Coyote Vs. Acme Review: The Long-Delayed Looney Tunes Movie Is Perfect For 2026
by Witney Seibold · /FilmThe saga of Dave Green's "Coyote vs. Acme" has been long and aggravating. One can still find Variety articles announcing that it was initially meant to be released on July 21, 2023, but was pushed back to get out of the way of "Barbie." In November of 2023, however, David Zaslav — the Baron Harkonnen of Warner Bros. — announced that "Coyote vs. Acme" would be shelved indefinitely in exchange for a $30 million tax write-off. This instigated a furor among cineastes who were baffled why a studio even had enough power — and greed, and capriciousness — to cancel a completed movie.
And "Coyote vs. Acme" wasn't some obscure, half-complete, low-budget affair. This was a $72 million dollar animation/live-action hybrid starring Will Forte and John Cena, and which involved beloved animated Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies characters that Warner Bros. had been actively fostering for nearly a century. It wouldn't be until 2025 that Ketchup Entertainment would be able to crack through the greed-enforced bureaucratic wall and negotiate the purchase of "Coyote vs. Acme." Now, Dave Green's movie will finally see the light of day, over three years after its intended release date. That saga alone should, if I may speculate, draw in audiences in droves, curious as to what was happening in "Coyote vs. Acme" that made it so dangerous, so verboten.
As it so happens, "Coyote vs. Acme" directly covers themes of corporate malfeasance, and tells the story of "the little guy" — in this case, Wile E. Coyote — taking a giant corporation to court to expose the injustices they actively and knowingly wreak upon the world. Perhaps the higher-ups at Warner Bros. saw "Coyote vs. Acme" and saw a little too much of themselves in Acme.
As a film, however, it's merely okay.
Coyote vs. Acme is a little too kid-friendly
"Coyote vs. Acme" is based on Ian Frazier's 1990 New Yorker short story, "Coyote v. Acme," which postulated what might happen if Wile E. Coyote from Chuck Jones' long series of Roadrunner cartoons took the Acme corporation to court over the constant failure of their many mail-order products. We know the pattern: the mute Coyote, in a futile effort to capture an errant desert Roadrunner, would order rocket skates, catapults, bat suits, and other such widgets from a company called Acme. The widgets would always, always blow up or backfire in some spectacular way, leaving the Coyote charred and the Roadrunner uncaptured.
Frazier's original story envisioned a world where the Coyote had endured enough injury, and decided to sue Acme over its catalogue of malfunctional products. This premise was first dramatized in an episode of "Tiny Toon Adventures" back in 1991, and is now being given the feature film treatment.
The central joke of "Coyote vs. Acme," of course, is the juxtaposition of modern-day legal rigmarole against the absurd world of cartoon Coyotes and Roadrunners. In the 1940s and 1950s, we merely chortled at Chuck Jones' many sublimely time slapstick masterpieces, but after many decades, we had to start over-analyzing. If Acme were to be taken to court, would the Coyote have a case? What kind of corporate laws would be cited as precedent? If the Coyote is a cartoon, and his injuries are impermanent, could Acme use that as a legal defense? As it happens, yes.
It's this central gag, sadly, where "Coyote vs. Acme" is weakest. The film isn't so much a winking, ironic spoof of legal thrillers as it is a brisk, kid-friendly farce. The most intriguing joke is lightly frosted over by slapstick silliness.
This is no Who Framed Roger Rabbit
The closest analogue to "Coyote vs. Acme" is, of course, Robert Zemeckis' 1988 film "Who Framed Roger Rabbit," a comedic noir that investigated a murder mystery in a world where cartoons and humans co-exist. What was notable about "Roger Rabbit," though, was that it took its film noir story quite seriously. When someone was murdered, it was a blunt, scary thing. The lead character, although living in a world of cartoons, was still a hard-drinking, embittered soul played by dramatic actor Bob Hoskins.
"Coyote vs. Acme" sets up an intriguing legal thriller about what might be going on behind the scenes at Acme, but doesn't lean nearly hard enough into its colder, more investigative aspects. Everything is bright and colorful and friendly, sporting quick editing and goofy slapstick, even in the scenes where a few quiet moments are required.
