'Coyote Vs. Acme' Gives the Looney Tunes Their Day In Court … and Wins

If there's a lesson in all of the chaos surrounding the release of "Coyote Vs. Acme," it's that trying to make your voice heard amid a conglomerate's loathsome decision may seem foolish, but it's worth fighting for those little victories that slip through the cracks every now and then. All the trouble started in late 2023 when Warner Bros. (and all-around dunce David Zaslav) believed it would be more lucrative to claim a $70 million "Looney Tunes" movie as a tax write-off. It wasn't even the first time the studio disposed of other completed titles for an easy payday ("Batgirl" and "Scoob: Holiday Haunt" are still stuck in limbo). There was enough dissent, however, from numerous voices within the entertainment industry that the film garnered waves of support across its lengthy social media salvage campaign. A potential studio tentpole became an overnight underdog against the corporate Goliaths that had seemingly little faith in it. "Coyote Vs. Acme" was ultimately rescued by Ketchup Entertainment in early 2025, the distribution company that picked up the last discarded "Looney Tunes" movie from WB ("The Day the Earth Blew Up"), and given its long overdue theatrical release last week. This whole ordeal struck a chord with people because the corporate higher-ups deciding to delete a project thousands of people worked on for their monetary benefit (and no one else's) fundamentally goes against the nature of art. Even bad movies deserve to be accessible in some form. But make no mistake, "Coyote Vs. Acme" is far from a bad movie. In fact, it's the best "Looney Tunes" movie of the bunch behind Joe Dante's compromised (but still very funny) "Looney Tunes: Back in Action." It's no "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" either, but it gets at a very similar thematic throughline of these seemingly indestructible cartoon characters coming under attack from those who simply don't care about harming them. It's no wonder WB (hilariously credited as a subsidiary of the Acme corporation) didn't like what they saw in the mirror. Ever since his debut in 1949 ("Fast and Furry-ous"), Wile E. Coyote has made it his life's goal to catch the Roadrunner by any means necessary. That means ordering every kind of weapon, device and contraption from the Acme company to nab his speedster dinner, only to have them literally blow up in his face time after time. But after decades of humiliation, Wile E. has taken it upon himself to finally sue Acme for damages pertaining to their defective products. Billboard lawyer Kevin Avery (Will Forte) reluctantly takes on the case, only to discover the mute desert canine intends to hold them accountable for every single injury. Naturally, this puts them under the microscope of Acme executive/cartoon class traitor Foghorn Leghorn (Eric Bauza) and his stern human lawyer Buddy Crane (John Cena), both of whom are prepped to go to great lengths to nip this case in the bud. The least surprising attribute of "Coyote Vs. Acme" is that it captures the spirit of what makes the Looney Tunes so funny after all these years. Characters that can apply cartoon logic to just about any situation through a rapid fire series of gags, whether it's getting hit by a train, falling from great heights, or speaking through signs pulled out of thin air, is a formula that's always ripe for laughs. There's a joke around every corner, including a deeply funny jab at a certain black-and-white character who's gone dormant in recent times. What really sets this apart, however, is the surprisingly nuanced depictions of the toons themselves. "Coyote Vs. Acme" envisions a world where humanity and cartoon characters from the "Looney Tunes" shorts co-exist. Where this differs from other versions of this same premise is that they aren't movie stars, but actual citizens with animated instincts. When Porky Pig gets hit with a wrecking ball in public, the best he can hope for is a small settlement until the next incident. Daffy Duck being used as a test for Acme products turns him, well, loony. The toons can't really die per the law of cartoon violence, but they sure do go through a lot of pain and suffering for being at the mercy of an all-powerful corporation. At a certain point, Acme's best customer hits his breaking point and fights back. Transforming the Acme corporation from a hilariously irresponsible supplier to a dangerous superpower is a really inspired choice. The film partly turns into a conspiracy thriller with whistleblowers, payouts, and even disappearances to cover their criminal tracks. "Coyote Vs. Acme" brilliantly plays upon those decades of watching Wile E. falling victim to Acme's defective products over and over in a manner that makes you root for him, in spite of how hard you laugh at his painful misfortunes. The very idea for the film came from Ian Frazier's 1990 satirical piece in "The New Yorker" of the same name, so this public sentiment has been stewing for quite some time now. What better moment to illustrate the corporate stranglehold on the justice system than with a film that helps us laugh through the pain. Director Dave Green brings a shocking humanity to Wile E. that never discounts his cartoonish sensibilities, and makes him feel like a living, breathing character worthy of the justice he seeks. You'll even be surprised at how the film features one of the most unexpectedly touching moments you'll ever see in a "Looney Tunes" project, and one that will no doubt reshape how we see a certain rivalry moving forward. "Coyote Vs. Acme" does ultimately suffer from having to adhere to a filmic structure (as all of them do), but when it works, it really works. The fact that it was made, buried, championed, and resurrected, therefore representing the different stages of the film itself, is quite the miracle. "Coyote Vs. Acme" is now playing in theaters nationwide.