The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie (2025) * * *

 

Directed by:  Pete Browngardt

When you hear the title of this movie, you look for Marvin Martian, and I'm sad to report he does not appear in The Day the Earth Blew Up.  Besides Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, and Petunia Pig, no Looney Tunes favorites star, but that's okay.  The Day the Earth Blew Up is more of an Animaniacs-type of treatment with Daffy and Porky battling an alien plot to turn Earthlings into gum-chomping zombies.   In 2025, the Looney Tunes are alive and well, although not in the way they were originally presented.   I admit it would have been a real throwback to see the WB logo hurling towards the screen and the Looney Tunes theme blasting over the soundtrack.  

We begin The Day the Earth Blew Up with Daffy and Porky adopted by a kindly man named Farmer Jim, who later passes away and leaves his home to Daffy and Porky.   In the present day, an alien (voiced by Peter MacNicol) launches a flying saucer which clips off Daffy and Porky's roof and crashes near the local gum factory and contaminating it with some green goo.  The goo is mixed in accidentally and anyone who chews the new flavor gum turns into a zombie.  Daffy and Porky, after a series of firings from other jobs they took to try and repair their roof before their home is condemned, find themselves working at the gum factory and discover the plot.  Daffy, forever the alarmist, tries to tell anyone who will listen that chewing the gum will transform them into a zombie, but no one believes him.  Porky soon finds Daffy is right and works with he and Petunia to foil the alien's plans.   Bryan Adams' "Everything I Do (I Do It for You)" and REM's It's the End of the World As We Know It" are incorporated into the action.  

I may have spent more time on the plot than required, and yes The Day the Earth Blew Up relies on childish silliness at times (to be expected), but there are also jokes for adults and a payoff for the alien arc which is unexpected.  I admit I didn't see it coming, but it adds a layer to the proceedings.  At the heart of this Looney Tunes movie is, well, a heart.  The results are occasionally uneven, but because we all love Porky and Daffy, we enjoy their movie all the same, even if they are the updated versions for the 21st century.