Certain characters are thought of as film royalty: Charles Foster Kane, Vito Corleone, George Bailey, Wile E. Coyote. Yes, Wile E. Coyote belongs among the stars as do Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and an assortment of colorful, animated, characters that have delighted generations on screens big and small. Animated characters never die, their voice may change a bit here and there, but they endure unlike those fragile humans. And it’s because of my belief in the importance of these characters that I demand that they be respected like any other venerable film franchise. They should be celebrated, but for too long in the case of the Looney Tunes has Warner Bros. done the brand a disservice. They allowed these characters to fade away and become less important. There’s likely a generation of kids in the world right now who might not be able to identify these characters by sight and that’s a shame. Lately, there has been a small renaissance. MeTV and its offshoot MeTV Toons is a broadcast channel that makes classic cartoons part of its regular programming. The Day the Earth Blew Up had a modestly successful run in theaters this past year, and Warner even tried its hand at the Space Jam game again. And here to help further that revival is Coyote vs. Acme.
Or, it nearly didn’t. If you’re reading this then by now you’re likely familiar with the story of Coyote vs. Acme. Based on a 1990 article in The New Yorker by Ian Frazier, the film was pitched to Warner by producer/director James Gunn in 2015 and officially went into development in 2018. Dave Green was hired to direct and Will Forte and John Cena were cast as opposing lawyers for the film, one representing Wile E. Coyote and the other Acme. The film was shot, edited, and set for release on July 21, 2023, but a late change meant the film gave up its slot to Barbie and a rescheduled date was not forthcoming. Then in November of that same year word came out that Warner Bros. Discovery was planning on shelving the film choosing instead to take a tax write-off estimated to “save” the company around $30 million. Movies and television shows get cancelled all of the time for various reasons, but in the case of Coyote vs. Acme the film was done. It was complete. Warner had spent around $70 million on the project, but felt a write-off was worth more to them than whatever profit the movie was likely to make. It was especially painful for those who worked on the film because it screened well with test audiences, anyone outside of the production who saw it had nothing but good things to say, and there was really no reason not to give a movie like this a fair shot. It was pure corporate greed and an insult to the Looney Tunes and Hollywood (as well as the general public) took notice.
It only took a couple of days for Warner to go back on its word and instead opted to pursue selling the film instead. When February rolled around and Warner had rejected all offers, it made people question if they were serious or not or if this was all charade to make them look better before eventually hitting the delete button on a finished film. Finally, in March of 2025 it was reported that Ketchup Entertainment had secured the rights to the film for roughly $50 million. Ketchup, as you may recall, is the company that rescued The Day the Earth Blew Up which could have met a similar fate. Ketchup was apparently happy with that investment and was willing to spend money on a Wile E. Coyote movie. I don’t know how that is going to work out for them when it comes to the dollars and cents, but from an artistic standpoint the move has been an explosive hit.
Coyote vs. Acme is the story of one coyote and his quest to eat a bird, and not just any bird, but the Road Runner. However, standing in his way has been the tools provided by the Acme Corporation which seem to always blow up in, on, or around his face. Wile E. Coyote makes his way into Albuquerque, New Mexico to enlist the aid of a small claims lawyer by the name of Kevin Avery (Will Forte), he of the law firm Avery, Jones, & Maltese (brilliant). Avery is the kind of lawyer who looks to eke out a living suing massive corporations like Acme for extremely small sums. He sees Wile E. as a similar candidate and thinks he can get him a couple hundred bucks, but Wile E. circumvents him and the pair end up suing Acme for several millions. Buddy Crane (John Cena) is the hot-shot lawyer for Acme who went to law school with Avery and knows he’s a failure. Confident he can get a settlement agreed to, Avery is more than willing to go along with such, but his client refuses forcing the issue to trial. It’s David vs. Goliath with the fate of Avery’s firm on the line so the stakes are fairly large. And lurking in the backgroun is a secret operation at Acme, Project Sisyphus, uncovering the origins of which may put Avery and his niece clerk Paige (Lana Condor) in legitimate danger.
