Warner Bros. Is still milking speech impediments for humor. Honestly? I’m kind of impressed. Warner Bros. has seen a revolution in empathy and PC behavior and said, “Hey, we’re sticking with the speech impediment thing.” And, so, in this prequel of sorts to Looney Tunes mania decades upon decades after creation, Porky Pig still stutters and Daffy Duck still has a lisp.
And we wouldn’t have it any other way, because, gosh, what else defines these guys?
Apparently, these two iconic figures are both orphan brothers. The Day the Earth Blew Up tells of an abandoned piglet and duckling raised by a stout drawing. Kindly and supremely masculine Farmer Jim, whose lips move if his body never does, discovers these baby animal hors d’oeuvers on his farm one day and decides to take them in, raise them, and gives them the house when he dies of animation shock three panels later. And that’s how Daffy (voice of Eric Bauza) and Porky (also, Eric Bauza) become homeowners and co-tenants.
This is all going swimmingly until a meteor rips open the roof of the house, something our heroes do not discover until they fail a house inspection, which seems an odd way to need money in a film like this. But they do need money, so the two “adults” go out into the working world to find gainful employment. This proves exceedingly difficult as the two have no employable skills and refuse to be separated. (Although it is clear here that Porky might stand a chance on his own; their employment status is often hindered by Daffy’s insanity.)
After meeting flavor scientist and porcine love interest Petunia Pig (Candi Milo), Porky and Daffy get a job in the bubble gum factory which is suddenly turning out zombifying consumer products. Dudes, if it turns you into a zombie, have you thought about NOT buying the bubble gum? I suppose that isn’t how a film like this works. We the audience would also be deprived of a genuinely good joke when the boys after celebrating their first successful shift of 
anything say this can continue “as long as the plot doesn’t twist” -at which point the screen flashes the word “FORESHADOWING” in all caps.
So it’s like this – there’s an alien using tainted bubble gum to control the population of Earth, and the only two who can do anything about it are Porky and Daffy (and possibly Petunia). I’m so not a fan of conspiracy theories these days – and even less so of true conspiracies, and the country has gone to Hell because of them. [No sane population would do anything but laugh at things like birtherism or pizzagate, much less elect the foremost proponent of said idiocy, but hey, it’s a cartoon; our kids have gotta learn this stuff somewhere, right? Which all sounds good as long as they’re not taking the wrong lessons from this, but who would do that?]
I’m going to ignore all the conspiracy stuff for the time being and evaluate this animated film almost entirely on entertainment value.
Did I enjoy this? Meh
Did I laugh? A little
Did it keep me awake? Yes, TBH
Is that enough to recommend the film? Hmmmmm … I’d rather be watching something Minion related. No question.‘
There are cartoons in which you learn things and then there are cartoons in which, well, hey, maybe scientific understanding is overrated. I mean, it’s not called “Looney Tunes” because it has a basic understanding of scholastic endeavors … or even basic spelling. All of that is irrelevant. I totally understand; I never turned on Bugs Bunny because I wanted to learn something, just to be entertained. Ok, granted. So, how entertaining is this film? I’m pretty sure the answer is :shrug: Ummm, kinda entertaining, I suppose? No, it doesn’t have to be more than that, I suppose. But I also was hoping for at least one laugh-out-loud side-splitting joke in re-living 91 minutes of my childhood. I didn’t get it.
A pig and a duck with impedimented speech
Stumble upon an existential breach
Can these two save the Earth
With a skill set of dearth?
Probably not, but at least they won’t preach
Rated PG, 91 Minutes
Director: Peter Browngardt
Writer: Darrick Bachman. Peter Browngardt
Genre: A looney look back
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: Have you got a case of the sillies?
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: People who like their humor a little deeper
