Are the Looney Tunes Doomed? Their movie "The Day the Earth Blew Up" Needs to be Seen...and NOW!

The Looney Tunes were born of the ‘40s and, unlike most popular icons of the era, somehow survived the ravages of time…impervious to years of changing tastes and fickle trends. Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, The Road Runner—people loved them in both wartime and post-war America, loved them in the turbulent ‘60s, the dreary ‘70s, and the outrageous ‘80s. Politics, movies, cartoons, music, and commercial art would all come and go, but the elastic cast of Bugs and Daffy fame would remain recognized, cherished, celebrated…and, in hindsight, taken terribly for granted.

Being an ‘80s kid, I was inundated daily by Bugs Bunny and his pals. Beyond considerable stints on Nickelodeon and ABC (The Bugs Bunny & Tweety Show’s theme song still tickles my brain), the toons comprised all facets of personal and public life. Vitamins, books, TV dinners, Halloween costumes, video games…unlike characters such as Felix the Cat and Underdog and Jabberjaw who soon vanished from common memory, the Warner Bros. throng held strong. They never lost the zeitgeist, and many assumed they never would.

But then something happened: By the turn of the century, The Looney Tunes suddenly found themselves fighting for relevancy. The main culprit is Warner Bros.’ own Cartoon Network; in the name of exclusivity, the company yanked the merry toons off the competing networks, making CN their one and only home. It may have seemed like a smart move at the time, but actually, it was incredibly stupid. By 2010, the average kid no longer reliably recognized the Looney Tunes brand, signaling that the toons were, for the first time, becoming passe. They were no longer household staples. No longer beloved.

Which is why, another fifteen years later, Looney Tunes: The Day the Earth Blew Up is so important. As the first fully-animated, theatrical film to feature the characters—Daffy Duck and Porky Pig in this case—it’s something of an irony; it’s only now, when the property is at its woefully lowest, that the characters get a dedicated movie. And more than a showcase for Michael Jordan (Space Jam), more than an excuse to slop in a bevy of celebrity cameos (Looney Tunes: Back in Action), more than a vehicle for countless fanboy cameos (Space Jam: A New Legacy), this movie is really about them. Daffy and Porky in a tale of friendship, love, and yes, an alien invasion.

Indeed, the movie is curiously focused. No cameos (even of other Looney Tunes characters), no references to other obvious shorts (Duck Dodgers, duh), and a severe limit on pop cultural jokes (though Daffy twerking on social media is a thing). The movie is hip while still feeling a bit vintage…all in a good, positive, daring, contemporary way. Old timers will appreciate the old-school vibes and energy clearly lifted from the past, while younger audiences will just view everything as a zealous new form of creative expression. Who thought this 2-D animation stuff could be so stretchy, so exuberant, so off-puttingly cool?

So go see it. And if you’re reading this after the movie has left theaters, then pay money to rent it. Pay even more money to own the inevitable DVD. Show Warner Bros. head David Zaslav that people still love their Merry Melodies. Still want their Bunnies and Tweeties. Let’s make Zaslav sing a different tune about these amazing toons.

And yes, the movie is quite good—but more on that next time.—D

Daffy and Porky get the honor of starring in the Looney Tunes' first full-length, fully-animated, theatrical film. Stretchy, zesty, and exuberantly rubbery...the movie feels like a new form of art despite being inspired by shorts over eighty years old.

The humor can be a bit ri-bald at times...pushing the visual gags further than the '40s ever would have dared.

The villain is quite the character himself, toggling between scary and surprisingly flappable. Might he not be quite as bad as he seems?

This brief sequence shows the film's rubbery befuddlery in action--the movie is crammed with excellent moments like these, from the most epic to the most mundane.

Porky and Daffy are joined by Petunia, who's sweet and eccentric in all the right ways.