Coyote vs. Acme ★★★1/2
- 2filmcritics
- 20 hours ago
- 6 min read
Availability: Showing widely in theaters. See end of review for future online options.
A Coyote Can Make You Cry
If Wile E. Coyote had a lawyer. Well, he finally got one. But he’s not suing the Road Runner. Instead, his target is the Acme Corporation, maker of the faulty devices—rocket-powered roller skates, magnet gloves, a jet-fueled pogo stick, detonators and explosives among them—that Coyote employs in his destined-to-fail schemes to capture (and eat) the Road Runner, his speedy bird nemesis.
Lawyer Kevin Avery (Will Forte) holding up the rocket-powered skates as evidence in the courtroom drama, with his client, Wile E. Coyote, at his side. "Did he [Coyote] win?" an usher asked one of 2 Film Critics on the way out of the multiplex.
It would seem to be an open and shut case. Except—and it’s a big except—as a cartoon character (the film uses only the word “cartoon”), Wile E. suffers no permanent harm. Foghorn Leghorn, the enormous, pompous, arrogant, boastful, unfunny rooster, and Acme CEO—his size and shape resemble that of the newspaper cartoon figures of fat-cat moguls that were commonplace fare in the Gilded Age—makes the company’s case in the second of two legal proceedings that occupy the last third of the film. Acme has been testing its products, Leghorn reveals, ultimately intended for humans, on cartoons, who are indestructible. There is no lasting damage. And therefore no liability. (If Leghorn is correct, and within the story he would seem to be, how does one explain a final scene in which dozens of “injured” cartoons flock to Avery, Jones & Maltese for representation?) The Acme CEO goes on to argue, in the name of “progress,” that the research must go on, even if “people” are hurt. He’s persuasive enough—would you inflict temporary discomfort on cartoons to address climate change?—that the audience at the hearing nods in agreement.
Acme has been testing its products, Leghorn reveals, ultimately intended for humans, on cartoons, who are indestructible. There is no lasting damage. And therefore no liability.
To deal further with these issues of corporate conduct, the film invites viewers to step outside its frame, into the “real world.” Despite its long and tortured gestation—based on a 1990 New Yorker story, filmed in 2022, dropped by Warner Brothers in 2023—“Coyote vs. Acme” arrives in theaters with perfect timing. The tech giants (the Acmes of our day) are under attack for their data centers, for not caring about the consequences of AI, for damaging our youth through social media (a $17 billion dollar Meta settlement). The rapacious tech bros are profiting from what is just the latest round of experimentation on real people (cartoon characters not being available): the Tuskegee syphilis experiments; Nazi doctors exploiting Jewish bodies; exploding coal mines and black lung; tobacco and lung cancer; lead paint, asbestos, opioids, RFK Jr.’s attack on vaccines—the beat goes on. Fines are a cost of doing business. No one goes to jail.
Despite its long and tortured gestation, “Coyote vs. Acme” arrives in theaters with perfect timing.
The film’s positive message emerges from the curiously symbiotic relationship between Coyote and his lawyer, Kevin Avery (SNL alumnus and cult comedy icon Will Forte, perfect in the part). Though client and attorney, they have vastly different goals. One of Avery’s functions is to mediate between the silly cartoons and over-earnest corporate types. But he is also himself: a decent, likeable man but a discouraged, defeated, self-described lazy one as well, beaten down by the big boys and what seems the impossibility of courtroom success, hell bent on settling any case that comes in the door (including Coyote’s) for an offer in the low 3 figures. Beyond keeping his office doors open, he has no purpose. In effect, he’s in bed with Acme. An Oxford graduate intern, his earnest niece Paige (Lana Condor), provides a bit of counterpoint, but hers is a minor role. The real ideological muscle is left to the animal.
Wile E. Coyote, in contrast to Avery, is all purpose, albeit a limited one: to catch and consume the Road Runner.
