Where there’s a will, there’s a wabbit. Or in this case, a duck and pig. Back on the big screen 90 years after Porky’s debut in March of 1935, The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie celebrates the dynamic energy that has defined Looney Tunes for generations. Created by Warner Bros. Animation, distributed by Ketchup Entertainment, and directed by Pete Browngardt, the 2D hand-drawn adventure reimagines the wacky world of Looney Tunes while retaining the essence of its iconic stars, that beloved, daft duo Porky Pig and Daffy Duck.
The filmmakers pay homage to the golden age of animation in the first-ever fully animated theatrical feature for the lovable Looney Tunes. Browngardt, the seasoned director and executive producer behind “Uncle Grandpa” and the Max series “Looney Tunes Cartoons,” uses modern techniques to push the boundaries of animation while preserving the zany spirit of the original shorts. Voice artist Eric Bauza, known for his extensive work on the likes of “Looney Tunes Cartoons” and Space Jam: A New Legacy, voices both characters, staying true to the iconic personalities originally crafted by ‘The Man of a Thousand Voices,’ Mel Blanc.
When Daffy and Porky’s misadventures lead them to unintentionally uncover a world domination enterprise masterminded by extraterrestrials at a local bubblegum factory, they become Earth’s unlikely heroes. A tribute to the timeless cartoons of decades past, The Day the Earth Blew Up pairs a slapstick buddy comedy with sci-fi homages. In advance of its March 14 nationwide launch, courtesy of Ketchup Entertainment, Boxoffice Pro spoke with Browngardt and Bauza about honoring the classic characters’ legacy while ensuring a fresh take for modern audiences.
Unlike the many adversarial predator vs. prey Looney Tunes team-ups, with Porky and Daffy, you get to explore the long-lasting brotherly friendship. Why was that important?
Pete Browngardt: In having them not want to kill each other all the time, we were able to tell an emotional, larger story. It’s easier for an audience to buy in. That type of relationship is less black and white. I thought you needed that gray area. It’s somewhere you can play with, writing-wise and storytelling-wise, within Looney Tunes. Something that we wanted to do and that was important in telling a larger story with an emotional core was to have a brotherly or buddy-comedy kind of relationship.
This story plays in the sandbox of science fiction. From The Blob to Invasion of the Body Snatchers, can you talk about the sci-fi influences behind the film and how you incorporated them?
Pete Browngardt: When I got the offer to pitch a larger story, I knew I wanted to do a genre. I’m a big fan of classic fifties and modern-day sci-fi; I love it. I went into the room and pitched a Looney Tunes Ed Wood movie starring Porky Pig and Daffy Duck. Usually when you say you want to make an Ed Wood movie in Hollywood, they don’t say anything unless you’re Tim Burton, but they went for it. They thought it was good. Porky and Daffy in a genre as buddies. It’s been done before in the old shorts, and I thought it was a good way in. It’s visually fun, and in sci-fi you can go sort of spooky and scary and you can go playful. It’s a roomy sandbox to play in.
You mentioned the visuals. Obviously, in animation, they’re incredibly important in telling the story. What was the storyboard process like?
Pete Browngardt: We storyboarded the film several times, and we made about four animatics of the entire film. We reworked and reworked it. Storyboarding is where great animated films are made. It’s getting the right artists involved in the project that are not only great draftsmen and can draw a really funny situation or illustrate a visual really well but also have a personality in their own right and are writers in their own right. That’s something that’s very important to me.
I feel like the best animation is made that way, where you’re getting sort of a cartoonist’s brain. A cartoonist, to me, is someone that has a voice, is a writer, and can also illustrate that voice in a funny and particular way. They’re not just two separate traits; they’re together. That’s how the old ones were made. Tex Avery, Bob Clampett, and Chuck Jones were all sort of the smart, wise-asses in class. I was that kind of person a little bit in high school, not to the enjoyment of my mother and parents. It gives you a sort of perspective and a commentary on the world. I think that’s important.
Eric Bauza (as Daffy Duck): Well, I’d say you turned out fine Pete.
When do you bring Eric into that process and show him the storyboard images or animatics?
Pete Browngardt: Once we got something in storyboard form that we liked, we knew we needed to create an animatic. I knew Eric was going to be these characters from the get-go, when the project started. We had him come in and do a first pass; we call it scratch. The great thing is, you have Eric and you know he can do the roles. We might do the scratch, but if it’s really good, you can use it. It’s sort of spitballing. I would pitch him something, and Eric would do a take. Eric is a great ad-libber, aside from being a great actor and voice artist. Some of the jokes that he just ad-libbed are not only in the movie but [also] in the trailer.
Eric Bauza: Having worked with Pete on the “Looney Tunes Cartoons” shorts for Max, we’re talking a thousand minutes. We worked on those for years before we even started working on this movie together. I think having the Looney Tunes shorthand language between director and performer was very key in the making of this movie. For most movies, you have to start training people from scratch. In this case, we’re very lucky to have a previous working relationship, even before “Looney Tunes Cartoons”, or “Uncle Grandpa,” his show on Cartoon Network. I don’t think there’s anyone else that could have brought these characters back the way Pete, [co-writer/producer] Alex [Kirwan], and [executive producer] Sam [Register] did.
