There's a dramatic story surrounding Coyote vs. Acme that involved shelving its release and writing off the cost, much like what Warner did with 2022's Batgirl. But don't worry about all that. It doesn't matter.
What does matter is that its banishment faced a fierce backlash from fans, forcing Warner Bros. to eventually sell the piece to Ketchup Entertainment. And a couple of years later... Boom! Pow! Coyote vs. Acme is a genuine, bona fide hit! In fact, one of the best Looney Tunes films ever. Yep!
And perhaps that's fitting. If any character understands getting flattened, discarded, blown up, dropped from a cliff, and then crawling out of the crater for another shot, it's Wile E. Coyote.
Director Dave Green and his wonderfully game cast understand that. Coyote vs. Acme isn't merely a feature-length collection of anvils, rocket skates, exploding birdseed, and products carrying hilariously inadequate warning labels. Beneath all those merry melodies of destruction is a surprisingly sincere story about failure, perseverance, friendship, and refusing to let somebody else decide when you're finished.
After approximately 1,150 unsuccessful attempts to catch the Road Runner—and presumably several million dollars in undocumented medical expenses—Wile E. finally realizes the problem might not be him. Looking around his cave, he discovers practically every contraption responsible for his bodily mutilation bears the same familiar name: ACME.
Beep, beep! Somebody's getting sued.
Enter Kevin Avery (Will Forte), an ambulance-chasing attorney whose motto is, “There's always someone to blame!” Unfortunately, Kevin has become nearly as defeated by life as his new client. Their partnership becomes the movie's emotional engine: one man who has essentially stopped trying paired with one coyote who apparently doesn't know how.
Forte is terrific, playing the insanity completely straight while Green wisely follows the Who Framed Roger Rabbit rulebook: nobody finds it particularly strange that their client is an animated coyote. He simply exists. So do Bugs Bunny, Tweety and Granny, Foghorn Leghorn, the Tasmanian Devil, and plenty of other familiar faces who pop up without turning the movie into an exhausting parade of cameos.
Green, whose previous work includes Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows and Earth to Echo, proves an inspired choice. Live action and animation occupy the same world naturally, while the screenplay keeps returning to the glorious physical comedy that made Chuck Jones' classic Road Runner shorts masterpieces of escalating catastrophe.
There are sight gags, explosions, courtroom shenanigans, wonderfully stupid inventions, and enough violations of basic physics to make Isaac Newton request a mistrial. Yet the courtroom material is surprisingly engaging, particularly as Wile E.'s lifetime of ACME-induced suffering becomes evidence against a corporation that has profited from his relentless optimism.
And that's where Coyote vs. Acme sneaks up on us.
We've spent decades laughing as Wile E. fails. Here, we're finally asked to admire the fact that he always gets back up. Kevin needs precisely that lesson, and somewhere between lawsuits, explosions, and unexpected revelations, these two failures become exactly what the other needs.
Turns out the little guy can fight the giant corporation—even when the little guy routinely orders dynamite through the mail.
Funny, affectionate, visually inventive, and unexpectedly touching, Coyote vs. Acme understands why these characters have survived generations. They fall down. They get flattened. They fail spectacularly.
Then they try again.
And if this movie's unlikely journey from studio vault to audience favorite proves anything, it's that Wile E. Coyote might have been teaching us something all along.
That's all, folks!
Well... until the next ACME package arrives.
MPAA Rating: PG.
Runtime: 101 mins
Director: Dave Green
Writer: Samy Burch; James Gunn
Cast: Will Forte; Lana Condor; John Cena
Genre: Adventure | Comedy
Tagline:
Memorable Movie Quote: "You tink you taw? I don't pay you to tink you taw, I pay you to taw."
Distributor: Ketchup Entertainment
Official Site:
Release Date: August 28, 2026
DVD/Blu-ray Release Date:
Synopsis: A story set in the ACME warehouse, the manufacturer of anything and everything used by the Looney Tunes characters.
