Coyote vs. Acme
⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
Rating: PG
Run Time: 1 hour 41 minutes
Stars: Will Forte, Lana Condor, John Cena
Writers: Samy Burch, James Gunn, Jeremy Slater
Director: Dave Green
If Who Framed Roger Rabbit? had never happened in 1988, Coyote vs. Acme would stand as the all-time definitive animation/live action mashup of classic cartoon characters.
As it is, this endlessly funny, ingeniously layered, scrupulously respectful extension of Warner Bros.’ most enduring late Golden Era franchise delivers the goods in ways Wile E. Coyote, Acme’s most long-suffering unsatisfied customer, could only dream of.
Through more than 50 cartoon shorts over three-quarters of a century, the Coyote obsessively chased the Road Runner, always failing spectacularly: The speedy flightless avian reliably evaded the famished carnivore’s clutches – even when Wile E. applied the latest in Road Runner-catching technology, invariably supplied by the Acme Corporation.
Anticipating the Amazon phenomenon by a good half-century, the Coyote placed one overnight order after another: catapults, anvils, rocket shoes, vaulting poles, giant magnifying glasses — you name it — all in the cause of rounding up the Road Runner. And as everyone knows, each and every time, just when it appeared the Coyote had the Road Runner in his clutches, the catapults flipped backwards, the anvils found the wrong head to fall on, the rocket shoes went haywire, the giant light-focusing magnifying glass sizzled its owner to a cartoony crisp.
Coyote vs. Acme takes that continuing narrative to its logical conclusion in this litigious age: Fed up with being burned (literally) by Acme products, the Coyote takes the company to court for decades of damages.
To that end, Coyote obtains the services of Atty. Kevin Avery (SNL alum Will Forte), a rumpled ambulance chaser who makes up one-third of the ragtag law firm Avery, Jones and Maltese (cleverly named for three of Warners’ legendary animator/writers, Tex Avery, Chuck Jones, and Michael Maltese).
Kevin specializes in getting quick cash settlements for cartoon characters who have suffered injury from Acme products: a few hundred bucks here and there. But after decades of abuse, Coyote wants recompense for each and every humiliating snafu he has endured. Avery is reluctant to rock his comfortable — if modestly profitable — legal boat, particularly because it would mean going up against his old law school nemesis, Acme’s corporate counsel, Buddy Crane (John Cena). Finally, with the encouragement of his idealistic young lawyer niece, Paige (X-Men’s Lana Condor), he takes on the biggest case of his career.
Discovery can be the most tedious part of being a lawyer, but not in this animated world: The quest to prove Acme’s liability introduces Kevin and Paige to a Rogue’s Gallery of Warner immortals, including an undercover Bugs Bunny, a suitably wacky Daffy Duck, a loud-mouthed Foghorn Leghorn, a flustered Tweety Bird, and a proudly pantsless Porky Pig. Dozens of other Looney Tune/Merrie Melodies denizens make cameos, some for less than a second or two (Yosemite Sam and Pepe Le Pew are barely onscreen, yet both get laugh-out-loud moments). Likewise, the script by Samy Burch (Oscar-nominated for May December), James Gunn (Guardians of the Galaxy), and Jeremy Slater (TV’s The Umbrella Academy) fires off loaded animation references faster than an Acme Gatling gun: When someone accuses the Coyote of being unemployed, and therefore ineligible for lost wages, Kevin immediately responds: “The ruling in Sylvester v. Gonzales clearly establishes pursuit as a legitimate professional occupation.”
None of this would work for one second were the animation of Coyote vs. Acme one smidgen below first-rate. Director Dave Green (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows) oversaw both the live-action and animated aspects of the film, employing a massive crew that miraculously retains the characters’ classic 2-dimensional look while seamlessly incorporating them into a 3-D world.
Much has been made of this film’s long journey to the screen, beginning with its inception as a satirical 1990 New Yorker piece (watch closely here and you’ll spot Coyote reading that very issue in the background). Finally made into a film after decades of development, last year the finished project was shelved by Warner Bros. purely to gain a tax write-off. Fan outrage led Warner to license its release by Ketchup Entertainment, the same people who brought us 2024’s The Day the Earth Blew Up, a similarly excellent, yet criminally overlooked, latter-day Warner Bros. ’toon recreating Daffy and Porky in their 1940s heyday.
Beyond all this, the less said about Coyote vs. Acme the better. Bask in its lush animation (Coyote deserves a Best Supporting Actor nomination), chuckle at the earnest live performances, wallow in the unabashed nostalgia.
The complainant may or may not lose his case. But Coyote vs. Acme is a winner. That’s the truth, and nothing but the truth.
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