COYOTE VS. ACME Review: Finally A Successful Acme Product!

Introduction

I fell in love with Looney Tunes as a boy. It was just part of growing up. I would come home from school, and there were Bugs, Daffy, and the gang right there for my pleasure. As I got older, I still loved those cartoons. I think what I loved so much was that the writers were pretty savvy. They knew adults would be watching these with their children, so they wrote plenty of material that might go right over the head of a kid, while giving Mom and Dad their own humor to laugh at.

Pre-Production

In 1990, Ian Frazier published a story in The New Yorker called Coyote vs. Acme, in which Wile E. Coyote sues Acme for all its faulty products. That was a conversation that had occurred between a couple of my more insightful buddies and me over maybe a joint or two. After all, how many times can one coyote be blown up, dropped off a cliff, smashed by a boulder, or launched into the side of a mountain before somebody starts asking whether Acme might be partially responsible?

So here we are in 2022, and Warner Bros. finally makes Coyote vs. Acme. I was excited to finally see the subject on the big screen. But wait, in 2023, seemingly out of nowhere, Warner shelves the completed film, potentially consigning it to tax-write-off oblivion. Then, in 2025, Ketchup Entertainment buys the film from Warner, and we finally have a movie. My first reaction upon watching it was: WHY was this ever shelved?

It is a wonderful movie. Is it as good as, say, Who Framed Roger Rabbit? Well, no, but dang it, this is the film we diehard Looney Tunes fans wanted: potential justice for one of the most downtrodden characters ever, Wile E. Coyote. Sure, he has been trying to catch and eat the Road Runner forever and failing mightily along the way, but after a certain amount of time, you kind of start rooting for the guy. He is totally about the never-say-die ethos.

Synopsis

The plot of the movie is pretty simple. After all these many, many efforts to catch the Road Runner, Coyote stands in his cave surrounded by his mountain of failed gadgets, completely lost over how badly everything has gone. Later, he sees an ad on TV for a law firm willing to file suit against companies like Acme for faulty products. Wile E. packs up his bag and heads to the offices of Kevin Avery (Will Forte).

Down-on-his-luck Kevin is wonderfully played by Forte. Kevin, much like Wile E., has been beaten down over time. He doesn’t really take on big cases anymore, instead resolving them for tiny settlements. They meet, and despite his many misgivings, Kevin agrees to proceed with the case.

The person who really drives the case forward is Kevin’s relative Paige, played by the very funny Lana Condor. She believes Coyote has been mistreated and, more importantly, believes Kevin can actually help him. On the other side of the table is Acme, led by Buddy Crane, maniacally played by John Cena, along with the spot-on choice of Foghorn Leghorn.

I love the choice of Foghorn because he was always really just trying to get one up on the dog and protect his lovely chickens. Here he is ruthless, always trying to sweet-talk the world into the silliness of watching our favorite nemesis get blown up, beaten, and generally destroyed for our satisfaction. Buddy is willing to do anything to prevent Acme from being held accountable.

Discssion

You can tell from the start that everyone involved in this film loved the opportunity to be there, and it shows in the performances. It was also great seeing all the many cameos from both real actors and our favorite Looney Tunes characters living in the real world, very much like the wonderful Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

The animation looks pretty solid. It isn’t perfect, and I wonder if it couldn’t have been smoothed out a little once Ketchup bought the film, but this is really a small quibble. I really enjoyed how well the animated characters fit into the real world and vice versa, particularly during the short sequences where the live-action characters enter scenes that become a little more animated. The realities of the two worlds are presented rather seamlessly.

The story is excellent and credit for this goes to Samy Burch, Jeremy Slater, and James Gunn. I find it particularly strange that Warner Bros. would shelve a movie with Gunn’s involvement considering he would go on to become co-head of DC Studios. The script is wonderful. Wile E. Coyote’s lawsuit and the mystery of what Acme is hiding are brilliantly merged together. Each storyline feeds naturally into the other. Most importantly, Coyote vs. Acme is really fun.

Conclusion

Watching Coyote vs. Acme, I found myself wondering how Coyote and the Road Runner have never had a major video game built around them. I feel like that could have given the Mario Brothers a run for their money. The entire concept of Wile E. ordering increasingly ridiculous contraptions from Acme and having every one of them spectacularly backfire practically designs the game for you.

It was great seeing so many of these characters portrayed so smartly. I again have to wonder why more movies like this haven’t been made. This is totally a family film, but it also understands why those old cartoons appealed to adults in the first place.

Parents, sit down with your family and watch a few Coyote and Road Runner shorts before seeing this film. Set the table. Let the kids watch poor Wile E. order one Acme product after another, only to get flattened, exploded, launched, crushed, and dropped off another cliff. It will make the case for the Coyote. Then go see Coyote vs. Acme. It succeeds in every way that Acme’s products fail.

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