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matt_zimmerThis is one of my better recent reviews. I hope you like it.
The Day The Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie
The plan was as I was watching this to give it a really generous 4-and-a-half stars. Half-star deducted for a ton of cliched and cheesy jokes.
And then the movie ends with Farmer Jim's picture hiding a 5 million dollar home insurance policy, covering alien mind control invasions, and I realized this is pretty much the perfect movie after all, and is getting five stars accordingly.
Lots to talk about. Do I get political? Is there anything about David Zaslav, the most hated man in Hollywood, that isn't?
There was no reason for this movie to be canceled and sold to an outside studio. It didn't do great at the box office, but if it had had a legit marketing push and a full run of theaters, it might have done respectably. Zaslav destroying art to collect the insurance money doesn't just destroy art. As far as financial decisions go, it's idiotic. Zaslav was hired to get Warner Bros' budgets under control after a couple of disastrous buy-outs and mergers. The problem is that Zaslav is an idiot. The problem is he's the entire problem with Warner Discovery, and until the board gets rid of him, he always will be. I am not as remotely as excited for James Gunn's DC tenure as most other fans. Zaslav hand-picked him. And he essentially got the job because nobody else was stupid enough to actually work for this trainwreck of a company while Zaslav was ruining the studio's reputation with every writer, actor, and director in Hollywood. If Zaslav believes the guy who delivered the bomb The Suicide Squad is the person who will save DC Studios, I'm thinking that means he isn't. I expect Superman will do quite well at the box office. And I predict it will be the only DC movie going forward that will. James Gunn is NOT the answer. Creature Commandos proved that to me.
Yeah, that's the political section of the review. Probably should discuss this movie. This movie is a tie-in to Looney Tunes Cartoons, and as it came out a year after the last episode of that show hit, it feels sort of like a good series finale. Looney Tunes Cartoons was extremely polarizing. A LOT of people disliked it. For not being funny, for being mean, whatever. A lot of Looney Tunes fans thought it was an inferior update.
I have a different view, and this one might piss you off a LITTLE. I think Looney Tunes Cartoons is one of the most faithful reimaginings of a classic franchise I can ever think of. There has never been a modern Disney cartoon that actually looked and felt like the classics like Looney Tunes Cartoons does. And that's true for every single modern take of Golden Age characters. I feel that Looney Tunes Cartoons got the tone, style, and intention down correctly to the letter, no matter WHAT other fans think.
Here's where you'll hate me. That's the problem. Looney Tunes worked in the 1930's and 40's because you'd see a cartoon and a newsreel before a flick, laugh during it, and that's it. Looney Tunes Cartoons was initially designed to be a LOT more ambitious than it actually turned out to be. When the over 1000 hours of new content was announced, Warner was excitedly promising to put these cartoons everywhere. In front of movies, at resorts, theme parks, cruise ships, TV specials, the works. This was going to be a Looney Tunes marketing push bigger than any other the franchise had ever seen.
It didn't turn out that way. HBO Max was struggling right out of the gate, and the streaming service decided to make the entire franchise streaming-exclusive instead. As such, the way you would now watch these cartoons wasn't one or two at a time in front of a movie. You'd binge several of them at once.
And Looney Tunes is not BUILT for that, man. The amount of Warner Bros Cartoons I would be willing to watch one right after the other is amazingly small. Because the franchise is sour and mean as hell, always has been, and always has disastrous and unhappy endings. Looney Tunes Cartoons' problem wasn't that it was a poor imitation of Looney Tunes. The problem was that it was a flawless representation, and audiences simply have much different tastes in the 2020's. I sure as hell appreciated the staggering amount of detail in every one of those cartoons, while actually ENJOYING very few of them.
As bad as Saturday morning cartoons in the 1980's were, The Bugs Bunny Roadrunner Show was never an actual draw for me. It got old QUICK, even when I was 7.
One of the modern Looney Tunes producers cautioned creators that the difference between the Looney Tunes and the Disney characters is that the Looney Tunes are not friends. They never get along and always dislike each other (or more accurately loathe each other). And while I believe that is usually true, it's also why the franchise can't do much more than it does. Space Jam doesn't work not just for the reasons Chuck Jones says. Not just because Bugs Bunny would defeat the Mon-Stars himself in five minutes. But because he would never team up with the other Looney Tunes to begin with. He HATES every single one of those motherfuckers.
