Pay Attention Son! Here’s a Ranking of Every Looney Tunes Movie
Most Looney Tunes movies that made it to theaters in the past deserved to be hit with a few sticks of dynamite. But that’s not the case with The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie, out now in theaters. Unlike many of its predecessors, The Day the Earth Blew Up is neither over-budgeted nor underwhelming; in fact, it manages to capture the spirit of the original Looney Tunes shorts, especially those of director Bob Clampett, pretty wonderfully.
While each of the classic Looney Tunes directors had their own unique stamp, Clampett’s cartoons were generally regarded as the silliest and most unpredictable, which is precisely what we see with The Day the Earth Blew Up. Starring Daffy Duck and Porky Pig in a Dumb and Dumber-like buddy comedy in which the duo must save the planet from an alien invasion, the film is a gag-filled romp. Sure, the high-stakes antics are great, but the movie also hilariously depicts their dysfunctional everyday life (the insane Daffy Duck and his timid comedic straight man Porky can’t hold steady jobs and live in a run-down house).
Yet this fully animated movie isn’t just a retread of humor from the 1940s. Instead, it explores the duo’s Odd Couple-like dynamic and provides more depth to each character — as well as their relationship to one another. Thankfully, none of this comes at the expense of a good joke. With the danger of sounding trite, it really is fun for all ages — from little kids to old grumps like me who think the Looney Tunes haven’t been all that funny since Dwight Eisenhower was president.
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But how does The Day the Earth Blew Up measure up against the Looney Tunes theatrical films of the past? Assuming I haven’t tipped my hand too much already, my official ranking is below.
Space Jam: A New Legacy
Did anyone like this movie? The $150 million trainwreck managed to make a bit of a profit in theaters, but the film was overstuffed with characters from every franchise Warner Bros. could think of. Can anyone explain why Batman, Harry Potter, Lion-O, Boo-Boo Bear, Space Ghost, Godzilla and even the well-forgotten Osmosis Jones are in a Looney Tunes movie? No. No one can. And, it wasn’t funny either. It was just bad all around.
Space Jam
If you were a kid in the ‘90s, the realization that Space Jam isn’t a good movie was one of the first signs that you were growing up. While Michael Jordan does his best, he’s hardly got the acting chops to carry a full-length film. And the Looney Tunes characters themselves weren’t any better. Their edgy humor in the original shorts is watered down into nothing for this 88-minute nap of a movie. Still, there is some misplaced nostalgia out there for Space Jam, which is why it just barely beats out the new one here.
Coyote vs Acme
Even though no one has seen the shelved-for-tax-purposes Coyote vs. Acme, Will Forte playing Wile E. Coyote’s lawyer promises to be more watchable than either Space Jam, any day. Perhaps The Day the Earth Blew Up does well enough at the box office to convince Warner Bros. to release the live-action courtroom cartoon. Or, if that doesn’t convince them, we hope they do it just to make Forte feel better.
Looney Tunes: Back in Action
Looney Tunes: Back in Action isn’t perfect, but it gets much closer to capturing the true spirit of the Looney Tunes characters than the Space Jam films ever did. While the plot is a convoluted mess surrounding a mind-controlling diamond, the 2003 live-action animated comedy — starring Brendan Fraser, Jenna Elfman and Steve Martin — is packed with great jokes. Exhibit A: When Bugs Bunny is about to die, Daffy gets on his phone to sell off his Warner Bros. stock before it tanks.
The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie
The Day the Earth Blew Up is, without a doubt, the best Looney Tunes film to date. It’s fresh, funny and nicely captures the spirit of the era where the characters were at their best. With a $15 million budget — versus, say, $150 million for Space Jam: A New Legacy — The Day the Earth Blew Up is the kind of fun movie Warner Bros. should be making with these characters, as opposed to the bloated messes at the top of this list. Seriously, can someone please explain to me why Harry Potter was in a movie with Daffy Duck?