Warner Bros. Discovery Continues to Screw Over ‘Looney Tunes’

It’s no secret that Warner Bros. Discovery has treated some of the company’s most iconic characters with as much care and respect as Sylvester the Cat gives to Tweety Bird. After shelving a completed Batgirl spin-off and a new Scooby-Doo movie, just so that they could be used as tax write-offs, the corporation made headlines for similarly scrapping the release of the promising, and 100 percent complete, Looney Tunes feature Coyote vs. Acme.

Man, this company would sell off Humphrey Bogart’s bones if they thought it would save them a few bucks. 

One silver lining to this depressing turn of events: Warners still had another feature length Looney Tunes project in the pipeline: The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie, a sci-fi parody in which Daffy Duck and Porky Pig battle mind-controlling aliens. 

The Day the Earth Blew Up made its world premiere last month at The Annecy International Animation Film Festival in France, where it received rave reviews. IGN called it “one of the funniest movies of the year.” Variety claimed that “the entire project … is crafted with love and a genuine respect for the franchise.” And Screen Daily hailed the movie as “a high-intensity onslaught of manic hilarity that combines knowing gags which should delight older Looney Tunes fans and a frantic silliness that will likely electrify younger audiences.”

So when will we get to see it? 

That remains to be seen.

Directed by Peter Browngardt, who helmed the recent batch of streaming Looney Tunes shorts and created the Cartoon Network’s Uncle Grandpa, The Day the Earth Blew Up currently has no U.S. release scheduled. It was originally set to be released directly to HBO Max, aka Max, but was one of a number of projects that was shopped around due to corporate restructuring. 

Last year it was reported that Warner Bros. Animation had tapped GFM Animation to sell the worldwide distribution rights to The Day the Earth Blew Up, but as a theatrical release, making it the “first-ever fully animated Looney Tunes feature-length movie created for a movie theater audience.” At the time, Cartoon Brew noted that farming out “global theatrical sales of the film to a third-party” like GFM was “an unusual approach for the company.”

While the film has secured a release date in Germany, on August 1st, with “several other international markets to follow,” the movie is reportedly “still looking for U.S. distribution,” which is more than a little frustrating considering that this project originated with one of the oldest and most famous film distribution companies in the world.

I guess we should just be happy that The Day the Earth Blew Up hasn’t been given the Coyote vs. Acme treatment, which was tantamount to being unceremoniously buried in an unmarked cartoon grave. But if Warner Bros. Discovery can’t find a way to release a movie starring some of America’s most enduring and beloved pop-culture characters in America, what is even the point of this company?

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