The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		3.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		4.0

The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie Blu-ray Movie Review

No Bugs? No problem.

Reviewed by Randy Miller III May 28, 2025

In a perfect world, The Day the Earth Blew Up would have enjoyed a successful, fully studio-backed theatrical release and earned home video packages on every format, including 4K. However, since mainline Warner Bros. apparently has no lasting interest in the Looney Tunes brand (see also: Coyote vs. Acme), this long-delayed animated feature film has been brought to us on Blu-ray by Ketchup Entertainment, a relatively new independent American distributor whose only other recognizable title in the last several years was Brian Taylor's Hellboy: The Crooked Man. It's safe to say that very few people saw this coming so, despite the fact that The Day the Earth Blew Up ain't exactly a well-rounded Blu-ray effort, the mere fact that it exists should have fans fervently clicking that "Buy Now" button up there.

Don't look a $13.99 horse in the mouth.

A zany combo of The Stuff and throwback 1950s sci-fi starring Daffy Duck and Porky Pig (both voiced by Eric Bauza), The Day the Earth Blew Up opens with a quizzical scientist (Fred Tatasciore) witnessing a UFO crash-landing that yields large traces of glowing green goo. It then changes course to a brief origin story for Daffy and Porky as orphans raised by kindly Farmer Jim (Fred Tatasciore), who walks off into the sunset years later with one simple request: take care of the house. They don't, of course, which means that snooty HOA president Mrs. Grecht (Laraine Newman) finally gets to enforce a 10-day inspection deadline with an eviction penalty. They now need to fix a huge hole in their roof laced with that green goo found all around town including the nearby Goodie Gum Factory, who's ready to launch a new product. Despondent about the dilemma, Daffy and Porky take a break at Clampett's Diner when in walks lovely Petunia Pig (Candi Milo), a flavor scientist at Goodie who helpfully sets them up with a job to earn some money.

The new gig goes about as poorly as their previous attempts to raise cash... but before they're sent packing, Daffy pieces together the idea that Goodie's new flavor has a curious, zombie-like mind control effect on anyone who tries it. His warnings go unheeded and the threat magnifies when an alien being known as "The Invader" (Peter MacNicol) is seen watching from above. While the fate of the world apparently hinges on people's newfound addiction to "Super Strongberry Gum", it's eventually up to Porky, Daffy, Petunia, and other new friends to jump back in action.

For context, Warner Animation's decades-long string of feature films -- mostly of the direct-to-video kind, and usually starring DC superheroes -- has been extremely hit or miss, but The Day the Earth Blew Up represents one of their best efforts in recent years. This fun and funny attempt to resurrect an ancient franchise for newer audiences succeeds in a way that films like Scoob! absolutely didn't, keeping the spirit of the characters alive while gently ushering them into modern times. The plot is pleasantly nonsensical, the character animation and expressions are fantastic, voice work is solid (although Bauza's gauzy takes on Daffy and Porky really do sound like one person talking to themselves), and the humor retains a refreshingly slight edge without venturing into full-on crassness. Quite simply, there's a lot to like here whether you're 8 or 80 and, while only time will tell if this film holds up to plenty of repeat viewings, I've got a good feeling that The Day the Earth Blew Up will age fairly well... even if it doesn't earn the teased sequel.

For an even slightly more positive take on this film, please read Brian Orndorf's theatrical review.

Most Looney Tunes fans, even the most enthusiastic ones, missed The Day the Earth Blew Up in theaters due to its blink-and-you'll miss it run back in March and will thus be introduced to the film via Ketchup's new Blu-ray. Currently priced to move at less than $15, this essentially movie-only disc doesn't earn top ratings in any category but it's still very much recommended to fans because you can actually own a copy. Whether or not a stronger (4K?) overseas release materializes, as it thankfully did last year for Hellboy: The Crooked Man, remains to be seen.

The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Inarguably the best part of this Blu-ray, Ketchup Entertainment's 1080p transfer of The Day the Earth Blew Up does a consistently decent job with its source material; at worst, it's maybe a half-step down from what Warner Bros. would've released themselves. As seen in these direct-from disc screenshots, this is a solid-looking image that sports great color representation, deep black levels, and a very stable overall appearance. Slight encoding drawbacks can be spotted on occasion, including mild amounts of banding and posterization (none more evident than those deep blue gradients in the night sky, seen in screenshot #26) and even traces of flickering on certain fine lines. That said, it's nothing major and not really distracting in motion, while the film itself runs at a decently supportive bit rate in the mid-20Mbps range on this single layered disc. (A beefier bit rate on a 50GB Blu-ray might have yielded stronger results, though that's not always guaranteed.) I'm fairly happy with how this looks overall, but a 4K disc would've been great to see given the film's Dolby Vision theatrical grading. Sadly, that will likely only be provided by an international release.

The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Maintaining the Ketchup Entertainment curse of lossy audio, The Day the Earth Blew Up is sadly saddled with a Dolby Digital 5.1 track. Luckily it's at least encoded at a semi-robust 640kpbs which places it well above typical DVD quality, and to my ears still packs a sporadically heavy punch due to the abundance of sci-fi action and adventure on display here. Dialogue is clean and crisp -- except for that above-mentioned slight gauziness of Bauza's character voices, which is unavoidably -- and effects are well-prioritized, from forceful explosions to the heavy roar of flamethrowers (above) and Daffy's habitual tendency to "Woo-hoo!" all up in the side and rear channels. The original score and soundtrack, credited to composer Joshua Moshier with occasional classic song cuts by the likes of Bryan Adams, R.E.M. and others, also adds its own weight when needed. While it's inarguable that a lossless track would've been ideal (especially in its listed original 7.1 format as heard in theaters), this downmix still makes for a decent listen.

The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This one-disc release ships in a keepcase with poster-themed cover art and a matching slipcover. Both spines feature the most hilariously small title print you'll likely ever see on home video and might as well be completely blank. (If you need a graphic designer, guys, PM me.) Sadly, the near-total lack of extras here is another strike against it.

• Theatrical Trailer (1:01) - This short promotional piece can also be seen here.

The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Day the Earth Blew Up is a fine return to form for Looney Tunes, one that doesn't depend on an all-star cast or celebrity voices to win over long-time fans or new audiences. Featuring a great script, expressive animation, colorful characters, and plenty of jokes (most of which land successfully), it's a terrific effort that should undoubtedly find its audience after an all-too-brief theatrical run. Ketchup Entertainment's new Blu-ray isn't a great effort by any stretch, sporting decent visuals but lossy audio, no real extras, and even bad packaging design. That said, it's cheap and it actually exists, so send a message to Warner Bros. by buying it immediately. Firmly Recommended.