The Looney Tunes have admittedly fallen on hard times in recent years. As far as animation was concerned, David Zaslav’s feckless régime at Warner Brothers saw the medium as a whole as an easy cut, leaving a historic library in limbo until fairly recently. One near casualty of this attitude was this very film: directed by Peter Browngardt of the lovingly-made 2020 series Looney Tunes Cartoons, a rather classical collection of animated shorts which brought the wit of a new generation of artists who studied at the altar of Chuck Jones, Bob Clampett, Friz Feleng, Tex Avery and their contemporaries. The plot of The Day The Earth Blew Up feels fitting for characters who have been in search of a new home; Daffy Duck and Porky Pig have to rescue their house from condemnation. They’re thrown into their adventure because they desperately need to raise money for repairs after a cruel inspector threatens to condemn and seize their home. Sadly for Daffy and Porky, their first good prospect at a stable job also happens to be a front for an alien invasion.
After decades of being frenemies, here Daffy and Porky are made family, brothers adopted by a kindly farmer. This remodelling of their relationship is at once rather sweet and, of course, an opportunity for more daft comedy. That sweetness and silliness often go hand in hand, Browngardt lacing an opening montage of their childhoods together with a number of Looney Tunes staples (like characters flying through walls, leaving behind a perfect silhouette).
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Immediately following this is a moment which reassures Browngardt is a safe hands: Jim, the adoptive father of Porky and Daffy, is presented as an extremely highly detailed painting which appears mostly motionless, aside from his lips – when he moves, it’s as though a cardboard cutout is being shuffled through the foreground. The absurdity continues with a switch to incredibly smooth animation as he turns to face his boys, before suddenly fading into the sunset. (Later, a flashback sequence set to Bryan Adams doubles down.) It’s a sequence of gags which feels like a perfect modernisation of the visual anarchy of the old masters: cleverly synthesising newer mediums and methods into the silliest possible imagery, even its interpolation of 3D animation feels seamless. The Day The Earth Blew Up is at its best in these moments, knocking down a series of visual gags which can only work in animation, as well as a handful of meta jokes characteristic of this cast of characters.
Some other gags are a little less inspired: at one point Daffy twerks for money and gets ‘cancelled’ and the aliens yearn for bubble tea. But these jokes are nestled in between so many others that it never wholly feels like The Day The Earth Blew Up is fully compromised by attempts to be “current”. Granted, this is a matter of taste – Daffy throwing ass may work for some.
Browngardt’s work is flexible in every sense of the word, spanning a number of different kinds of tones and gags, but visually flexible too as it keeps the visual history of these characters in mind. Daffy, Porky and Petunia Pig are characterised with beautifully exaggerated expressions and move with charming elasticity, with Daffy squashing and stretching to fit the moment, his eyes literally following suspicious characters around corners. That craft keeps the film brisk and engaging, the animation is what keeps the anarchic spirit of the Looney Tunes in full view. It’s pure, joyful cartooning, the likes of which has no expiry date.