Coyote vs Acme almost didn’t exist. Warner Bros. dropped it from the release calendar in 2023. An uproar followed. Ketchup Entertainment picked it up. Now it’s in theaters, and it’s a hybrid Coyote vs Acme animation triumph that proves the studio was wrong to bury it.
The Coyote vs Acme animation style blends live-action and hand-drawn characters in a way that honors Who Framed Roger Rabbit without copying it. Wile E. Coyote sues Acme Corp. for all the defective products that have blown up in his face since 1949. Will Forte plays his lawyer, a guy so down on his luck he sees no point in taking the case. Lana Condor plays his niece, who talks him into the fight. John Cena plays the opposing counsel. It’s absurd. It’s perfect.
The Coyote vs Acme animation process was defined by a determination to honor the traditional Looney Tunes look while using modern technology to make it work. Director Dave Green didn’t try to modernize the characters. He returned to the qualities that made them endure. That means slapstick. That means violence. That means a coyote getting hit by a train and walking away with soot on his face.
The film is full of cameos. Bugs. Daffy. Tweety. Granny. Elmer Fudd. Most of the animated characters are voiced by Eric Bauza. The humor is silly in the way all Looney Tunes are silly, but there’s a darker paranoid current running underneath. The original cartoons had a Cold War-era suspicion of corporations and government. Coyote vs Acme threads that same suspicion through its story, laced with the wacky, slightly sadistic humor that defines the franchise.
The movie also takes digs at its former studio. The opening titles announce that Warner Animation Group is “a wholly owned subsidiary of the Acme Corporation”. That’s a joke. It’s also a middle finger. Warner Bros. tried to erase this movie. Now it’s in theaters with a Ketchup Entertainment logo in front of it. Poetic justice.
Is Coyote vs Acme for kids? Sure. Is it for adults who grew up watching Looney Tunes? Absolutely. Is it for anyone who enjoys watching a corporate conglomerate get sued by a cartoon coyote? That’s the entire target audience.
The film is a daffy corporate caper packed with unhinged delights. It shouldn’t work. It does. That’s the Coyote vs Acme animation magic. Warner Bros. didn’t believe in it. Ketchup did. Now we all get to enjoy the results.
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