COYOTE VS. ACME REVIEW

I have a feeling Coyote vs. ACME will be another case where many film critics have a tough time differentiating between a movie and the business surrounding said movie. Some might even feel like they’re “sticking it to the Man” by reviewing Coyote vs. ACME positively, that “Man” being Warner Bros. CEO David Zaslav, who unceremoniously killed David Green’s movie after it was completed, deeming it more worthy of a “tax write-off” than even a streaming release. This happened nearly three years ago, and unlike the finished Batgirl feature (which still has yet to see the light of day), the latest Looney Tunes animation/live-action hybrid found itself many vocal and actual saviors*.

Maybe that’s because Wile E. Coyote and the Roadrunner remain two of the most beloved Warner Bros. toons, going all the way back to their introduction in the 1949 short “The Fast and the Furry-ous” (brilliant title!). The simple idea of a “genius” coyote creating all sorts of inventions to get his fleet-footed nemesis into his belly, plans that inevitably backfire, wouldn’t seem like enough to sustain a feature, and yet, Coyote vs. ACME opens cheekily with the statement that it’s “based on a true story.

Actually, it’s based on a witty tongue-in-cheek 1990 New Yorker article by Ian Frazier, which was adapted into the latest Space Jam-like feature with a script by Samy Burch (May December, Late Fame). Coyote vs. ACME begins like any other Coyote and Roadrunner face-off with Wile E. using ACME’s Magnetic Gloves to try to get his mitts on his delectable enemy. As usual, things backfire much to Wile E.’s chagrin and pain. We then meet Albuquerque-based personal injury lawyer, Kevin Ayer, played by Will Forte, a “Cellino & Barnes”-level shyster who helps toons get a few hundred dollars here and there due to backfiring ACME products. Wile E. isn’t having any of that penny-ante stuff, as he shows up with every ACME backfiring product, hoping for a much larger payout. John Cena plays Buddy Crane, the head attorney for ACME, who is tickled by the suit being filed against the company and tries to squelch them in advance, with the help of his right-hand toadie, played by PJ Byrne.

Thrilling as it is to get a big-screen iteration of my favorite “Looney Tunes” characters, I only slightly knew about the general premise after reading the article (and interviewing Burch three years ago), yet I still wasn’t quite sure how this would work. In fact, it’s easier than it might sound, since the movie is still very funny every single time Wile E. gets pummelled, beaten, flattened, and of course, blown sky-high. It’s something that just never loses its ability to make one laugh.

If you’re a Will Forte fan (of which I am), this is another fun character that allows him to do what he does best, in terms of his deadpan witticisms, with Wile E. being the perfect on-screen comedy partner. I really haven’t seen much of Lana Condor’s work – I refuse to watch THOSE movies – but she’s quite delightful as Kevin’s niece and paralegal, who also gets heavily involved with the animated antics, interacting with other “Looney Tunes,” making appearances with varying degrees of importance to the overall story. I won’t ruin the fun surprises, though Warners’ go-to Eric Bauza provides most of the voices for those other characters.

The way that CvA integrates Wile E. with the human characters isn’t particularly groundbreaking, but it’s quite impressive in the way it alternates between the animated inventions and practical on-set iterations of Wile E’s Rube Goldberg-esque contraptions that even Forte and the other actors become affected by. I even noticed some Tex Avery influences in the way David Green animated the characters, particularly Wile E., bringing so much how that animation is integrated with the live-action components. I wasn’t nearly as bullish as others on the last “Looney Tunes” animated feature, The Day the Earth Blew Up, from a few years back, but CvA finds ways to surpass its source material rather than just trying to modernize the characters and concepts.

Ultimately, we learn there’s something more nefarious going on at the ACME corporation than what’s on the surface. As with most legal dramas that CvA is emulating and parodying, the last act ends in the courtroom with each side trying to prove their case, the defense getting suitably verbose assistance from Foghorn Leghorn. What I did not expect was how emotional the film gets in this last act, particularly in the way it explores the true friendship between these two long-time on-screen arch-rivals.

Perpetually clever and witty with some of the best integration of animation and live-action since Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, Coyote vs. ACME is a definite winner, offering all the things people love about “Looney Tunes” but with so much unexpected emotion. It’s a cliché for sure, but it ultimately offers something for everyone, whether they’re the youngest of children or childless adults, such as myself.

Rating: 8/10

Coyote vs. ACME will be released theatrically (Hallelujah!) on Friday, August 28.

*The overarching issue is compounded when you realize from the end credits that Coyote vs. ACME may have originated with James Gunn, credited with the story and as the main producer on the movie. Having recently become a “corporate company man” for Warner Bros himself, one can only imagine how Gunn feels about everything surrounding its inevitable release by another distributor.