REVIEW: ‘Coyote Vs. Acme’ Finds Poignancy In Mayhem

Following the release of The Day the Earth Blew Up, it seemed likely it would be the last feature-length Looney Tunes film. Luckily, that assumption was wrong. At the time, Dave Green‘s Coyote vs. Acme was simply the loudest victim in David Zaslav’s killing spree of completely and nearly completed films and television series. There had been enough backlash for Warner Bros. to claim they were trying to find a new home for the film. But continued rejection of bids from interested studios made it appear this was a formality designed to appease frustrated talent and consumers.

Enter Ketchup Entertainment. The distributor had saved The Day the Earth Blew Up when it was on the chopping block and earned some recognition for co-producing the Enzo Ferrari biopic and distributing the other other Hellboy movie. They’re an admittedly odd choice for a production that has generated so much press, but they’ve managed to bring Coyote vs. Acme to theaters more than four years after it finished shooting.

A ’90s comic article parodying Coyote’s antics is expanded and reimagined in Coyote vs. Acme.

Coyote vs. Acme focuses, naturally, on Wile E. Coyote. Though he’s had his share of bad days, he’s not one to let 75 years of trying and failing to catch that cool and collected Road Runner discourage him. This persistence makes him the opposite of Kevin Avery (Will Forte), an ambition-free lawyer who is comfortable living in a motel and eking out a living litigating easy small settlements against megacorp Acme for “cartoon injuries.” Did you get hit by a cartoon wrecking ball while walking to work? Avery can get you an easy $250 before your shift ends.

It’s this sort of easy settlement that Avery expects when he’s hired by Coyote, but the sheer number of Acme products Coyote has used over the years turns it into a major case. And Coyote isn’t actually interested in settling, instead hoping to nab Road Runner when he testifies as a witness. The case starts to unravel a conspiracy that puts Avery in the sights of Buddy Crane (John Cena), Acme’s ruthless corporate lawyer with loose morals and loud bolo ties. But it also starts to elevate him in the eyes of Paige (Lana Condor), the niece who idolizes him and knows he can do better.

Will Forte stretches his limits in Coyote vs. Acme, and it pays off.

Coyote vs. Acme actually has very non-Looney Tunes origins, originating as a 1990 New Yorker article written by Ian Frazier. That makes this, interestingly enough, one of the only pieces of media to make the jump from parody to canon. But while the original article focused exclusively on court proceedings, the film is more interested in the relationship between Wile E. Coyote and Will Forte’s Avery.

It’s here that the film finds an unexpected sort of poignancy. Forte has established himself as perfectly capable of playing hapless protagonists, but even he can’t match the energy of a character who has been relentlessly failing at a singular task for nearly a century. There’s no way to stick the two together and not walk away with some sort of deeper lesson about persistence and doing your best. Coyote vs. Acme relishes these moments, delivering far more of an emotional punch than one would expect.

Forte’s performance is made even more remarkable when one stops to consider that his costar doesn’t actually exist. He’s acting across an animated character, and a mute animated character at that. Which means these intimate moments between the two characters are Forte playing off of nothing at all. At least Bob Hoskins got to hear Roger Rabbit talk. Forte is too much of a comedy legend for this to cement itself as one of his best performances, but he’s stretching himself both comedically and dramatically in a way we haven’t seen before.

The film is a love letter to Looney Tunes, and it’s a shame it hasn’t been released sooner.

That said, the film is still extremely looney. The jokes are plentiful and the majority of them land. Dave Green’s direction is at its most impressive when animated and live-action elements collide for zany violence and mayhem, including multiple sequences I’m still struggling to wrap my head around. The film is clearly born of a love for the wider Looney Tunes franchise, throwing in deep-cut references at every possible opportunity. Dr. Lorre is in this! As a prominent character!

The feature-length outings in the Looney Tunes series have largely consisted of compilation films, adaptations of Nike commercials, and inconsistent direct-to-video fare. So to simply say this is probably the best Looney Tunes feature doesn’t quite cut it. It’s also one of the funniest films of the year, and very likely the most heartfelt quote-unquote “kids” movie in quite a bit longer than that. The fact that it barely managed to secure a release — and that several other films weren’t so lucky — paints about as dire a picture of the current studio system as one can imagine. But Coyote vs. Acme is a win, and we’re lucky to have it.

Coyote vs. Acme will release in theaters August 28, 2026.