WB released The Day the Earth Blew Up with little to no fanfare. While the movie will likely be out of theatres by the time you read this post, here’s hoping that you get a chance to watch this animated gem in the near future.
Here is the breakdown of the story structure of The Day the Earth Blew Up (SPOILERS):
The Hero’s Journey
Beat 1. The Ordinary World.
Daffy Duck and Porky Pig are friends who live together in a home that they inherited by their caretaker, Farmer Jim.
Beat 2. The Call of Adventure. (aka the Inciting Incident.)
One day, an asteroid crashes into their home, destroying their roof. A member of the homeowner’s association comes to review the house the next day and warns unless they can patch the roof in 10 days, they will be evicted and the home demolished.
Beat 3. Refusal of the Call.
Daffy is reluctant, but eventually he is convinced by Porky to get a job in order to pay for the roof repairs.
Beat 4. Meeting the Mentor.
After a slew of failed jobs, Daffy and Porky meet Petunia Pig, a flavour scientist at the nearby gum factory, who offer them jobs to prepare for the new rollout of the new Strongberry flavour.
Beat 5. Crossing the First Threshold.
While on the job, Daffy discovers that a scientist possessed by supernatural goo is adding an element to the gum formula that will cause anyone who chews it to become mind-controlled. Daffy goes out of his way to warn the citizens to not chew the gum, at the cost of appearing looney.
Beat 6. Tests, Allies, Enemies.
After Porky bails Daffy out of jail for disturbing the peace, the two of them team up with Petunia to test the gum, and discover that by chewing it, it unleashes a creature which threatens to terrorize the city.
Beat 7. Approach to the Inmost Cave.
Petunia works on a large batch of a noxious rotten egg formula she had been testing, which forces anyone who smells it to spit out the gum aliens.
Beat 8. The Ordeal.
While attempting to rescue the citizens, Petunia winds up under the mind control of the gum, and both she, Daffy and Porky are abducted by the head alien.
Beat 9. Reward (Seizing the Sword).
After reconciling their differences, Daffy and Porky team up to pop the giant bubble that had formed over Earth.
Beat 10. The Road Back.
The head alien explains that he was not trying to blow up the Earth, that he was trying to rescue it from a giant asteroid hurtling towards the planet. With the help of Petunia and the scientist, they devise a plan to blow up the asteroid from the inside with the help of Petunia’s explosive experimental gum formula.
Beat 11. Resurrection.
Petunia, Porky, and Daffy land on the asteroid and travel to its centre in an attempt to activate the gum from the asteroid’s core. Daffy in his looney way finds a means of chewing the gum via stalactites, but both he and Porky get stuck on the asteroid as it blows up.
Beat 12. Return with the Elixir.
Miraculously, Porky and Daffy survive, Porky and Petunia become a couple, and they travel home to discover that Farmer Jim left them a home insurance policy to the tune of $5 million, allowing them to rebuild their house bigger and better than before.
THE DAY THE EARTH BLEW UP – SAVE THE CAT BEAT STRUCTURE
Beat #1: Opening Image (0-1%)
Farmer Jim adopts Porky and Daffy and there is a montage where he raises them then leaves them his house before he goes away.
Beat #2: Theme Stated (5%)
Farmer Jim tells them that though the world is tough, if they stick together, they can do anything.
Beat #3: Setup (1% – 10%)
It’s the day of the Homeowner’s Review, and Daffy and Porky must fix up their home to pass.
Beat #4: Catalyst (10%)
Something from outer space crashed into their home, and unless they fix the roof in 10 days, Porky and Daffy will be evicted from their home.
Beat #5: Debate (10%-20%)
Though they’ve never worked a day in their life, Porky says they need a job to pay for the roof repairs, and Daffy relucntantly agrees.
Beat #6: Break Into 2 (20%)
Daffy and Porky look for work around the city, but due to Daffy’s incompetence, they are consistently fired.
Beat #7: B Story (22%)
Discouraged, they go to a diner where they meet the flavour scientist Petunia Pig. Petunia offers them a job at the factory where she works.
Beat #8: Fun and Games (20% -50%)
Daffy and Porky work at the factory in pure Merry Melodies fashion and because of their teamwork, are actually quite good at their job. Porky and Petunia hit it off in the factory’s lunchroom, while Daffy discovers the secret plot to infect everyone in the city with a mind-control gum. Daffy goes full looney as he attempts to warn the public, and winds up in jail.
Beat #9: Midpoint (50%)
Porky thinks he’s finally scored a date with Petunia, but instead he has to bail Daffy out of jail with their hard-earned wages. That evening, they run into Petunia again, and ask for her help to uncover what’s wrong with the gum.
Beat #10: Bad Guys Close In (50 to 75%)
The head alien causes the gum to transform into a terrifying creature in an attempt to subdue the three heroes, but they discover they can destroy it with a flamethrower. Petunia develops a large batch of a rotten egg extract she had been working on order to induce the spitting out of the mind-control gum. Porky, who is convinced Daffy will sabotage them with his looniness, tells him to stay behind to lay more eggs for the extract while he and Petunia enact their plan to fight the gum monsters.
