This Is Why Bugs Bunny Doesn’t Even Appear in the New Looney Tunes Movie, ‘The Day the Earth Blew Up’

The Looney Tunes have been entertaining us for nearly a century, yet in all that time, they’ve never had their own fully animated theatrical movie. Sure, they’ve appeared in hybrid movies like Space Jam and compilation films that cram old shorts together in new packaging, but a brand new, full-on cartoon movie has never been done — until now.

The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie, which is set to be released today, tells the story of an alien invasion thwarted by Daffy Duck and Porky Pig (along with some help from Petunia Pig). Inspired by the classic Looney Tunes shorts of Bob Clampett, The Day the Earth Blew Up is a hilarious, gag-filled adventure that keeps the characters fresh, fun, and most of all, funny for its entire 91 minutes.

The film’s director, Pete Browngardt — best known for creating Cartoon Network’s Uncle Grandpa — first got to showcase his take on the classic Looney Tunes characters in the new shorts Max began developing in 2020. Browngardt is assisted by Eric Bauza, a prolific voice actor who voices both Daffy and Porky. Bauza has voiced Looney Tunes characters for more than a decade and also has a habit of spontaneously breaking into the voices of the classic characters almost involuntarily. 

Both Browngardt and Bauza recently spoke with me about the movie’s biggest inspirations, its bold art style and why Bugs Bunny wasn’t the right character to lead the first fully-animated Looney Tunes film.

To kick things off, how did the idea for this movie start?

Browngardt: I was making a thousand minutes of Looney Tunes shorts for Max — I started in 2017 — and I put the crew together and we were really into it. We were making them and having a really good time. And, while we were in production with that, the people at Warner Bros. came to me and asked if I had an idea for a movie project starring Looney Tunes. So, I went away and thought about it for a while, then I scheduled a meeting and said, “What if Porky and Daffy were in an Ed Wood movie?” That was my verbal pitch and I had mocked up some designs to show them and they went for it.

Bauza: They said, “Is there any way we could fit Harry Potter in this as well?” We said, (breaks into Daffy voice) “Absolutely not!”

Speaking of that though, was there ever any pressure to have more Looney Tunes characters in this? Because it’s just Daffy, Porky and Petunia.

Browngardt: I expected that conversation to happen. Petunia was a must. They wanted Petunia, which makes sense to me because she’s in the same “Porky and Daffy Land” in my head. But, to their credit, they were true to their word when they said we could make a movie with just Porky and Daffy, which is nice because, in my opinion, Looney Tunes work best when they’re in their pairings that they were created in. When you start grouping them together like the Muppets or something like that, I don’t feel like, comedically, they’re as successful — the archetypes don’t play off each other correctly.

I’m very curious about your take on Daffy and why he’s more the silly, Bob Clampett-style Daffy as opposed to the more bitter Chuck Jones-type Daffy that people might be more familiar with?

Browngardt: I love screwball, wacky characters and I understand why Daffy sort of became the greedy asshole in the later ones — it’s because that archetype plays better off of Bugs — but the Clampett Daffy plays better off the world, in a way. Also, when you’re pairing Porky and Daffy as a duo, having an unhinged character with a straight character is the perfect buddy scenario.

Bauza: Most of the Daffy and Porky shorts that I love, the question I ask myself is, “How is Daffy going to ruin Porky’s day today?” and I always look forward to it, morbidly. That’s how it plays out in this movie. It plays on something that we know. And we really do get deep. We go to the breaking point of their friendship and relationship — even their brotherhood in this one — and it’s fitting because you have to go there on the big screen.

I’m guessing that you knew that going in, right? That, to sustain these characters — who are built for seven-minute shorts — you had to go deeper than before.

Browngardt: It was a must. We can entertain an audience for maybe 15 or 20 minutes with just jokes, but if you want them to invest in 90 minutes of storytelling, you have to have some heart and some emotional change in the characters. Now, we didn’t want to reinvent Porky and Daffy or have them become a “new” Daffy and Porky by the end. I looked at comedies like Dumb and Dumber, Borat or even Pee-wee, that kind of thing where a character learns a lesson and has an experience, but they’re not a changed character.

Nobody wants growth with Porky and Daffy.

Browngardt: Exactly. It’s like the end of Dumb and Dumber. They had that whole thing and then the bus full of bikini models shows up and it’s right back to square one. You always want that in a good comedy with big, over-the-top characters.

Bauza, I know you’re a fan of the classic Looney Tunes shorts, is there a classic short that still works as a guidepost for you for getting the voices or that relationship down?

Bauza: With Porky and Daffy, I’d say The Ducksters. Boobs in the Woods is another good one where Porky’s out in the forest having a great time and Daffy comes in with all these disguises and he’s just messing with him. There’s no rhyme or reason to it other than just to annoy Porky.

Pete, same question, are there any shorts that guided you?

Browngardt: There are so many. Boobs in the Woods is great. Porky Pig’s Feet, the (Frank) Tashlin cartoon, I love. Anything from mid-1940s Clampett, right before he left the studio, is, I think, where he perfected it. He grew so much as an artist. Every cartoon he made at Warner Bros. progressed the art form, or he pushed himself and pushed his artists to make some of the most entertaining pieces ever done. Really, all of the Clampett universe was the big inspiration, especially with the design of the film.

Was there ever any pressure to make the film look a little more Space Jam-like, with the later, more standard looks of the characters?

Browngardt: To their credit, Warner Bros. animation was really hands off with the art style. They trusted us. It’s a rare thing. Our film is a unicorn in the landscape of animation, for sure.

It’s also rare in that it’s an animated movie, in theaters, that didn’t cost $100 million or $200 million to make.

Browngardt: $15 million. That’s another reason why they leave you alone too. You keep your costs down, and they won’t have the microscope on you.

Why is there more meat on the bone for a Daffy and Porky movie as opposed to a Bugs Bunny movie, which some might assume would be the go-to character?

Bauza: I think, like it is in this movie, they have everything to lose. They only have a little, and they’re on the verge of even losing that.

Browngardt: Also, Porky and Daffy don’t want to kill each other. With Bugs and Elmer, it’s predator and prey, but in this situation, Porky and Daffy are in this together. It’s an easier in to tell a story. It’s these two guys, down on their luck, and they’re trying to make it in this crazy world.

It’s also kind of like, “Why is Batman better than Superman?” Batman’s more flawed, but Superman’s perfect, which isn’t interesting. Bugs isn’t perfect, but he’s not as flawed. But, if they want to make more Looney Tunes movies, I do think there are ways to make stories with Bugs or any of the guys.

Bauza: My idea for a Bugs movie would be like a Cannonball Run, where you see the one situation and then there’s a domino effect. Not only is Elmer after him, and then he happens to chase through and meet Yosemite Sam and then Yosemite is after him too — a chase picture.

There must be characters who wouldn’t work though, right? My favorite character is Foghorn Leghorn, but he’s so one-dimensional that I can’t imagine he could sustain a movie.

Bauza: (In Foghorn Leghorn voice])Whatcha trying to say about me there, Brian? That I’m a few McNuggets shy of a Happy Meal?

That’s hilarious. As for more obscure characters, I caught references in the movie to Gabby Goat and Beans. Are there other Easter eggs we should be on the lookout for?

Browngardt: We called the diner where they meet Petunia “Clampett’s Diner.” And, actually, Bob Clampett’s daughter, Ruth, does the voice of the waitress. It was such an honor, we got to have lunch with her and she told some great stories about her dad and her family and stuff. It was really, really nice.