When the Golden Age of cinema arrived in the early twenties, animated shorts were created as a warm-up act for the main feature.

The two main companies involved in making them went on to become household names – Disney and Looney Tunes.

Since then Disney has grown from strength to strength in becoming the global brand it is today, but Looney Tunes hasn’t been a priority for Warner Bros. In a number of years, as they’ve leant harder into their live action features.

This return to the big screen for Daffy Duck and Porky Pig is a rarity then, starring as they do in what’s considered the very first fully animated and theatrically released Looney Tune feature.

In the rural town of Grandview, farmer Jim found himself raising a young duckling and piglet together, who would grow up to be ...Daffy Duck (Eric Bauza) and Porky Pig (Bauza).

Their world falls apart with the death of Jim, and increases their responsibilities, especially where the upkeep of the house is concerned. So much so that after a home inspection, they’re given only ten days to have it meet regulation standards.

They thought they had managed that, but both missed the extremely large hole in the roof, covered in a peculiar green goo.

It was time for what they both had been dreading – to get jobs. By a stroke of luck, they meet Petunia Pig (Candi Milo), who’s a flavour expert and works at the Goodie Gum factory, where she knows they’re currently hiring.

They get jobs, but are unaware that the green goo all over their home came from outer space, until they learn of the evil plan of an alien leader, who is set to infiltrate the gum their factory make, and body snatch everyone on Earth with the goo gum. But can Daffy and Porky stop him?

The animation landscape has come some way since the very first Looney Tunes short in 1930; the likes of Disney, Pixar, DreamWorks Animation etc, have turned it into a triumphant, commercial success of an art form, churning out box-office gold franchises, one after the other.

But American animator Peter Browngardt, making his full length directorial debut here, focused more on the legacy of the Looney Tunes brand – to a point – much to the film’s detriment.

Although the classic 2D animation used is nostalgic and comforting – to the more mature cartoon lovers at least – it misses a trick in being meta, and therefore to be more playful with the medium, visually and story wise; just think what shows such as The Simpsons, Family Guy, South Park etc have achieved. Everything about this feature is disappointingly route one. And the closest they get to being current is a mention to LEGO and mobile phones, which is simply not enough.

There’s no denying that Daffy and Porky are popular characters, but it’s a real struggle for the pair to carry an entire feature for its duration, with no sign of any supporting characters. This seems the biggest of own goals, missing the opportunity to get the likes of Bugs Bunny involved in some capacity at least, never mind Yosemite Sam, Wile E. Coyote, Sylvester etc. And considering the film is based on an alien invasion, did someone forget to mention to the director they have a character called Marvin the Martian? IP is undeniably king in today’s world and Looney Tunes well and truly dropped the animated ball with this one.

It’s no wonder that this final result struggled to be released, with its original release on HBO shelved, before being shopped around to uninterested streaming sites. This theatrical release should have been a statement, but its insipid storyline and ‘classic’ animation comes across as a short that just got ahead of itself, and proving that its feature length wasn’t the brightest of ideas.

It could have been a bold piece of re-invention, but in Browngardt’s hands, it’s played way too safe.

The end result is Looney Tunes does Pluribus for toddlers, and even then it may not be sophisticated enough for even them.

And sadly, that is all folks.