Nate At The Movies

What has this world come to that I was the only one in the theater on opening night of a new, 2D animated Looney Tunes movie? I would say we don’t get movies like these today, but here it is: a movie like this, today! The Day The Earth Blew Up was delightful from start to finish, making far more right turns than wrong when it came to honoring the Tunes’ legacy and getting my theater laughing (again, it was just me).

The story was predictably quite screwy, its mind control bubble gum doing the heavy lifting, and it opened the floor for a flurry of jokes and visual gags. Even though they didn’t all hit, I was still laughing a lot—mostly at Daffy, whose bananas unpredictability always gets me. I could hardly contain myself during the probing joke; did he just want to get probed? His deliveries are superb, too: the way he said “the goo from our roof is here!” and “I’m gonna smash the crank!” was just perfect; he really has a gift for comedic delivery.

Daffy and Porky’s relationship was obviously a treat—I had no idea they were brothers?—and I liked the involvement of Petunia both as a comedic springboard and a love interest for Pork-Man. The evil plot was well-realized, even if a little short-lived, and its twists near the end made the final act more interesting. The best part of this film, though, which should come as a surprise to absolutely no one that knows my taste in film, was the hand-drawn 2D animation, baby! This movie was beautiful in its simple animation style while still being so expressive and exaggerated like I would expect the Looney Tunes to be. This film will stand out among the pile of modern-day CGI slop thanks to their hard-working animators. We need more 2D animated movies!

The Day the Earth Blew Up was a great time tonight—lots of room for laughs, some pretty animation, in-jokes and references that actually worked, and a story just zany enough to be perfect for the Looney Tunes’ return to the big screen. We can’t let this film flop!