewart), or PLASTIC MAN.

Until next time, get LOONEY, and don’t forget to…

BE TOONTASTIC~!