You might know some version of the story: Coyote vs. Acme, a courtroom drama featuring familiar cartoon character—based on an Ian Frazier New Yorker humor piece from 1990—was shot in 2023, and like most Looney Tunes projects, Warner Bros. set it for release. But in a wave of cost-cutting after the Warner Bros. Discovery merger, CEO David Zaslav shelved the film in favor of a tax write-off.
An outcry ensued—although Zaslav’s simultaneous burial of a Scooby Doo picture didn’t cause much vitriol, and it remains buried—and Ketchup Entertainment ultimately picked Coyote vs. Acme up. They’re a distributor whose business model seems to depend on salvaging discarded Looney Tunes movies; they also released 2024’s Daffy Duck/Porky Pig animated comedy The Day the Earth Blew Up.
Now, Coyote vs. Acme is here, amid yet another Warner merger drama, and a lot of people are noting the irony, especially since the plot of the film also concerns shady dealings by a dastardly corporation. This is something of a stretch, in the tradition of “Wicked is a political allegory because the Wizard is a bad guy, sort of like Donald Trump.”
The results are middling, as Coyote vs. Acme is a less funny and witty version of what Who Framed Roger Rabbit did almost 40 years ago. Still, there’s some good material here.
The film was directed by Dave Green—not David Gordon Green, a different director—and written by Samy Burch, who also penned May December and the fantastic recent Willem Dafoe movie Late Fame. Coyote vs. Acme is what it sounds like: Wile E. Coyote sues the Acme Corporation because of the danger inflicted by their products in his many chases with the Road Runner. He hires a low-rent attorney (Will Forte), assisted by his niece (Lana Condor), as they take on Acme and its own slickster attorney (John Cena). Cena, always very good in comedies, is much funnier as the antagonist lawyer than Forte is as the hero.
There’s a lot of odd couple humor between Forte’s Kevin Avery (named for Looney Tunes legend Tex Avery) and Wile, which is undercut by the Coyote not being able to speak. I did enjoy a court appearance by the Road Runner, who, when testifying, is instructed to answer one “meep” for yes and two for no.
Bugs Bunny and other legendary characters are also fairly well-used in brief appearances, all filled with easter eggs related to Looney Tunes history.