There are a fair few words that can be used to describe Wile E. Coyote, the hapless, Looney Tunes foil to the speedy Roadrunner. Accident prone. Unfortunate. Obstinate. Unlucky. However, after the amount of legal hoopla that encircled the delayed release of his film, Coyote Vs. Acme, I guess the most apt word to describe the mangy canine is determined.
Quick history lesson. Despite being initially slated for release by Warner Bros., in a shock turn of events, the studio opted instead to shelve the completed film indefinitely in 2023 in order to obtain a tax write-off. However, after outrage led to the rights of the film eventually being put up for sale, it lead to the movie picking itself up and dusting itself down much like the Coyote himself after shaking off getting crushed by a boulder or splatting into a wall. But have all those real-life legal issues been worth the struggle, or should this Toon just stayed down for the count?
We’re All familiar with the seemingly endless struggle of Wile E. Coyote as he suffers countless indignities while trying to catch the relentlessly perky Roadrunner – however, after his latest failure is once again brought about by malfunctioning Acme hardware, Wile E. gets an idea from spotting a television ad for personal injury law firm, Avery, Jones & Maltese. Heading into Albuquerque, the bedraggled canine meets with Kevin Avery, a small claims lawyer who, after years of specialising in cases of cartoon violence involving Acme products, has become cynical and burned out. Urging the Coyote to avoid trial and simply settle for a couple of hundred bucks, Kevin just wants to move things along, but when his mute client reveals hundreds of instances where Acme products have involved the living shit getting kicked out of him, Kevin inadvertently ends up going to trial with the gargantuan conglomerate.
While his interning niece, Paige, is overjoyed that her underachieving uncle is now shooting for the moon and fighting for the downtrodden, Kevin is horrified that he’s going to be going up against Buddy Crane, Acme’s bullish legal consultant and an old classmate from Harvard. However, as prep for the trial of the century goes ahead, both Kevin, Paige and the Coyote start to discover that there’s some sort of conspiracy occuring here that goes all the way back to a scientist going missing in 1992. Soon shadowy whistle blowers, dangerous clues and an explanation for why Daffy Duck is actually got daffy all starts mounting up that leads right to the feet of blowhard Acme executive, Foghorn Leghorn.
Trapped between losing the case or losing the firm, Kevin realises that as long as the trial doesn’t make a fool out of him, Avery, Jones & Maltese might just survive going head to head with a company that makes everything – but when it’s discovered that the Coyote might have had an ulterior motive to go to court in the first place, things get really desperate.
I suppose that we should first address the giant, cartoon elephant in the room and point out that the events of Coyote Vs. Acme aren’t a million miles removed from the events that almost led to it being shelved forever. In fact, the eventual release of a film that hinges on a little guy standing up to an indifferent corporation proves to be so fitting, you wonder how Warner’s legal department never actually spotted the irony before making their alarming business decision. However, the triumph of Dave Green’s comedy finally making it into cinemas is going to be something of a hollow victory if the film isn’t actually any good – so it’s quite the boon to be able to say that it was all worth the struggle. Essentially the bastard step child of Who Framed Roger Rabbit and All The President’s Men, Coyote Vs Acme may not be as perfect as either, but in a time when whacky, big release comedies are still something of a rarity in cinemas, it’s a welcome addition to the Looney Tunes brand.
The main reason it works so well is thanks to the decision to shove the long-suffering Coyote into the spotlight, as the scraggly, mute villain proves to have a surprising amount of emotional layers despite being famous primarily for taking more punishment then every other Toon combined. While he’s still portrayed as an obsessive oddball who can’t drop his fixation on the Roadrunner despite there being plenty of other things to eat, his never-give-up attitude is a good foil for Will Forte’s lawyer who would preferably just keep his head down and settle. Additionally, it’s actually pretty refreshing that the more famous faces of the Looney Tunes pantheon are strictly kept as side characters. Obviously the Roger Rabbit-style blending of humans and Toons lead to plenty of cameos (Ganny blasting Pepé Le Pew with mace may be one of the best jokes of the year), but none are allowed to offset the main double act of Coyote and Forte as they form a genunely touching bond.
Weirdly enough, whenever Coyote Vs Acme tends to drift, it’s when it focuses too much on the Coyote’s proclivity for accidental prat falling. Some of the more wittier jokes are actually strong enough not to need a sudden KAPOW come out of nowhere to finish a scene, but then I guess I have to remember that this actually is a kids film, despite the complex legalities at play. Similarly, as a child of Who Framed Roger Rabbit, the CGI, three dimensional models of some of the animated characters just look weird and blobby (Granny in particular looks like a video game avatar) and lack the classic look of a 2D cartoon image. Still, it’s tough to complain too much when you have John Cena viciously bully Tweety Bird, Foghorn Leghorn play the asshole villain and Luiz Guzmán playing a no-nonsense judge with a cartoon gavel.
While not quite a comedy titan for the ages, Coyote Vs Acme proves to be more than sufficient in the laugh stakes that – in an example of art mirroring real life – strikes a blow against corporate indifference when it comes to even the goofiest of art. It may seem to be a bit highfalutin to claim that a movie about Wile E. Coyote has made a considerable point in the way that intellectual property is being treated by big studios, but if art is continually treated as disposable commerce, we’re going to lose the magic of a legitimately original concept if some higher up bean counter deems that there’s no money in it. Still, as I climb down from my soapbox, that doesn’t change the fact that the world is slightly better off for having Coyote Vs. Acme in it and it certainly fared much better than other victims of Warner Bros. write-offs like Batgirl.
While something of a miracle that it was released at all, Coyote Vs Acme earns it’s existence with plenty of wit and heart thanks to its amusingly relevant, David Vs Goliath, concept. While some of the eager prat falling may step on some of the smarter jokes, it’s nice to get a film where it’s “never give up” message stretches from personal growth to getting pulverised by a boulder the size of a family hatchback. I guess you could call it a case of that’s not all, folks…
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