If there’s a fictional character who epitomizes never giving up, it’s Wile E. Coyote. For decades, Wile’s misadventures in trying to capture and feast on the elusive Road Runner have gotten him crushed, shredded, blown up, and just about any other comedically horrific way for a cartoon character to go out. More often than not, his genius intellect isn’t to blame for his never-ending misfortune. Rather, it’s the tools he purchases from the mega Acme Corporation that never quite work as advertised. Wile has finally had enough of being ripped off as a consumer by a company that couldn’t care less about him. To get back at Acme, he’s come up with his most ingenious plan yet as his battle exits the New Mexico desert and enters the courtroom. Written by Samy Burch, based on the 1990 New Yorker article of the same name by Ian Frazier, Coyote vs. Acme is a miracle.

I felt lucky to watch it in a crowded theater, among other moviegoers passionate about seeing it cross the finish line after a long, perilous journey that, at one point, seemed as hopeless as its protagonist. With the feature finally here, it’s clear that it’s more than just a movie. It’s a testament to why movies and the artists who make them matter and deserve an audience. On top of all that, it’s a fantastic film and the best live-action/animated hybrid since Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988).

As soon as Wile makes it to the big city of Albuquerque, he enlists the aid of Kevin Avery (Will Forte), a Saul Goodman-like down-on-his-luck personal injury lawyer who exclusively represents the cartoon characters who populate a world that treats them like second-class citizens. Kevin’s firm is falling apart and is one failure away from shutting down completely. As he sloppily sleepwalks through his days, his intern niece, Paige (Lana Condor), urges him to find the spark that will reignite the flame that motivated him in his early law days. Luckily for them, Wile’s got enough spark to light a thousand sticks of dynamite.

Much like the aforementioned Roger Rabbit’s dynamic with Bob Hoskins’ Eddie Valiant, the most charming part about the story in Coyote vs. Acme is the dynamic between Wile and Kevin. Forte’s quirks as a comedic performer, like his occasionally awkward delivery and commitment to physical slapstick humor, fit perfectly in the Looney Tunes world. His chemistry with the film’s silent protagonist is especially side-splitting when he’s forced to interpret what Wile’s trying to say with his frustratingly limited number of signs or when he falls victim to one of the coyote’s elaborate trap contraptions. These two interact for hours, and there are mountains of comic gold nuggets to be mined.

Equally committed to the endless bits is John Cena, whose humorless Buddy Cane gets some of the biggest laughs in the movie. As Acme’s top defense attorney, Buddy is nowhere near as jolly as his name might imply. He’s a soulless, blood-sucking cog in a corporate machine who only cares about helping the company preserve its bottom line. In this case, it means squashing Wile’s case against Acme for every faulty product he ever purchased from Acme before it can have a chance to expose some of the company’s darkest secrets. Burch’s punchy script capitalizes on Cena’s straight-man approach to Buddy as he interacts with a world full of daffy ducks, rascally rabbits, and downright looney toons. One of the best moments in the film is a scene where he questions corporate enforcer Tweety Bird (Eric Bauza) and forces him to tell him what he tawt he taw.

From a screenwriting standpoint, Burch has a firm grasp on how best to capitalize on the charmingly animated iconic characters that populate the Looney Tunes canon. So many beloved characters, both famous and delightfully obscure, make appearances in Coyote vs. Acme, and they’re almost all voiced by the impeccable Bauza. The voice acting legend has voiced most of the Looney Tunes characters for the last 15 years and has demonstrated his ability to capture the magic of Mel Blanc’s voice on multiple occasions, especially when he voiced Porky Pig and Daffy Duck in the wonderful The Day the Earth Blew Up (2025). In Coyote vs. Acme, Bauza shines brightest in scenes featuring Tweety, Daffy, and Bugs Bunny. Although these characters largely take a backseat to the relationship between Wile and the Road Runner, they steal every scene they appear in, especially Bugs, who acts as a Deep Throat-type character in the team’s investigation, passing information along to Wile, Kevin, and Paige from the shadows.

The element of the plot that will catch most viewers by surprise is its deeper conversation about themes of capitalism and corporate discrimination. The cartoon characters in this world are not viewed in an equal light as the human characters. Acme exploits these cartoon characters in product-testing experiments that would be deadly for any human, but leaves the imperishable, near-invincible cartoons with minor injuries that they can merely walk off. 

Burch’s screenplay insightfully deconstructs the implications of this practice from both sides of the spectrum, most notably through corrupt Acme CEO, Foghorn Leghorn (Bauza). In a climactic courtroom scene, Foghorn argues against what is essentially his own species, all in the name of preserving a company that would just as quickly turn its back on him when his time as its leader is up. The movie’s themes hit close to home, as they speak to what the artists who made it must have felt when they were wrongfully cast aside by Warner Bros. Discovery’s CEO, David Zaslav, who betrayed the trust of the artists who work for him for the sake of his shareholders. It’s an unexpectedly layered element in an unexpectedly layered movie that is just as perceptive as it is hilarious.

More of the great laughs, as well as the best of the film’s heart, come from Wile’s antics to capture the Road Runner. The film’s opening sequence is a blockbuster take on a classic Road Runner cartoon in which the coyote gets nuked by a lock-on missile after defective Acme rocket-powered boots send him soaring through the skies onto the wing of an unsuspecting fighter pilot. The scene is just as elaborate as one would hope to see these characters represented on the big screen. Dave Green’s energetic and bold direction capitalizes on the zany nature of the characters. He allows both the cartoon and human characters to go as big in their performances as the explosions they leave in their wake. However, it’s when he offers quieter, more reflective moments that they truly shine, providing more depth to these characters than they’ve ever had before.

At the end of the day, Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner need each other. They keep each other motivated in the thrill of the chase and, as unlikely as it may seem, their friendship transcends the forces of hunger and speed. These characters care for each other, and that care and love seep through every frame of Coyote vs. Acme. This is a love letter to Looney Tunes, to the ambitious fans who constantly spoke out in support of getting this movie released, and to every artist whose hands ever touched this franchise over its nearly century-old history. Much like Wile E. Coyote, the ambition of everyone involved in the making of and release of this film proves that these characters and their fans’ love of them will never die. If any CEO, Chairman, or Board of Directors wants to get in their way or in the way of the artists who craft them, then we’ll see them in court.

Review Courtesy of Evan Miller

Feature Image Credit to Warner Bros.