Still // The Day the Earth Blew Up (2024) via IMDb

GET GOOPED, IDIOTS. Daffy Duck and Porky Pig survey damages to their roof.

By: Magnus Blanchard-Rockhill

Staff-Writer

“The Day the Earth Blew Up” initially premiered at the Annecy International Film Festival in the middle of 2024, and although it has been distributed abroad, its full North American release just occurred in March.

It had to be picked up by Ketchup Entertainment in order to even be released in the United States after Warner Brothers first decided to make it streaming-exclusive and then halt release entirely. In fact, this is the first ever Looney Tunes feature-length animated film to be released in theaters.

I do not normally review animated films. I love animation, but I don’t feel like I know enough about it to talk about it effectively. In all honesty, this review was going to be in the parody section, with me reviewing it the exact same way I would review a gory slasher or something like that. 

However, after actually watching this gorgeously animated sci-fi horror starring two pigs and a duck, I would feel completely ashamed to give it anything but my full, earnest attention. Between the humor, the visuals and silly little references to classic sci-fi horror like “Invasion of the Body Snatchers”, I genuinely loved this movie.

The plot is fine. It’s all over the place, but so is my man Daffy Duck. Expecting anything other than Looney from a Looney Tunes movie is foolish. I think it’s fun, and the twist with the villain is appropriately goofy.

I loved how this looked. Background elements and background characters are rendered with more detail and a more painterly style, while main characters have simpler but still effective designs (I mean, it’s Daffy Duck and Porky Pig, you know what they look like). 

It clearly takes place in the modern day, but there is an unmistakable flavor of classic Looney Tunes in many character and set designs that makes it feel a little new and a little vintage at the same time. The music is fun, and they’ve got a whole orchestra for the score. There’s also a weird, trippy, almost dream-sequence kind of a thing near the beginning, and if you know me, you know I really like that sort of a thing.

Daffy Duck as a paranoid, alien- and conspiracy-obsessed little freak is a really, really good characterization. He’s a difficult character to mess up, in my opinion, but this is a good one. Him playing the part of classic horror trope “Harbinger of the End Times” feels really right.

All in all, I don’t really have any complaints at all about this movie. It’s a fun experience that should have gotten a longer run in North American theaters.