The big guy vs. little guy plot is probably strong enough to carry the film, but the sordid details, mysteries, swerves, and an escalation of the trial itself really helps to fuel the plot and keep it engaging all the way through. There are some solid dynamics with Kevin and Paige who as a recent law school grad has an idealized version of what a lawyer can and should be while her uncle embodies all of the bad stereotypes. What also helps push things along is the character development between Kevin and Wile E. Coyote. Given one is played by a human actor and the other is a mute cartoon, that’s a bit surprising, but the two play off each other really well. There are some legitimate heartfelt moments between the two and if you’re the sort of person who never felt sympathy for the coyote then you will here. I was never one of those people. I always rooted for the coyote. Cena’s buffoonish turn as Buddy Crane is the perfect foil for Avery and also along as the head of Acme is Foghorn Leghorn (Eric Bauza) who makes for a natural villain as well. He’s played a bit like his role in The Looney Tunes Show where he was a mayor there. A loud-mouthed schnook like him is perfect as a C.E.O. or politician.
The film is a live-action animation hybrid and as such is going to invite criticisms to past Looney Tunes movies like Space Jam as well as much better movies like Who Framed Roger Rabbit? The movie is less interested in cameos than both of those, but there are still plenty as this is a world where humans and cartoons interact with regularity as part of day-to-day life. DNEG and Duncan Studios provided the animation to bring these characters to life. Most have a 2D appearance, but they’re clearly 3D models and some are more obvious about it than others. The rather bulbous Foghorn Leghorn moves like a big, CG, ball and has a bit of a video game quality to him. As far as films go, it reminded me of the Rescue Rangers movie in terms of quality. For a character like Wile E. Coyote, the effect was less noticeable. Fairly early in my viewing I stopped paying attention to the visual effects where the coyote was concerned and instead was viewing him as another character. He works wells with the human actors and doesn’t look out of place in most shots. There are, of course, plenty of special effects shots designed to play with the hybrid nature of the film and pretty much all of them work very well. There’s a big action set piece towards the climax of the film that probably accounted for a sizable chunk of that $70 million budget and it’s pretty spectacular. This film isn’t going to rival some of the hybrids that came before it, but the visuals were a modest surprise for me and it didn’t come across as some lesser version intended for streaming or something.
The sound design for the film is also very well done with all of the bangs, explosions, and musical stings one would expect of a Looney Tunes movie. Eric Bauza is on-hand to voice many of the characters he’s inherited over the years and there are also a couple of surprises I won’t spoil. Steven Price composed the film’s score and he understood the assignment. Archival sounds for Road Runner’s classic “Meep Meep” were utilized rather than redone and if you listen closely you will hear from Mel Blanc in this one. The non Wile E. Coyote characters are also utilized well. Porky Pig is kind of a schmuck who has been a client of Avery’s multiple times. Gossamer is the one who delivers subpoenas and the always eager to help Charlie Dog is an employee of the firm. Not every classic character makes an appearance, but chances are you will see your favorite with only a couple of notable exceptions. I also have to give a special shout out to Candi Milo who continues to kill it as a modern day June Foray.
It’s rather interesting that a film like Coyote vs. Acme in which an aggrieved party tries to get justice by going toe-to-toe with an all powerful corporate entity was the film nearly destroyed by a similar entity in the real world. The parallels are uncanny and if the executives at Warner Bros. Discovery had any sense they would have seen that right away and opted not to pursue such an avenue with such an obvious film. Acme may be the bad guys of the film, but it reads like a stand-in for the parent company itself. It’s also quite clear that none of them watched the movie before coming to such a decision, and if they did then they not only lack any sense of taste, but also have no appreciation for the characters that built this legendary studio they all grow fabulously wealthy via. Warner Bros. is currently for sale and may very well get sold in the next calendar year as the media landscape in the United States further consolidates into a small handful of conservative voices. Who knows what our entertainment will look like following such, but at least Coyote vs. Acme managed to escape before all of that happens. The movie is legitimately funny and especially so for those who grew up loving the Looney Tunes. It is so much better than Space Jam or Looney Tunes: Back in Action and it feels like the squad finally has that live-action, animation hybrid it deserves. If you have a chance to see this one in theaters I highly recommend it. I was pretty sure I was going to have a solid time with it when I bought my ticket, but it exceeded my expectations in every way. My entire family walked out of the movie, including my daughter who clung to her ratty, old, Bugs Bunny plush throughout the whole thing, feeling that we had just watched the best Looney Tunes movie ever. Hopefully, it won’t be the last.
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