Coyote vs. Acme‘s long path to theaters feels fated, as if it were meant to happen this way.
Any discussion of the pseudo-animated film by Dave Green would be remiss without acknowledging that fraught path. A brief detour: Coyote vs. Acme was meant to be released by Warner Bros. Studios, but the film was shelved indefinitely, with reported plans for it to be written off for tax purposes. After some significant internet pushback, the studio sold the film to boutique distributor Ketchup Entertainment.
In an appropriately ironic twist, Coyote vs. Acme suddenly gains potent cultural relevance: an orphan callously tossed aside by a Frankensteinian corporate behemoth (currently in the throes of a much ballyhooed acquisition by Paramount Skydance) is rescued to make the case for its existence before the world.
What is Coyote vs. Acme about?
That meta context is well-aligned to the film itself. Written by May December screenwriter Samy Burch and directed by Dave Green, Coyote vs. ACME follows Wile E. Coyote, the self-purported genius on a never-ending quest to capture Road Runner, on a side quest to sue ACME Corporation, the film universe’s stand-in for Amazon, which has saddled him with thousands of faulty products that were supposed to aid in his primary objective.
He seeks out the support of Kevin Avery (Will Forte), an ambulance-chasing lawyer with a well-timed TV ad, whose sole ambition in life is to keep pursuing microscopic-claims cases against ACME. When Wile E. engineers a scenario to turn his microscopic claim into a gargantuan lawsuit, he, Kevin, and his team find themselves trapped in a storm of corporate espionage, exploitation, kidnapping, and lots of physical comic hijinks.
Coyote vs. Acme Review
The physical comedy is critical to Coyote vs. Acme‘s success. Anyone familiar with the Looney Tunes franchise, and specifically the push-and-pull relationship between Wile E. and Road Runner, know that half of its joy is seeing the characters in varying degrees of outrageous, entertaining peril. Green leans fully into the cartoon chaos, stuffing the film with brilliant animated visual jokes that put the unfortunate coyote through the paces.
He does a great job modernizing the sight gags while retaining its 20th-century charm, slotting in a pair of magnetic gloves alongside classic ACME products like the rocket skates and the 2D black holes. They all share a fierce commitment to uproarious laughter, and every single bit lands with the power of a (literal) locomotive.
Green also blends Coyote vs. Acme’s three cinematic modes well. The film embeds the cartoon characters within the human world, all living and working side-by-side. While it does fit Porky, Daffy, and Tweety easily in the real-world frames, Green isn’t afraid to call attention to the cognitive dissonance that some audiences might experience. There are moments where Green heightens the flatness of the cartoons in comparison to the humans or throws in a 3D-animated gag as a winking acknowledgment of the ridiculousness on display. Its self-awareness is charming and not at the expense of the characters or their stories, which only bolsters the already pulse-pounding humor.
The other critical element of Coyote vs. Acme’s success is the Looney Tunes themselves. With the characters suffering slightly from the collapses of monoculture and cable television, it warms the heart to see how well they fit into a modern context without feeling passe. Every one of their appearances warms the heart, and how Green and Burch conceive their roles is inspired.
After nearly a century of trying and failing to capture Road Runner, it feels absurd that Wile E. waited this long to file a lawsuit, especially considering the millions of dollars he presumably wasted. Making country-fried blowhard Foghorn Leghorn the ACME CEO allows for some excellent meta-jokes, as does having the Tasmanian Devil as his lead communications executive. Every cartoon’s role in the film makes sense, even those that you would expect to be front and center but aren’t.
What’s even better, and what elevates the film from great to essential, is the profundity that Coyote vs. Acme extends to its cartoon characters. The premise is rock-solid and brimming with possibilities for a silly, diverting 90 minutes. However, Green and Burch dig deeper to examine the sociopolitical mechanics of this fictional universe and demonstrate its relevance to our own.
As Wile E.’s small claims court case hilariously explodes (pun intended) into a U.S. Senate investigation, we get to see how large corporations bend the government and the media to their will, all for the sake of “progress,” in Foghorn’s parlance. After making us laugh for nearly 60 minutes straight, the film rips the rug out from under us, as we are confronted with the harsh truth that cartoons in this world are nothing more than cannon fodder (pun intended here as well).
It’s one thing to love the Looney Tunes for the laughter they’ve provided for generations. It’s another splendid thing entirely to see them as an analogy for the working class, pressed under the boot of corporate elitism and respectability politics. (Having Elmer Fudd serve as the lead Senate investigator to belabor the second point is genius.)
Funnily enough, the script grants so much narrative grace to the cartoons that the human characters can feel comparatively flat. Will Forte is effortlessly funny and Lana Condor has sprightly charm, but their characters do feel underwritten, with limited motivations that briefly zap the film of its comedic momentum in the second act. (It says something that best performance in the film belongs to Wile E. Coyote, by a desert mile.)
Is Coyote vs. Acme worth watching?
Had Coyote vs. Acme been released as intended, it would be a resounding, surprisingly heartfelt success that reinforced the potential of the Looney Tunes and live-action/animation hybrid movies. However, films do not exist in a vacuum. It is impossible to ignore the David vs. Goliath implications associated with the film’s eleventh-hour release. In that context, Coyote vs. Acme enters the animated canon as a vital work with its thumb of the pulse of Hollywood, demonstrating better than a Hollywood trade op-ed or a cabal of state lawsuits how toxic and destructive corporate consolidation in arts and entertainment can be. It’s more than a triumph; it’s kismet shaped into a long-lasting legacy.
Coyote vs. Acme opens in theaters on August 28.
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