The journey The Day the Earth Blew Up went on to reach the big screen is Looney to say the least. Those scrappy Tunes managed to avoid the chopping block of one David Zaslav thanks to Ketchup Entertainment, which acquired the film by Looney Tunes Cartoons current cadre of creatives led by director Pete Browngardt. And on March 15, animation fans will be able to enjoy the 2D adventure on the big screen. io9 sat down with the voice actors behind some of our favorite cartoons, Eric Bauza (Daffy and Porky in the film) and Candi Milo (Petunia Pig in the film), to discuss playing in a longer format story for the Looney Tunes first full-length animated featureas well as the future of animation versus AI and the timelessness of characters no machine can replicate. Sabina Graves, io9: You both have worked together over the years, more often as some of the other Looney Tunes, but here as the trio of Daffy, Porky, and Petunia that gets to lead this alien invasion movie. How would you say having chemistry as long-time collaborators helped with stepping into these different characters? Candi Milo: Im always so excited when anybody realizes that there is a chemistry between the characters, and it is not easy playing against someone that plays two characters with two completely different dynamics. But its really easy when its Eric. Its because I do really respect his talent level and his dedication to these characters. But, we have great chemistry because were both a little lunatic. We have the kind of the same vibe, like were not coming in like, Im sorry I just left the nunnery yesterday. Please dont use that language around me. Were both like Whatever, lets bring the funny.Eric Bauza: Well, thank you Candiwithout her and her body of work and what shes done before me, there wouldnt be a runway for me to land on. So it only makes sense that I am working with someone like her. And yeah, I think the key is to have fun and not take it so seriously, you know, and especially when youre behind these characters, driving the Daffy-Mobile and the Porky-Mobile. Milo: Could you die from the way Daffy is back? For me his Daffy, which [is] less mean, this is the idiot that I grew up on. Bringing that [back] with [director] Pete Browngardt and the whole team, deciding that thats the Daffy they want him to play, just made my life. Thats the Daffy that I remember seeing.You know, when they hand him the hammer. Shut up! I was like, Shut up!Bauza: [Playful Daffy voice] When you think of aloof, think of Eric Bauza! Someone who doesnt know what hes doing. But yeah, again, its these characters that you know. You dont want to see Porky get punished, but in a way youre eating popcorn while watching this poor pig get served by Daffy every turn in this movie. But then towards the end it it all comes together. And I think its a beautiful story. Milo: Friendship always wins out. Ketchup Entertainment io9: So would you say Pete really did let you run free with creating these characters? But also, did you look back on the introduction to the charactersI mean specifically [Candi] for Petuniawhen you were bringing them to life here?Milo: When I got the audition, I did look back, Sabina. I looked back at the very early ones where it wasand it took me all day today to figure out that it wasvery Judy Holliday. [Imitates voice] It was kind of like she talked like this, and so I did two takes; the second one was just me. The feedback came back from [Warner Bros. Animation president] Sam Register that they didnt want to do a stupid girl, and they didnt want to do a girlfriend. They wanted this character to be a scientist, so Sam kept saying, Tell her to lower her register, and they played Sam my second take, and he went, Lets go with that. But Pete writes for my sense of humor, anyway, and that [whole] teamthey write the way that I think is funny, and Im pretty sure its the same thing for Eric there. You guys have a shorthand. Bauza: Oh yeah, Pete and I had been working for a number of years on Looney Tunes Cartoons, and then, of course, Uncle Grandpa for Cartoon Network. So it was kind of a match made in [cartoon] heaven because he really is just like those directors back in the 40s. He really has that sensibility of like, Mad or Cracked Magazine a littlenot the Disney, not the perfect picture. Its kind of a little off, and I think thats why Candi and I were on it because were a little off. We get the sense of humor, is what Im saying.Milo: It is that thing where I think that both Eric and I, in our acting, go against traditional voice acting and traditional roles. Sometimes gender gets pushed onto women. [Petunia is] a scientist that is made fun of for her brain, and she [rebels] against that, but always on the side of friendship. I really believe that if Petunia thought she had come between the friends, shed take herself out of the picture, and she joins the friends at the end. So I just think that [the team], Pete, Alex [Kirwan], Johnny [Ryan], [is] so great [at that]. io9: I definitely agree. Taking it back to what you were saying, Eric, about how youre very influenced by the different Looney Tunes cartoon production units of the past, with Bob Clampett and Chuck Jones and the voice actors who have since then taken part in this incredible legacy of the franchise, and have really made it recognizable in style and in voice. What is so essential in keeping that human element of that little bit of crazythat artistic expression thats true to the Looney Tunes cartoons, and not letting AI get its hands on this? Bauza: Well, you know theres a certain manic-ness to [performing]. I think AI is good to a point, technology will always be there, itll always advance. And hopefully, it lands in the hands of good people and not bad people, because it can be used at least in the production sense in what we do as a guide. But when it comes to the final execution of something then that should be turned off, you [should] bring the people back to their desks and have them do what they do, what theyre supposed to do, and thats create art from only a place that a human can. You know, after all, AI is just collecting information from what weve already done, right? [Daffy voice in a standard inflection] But then it gets to a point where you know it might sound like this, and thats fine. [Daffy voice in a more chaotic inflection] But when you gotta do this, thats when you can tell. Thats when the wheels fall off AI, when it needs to emote.Milo: There was a commercial. I forget what it was forit might have been during the Olympicswhere you had a couple walking down a lane and they were not real, the child was not real, the cherry blossoms were not real. I had participated in this group of looking at this, and they ran three ads and [asked], Which one of these is AI? and I called it and said, All three of these are AI because its the coldest. Its not how people move. Things arent moving. [I think to myself], I dont want you to get better. I want you to go away and just help us medically. Thats what I would really like. Its just help [on] medical [issues]figure out how we can feed people. What can we do to stop the spread of diseases, that thats what I want you to do, and leave this alone because it is just in-artful I think were going to see it [evolve], But I think were were going to see hand drawn 2D animation is art. io9: The Looney Tunes in particular, especially across mediums and across generations are so timeless. I call them the Lords of Memery, because the younger generations will immediately recognize the Tunes in memes. And even in a meme, theres still a creative mind that has come up with the little anecdote that speaks to the choatic id within us that characters like Bugs, Daffy, and the rest tap into. How do you think modern audiences will find their way to The Day The Earth Blew Up thanks to that? Bauza: Yeah. Well, I mean, with The Day the Earth Blew Up again, theres just countless countless visual gags in it, and such well drawn scenes with characters that you know they look great on a poster. Theyre very well designed, but theres some things in here that Ive never seen in any other cartoons. io9: The Farmer John stuff! I was dying. Ketchup Entertainment Milo: Oh yeah! When we were doing the nomination screenings people were dying when only the mouth was just [still] and then floating, but never moving. To me thats just genius like, who thought of that? Hey, heres a great idea this is what this character is, he is the antithesis of [Daffy and Porky], these never stop lunatics. And then this guy here Bauza: Who happens to have the luck of adopting them or having them on his doorstep.Milo: And so Im hoping [and] I know that Eric is as welleverybody at Ketchup [Entertainment] is praying that we do well. [That] people clamor for more of this quality, this 2D hand-drawn, and maybe we can come out of the CGI [animation] oval flat oval like that. Thats a whole genre, thats a whole thing, and I dig it, and I get it. But I would love to see much more of this. Not skewed for an age group, but for a sense of humor. io9: Exactly. These are different genres within the medium, and they should all be able to coexist!The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie opens this Friday. Want more io9 news? 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