Writers: Darrick Bachman, Peter Browngardt, Kevin Costello et al
Director: Peter Browngardt
Just in time for half term, Porky Pig and Daffy Duck join forces to save the world from an alien mutant gum threatening to turn the entire human race into possessed zombies. Anyone deploring the noisy mastication of chewing gum in public spaces will rejoice in this nihilistic attempt to eradicate this terrible habit forever. Looney Tunes: The Day the Earth Blew Up is the latest movie revival for decades’ old characters that will have a big nostalgia factor for parents and grandparents even if the story itself is exhausting in its frequent peril.
When the house that Porky Pig and Daffy Duck share is threatened with condemnation by an evil House Inspector, the pair find jobs in a chewing gum factory in the hopes of repairing the roof, while Porky also meets brilliant scientist Petunia. But unbeknownst to them all, their gum becomes infected with an alien goo that turns humans into zombies and seems to have a monstrous life of its own in the wild.
This hapless Looney Tunes duo begin their story with an Inside the Factory-style adventure explaining the process of gum making and, thanks to Petunia, why the new flavour is disastrous even before it becomes contaminated. It never makes sense why Daffy in particular is so attached to their dreadful, ramshackle house with plumbing issues, huge holes and a variety of creatures cohabiting with the farmyard pair – surely an excuse to find a better home – but the montage of their attempts at different kinds of work is fun, especially with the knowledge that neither has ever worked before, a self-awareness that feels a little more contemporary than these aged animations might suggest.
But the plot does seem over-extended and although the set pieces are good, there are just so many of them across a 90-minute film. If an adult’s attention might wander, it’s also going to struggle to hold children beyond the first couple of chapters, the lurching jeopardy fairly unsustainable as dangers pile on until watching becomes a little exhausting. As the plot unfolds, the premise becomes thinner and thinner as the solutions become more outlandish. It’s certainly imaginative but could have been two or three shorter episodes with a stronger focus on the central friendship and personal learning than the gung-ho heroic adventure becomes.
Petunia is a welcome addition, an authoritative and intelligent female lead who provides the scientific answers to many of the problems the trio encounter, incorporating her well into a tale about saving the world and faceless capitalism. There are also some well managed comedy moments when Porky falls for her with his rose-tinted view and the reality, leading to some clever animation.
But by the time the earth is threatened with the full might of the alien chewing gum empire, you might just feel a little worn out by the relentlessness of it all, but if it creates a world of responsible gum chewers, maybe it’s worth it.
Looney Tunes: The Day the Earth Blew Up is in UK & Irish cinemas from 13th February 2026.
