While The Day the Earth Blew Up is the first Looney Tunes movie in a few years, it is almost guaranteed to avoid the last underrated outing’s most regrettable mistake. For such an iconic cartoon franchise, Looney Tunes has a surprisingly sparse history on the big screen. Outside many compilation films that cobbled together their celebrated shorts for home video releases, Looney Tunes characters have only starred in four feature films to date. 2025’s The Day the Earth Blew Up marks the franchise’s fourth big-screen outing.
The Day the Earth Blew Up is also the first fully animated Looney Tunes movie, as all the franchise’s earlier outings mixed significant chunks of live-action storytelling with animation. 1997’s Space Jam saw the franchise’s heroes recruit Michael Jordan for a basketball game against aliens, while the underrated Looney Tunes: Back in Action was a self-referential spy comedy where Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Brendan Fraser’s long-suffering stuntman, DJ, and Jenna Elfman’s overworked Vice President of Comedy, Kate, tried to foil Steve Martin’s cartoony ACME villain, Mr. Chairman.
The Day the Earth Blew Up Has A Much Smaller Budget Than Looney Tunes: Back In Action
The Joe Dante Movie’s Big Budget Resulted In Box Office Disappointment
Like the unreleased Looney Tunes movie Coyote Vs ACME, Looney Tunes: Back in Action ambitiously attempted to act as both a self-aware critique of the Looney Tunes universe and a playful celebration of it. In this regard, it was a success. Legendary critic Richard Roeper called Joe Dante’s movie a “Cheerful and self-referential romp,” and its 56% Rotten Tomatoes rating is higher than Space Jam or its belated, lesser sequel Space Jam 2: A New Legacy. However, Dante’s movie made one major miscalculation.
Looney Tunes: Back in Action cost $80 million but made just over $60 million.
Although its reviews were unfairly une-nthused, one element of Looney Tunes: Back in Action’s production that did deserve criticism was its budget. Looney Tunes: Back in Action cost $80 million but made just over $60 million, making it the second surprisingly great flop of Dante’s later career after Gremlins 2: The New Batch. Like that sequel, Looney Tunes: Back in Action is now viewed as an overlooked classic and largely redeemed in the eyes of critics. However, The Day the Earth Blew Up has already avoided this issue with a much more modest budget of only $14 million.
The Day the Earth Blew Up Can Redeem Looney Tunes: Back in Action’s Unfair Reputation
Joe Dante’s Misunderstood Movie Was A Classic Looney Tunes Outing
After Brendan Fraser’s wen-earned career resurgence, it is relatively uncontroversial to note that Looney Tunes: Back in Action was far better than its middling reviews suggested. Suffused with a vibrant visual style and the director’s trademark subversive wit, the mile-a-minute comedy is significantly better than the already-fun Space Jam. While the stellar reviews received by The Day the Earth Blew Up make it the most acclaimed Looney Tunes movie by a stretch, this should encourage viewers to revisit Dante’s under-seen classic.
Looney Tunes: Back in Action isn’t perfect, but it is impossible to resist the charms of veteran performers like Martin, Elfman, and Fraser acting alongside Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck. Not only that, but the presence of scene-stealers like Joan Cusack and Timothy Dalton, along with the movie’s inventive chase sequences and hilarious sight gags, ensures there is never a dull moment. The Day the Earth Blew Up might be the most well-loved Looney Tunes movie, but its predecessor deserves some delayed recognition.
Source: Rotten Tomatoes
