Porky Pig and Daffy Duck are Earth's only hope when facing the threat of alien invasion. (from IMDB)

Sometimes new movies just sneak their way into theaters without much of a peep. The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie is a quirky title that I think I had seen one preview for before another movie at the theater and then heard nothing else about. Suddenly, the movie was out and in theaters. And its reception? Shockingly positive.

Warner Bros. has been seeing tumultuous days as of late. A title like The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie looks and sounds like the kind the studio regularly releases straight-to-disc and streaming, but something about it clearly inspired one of the mucky-mucks in charge to give it a theatrical run. Honestly, I have to admit I'm glad they did, because I don't think I would have ever seen it otherwise.

The Day the Earth Blew Up is an interesting movie, because it aims to be several different things to a variety of audiences. First off, the character design is straight out of early Looney Tunes, and the whole movie has a 1950's alien invasion / film noir feel to it. The animation style is a mix of modern-day and classic; it was most likely all done on computers, but there's a hand-drawn look to most of it. The humor itself is very Looney Tunes, but it also mixes in some more modern gross-out humor, with several instances flashing me back to the gross-out style of Ren & Stimpy. (Heck, if you told me the showrunners for that 90's show helmed this, I wouldn't doubt it.) This odd mix of classic and modern often works here, but the gross-out moments sometimes feel too far out of left field that they're jarring and certainly not always funny.

While the title may suggest you'll get to see Bugs, Daffy, Foghorn and the whole crew, this is actually exclusively a Porky Pig and Daffy Ducky story. This isn't a bad thing, however. In fact, it may serve the story better because of it. The Day the Earth Blew Up focuses entirely on these two - even showing us how they met and were raised together on a farm (which also offers some of the movie's best gags). But along the way, I often expected loads of cameos from other Looney Tunes favorites - or even Warner characters (Seriously, I half expected a Pinky and the Brain cameo, too) - but they never show. And honestly, that works in the movie's favor. How many times do we watch something, like a Marvel movie or Star Wars entry, and find ourselves just waiting for the next surprise cameo? It's distracting and, when it inevitably happens, it feels too self-aware. Another thing The Day the Earth Blew Up avoids is too many modern pop culture spoofs. It sticks closely to the alien invasion / noir vibe and this allows the movie to come into its own. At times, yes, it feels like a feature-length cartoon episode of a show, but overall, it delivers on the global catastrophic scale that warrants its big screen presentation.

The Day the Earth Blew Up is as bizarre in nature as you can imagine - especially if you've seen the movie trailer. Daffy is as zany as ever and this makes his scenes especially funny. It's strange that this movie released in March, though - just a week before Spring - because it basically feels tailor-made for Halloween/spooky movie season. The alien invasion causes people to turn into mind-controlled zombies, and it's often quite creepy - especially when things like living eyeballs are seen in victims' mouths, or a gelatinous, tentacled creature chases our heroes like something straight out of a horror movie. There's tons of silliness here, but, particularly for children, this can be a pretty scary flick.

Regarding content, PG is a fair rating. There is no profanity, save for an "Oh my L-rd" or possible "G-d," or something along those lines. There is, however, some crude humor peppered in. There's a pretty funny gag where Porky sees Petunia Pig in a diner and is immediately smitten. Daffy looks over to see what is catching Porky's eye and sees a sign near Petunia advertising pie. Thinking he knows exactly what is enticing his buddy, Daffy launches into a slew of double entendres regarding the pie and Petunia - genuinely thinking his buddy wants pie, but everything he's saying sounds like he's going to help Porky win over Petunia (Daffy says something like "Boy, does that look delicious. I bet you want a piece of that, huh, buddy?" and "I'll get you some of that tasty dish"). Another scene shows Daffy's bare (pink) butt crack when they're fixing cracks in a sidewalk. Later, Daffy gets the idea of making racy videos to become popular on social media, mocking the world of TikTok, and we see his inflated butt cheeks as he twerks and shakes it for the videos. Then there's a weird scene where Porky awkwardly falls and Petunia's foot ends up in his mouth and we see drool draping over her foot in his mouth. A human woman character is shown as quite shapely, but there's no nudity. Finally, there is plenty of slapstick violence, but it's all played for laughs. And the alien villain is pretty creepy, as are the human people of Earth when they're turned into mind-controlled zombies.

I saw a bit of trivia calling this the very first feature-length animated Looney Tunes movie ever released to theaters. It's pretty amazing to think it's taken this long to make that happen. And with this movie being that debut, it seems like a bizarre choice. However, it's a fun one, and one that just might get better with repeat viewings. I'd say it's probably unnecessary to run out to see in theaters, but if you're looking for some silly animated entertainment, you can certainly do worse than The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie. I kind of hope this is the beginning of more Looney Tunes theatrical features.