For me, the best modern Looney Tunes projects ignore that rule entirely. The Looney Tunes Show was another polarizing cartoon as it aired, but I freaking loved it the entire time, and hindsight and distance has earned it raves and accolades from the fans, especially for Lola Bunny and Daffy Duck. And I think the reason the sitcom premise held together at all is because the show said Bugs, Daffy, and Porky are close and best friends. It was able to do so much with a basic sitcom premise just for that simple change.
Making Porky and Daffy best friends and family in this movie is a big reason this works so well in a way Looney Tunes Cartoons, which followed the "They all hate each other" thing to the letter, never could.
One thing I WILL give Looney Tunes Cartoons shit over is their interpretation of Petunia Pig. She had this obnoxious New Yawk accent, and was repeatedly getting injured because the producers don't understand it's not funny watching a female cartoon character getting hurt unless it's Futurama's Amy Wong. But every bit of Petunia made me cringe. She wasn't the worst character (that would be Porky's sociopathic nephew Cicero) but she was second worst easily.
I find the quirky, nerdy Petunia far less interesting, far more likable, and far easier to take. When I heard she was the third lead, I groaned, because I thought they were going to do the latest abuse-victim version. They didn't, which was smart. And a relief.
Another thing I believe this movie deserves a LOT of credit for is the lack of celebrity headliners. Wayne Knight and Larraine Newman have small roles, but the biggest name in the cast is Ally McBeal's Peter MacNicol as the Alien Commander, hired for his voice instead of his marquee value. You can tell this because although he is a bigger celebrity than both Eric Bauza and Candi Milo, they are both billed both first and second before him.
Goddam, I wish more animated films were as respectful of the voice talent as this was! Frankly, it's the first animated movie I've seen in decades that properly bills the voice talent over the celebrities. (Well, okay, The Simpsons Movie too).
Celebrities in cartoons always annoy me. I don't listen to the characters they play and believe in the character. I wonder where I've heard the voice before, and once I place it, the cartoon character stops being the cartoon character and turns into the celebrity. I have a sneaking suspicion talented animated casting directors for TV cartoons have an inkling of how narratively damaging this actually is, but until this film, they never had any say about it. Ketchup Studios is out of fucks to give there.
Seriously. Name ONE person, a SINGLE one, who ever said, "Let's take the kids to the new Scooby Doo cartoon because Zac Efron is voicing Fred." Nobody has EVER said that. Nobody watches a Scooby Doo cartoon for the celebrity voices (the recent TV Series Guess Who, Scooby Doo actually understood this, and slyly poked fun at that idea every week. It was sublime meta commentary about how awful old Scooby Doo is, without ever being awful itself.) But at least the celebrities there were playing cartoon versions of themselves. Studio executives actually think the fact that Yogi Bear is voiced by Dan Ackroyd will actually put asses in the seats. Can you understand how dumb an idea that is once I've said it out loud? And how every single producer and director of an animated movie treats a celebrity's marquee value as an actual selling point for said movie instead of the bugfuck crazy idea it actually is? And we all pretend it's normal instead of stupid, and that's why so many animated films suck. I blame Shrek for not entirely starting the trend, but exacerbating it to such an extreme level that literally every animated movie until (checks watch) this one (and fine, The Simpsons), did that shit. And it's stupid and pointless, and makes the entire medium worse.
I think the worst example I have ever seen of this was the one season Dreamworks CGI primetime disaster "Father Of The Pride". Cheryl Hines voiced the mom lion. I am not making that up. Literally an actress whose voice is SO normal-sounding and unmemorable the LAST roles she should be playing are cartoon characters, was the second lead of the most expensive animated TV show ever made at that point. Hines sucked in the role, but Dreamworks hired her because they believed she was actually a name and a draw. How insane and stupid is that? 20 years later the only conversations we still have about that actress is the betting pool for when she actually snaps off the electrical collar and bolts out of her cage from the Kennedy Compound. I have certainly never seen her in a single project, and EVER thought she personally made that project better. She just happens to be "there" in a bunch of popular stuff, so obviously she MUST be an audience draw! Do you understand how stupid animation producers are now?
