Starring: Will Forte, Lana Condor, John Cena, Wile E. Coyote, Road Runner, Foghorn Leghorn Written by: Samy Burch Directed by: Dave Green
I’m one of those lunatics who was raised on Looney Tunes (this Nickelodeon promo plays in my brain on loop). I can’t get enough of cartoon animals out to maim, kill, and blow each other up.
Of the Looney Tunes, the Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner ones were my favorite. I could watch that devious dog plot to murder that beeping bird in elaborate ways and have his plans foiled (with painful consequences) in perpetuity and it would never get old.
But the episodic nature of the Coyote and Road Runner cartoons don’t exactly scream “movie”. They are the definition of one note. This guy does the same thing over and over. The only variation is the method of attempted murder and the different ways the Acme products he uses backfire.
Which is why the premise of the long-shelved Coyote vs Acme is so ingenious. For those who don’t know, the plot is this: Wile E. Coyote hires a lawyer to sue the Acme Corporation over their many product malfunctions. On the surface, this is a movie about being fed up with doing the same thing day in and day out without making any progress. It’s also a movie about the corporations who rule our lives and treat us like shit.
That second idea is amplified by the movie’s real-life story—it was shelved by Warner Bros. as a tax write-off in November 2023 after the company’s merger with Discovery (AKA the moment in which any creative spirit remaining at Warner Bros. could be seen screeching into the sky like the ghosts at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark).
But the truly amazing trick Coyote vs Acme pulls off is what it does with Wile E. Coyote. While keeping him both stylistically and psychologically 100% true to the original Looney Tunes—and without having him ever utter a single word—the movie finds a way to give an added layer of depth to this character.
When Wile E. first shows up at the law office of Kevin Avery (Will Forte), one of Avery’s associates describes the coyote as appearing “unhinged”. That’s unquestionably the look in Wile E.’s eyes for most of the movie. But, as we move through his arc, there were multiple moments where I found myself choking back tears. As crazy as it sounds, Wile E. Coyote might be one of my favorite movie characters of the year.
The movie also benefits from taking a fairly Looney Tunes approach to its story. Rather than get bogged down in complexity, it keeps things straightforward. There’s a court case. Avery, a lawyer who likes to do the least amount of work and settle, and Coyote, a total maniac with a one-track mind, have different goals. Then there’s John Cena and Foghorn Leghorn as their corporate adversaries.
It’s a simple premise effectively executed, delivering solid laughs and some fun Looney Tunes action, with a Sisyphus theme that speaks to all of us (aren’t we all just chasing a roadrunner every day?). And what the movie has to say about that theme is worthwhile.
I’ll take IP like this on the big screen any day. And those corporate devils like David Zaslav and Warner Bros. who would trash a good movie just to save a couple bucks can fall to the bottom of a canyon with a whistling sound that grows louder and louder before they disappear in a burst of dust.