Coyote vs. Acme Film Review: A Long-Awaited Satirical Hit

It took three years, but Coyote vs. Acme is finally in theaters and delighting audiences of all ages with its irresistible blend of slapstick humor, pointed satire, and even a warm fuzzy here and there. We’re happy to report that the film was worth the wait.

(Some spoilers below but no major reveals.)

The film is based on a well-known satirical piece by Ian Frazier (also titled “Coyote vs. Acme”) published in The New Yorker in 1990. Development of a film version didn’t start until 2018, but some pretty talented people worked on the script, including James Gunn. Small wonder that Warner Bros.’ bizarre 2023 decision to shelve the film in order to take a tax write-off sparked outrage both within the industry and among fans online.

The concept alone is sheer brilliance: Wile E. Coyote, after decades of ACME equipment failing him in his efforts to catch that darned Road Runner, decides to sue the corporation. He chooses Albuquerque personal injury lawyer Kevin Avery (Will Forte) to represent him against Acme’s hotshot corporate lawyers, led by Buddy Crane (John Cena)—who just happens to be an old law school buddy of Kevin’s.

Kevin has made a number of personal injury claims against Acme over the years on behalf of his cartoon clients, usually settling out of court for small sums. That’s what he expects will happen with Wile E.’s case—until a clerical error results in filing a massive lawsuit against every Acme product. Acme unexpectedly (and suspiciously) offers a very generous settlement. But the coyote has other plans and rips it up, forcing the matter to trial.

The problem is that Kevin is not a trial lawyer and only has his intern niece Paige (Lana Condor) and partners Sal Maltese (Tone Bell) and Dottie Jones (Martha Kelly) to assist him. The Road Runner is the only eyewitness to Wile E.’s many Acme-related mishaps and unlikely to show up in court, given that it is well-nigh impossible to catch. Acme also has a deep, dark secret related to something called “Project Sisyphus” and the disappearance of an Acme product development scientist back in 1992. And they will do anything to protect that secret.

A clever homage

Looney Tunes fans will delight in the many cartoon cameos and clever references to the franchise’s storied history, right down to the names of the main human characters. Kevin Avery is named in honor of animator Tex Avery; Sal Maltese, after screenwriter Michael Maltese; and Dottie Jones after animator Chuck Jones, who co-created Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner. But there is heart as well as humor in the film, and an inspiring message: Wile E. is very much the plucky underdog, picking himself up after every failure and trying again, and again, and again. It’s that dogged perseverance that gives the chase meaning, even if he’s doomed to never succeed in his quest.

Apparently, director Dave Green (Earth to Echo) had a life-size Wile E. Coyote puppet made so the actors had something to perform alongside and shot most of the scenes twice: once carefully choreographed, followed by another more spontaneous take. The effort paid off, as the human and animated performers blend seamlessly. (One sly moment involves Judge Troppogrosso, played by Luis Guzman, choosing a cartoon gavel over a real one since it was a “toon case.”) Green also opted to blend 3D and traditional 2D animation—reserving the former for shots where he needed better control over lighting and shadow—so it even looks like a classic Looney Tunes cartoon.

And the overall tone is pitched exactly right in this unabashed love letter to the beloved cartoons. “All of them were just so funny to me because they were violent and they were irreverent. They weren’t saccharine: they were sarcastic and subversive and weird,” Green told IndiWire. “That was always the fabric of what Looney Tunes was to me as a kid and in the DNA from the very beginning. And so, in making this movie, we tried to carry that torch the best we could, and speak as much as we could with that tonality and that voice, and keep it weird and keep it smart and sophisticated and dark and funny.”

Mission accomplished, Mr. Green. Seriously, we owe Ketchup Entertainment our gratitude for rescuing this gem from the shelves of studio obscurity. And their gamble seems to be paying off, based on the film’s solid opening weekend: Coyote vs. Acme racked up nearly $16 million, even with Spider-Man: No Way Home and The Odyssey still in the theatrical mix. That bodes well for its future. OK, it won’t break any major box office records, but it’s the strongest opening yet for a Ketchup film.

Coyote vs. Acme is now playing in theaters.