Wile E. Coyote, in contrast to Avery, is all purpose, albeit a limited one: to catch and consume the Road Runner. Although Wile E. is regularly victimized—by the Road Runner and by Acme’s products—in this story he’s not only a victim. He also is a creative, technological idiot savant, at once absurdly optimistic about what the next Acme device will bring, and able to conjure and build a (cartoon) Senate hearing room jail to contain Leghorn and his obnoxious attorney, Buddy Crane (John Cena).
Foghorn Leghorn, the arrogant and pompous Acme CEO, golfing in front of the company headquarters with his also tall, arrogant and pompous lawyer, Buddy Crane (John Cena).
Back-to-back scenes produce the symbiosis. In the first, Coyote demonstrates his off-the-charts determination with several ingenious efforts to jump a canyon, each of them ending in typical Coyote disaster. The second takes place in the men’s room off the Senate hearing chambers, with Avery, finally getting the point—from a coyote, no less—crushing Crane’s settlement check for a million bucks into a ball and tossing it into …. (we won’t spoil a funny, and meaningful, moment). Coyote is affected, too, emoting and tearing up (as we did, watching his enormous oval eyes fill with blue water) in a courtroom scene with Avery. Later, frenemies Coyote and the Road Runner will have their own rapprochement, two complementary creatures, neither of whom speaks, rivals to the end—who can’t get along without the other. Corny, yes. But you gotta love Hollywood.
The not-so-innocent Road Runner, frenemy and bird of Coyote's desire. Beep beep!
Enough of this seriousness! “Coyote vs. Acme” is a very funny and clever film. All 5 of us in the multiplex (a 2 p.m. weekday showing) laughed out loud through the first 45 minutes and often after that, and not just at the standard Coyote miscalculations and screwups, of which there are many. Some will be entertained by the cameo appearances of Elmer Fudd, Peter Lorre, Daffy Duck, Bugs Bunny, and Tweety (Eric Bauza did these and 5 more of the animated character voices), though we didn’t much care.
Avery, Jones & Maltese is a personal injury firm based on settling every claim for chump change. As a major Easter egg for animation fans, the firm is named
in honor of 3 legendary, foundational architects of the Looney Tunes universe.
A mid-film digression into Project Sisyphus is all about secrecy, testing, and conspiracy. A relevant name given Coyote’s persistence and relevant themes given Acme’s behavior, themes echoing through several recent films, including last year's “Disclosure Day” and “Bugonia,” even “Backrooms” (2026) and the earlier “Get Out” (2017) and “Us” (2019). Here the digression takes up too much space and attention, slows the narrative, and isn’t funny (one of us turned to the other and said, “I need to laugh again, like I did for 45 minutes”). Experienced Director David Green and writer Samy Burch (2024 Oscar-nominated for her “May December” screenplay) do their best to recuperate the delicious tone of the film’s first half in later courtroom and Senate hearing scenes (there’s a great take on the courtroom artist), and it works, mostly. The cutting room floor should have seen some additional detritus.
But we wouldn’t have missed this one.
He said: I was the last one to leave the theater. The usher asked me, “did he win the court case”? “No,” I replied, “but he…. [fill in the blank]."
She said: Not a blockbuster, not an oeuvre from an auteur, not horror, not women-on-the-edge, not masculinity in crisis, not YouTube grown up. Thank you very much.
Date: 2026
Director: Dave Green
Starring: Will Forte, Lana Condor, and Eric Bauza as the voice of 10 of the animated characters
Country: United States
Language: English, along with a few beeps
Runtime: 103 minutes
Other Awards: 1 win to date
Availability: Showing widely in theaters (go to one! It’s a pleasure to laugh with others). You can already pre-order the movie digitally on platforms like Apple TV and Fandango at Home. It is expected to become available online in mid-to-late October 2026, and to be on Max by subscription in mid-December in time for the holidays. See JustWatch here for up-to-date viewing options.
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