Pete Browngardt: The funny thing is, when we were recording “Uncle Grandpa,” he would do the Looney Tunes [voices]. This is way before it ever entered my mind that I’d be doing Looney Tunes as my next endeavor. I remember going, “Man, you’re pretty good at that. You might want to think about trying to do those characters.” So when the opportunity came, I went, “I know the guy I want. Eric can pull this off—the avenue that I see Looney Tunes going down.”
Eric Bauza: Which is strange, because who really thinks they’re going to be Porky or Daffy, or Bugs Bunny, for that matter? Maybe people say that out loud or think it, but they’re not crazy enough to admit it.
Yeah, these iconic characters. Eric, for you, the work goes well beyond imitating Mel Blanc. It’s getting into the psyches of these characters.
Eric Bauza: Absolutely. The fact that Mel created such characters, with that kind of depth, it’s not easy; it really isn’t. In the grand scheme of things, I’d say my job is the easiest of all in this animation production. I guess I’m just lucky that I happen to come within the vicinity of a bullseye with these characters. It’s always going to be different; everyone’s going to bring their own life experience to these characters, but I can’t really tamper with what Mel did. I can only just pay close attention to how he got there and try to get there in my own way, but really try to stick to that landing.
As a voice actor, sometimes you don’t necessarily know what the other actor is giving you, but here you were on both sides of the conversation. Did you do one pass as Daffy and one pass as Porky?
Eric Bauza: Oh, I talk to myself all the time. In short form situations like this, I could go back and forth easily, but in the sense of a 90-minute feature film, you want to separate those two. Actually, if anything, in retrospect, it’s more useful to forget what you did. To start fresh with this character, that’s giving an all-new response to the character that you literally just played a few minutes ago.
The best comedy is timeless. Why is observation so important in your work?
Pete Browngardt: Looney Tunes stands the test of time because they are a mirror to our humanity, our culture, our lives, and our existence. I think that’s why people connect to them, because they can see themselves in the character or in the situations that are created. It engages all parts of your imagination and how we see ourselves. So it’s important when you’re making something like this to not just look at the old shorts and the animation that came prior, but also to open your door and your window and look out into the world and comment on what’s going on and satirize it. That’s why when you’re making a Looney Tunes project, you can do a Boba Tea joke, you can do a rideshare joke, and a Starbucks joke. You can do these things as long as—and this might be just my opinion—they’re culturally relevant and they’re not going anywhere. I’m pretty sure 15 years from now, Uber or some sort of ridesharing is going to be around. I think it has to really be ingrained in our culture to make fun of it.
We all grew up with these characters on television, but they began in theaters. How does it feel to take them back home to the big screen?
Eric Bauza: Amazing. The kind of animation that they were able to pull off with the original shorts in the forties took about seven to nine months per short. None of it was shipped overseas. It was all done in-house. That’s why I think the quality of it all holds up. Even in that era, you could still see some errors or mistakes, but that only adds to the charm of the characters and the films themselves. To know that we’re getting within the target of those shorts with this movie is awesome. It’s always a dream, because I’ve worked with these characters in many different forms—a shoe commercial, a sequel to another movie, those amazing shorts for Max, and now this. You know they’re going to pull out all the stops if they’re going to make the jump from the small screen to the big one. I feel so lucky to have been a part of it, because…
(as Bugs Bunny) I’ve been a part of some stinkers, I’ll tell ya.
But yeah, this is a good one.
Pete Browngardt: Seeing animation on the big screen is the best way to see and experience it—with an audience. My siblings are a bit older than me. When I was in junior high, I was really into animation, and Chuck Jones was making the rounds with his book, Chuck Amuck. He was doing a screening at the Museum of Moving Image in Queens, New York, and my brother took me there. It was the first time I ever got to see Looney Tunes in an audience. The laughter—I’ll never forget that. It was a series of Chuck Jones classic shorts, and I had never seen them with an audience. I’d always watched cartoons Saturday morning at home. I was just like, “Wow, this is what it’s all about.” It’s almost a communal experience that’s therapeutic in a way; laughing and enjoying it together. It really is magical, and it stuck with me. Having this opportunity to bring a project that I shepherded to the big screen is really special.
You’ve gotten to see the film with a few audiences so far; what’s that experience been like for you both?
Eric Bauza: I remember seeing it at the Animation Is Film festival in Los Angeles. That was the premiere and first U.S. screening. It was a full house at Grauman’s Theatre by the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The laughs that it got. I felt like I was at a taping of “Married with Children” or “Family Matters.” It sounded like sitcom laughs. I don’t think I’ve ever witnessed anything like that with something I’ve worked on, let alone animation, let alone in a movie theater. It was a very nice experience to be in a community that loves these characters and I just hope that tradition continues on March 14th and onward.
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