The Day the Earth Blew Up--Movies that I've Half-Watched

A few days ago, my kids came into my room and saw me on the computer while I was reading Freddie Deboer's substack, and they were immediately attracted to the Daffy Duck gif.

They wanted to see more of it, so I indulged them by showing them the full cartoon on Youtube.  And since then, they've asked to see that cartoon again every time they come into my room and see me on the computer.

My kids haven't been exposed to Looney Tunes yet (something that was often on TV when I was a boy) so I thought it might be nice to show them some Looney Tunes on the big TV screen downstairs.

Unfortunately, as I already knew from Vince Mancini's complaining about it, Looney Tunes are not available on any streaming service now after having been pulled from HBO Max.  

Okay, so we can't find the Looney Tunes cartoon shows on HBO Max anymore, but maybe there would be a Looney Tunes movie, I thought.  So I set about searching.  

Bugs Bunny: Superstar?  Nope, turns out that one isn't available.

The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie?  Nope, not that one either.  

...and right on down the list.  Turns out they've only got a couple of Looney Tunes movies available, one of which is The Day the Earth Blew Up, which I had never heard of before, but it looks like this came out last year.  

Since both I and the kids were in the mood for some Looney Tunes, I was already predisposed to give this a try, but I checked the reviews section on Wikipedia first just to make sure I wasn't wasting my time:  

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 86% of 111 critics' reviews are positive. The website's consensus reads: "Restoring much of Looney Tunes' quintessential charm with a daffy dose of high energy and inventive gags, The Day the Earth Blew Up goes to show that these iconic characters remain evergreen fun."^[43] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 68 out of 100, based on 19 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.^[44] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale, while those surveyed by PostTrak gave it an 89% overall positive score, with 72% saying they would "definitely recommend" it.^[41]

Peter Debruge of Variety praised the film for its comedy and emotional core, and felt that the entire project was "crafted with love and a genuine respect for the franchise".^[5] Rafael Motomayor of IGN awarded the film a 9 out of 10-star rating. He praised its comedy, emotional core, animation and Bauza's voice performances, and referred to it as "one of the funniest movies of the year".^[45]

Yeah, okay, sounds like this could be good.

...and, it was not good.  I made it 15 minutes through the movie before I decided I was out.  I told my kids to enjoy the rest of the movie, but that I was going back upstairs to read my book.

They made it another 10 minutes after I left.