The PopCulteer
March 14, 2025

This week in The PopCulteer I’m going to go back and reunite (writing-wise) with my lovely wife, Mel Larch.

From 1991 to 2005, we collaborated on Animated Discussions for The Charleston Gazette. This was back when writing for The Gazette was actually a respectable gig, and we were proud to write the only regular animation column for a major daily newspaper.

We covered the Ren & Stimpy controversy, the birth of Adult Swim, the creation of many notable TV cartoons like Powerpuff Girls, Dexter’s Laboratory and Rugrats, and we reviewed dozens of animated features, including gems like The Lion King, The SpongeBob Squarepants Movie and Wallace and Gromit.

We stopped writing for The Gazette when they slashed their freelancer budget and I started on PopCult, but we did continue to include Animated Discussions in PopCult as an occasional feature in the early days, but this week, for the first time since December, 2006 I welcome my partner-in-life and crime, Mel, back to the blog as we review a couple of animated movies in…

Animated Discussions
by Rudy Panucci and Mel Larch

The Day The Earth Blew Up
A Looney Tunes Movie
directed by Peter Browngardt

It’s hard to believe, but The Day The Earth Blew Up is the first ever, honest to God, Looney Tunes feature film. We don’t count the compilation movies like Bugs Bunny Superstar, and we don’t count the Space Jam movies (because they are essentially a blasphemy against Looney Tunes), but this movie is the first time that Daffy Duck and Porky Pig have been trusted to carry a feature film.

Fortunately, Earth was created by the same team who produced the brilliant Looney Tunes Cartoons for HBO Max back in 2020 – 2023.  Led by Peter Browngardt (Uncle Grandpa), this crew for the first time since the 1940’s captured the brilliant animation and madcap, screwball gags of the original Looney Tunes cartoons.

The Day The Earth Blew Up manages to take that inspired lunacy and build a feature length story that balances enough elements of drama, pathos, romance, and action to keep from burning out the audience completely. Ninety minutes of Daffy on a rampage might just be a little too tiring for most audiences.

In The Day The Earth Blew Up, we see the origin of Porky and Daffy in a delightfully surreal and bizzare sequence where they are taken in by Farmer Jim, who is drawn and animated as though he just walked out of a WPA-era industrial cartoon. Keeping the movie visually interesting, aside from the bulk of it looking like the best of  Bob Clampett and Tex Avery’ classic cartoons, there are also sequences that look like Soviet propaganda posters come to life, straight sci-fi adventure, and mutant horror zombie movies.

The voice work, with Eric Bauza portraying both Daffy and Porky, Candi Milo as Petunia Pig, and Peter McNicol as an alien overlord, is on par with the work of Mel Blanc and June Foray. The score is a brilliant homage to Carl Stalling and Raymond Scott, and the use of recognizable pop songs adds a hint of familiarity but is also perfectly married to the sequences in which they are used.

There is a major plot twist that we’re not going to spoil here, but it should be noted that this plot twist makes the movie perfectly suitable for children of all ages. Adults who appreciate humor and classic animation will also find a lot to love about The Day The Earth Blew Up.

The Day The Earth Blew Up opens in theaters in wide release today and you should make a point to see it as soon as possible, because Warner Brothers, in their latest in a series of inexplicable business moves, sold off the distribution rights to a tiny company that can’t afford much of a promotional budget.  However, we should be grateful that it got released at all, considering how many quality animated projects WBD has buried to get the tax write-off recently.

Plankton:The Movie
Directed by Dave Needham

Plankton: The Movie is not a theatrical release, but is currently streaming on Netflix as part of a deal with Paramount to create spin-offs of the Spongebob Squarepants franchise. True fans of Spongebob Squarepants should love this movie.

We say “true fans” because there seems to be a vocal community of spurned former Spongebob fans who rush to the internet to condemn and complain about any Spongebob project created after 2004.

Luckily, those people don’t matter. Plankton: The Movie is the tour de force that the little green copepod has deserved for the last quarter century. Voiced by Mr. Lawrence (who also co-wrote the script with Kaz and Chris Viscardi), this shows off the more human side of the vindictive single-celled organism who’s hell bent on world domination.

We should also point out that Plankton: The Movie is also a tour de force for Jill Talley, who voices Plankton’s long neglected computer wife, Karen. she really gets to cut loose here.

In this movie, Plankton once again fails to steal the Krabby Patty secret formula, only this time, Karen has had enough of being belittled by him and decides to dump him and dominate the world by herself, magnetizing the Chum Bucket and transforming into a three headed, super destructive giant robot. It’s up to Plankton to stop her plan, restore her empathy, and win back her love.

Most of Plankton: The Movie is 3D CGI, which serves the story fairly well, but is also a bit of a barrier for fans of the original 2D animation of Spongebob Squarepants. Several flashback segments are animated in 2D and brilliantly mimic other animation styles to help set the tone. We’re treated to rubber hose animation, 60’s Saturday morning animation, 80’s Transformer like animation, and weird 1990’s indy animation.

Plankton: The Movie is also…a musical with very entertaining songs, some written by the teams of Bret McKenzie (Flight of the Concords) and hitmaker Linda Perry, and others written by Mark and Bob Mothersbaugh of DEVO fame.  DEVO fans should be advised you can spot their songs a mile away.

Ultimately, Plankton: The Movie is solidly entertaining, with moments of great animation and terrific gags, plus plenty of Easter eggs for longtime fans of the Spongebob Squarepants TV shows and movies. It’s well worth watching.

And that is the return of Animated Discussions, and is also this week’s PopCulteer. Check back every day for fresh content.