Porky Pig and Daffy Duck are Earth’s only hope when facing the threat of alien invasion.
Chuck says:
Watching as many movies as I do, it’s rare that I see something truly awful. Sure, there are many that fail to come together, as some features start strong but peter out or others marred by shoddy executio.Others are tripped up by sloppy editing, direction that’s not cohesive or poor acting. There are many, many ways a film can go wrong, and with so many moving parts involved, it’s a miracle anything decent is ever produced. Still and all, it’s rare that I see something that has no redeeming quality at all.
However, with “The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie,” I’m hard-pressed to come up with anything positive to say. What with Warner Brothers’ animation division having such a long history and solid reputation, this comes off as a slight, haphazard affair. Failing to capitalize on its large stable of characters, director and writer Peter Browngardt wastes a golden opportunity to reintroduce Yosemite Sam, Foghorn Leghorn, the Tasmanian Devil and others to a new generation. I suspect the fear of being seen as politically “incorrect” had something to do with this timid approach.
With Bugs Bunny conspicuously absent, Daffy Duck and Porky Pig are the only ones deemed “acceptable” to carry on the Warner’s legacy. With the proper premise, the feathery fowl and porcine rhetorician would be more than capable of doing so. Unfortunately, “Day” proves my theory that the more screenwriters working on a script, the worse the movie is, in a way I didn’t think possible. 11 – Yes 11! – writers are listed in the credits, an astonishing number considered the sheer lack of imagination and humor present in the finished project.
Daffy and Porky (both voiced by Eric Bauza) are living in a house left to them by a kindly farmer who adopted them when they were young. It’s in such disrepair, they don’t notice a large hole in their roof until it’s pointed out by a home inspector. Seems it was caused by a meteor that crash-landed not far from them. Needing cash to get their home up to code, the duo gets a series of jobs that all end in disaster. This sequence is the highlight as we see them botch a host of modern occupations from ride sharing to barista to social media influencers.
Eventually, they find employment at the Goodie Gum Company, where they are getting ready to roll out a new flavor. However, what the execs there don’t realize is that it’s been contaminated by a batch of alien goo, put there by a zombified doctor who witnessed the afore mentioned meteor landing.
What ensues is one manic, misguided attempt after another by our intrepid duo, as well as Petunia Pig (Candi Milo), to revert the citizens who chewed the tainted gum from zombie back to human. The third act shifts to a visual parody of the paranoid sci-fi flicks from the 1950’s yet nothing is done to mimic “Invaders from Mars” or “The Thing” in terms of plot. Even more egregious is the missed opportunity of having Daffy and Porky interact with the aliens from those classics. Instead, uninspired, repetitious manically executed mayhem ensues, its overbearing nature more intent on creating headaches than laughs.
It’s telling that Warner Brothers never intended to release this in theaters but accepted an offer from the Ketchup Films for distribution rights. Michael De Luca, the head of the studio has taken to shelfing completed films in order to take a tax write off. That he didn’t take this approach to “Day” is despicable.
1/2 Star
