Our Review

Coyote vs. Acme turns one of the oldest running jokes in animation into a surprisingly sharp underdog story. Wile E. Coyote has spent decades losing to his own ACME inventions, but this time the joke is on the corporation. Giving the character a legitimate grievance—and putting him in a courtroom against the company responsible for his endless suffering—is exactly the kind of ridiculous idea that could have gone very wrong. Instead, the movie understands the strange logic of Looney Tunes and builds a real story around it.

The live-action and animation also make an unusually good combination. Will Forte gives the human side of the story enough warmth and awkwardness to keep the courtroom material grounded, while John Cena clearly understands that the movie works best when it allows its corporate villains to become larger-than-life cartoon characters themselves. The animated cast gets plenty of room to be funny without turning the film into a collection of nostalgia cameos.

Where the movie really finds its personality is in the contrast between cartoon chaos and corporate satire. ACME is not simply a convenient villain; the company represents a system that keeps failing Wile E. while expecting him to accept the consequences. That gives the familiar chase a surprisingly modern edge, and it also makes the movie's long journey to theaters impossible to ignore. A film about an underdog fighting a powerful company became an underdog itself after being shelved, which gives the finished movie an unexpected extra layer.

The film is not quite as consistently inventive as the best Looney Tunes shorts, and the central mystery occasionally slows the comedy. At just over 100 minutes, it could also use a little trimming. But those are relatively minor complaints. Coyote vs. Acme is funny, energetic, genuinely affectionate toward its characters, and much smarter than its premise initially suggests. Most importantly, it understands that Wile E. Coyote has always been funny because he never gives up—and this movie finally gives that persistence a story worth telling.