The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie ★★★☆☆

I didn't hear about this movie until I saw it listed at my local theater. Did they spend no money whatsoever on promoting it? The Day the Earth Blew Up has phenomenal animation, taking me back to watching those classic Looney Tunes cartoons as a kid. The animators clearly crafted this movie out of great love for that old style of animation. The movement of the characters is fluid and exaggerated, allowing for so many great visual gags. Do you know that thing where for the first season of an animated show the characters look wild and wacky, and then as the seasons progress, the animation locks in and closely follows the character models and the characters look smoother and prettier, but stiffer? The animation in this movie is a breath of fresh air in defiance of that phenomenon. They clearly gave their artists plenty of space for creativity.

Unfortunately, the superb animation doesn't save this movie from being boring and falling into the kid's movie trope of character growth that feels hamfisted and artificial. Daffy as a character is obnoxious, though that's not too surprising. Porky Pig is actually fine, though there is a running gag about sharing a stutter with his love interest Petunia that is cringy to watch. Petunia might be my favorite character. She has perhaps the most depth out of any of the characters, and I found her romance with Porky to be endearing. The movie has some genuine laugh out loud moments that made me worried I was being disruptive in the theater. These moments thankfully punctuated the overall dull story. 

All in all, I can't recommend this movie. I think it would be great if its already short 90 minute time were cut in half, or even a third. 3 out of 5 stars.