Coyote vs. Acme: Back from the Dead After Falling Off a Cliff

Coyote vs. Acme | ★★★★☆ 4 out of 5 stars
A Highline Journal Exclusive Movie Review by Daniel Magill

Surely, someday, the coyote will catch the roadrunner. Right? Can’t he catch a break?

Apparently, he can’t, because he persistently relies on Acme products to aid his quest for roadrunner stew, and Acme’s products keep failing him.

But this is 2026, and things are different. We can file lawsuits. In the new film Coyote vs Acme, still in theaters in a few places and on streaming soon, that’s exactly what happens.

I took my 11-year-old son, who didn’t grow up with Looney Tunes like many of us, but he has seen enough of them to know who these characters are. And he loved the movie.

But this is my review.

And this film is… a delightful laugh-out-loud experience. It’s terrific entertainment. Not too profound, although it does have a couple touching moments. The best thing about it is that it holds mostly faithful to the source material. Nearly every popular Looney Tunes character makes at least a brief appearance, with several of them – Bugs Bunny, Foghorn Leghorn, and Tweety Bird in particular – playing key roles in the plot.

The story is very creative. The coyote is fed up with never catching the roadrunner. Down on his luck, frustrated, alone, he catches a local TV ad featuring one of those strip mall lawyers, kind of like Saul Goodman from Better Call Saul but without the criminality. The ad speaks directly to the coyote’s plight – a cartoon character being failed again and again by Acme’s products.

So, he decides to head to town and talk to the lawyer. Though he seems to have an open-and-shut case, it’s not that simple. First, Acme is a huge corporation used to paying off complainants with enough money to keep them quiet. Second, and more original to this story – his lawyer is actually a terrible lawyer. He has no ambition to do anything but skate by on easy payoffs from settling out of court.

When the coyote realizes his lawyer isn’t really up to the task of winning a case against Acme, he has to get creative. But there’s even more to it than that – the coyote has his own motives, and they go beyond mere payouts. You’ll have to see it yourself to enjoy the real payoffs of this story.

The story is original enough that you will not predict what happens or how it will end, and it employs the visual style of the original cartoons to great effect.

More importantly, it’s funny. Genuinely funny. The filmmakers perfectly captured the coyote’s character, including his impressive array of revealing and heartfelt facial expressions, and his use of signs to communicate since, as we all know, coyotes can’t talk.

The film uses the same animated-live action hybrid approach of famous movies such as Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Space Jam where the world accepts the existence of cartoon characters.

I try to judge films based on how well they do what they’re trying to do. And this one really does deliver on everything you’d want from a movie like this.

We can also be thankful it’s even available. Coyote vs Acme was actually completed by Warner Bros. a couple years ago, but they shelved it for some reason and took a tax write-off. Fans reacted angrily, and there was enough perceived demand to release this movie that Ketchup Entertainment bought it from Warner's for $50 million. It appears to be a good investment as it’s about to recover that in domestic theaters alone.

So if you’re looking for a film the whole family will enjoy and that has the same edge to it as the original Looney Tunes shows, you’ll have a great time here.

Editor's Note: The movie is still running in nearby theaters this weekend, so check for your local listings. Enjoy!

Daniel Magill is the published author of the Readers Favorite 5-star sci-fi time travel thriller Future In Doubt and the Galactic War Virus series. He lives in Burien with his wife and kids.