Kaboom?

I had heard that The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie (2024) was pretty good, so I figured I'd try it out. I wonder if I was thinking of a different movie.

It starts with a scientist seeing an asteroid heading towards Earth, but also a UFO. The UFO crashes near by, after leaving a goo-rimmed hole in someone's roof. The scientists goes to investigate, and disappears. The scientist scenes are animated in a sort 1940s Max Fleischer Superman style. 

The movie then inroduces us to stars Porky Pig and Daffy Duck. As orphan shoat and duckling, they are found and raised by kindly Farmer Jim. Their idyllic upbringing is depicted in a vaguely Hart Benson style with Farmer Jim drawn as if Benson had to design a round cheeked smiling farmer for a corporate mascot. 

But all good things come to an end. When the pair has grown, Farmer Jim walks off over the horizon, leaving them the house and enjoining them to always stay together and help each other. 

In the present day, they still live in the house, now modified in wacky ways, presumably by Daffy. Porky is too much of a straight arrow, cautious, rule following pig. He knows that the building inspector (Laraine Newman!) will be visiting that day, and gets Daffy up to try to get up to code. They do not succeed. That's not even counting the big, goo-rimmed hole in the roof. Now they need jobs. It won't be easy, because they've never worked before and one of them is Daffy.

At a local diner, they meet Petunia Pig, and Porky falls hard. She is a flavor scientist at the local bubble gum factory - although she is very dismissive of their latest flavor. She gets them a job at the factory, and Porky even gets Daffy to do the job without mayhem. Things are looking up for the pair. But we know that people chewing the new gum (starting with the scientist) become zombies, who live only to chew ... gum.

So, what are my complaints? One is the way they pounded the "stay together" theme. Although Porky is driven to distraction by Daffy, he repeatedly comes to the realization that they belong together. Repeatedly. Look, I think he could stand to be a bit more dependent. But they have to beat that lesson into our heads. I wasn't really thrilled by Petunia Pig as a near-autistic flavor scientist, but I guess that's just because she's not a big member of the 1940s "classic" cast. 

I also didn't like Daffy's characterization. He's still a chaotic nutcase, but here he's capable of self-reflection and acting sensible. I suppose that's a good lesson for the kids, but not as much fun.

Then there's the character design. They were going for the look of the original Bob Clampett designs, and they did pretty good with Daffy. But I wasn't happy with Porky's face. Sometimes it looked very old-style - 1930s say. Other times it showed a lot of 21st century influence. Not just the 201x Loony Tunes, but some traces of Ren and Stimpy. 

Maybe if I had watched a lot of the twenty-teens Loony Tunes, I'd be more accepting. A lot of the animation looked fine - just not what I was looking for.

Finally, guess who was not in the UFO? Marvin the Martian, that's who. It's called the Day the Earth Blew up! There's supposed to be an Earth-shattering kaboom!