Beat #11: All Is Lost (75%)
Daffy arrives to help anyway but messes things up, Petunia is captured, and Porky blames himself for being a coward. When they are all abducted by the head alien, Porky then blames Daffy for messing everything up in the first place and admits that he lied about the eggs so he and Petunia could save the world without him. Porky Pig and Daffy Duck are not on speaking terms as the head alien enacts Stage 2 of his plan and causes everyone on earth to blow a big bubble into the atmosphere and all of those bubbles converge to form one big bubble around the planet.
Beat #12: Dark Night of the Soul (75% – 80%)
Daffy and Porky have a heart to heart and apologize, and they both take responsibility for what had happened. They reconcile and hug, crying it out so much that they short out their laser cage and are able to escape.
Beat #13: The Break Into Three (80%)
Porky and Daffy pop the bubble, but only then does the head alien reveal his master plan: he was trying to save the Earth from an asteroid seen at the start of the film so he could continue to enjoy Earth’s greatest resource: boba tea. The scientist from the beginning of the movie is freed of his mind control and tells the heroes they must blow up the asteroid from the inside to save Earth, and they only have 15 minutes to do it. Petunia creates a large batch of explosive gum that they can bring to the asteroid to blow it up.
Beat #14: The Finale (80%-99%)
Petunia, Porky, and Daffy successfully blow up the asteroid thanks to Daffy being looney, but Daffy and Porky get left behind as it explodes. Miraculously, they survive, Porky gets the girl, and Petunia finds the secret ingredient for gum formula so that it’s no longer explosive.
Beat #15: Final Image (99%-100%)
Porky and Daffy return to their home, which was destroyed during the alien invasion. Father Jim returns from heaven and tells them to check the back of their family portrait. Porky and Daffy discover that Father Jim left them a home insurance policy to the tune of $5 million and they use it to rebuild their house.
FINAL VERDICT – THE DAY THE EARTH BLEW UP
One thing I love about animated films is that they staunchly adhere to classic story beat structure. Generally – not always, but generally – animated movies are made for kids, and as such, a straightforward story structure is often utilized to keep younger audiences engaged.
Predictable, yes – but it makes movies like The Day the Earth Blew Up as excellent candidates for examining story structure. For example, 5 minutes into the movie, I knew that Daffy Duck and Porky Pig would have a falling out just before the kickoff of the third act, or break into Act III, because that’s how these movies always operate. Animation is expensive, and there’s not a lot of wiggle room for ad-libbing or to re-shoot if a subversive take didn’t work. So you can set your watch to what I like to call the end of Act II / start of Act III break-up make-up phase.
Some handle this break-up / make-up quite well, like in The Powerpuff Girls Movie (2002). The characters lost a pivotal battle and are now bickering amongst themselves (as siblings do) on the moon (as siblings do):
Some handle it…not so well, as seen in the movie Storks (2016), where Junior and Orphan Tulip have a massive falling out over a single statement. Again, it’s a necessary beat in a family film, but in this instance, the break-up was sloppily executed and felt like it came out of nowhere:
Another thing I admire about The Day the Earth Blew Up is how elements of the plot are set up in earlier acts to have satisfying payoff in the final act. You almost forget about the asteroid – the true antagonist of the film – when it is revealed in the third act as a threat capable of destroying the planet. But this didn’t come out of nowhere; it was clearly introduced at the very start of the film, its presence overshadowed by the UFO. Also, Petunia’s explosive gum, which I initially passed off as a Willy Wonka-esque gag in Act II, is actually a pivotal plot point of Act III, and what the heroes use to destroy the asteroid once and for all.
There’s also a bit of character development from Daffy of all characters! It’s Daffy’s zany antics that get them into trouble on multiple occasions through the movie, but when it’s do-or-die for planet Earth, Daffy actually gains some self-awareness that his default mode may not be the move if it means screwing up the task at hand screws over mankind. Never mind that they ultimately relied on Daffy going full-on Looney Tunes to save the day: the important thing is that he grew as a character and recognized his own shortcomings.
But that’s enough in-depth analysis on a children’s cartoon movie for one day. I was excited that Ketchup Entertainment decided to save this movie, and I really hope they get the rights to distribute Coyote vs. Acme. Looney Tunes and animation in general have gotten a really bad rap at Warner Bros. lately; I just wanted to do what I could to promote the movie while at the same time sing its praises for its inventive and fun story.
What do you think of The Day the Earth Blew Up? Did you even know it was in theatres? Would you watch Coyote vs. Acme if it ever got a theatrical release? And why do I feel a sort of way about that one scientist character? I know he doesn’t have a name, but I hereby dub the scientist from The Day the Earth Blew Up as Dr. Chad Sigma Looksmaxxing III, Esq.