There’s a scene in Looney Tunes: The Day the Earth Blew Up when a silhouetted studio executive stands up and shouts, “Who greenlit this garbage?”
The irony is palpable. At a moment when Warner Bros suits insist that the Looney Tunes are unprofitable relics, The Day the Earth Blew Up arrives as a noisy, glorious corrective.
This first fully animated Looney Tunes feature in nearly a century – no, really – The Day the Earth Blew Up doesn’t merely showcase the anarcho-comedy of Daffy Duck and Porky Pig; it also leaves the viewer to wonder why we had to make do with that underpowered Space Jam sequel.
Directed by Peter Browngardt, a long-time custodian of the Tunes’ house style, the film is steeped in the grammar of the golden age: elastic bodies, zany physics and gags that land with the impact of a falling baby grand piano. This is not merely a nostalgic homage. Instead, it rechannels the mayhem of house-style architects Bob Clampett, Chuck Jones and Rod Scribner into a pleasing modern movie shape.
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The plot, such as it is, pits the mismatched roommates against eviction, alien invasion and, with a nod to Charlie Chaplin and Jacques Tati, the indignity of employment, with a bubblegum factory doubling as workplace satire and sci-fi launch pad.
Daffy remains a wacky agent of chaos, Porky a quivering pillar of decency, and their relationship – both are voiced with dexterity by Eric Bauza – forms the film’s emotional spine. The introduction of Farmer Jim, their adoptive human parent, provides an oddball, post-Ren and Stimpy diversion.
The odd couple are soon joined by Petunia Pig, a flavour scientist and nerdy, porcine love interest for Porky, who proves more competent than the boys when it comes to saving the world from a marauding alien and stray comet.
The zingers could be zippier. But what makes the film feel radical is its welcome and unwavering confidence in 2D animation as a comedic anvil. Sight gags pile up, frames stretch and snap, and the fourth wall is wobbly. In a genre increasingly marred by CG realism, Looney Tunes revels in its cartoonish artifice.
[ The Irish-American animator who put the ‘looney’ into Looney TunesOpens in new window ]
Shame we have to wait until August for the much-delayed Coyote vs Acme. Go Team Looney.
In cinemas from Friday, February 13th
