Coyote vs. ACME
By now, anyone with a passing awareness of the movie industry knows the story of Dave Green’s “Coyote vs. ACME,” and its winding road to the big screen. After David Zaslav took over at Warner Bros. Discovery, he began cutting costs; one of the ways he tried to do that was taking some projects that didn’t seem to have much box-office potential, and writing them off for tax purposes, essentially turning them into “lost films.” “Coyote vs. ACME,” a live-action/animated hybrid comedy featuring the Looney Tunes, was originally going to be one of them, but fan protests online- as well as the tireless work of the filmmakers to drum up support- forced their hand, and in late March 2025, the rights to release it went to Ketchup Entertainment, who had just released another Looney Tunes cast off from WBD, “The Day the Earth Blew Up.” Seventeen months later, it’s finally time for audiences to see it.
The news of “Coyote vs. ACME’s” saving, and its release date, came two days after my mother passed away, and I’d like to think she nudged it into becoming a reality from the afterlife. She loved Looney Tunes, and introduced it to me when I was growing up. My favorite cartoons were about Wile E. Coyote and his speedy prey, the Road Runner. I recently rewatched the first four of their shorts in preparation for Green’s film, and I think the reason I love them above all else is that, with the only words being spoken are the Road Runner’s “Beep Beep,” they are silent comedy, and pure farce. It wasn’t until my 20s that I started to watch the silent comedy masters of Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and Harold Lloyd, but rewatching those early shorts, I think they were a prelude to my love of silent film comedy. Also, of course, animated violence is always funny, and Coyote’s multiple pratfalls make me laugh.
Based on a New Yorker article by Ian Frazier, “Coyote vs. ACME” inverts the premise of Coyote and Road Runner by having the Coyote’s failed attempts be not just desperate acts of a predator to catch his prey, but the results of shoddy product development by ACME, the corporation where Coyote gets his equipment from. One day, as he’s trying to come up with his latest attack methods, Coyote sees an ad for Avery, Jones and Maltese, a law firm in Albuquerque that promises compensation. In one of the many nods to deep Looney Tunes lore, the law firm is named after Tex Avery, Chuck Jones and Michael Maltese, three of the prime voices of Looney Tunes back in the ’30s and ’40s. (Jones was the director of those early shorts I watched, and Maltese wrote the stories.) In the movie, Avery is for Kevin Avery (Will Forte), a personal injury lawyer who specializes in cartoon accidents. Usually, he settles the cases for hundreds on dollars, but when Coyote comes in, he’s not looking for simple satisfaction. He wants vengeance. After torching a proposed settlement by ACME’s in-house lawyer, Buddy Crane (John Cena), Avery and Coyote are going to court. Is there more to ACME’s product failure, however? Several clues found along the way point to something more nefarious.
The screen story is written by James Gunn and Jeremy Slater, but the final screenplay is from Samy Burch, and it might be my favorite narrative of the Looney Tunes hybrid features we’ve gotten over the decades (since two of those are “Space Jam” films, admittedly it’s not a high bar, but I loved “Back in Action,” and this clears that). One of the best elements of the story is the use of Looney Tunes’s roster of characters. This is a film that isn’t interested solely in cameos for cameos sake, but putting characters in a role that makes sense, and gives us a sense of comedic glee. I love that Foghorn Leghorn is the arrogant CEO of ACME, and Elmer Fudd is a US Senator. The way Sylvester, Tweety and Granny are brought into the story (as well as a deep cut cameo for fans of the early shorts), and how Daffy is portrayed. And don’t get me started on Bugs Bunny, whose role had a ridiculous grin on my face throughout. Burch and co. understood the assignment.
While shorts like “One Froggy Evening” and “Duck Amuck” are rightly praised for their originality in premise and execution, one of the places where Looney Tunes always excelled was parody, be it “What’s Opera, Doc?”, “Duck Dodgers in the 24th 1/2 Century,” and “The Scarlet Pumpernickel.” At its core, “Coyote vs. ACME” is a comedic riff on courtroom dramas and John Grisham thrillers, and it nails the silliness- and underdog nature- of the genre successfully. The main actors in the film- Forte, Cena and Lana Condor as one of Avery’s legal aides- all work wonderfully with their animated co-stars. Green does a great job with the hybrid aspect of the film, and we get so many hilarious- and vintage- Looney Tunes-esque set pieces. We also get some unexpected sweetness that honestly, hits a little harder given the film’s long journey to the big screen. This one got me in its feels.
Unintentionally, “Coyote vs. ACME” ended up being a movie about its own release to the public. Its sincerity is why its story connected with me; why it honors the looney nature of these character’s legacies, and put a goofy, emotional smile on my face. My mom would have loved this. I definitely do.