At the center of the movie is Will Forte, a comedic actor, who doesn't sell his sad-sackery quite as well as Hoskins did nearly 40 years earlier. If you want to make a comedy about the clash between the world of cartoons and the world of humans, don't cast an actor best known for his comedy work. Forte is, of course, capable of dramatic work ("Nebraska" comes to mind), but here, he is in full caricature mode. I would imagine "Coyote vs. Acme" would have been 30% funnier if a more dramatic actor were at its center.
Forte plays Kevin Avery at an Albuquerque law firm called Avery, Jones, and Maltese (a reference to Fred "Tex" Avery, Chuck Jones, and Michael Maltese, three of the legendary cartoon makers from Warner Bros.' Termite Terrace), and the movie kicks off when he is approached by Wile E. Coyote about the possibility of suing Acme.
Coyote vs. Acme should have been hand-animated
Kevin Avery, once an ambitious hotshot, wishes for the Coyote to merely settle. Indeed, Avery has made a career of being as lazy as possible; if a cartoon client comes to him with an Acme product-related injury, he files the paperwork, settles out of court, and his client walks away with $125. Avery tries to instill this bitterness in his ambitious niece Paige (Lana Condor), and it's generally accepted by his beaten-down partners Sal (Tone Bell) and Dottie (Martha Kelly).
The Coyote doesn't speak and, like in the Chuck Jones cartoons, communicates with handheld signs. The Coyote, through some subterfuge, manages to actually file a major lawsuit against Acme via Avery, forcing Avery to begin a huge investigation into the company's sketchy history.
Sadly, the two-and-a-half-D animation used to animate the Coyote (and others) is only expressive about 50% of the time. In certain scenes, the Coyote moves in a frantic and cartoonish fashion befitting his nature. In some of the face-to-face scenes, however, the Coyote's inexpressive, plastic face begins to show, and the animation flattens out. This is a far cry from the expressive exuberance of Chuck Jones' 1950s original Coyote cartoons. "Coyote vs. Acme" would have benefited greatly from hand-drawn animation.
Kevin was once friends with Acme's central hotshot lawyer, Buddy Crane (John Cena), a cutthroat a-hole with a sniveling sidekick (P.J. Byrne). In an amusing piece of cartoon casting, the ultra-rich, unethical head of Acme is played by Foghorn Leghorn (voiced by Eric Bauza). But again, the cartoonish humor might have been better seen had someone other than Cena played the film's villain. Cena is practically a cartoon unto himself. His "funny" performance robs the movie of any genuine menace.
The story of Coyote vs. Acme is perfect for 2026
The plot that follows has the shape of "Chinatown," but the tone of "Scooby-Doo." Avery and Paige receive shadowy anonymous tips over the phone from a character whose voice is very, very familiar, and they visit mental institutions and old women's homes wondering what Acme has to do with a crazy duck, and a missing scientist who looks like Peter Lorre. And why is Tweety (Bauza) working for the bad guys? It all boils down to a mysterious scheme called Project Sisyphus, which, once revealed, will show that Acme has been up to more evil than we initially assumed. "Sisyphus" is the perfect reference in a film about Wile E. Coyote.
Meanwhile, the Coyote's court case will grow and grow until it's presented to Congress. Avery will have to re-energize his legal instincts and actually apply himself, and the Coyote ... well, he may also have insidious motivations behind all of this.
The story of "Coyote vs. Acme" (credited to James Gunn, Jeremy Slater, and Samy Burch) is fine, and actually contains an intriguing theme about how companies can get too large to remain ethical. The film was made in 2023, but is all the more timely in the world of 2026's ultra-corruption. One can now see why WB wanted to shelve it.
"Coyote vs. Acme" doesn't fall off a cliff, but its rocket skates don't bring it to appropriately delirious speeds. It seems afraid to make its premise as funny as it could have been. The film is definitely amusing and made me laugh multiple times, but there is a wry, amazing spoof of Hollywood legal thrillers still waiting in the wings.
/Film Rating: 6.5 out of 10
"Coyote vs. Acme" opens in theaters on August 28, 2026.