Disney is not immune to this either. Give me ONE fucking good reason Ginnifer Goodwin plays Officer Judy in Zootopia. Just one. You can't. Because she's terrible at it and she shouldn't be.
I love the twist that the asshole Alien Commander was doing his evil mind control plan to try and save the Earth. That actually tracks with the beginning, which makes it clever, and none of the rest of the movie shoves any real clues about it down our throats, so it's actually a good surprise too. Well done.
I adored the montage action sequence set to R.E.M.'s "It's The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)". That was genuinely excitingly and humorously paced, and actually makes Looney Tunes feel like a real fucking movie for the first time ever.
Honestly, I don't much like most other Looney Tunes films. I recall not thinking Looney Tunes: Back In Action was terrible, but if it wasn't, it also wasn't great, because almost none of it has stuck with me years later. The only other Looney Tunes movie before this that I loved was the Direct To Video cartoon Looney Tunes: Rabbits Run. It's been awhile since I'm seen that phenomenal film, so I can't accurately say whether this film actually tops it or not, but it's the only other Looney Tunes film I liked so much.
I am very glad Ketchup Studios saved this film. It shouldn't have been freaking necessary to begin with, but we live with the sociopaths in charge we actually do, not the leaders and visionaries we actually want and need. Looking forward to Coyote Vs. Acme next. That should be baller. *****.
The Day The Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie
The plan was as I was watching this to give it a really generous 4-and-a-half stars. Half-star deducted for a ton of cliched and cheesy jokes.
And then the movie ends with Farmer Jim's picture hiding a 5 million dollar home insurance policy, covering alien mind control invasions, and I realized this is pretty much the perfect movie after all, and is getting five stars accordingly.
Lots to talk about. Do I get political? Is there anything about David Zaslav, the most hated man in Hollywood, that isn't?
There was no reason for this movie to be canceled and sold to an outside studio. It didn't do great at the box office, but if it had had a legit marketing push and a full run of theaters, it might have done respectably. Zaslav destroying art to collect the insurance money doesn't just destroy art. As far as financial decisions go, it's idiotic. Zaslav was hired to get Warner Bros' budgets under control after a couple of disastrous buy-outs and mergers. The problem is that Zaslav is an idiot. The problem is he's the entire problem with Warner Discovery, and until the board gets rid of him, he always will be. I am not as remotely as excited for James Gunn's DC tenure as most other fans. Zaslav hand-picked him. And he essentially got the job because nobody else was stupid enough to actually work for this trainwreck of a company while Zaslav was ruining the studio's reputation with every writer, actor, and director in Hollywood. If Zaslav believes the guy who delivered the bomb The Suicide Squad is the person who will save DC Studios, I'm thinking that means he isn't. I expect Superman will do quite well at the box office. And I predict it will be the only DC movie going forward that will. James Gunn is NOT the answer. Creature Commandos proved that to me.
Yeah, that's the political section of the review. Probably should discuss this movie. This movie is a tie-in to Looney Tunes Cartoons, and as it came out a year after the last episode of that show hit, it feels sort of like a good series finale. Looney Tunes Cartoons was extremely polarizing. A LOT of people disliked it. For not being funny, for being mean, whatever. A lot of Looney Tunes fans thought it was an inferior update.
I have a different view, and this one might piss you off a LITTLE. I think Looney Tunes Cartoons is one of the most faithful reimaginings of a classic franchise I can ever think of. There has never been a modern Disney cartoon that actually looked and felt like the classics like Looney Tunes Cartoons does. And that's true for every single modern take of Golden Age characters. I feel that Looney Tunes Cartoons got the tone, style, and intention down correctly to the letter, no matter WHAT other fans think.
Here's where you'll hate me. That's the problem. Looney Tunes worked in the 1930's and 40's because you'd see a cartoon and a newsreel before a flick, laugh during it, and that's it. Looney Tunes Cartoons was initially designed to be a LOT more ambitious than it actually turned out to be. When the over 1000 hours of new content was announced, Warner was excitedly promising to put these cartoons everywhere. In front of movies, at resorts, theme parks, cruise ships, TV specials, the works. This was going to be a Looney Tunes marketing push bigger than any other the franchise had ever seen.
