On April 15, a "Looney Tunes" viewing party was held in Beijing for "The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie" produced by Warner Bros. Animation. The film was imported by China Film Group Corporation, distributed and dubbed by China Film Co., Ltd., and will be released nationwide on April 18.
The children gave Daffy Duck and Piglet their "kung fu secrets"
The reporter of The Paper noted that the party site was transformed into a "Looney Tunes" theme park: six movie-themed check-in points, including the bubble gum manufacturing factory, the Earth Escape Corridor, the Interstellar Rescue Command Center, the Earth Restart Track, the Earth Blast Stop, and the Street Intelligence Bureau, were visited by surprise. The special parade of Daffy Duck and Piglet made the audience laugh, and the post-screening interactive session made the happiness index reach the maximum, vividly interpreting the film's happy proposition of "relaxed and funny, making the whole family happy".
At the "Happy One Pass" movie viewing party, Daffy Duck and Piglet "lye down" to do business
Looking back, in 1928, Mickey Mouse made his first official appearance in the movie Steamboat Willie. In 1930, Warner Bros. decided to follow the industry pioneer Disney and produce short black-and-white musical animations for theaters. Looney Tunes was one of its early cartoon series. The series introduced more than a dozen popular fixed characters such as Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny, and developed into a collection of movies that connected several short works with new stories.
The Looney Tunes series features nonsensical, imaginative and pure happiness. The classic American animation represented by it has not only influenced global trend culture, but has also rapidly entered thousands of households and become the childhood memory of generations. Among them, the live-action animated film starring basketball superstar Michael Jordan in 1996 was introduced to mainland China as one of the "10 blockbusters" of that year.
Stills from The Looney Tunes Movie: The Day the Earth Exploded
In the upcoming "Looney Tunes Movie: The Day the Earth Blows Up", the lives of "master of screw-ups" Daffy Duck and "ambassador of pale people" Piglet have undergone a major change - after their farmer father left, their house is facing collapse, and the end of the world is approaching. They have to start working hard as workers, and accidentally meet bubblegum scientist Piglet, and accidentally discover the interstellar conspiracy behind the "pink bubbles"...
At a time when 3D animation is popular, The Looney Tunes Movie: The Day the Earth Exploded has chosen to return to the traditional hand-painted 2D style, which can be regarded as a fond look back at old school animation and a deep tour of the happy era. The film's director Peter Browngart said that he was influenced by "1950s sci-fi B-grade movies", drawing inspiration from the movies of that era and the short films starring the cartoon duo, and used the style of senior animator Bob Clampett as the blueprint for the character design, while the image design of the villain alien was inspired by the movie "Flying Saucers Invade the Earth" (1956).
"Flying Saucers Invade Earth" (1956) movie poster
Stills from The Looney Tunes Movie: The Day the Earth Exploded
In Peter Browngart's opinion, from Daffy Duck's exaggerated body movements to Piglet's agile facial expressions, every frame has been carefully drawn to ensure that the character's dynamics are consistent with the original style and can present a more vivid visual effect on the big screen. "The ultimate goal of this persistence is to pass on the soul of 'Looney Tunes' - full of vitality, slightly sloppy but accurate humor to every audience, so that the purest 'Looney Tunes-style joy' will set off a retro trend again."
The Looney Tunes Movie: The Day the Earth Exploded
The Looney Tunes Movie: The Day the Earth Exploded premiered at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival in France last year and has grossed $11.5 million worldwide to date, and has received generally positive reviews from critics. The Rotten Tomatoes consensus rating reads: "It recreates much of the classic charm of the Looney Tunes franchise, with some hilarious high-energy moments and creative gags that show these iconic characters are still plenty fun."