It didn't turn out that way. HBO Max was struggling right out of the gate, and the streaming service decided to make the entire franchise streaming-exclusive instead. As such, the way you would now watch these cartoons wasn't one or two at a time in front of a movie. You'd binge several of them at once.
And Looney Tunes is not BUILT for that, man. The amount of Warner Bros Cartoons I would be willing to watch one right after the other is amazingly small. Because the franchise is sour and mean as hell, always has been, and always has disastrous and unhappy endings. Looney Tunes Cartoons' problem wasn't that it was a poor imitation of Looney Tunes. The problem was that it was a flawless representation, and audiences simply have much different tastes in the 2020's. I sure as hell appreciated the staggering amount of detail in every one of those cartoons, while actually ENJOYING very few of them.
As bad as Saturday morning cartoons in the 1980's were, The Bugs Bunny Roadrunner Show was never an actual draw for me. It got old QUICK, even when I was 7.
One of the modern Looney Tunes producers cautioned creators that the difference between the Looney Tunes and the Disney characters is that the Looney Tunes are not friends. They never get along and always dislike each other (or more accurately loathe each other). And while I believe that is usually true, it's also why the franchise can't do much more than it does. Space Jam doesn't work not just for the reasons Chuck Jones says. Not just because Bugs Bunny would defeat the Mon-Stars himself in five minutes. But because he would never team up with the other Looney Tunes to begin with. He HATES every single one of those motherfuckers.
For me, the best modern Looney Tunes projects ignore that rule entirely. The Looney Tunes Show was another polarizing cartoon as it aired, but I freaking loved it the entire time, and hindsight and distance has earned it raves and accolades from the fans, especially for Lola Bunny and Daffy Duck. And I think the reason the sitcom premise held together at all is because the show said Bugs, Daffy, and Porky are close and best friends. It was able to do so much with a basic sitcom premise just for that simple change.
Making Porky and Daffy best friends and family in this movie is a big reason this works so well in a way Looney Tunes Cartoons, which followed the "They all hate each other" thing to the letter, never could.
One thing I WILL give Looney Tunes Cartoons shit over is their interpretation of Petunia Pig. She had this obnoxious New Yawk accent, and was repeatedly getting injured because the producers don't understand it's not funny watching a female cartoon character getting hurt unless it's Futurama's Amy Wong. But every bit of Petunia made me cringe. She wasn't the worst character (that would be Porky's sociopathic nephew Cicero) but she was second worst easily.
I find the quirky, nerdy Petunia far less interesting, far more likable, and far easier to take. When I heard she was the third lead, I groaned, because I thought they were going to do the latest abuse-victim version. They didn't, which was smart. And a relief.
Another thing I believe this movie deserves a LOT of credit for is the lack of celebrity headliners. Wayne Knight and Larraine Newman have small roles, but the biggest name in the cast is Ally McBeal's Peter MacNicol as the Alien Commander, hired for his voice instead of his marquee value. You can tell this because although he is a bigger celebrity than both Eric Bauza and Candi Milo, they are both billed both first and second before him.
Goddam, I wish more animated films were as respectful of the voice talent as this was! Frankly, it's the first animated movie I've seen in decades that properly bills the voice talent over the celebrities. (Well, okay, The Simpsons Movie too).
Celebrities in cartoons always annoy me. I don't listen to the characters they play and believe in the character. I wonder where I've heard the voice before, and once I place it, the cartoon character stops being the cartoon character and turns into the celebrity. I have a sneaking suspicion talented animated casting directors for TV cartoons have an inkling of how narratively damaging this actually is, but until this film, they never had any say about it. Ketchup Studios is out of fucks to give there.
Seriously. Name ONE person, a SINGLE one, who ever said, "Let's take the kids to the new Scooby Doo cartoon because Zac Efron is voicing Fred." Nobody has EVER said that. Nobody watches a Scooby Doo cartoon for the celebrity voices (the recent TV Series Guess Who, Scooby Doo actually understood this, and slyly poked fun at that idea every week. It was sublime meta commentary about how awful old Scooby Doo is, without ever being awful itself.) But at least the celebrities there were playing cartoon versions of themselves. Studio executives actually think the fact that Yogi Bear is voiced by Dan Ackroyd will actually put asses in the seats. Can you understand how dumb an idea that is once I've said it out loud? And how every single producer and director of an animated movie treats a celebrity's marquee value as an actual selling point for said movie instead of the bugfuck crazy idea it actually is? And we all pretend it's normal instead of stupid, and that's why so many animated films suck. I blame Shrek for not entirely starting the trend, but exacerbating it to such an extreme level that literally every animated movie until (checks watch) this one (and fine, The Simpsons), did that shit. And it's stupid and pointless, and makes the entire medium worse.
I think the worst example I have ever seen of this was the one season Dreamworks CGI primetime disaster "Father Of The Pride". Cheryl Hines voiced the mom lion. I am not making that up. Literally an actress whose voice is SO normal-sounding and unmemorable the LAST roles she should be playing are cartoon characters, was the second lead of the most expensive animated TV show ever made at that point. Hines sucked in the role, but Dreamworks hired her because they believed she was actually a name and a draw. How insane and stupid is that? 20 years later the only conversations we still have about that actress is the betting pool for when she actually snaps off the electrical collar and bolts out of her cage from the Kennedy Compound. I have certainly never seen her in a single project, and EVER thought she personally made that project better. She just happens to be "there" in a bunch of popular stuff, so obviously she MUST be an audience draw! Do you understand how stupid animation producers are now?
Disney is not immune to this either. Give me ONE fucking good reason Ginnifer Goodwin plays Officer Judy in Zootopia. Just one. You can't. Because she's terrible at it and she shouldn't be.
I love the twist that the asshole Alien Commander was doing his evil mind control plan to try and save the Earth. That actually tracks with the beginning, which makes it clever, and none of the rest of the movie shoves any real clues about it down our throats, so it's actually a good surprise too. Well done.
I adored the montage action sequence set to R.E.M.'s "It's The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)". That was genuinely excitingly and humorously paced, and actually makes Looney Tunes feel like a real fucking movie for the first time ever.
Honestly, I don't much like most other Looney Tunes films. I recall not thinking Looney Tunes: Back In Action was terrible, but if it wasn't, it also wasn't great, because almost none of it has stuck with me years later. The only other Looney Tunes movie before this that I loved was the Direct To Video cartoon Looney Tunes: Rabbits Run. It's been awhile since I'm seen that phenomenal film, so I can't accurately say whether this film actually tops it or not, but it's the only other Looney Tunes film I liked so much.
I am very glad Ketchup Studios saved this film. It shouldn't have been freaking necessary to begin with, but we live with the sociopaths in charge we actually do, not the leaders and visionaries we actually want and need. Looking forward to Coyote Vs. Acme next. That should be baller. *****.
no subject
Date: 2025-07-02 11:58 pm (UTC)AMC has now put out a disclaimer that moviegoers will basically be getting over a half hour of previews. You got the cringey Nicole Kidman insert, and then you have the pop culture movie trivia segment no one pays attention to.
1940s cinema had enough decency and respect for its patrons that something of merit like Looney Tunes could even be considered.
Even though it took an abysmal amount of weeks, it still feels good that the movie at least made its shit back.
I was proud of myself for supporting the original ATHF movie around the time. So much was stacked against it, especially for 2007. If the Bomb Scare hadn’t happened, the only recognition received would still be uninformed rags wanting to tear it to pieces.
Not that I’m above anyone not liking ATHFCMFFT but it was the lack of research that was disrespectful.
The budget there was what allowed for it to be a play-safe success. It’s weird I can even vaguely compare the release of a Looney Tunes movie to an Aqua Teen movie.
Looney Tunes trying to maintain success in the 21st Century makes it seem like it’s some Krusty The Clown type popularity status. A ten million(?) dollar franchise, at that.
Suppose it could be worse. Flintstones only exists through cereal and fiber tablets.
no subject
Date: 2025-07-03 12:05 am (UTC)I'm glad this movie made its money back.