There’s an argument to be made that people wouldn’t be all that interested in Coyote vs. Acme if it weren’t for the way David Zaslav tried to kill it. By trying to shelve the project, Warner Bros. Discovery only drew attention to its habit of disappearing nearly completed movies in order to cash in on tax write-offs.
Coyote vs. Acme’s generally positive reviews are on the money; it really is one of the best Looney Tunes movies in years. In theory, this suggests that the movie might do well at the box office and become a case study in WBD making terrible decisions. Ironically, though, all of the drama surrounding the live-action / animated hybrid film is actually part of what makes it an enjoyable watch.
Loosely based on Ian Frazier’s Coyote v. Acme piece in The New Yorker, the new movie follows Wile E. Coyote as he concocts another harebrained scheme to kill the Road Runner. But rather than simply trying to destroy his nemesis with elaborate plans that involve various gadgets, Coyote decides to go after Acme with a lawsuit over its faulty products. Though attorney Kevin Avery (Will Forte) would rather take the settlement proposed by Acme’s legal counsel Buddy Crane (John Cena), Coyote believes he can receive a much bigger payout by going to court. And with countless examples of how Acme’s products have harmed him, Coyote’s confident that he can build a strong case.
Coyote vs. Acme leans into the absurd with a world in which humans and cartoon maniacs exist alongside one another. When the coyote isn’t busy trying to catch his dinner, he has to deal with all the ordinary drudgery that comes with being a productive member of society, like Avery’s niece, Paige (Lana Condor.) This and the way a bevy of Looney Tunes characters pop up as people working regular jobs brings a delightful energy to Coyote vs. Acme that’s akin to The Muppets. And by framing Acme as a cross between WBD, Apple, Tesla, and Lockheed Martin, the movie sets its story up to work as commentary about corporations screwing customers over with false promises.
At its core, Coyote vs. Acme is a classic Looney Tunes project, meaning that it spends much of its runtime focusing on ridiculous gags. The movie’s script — penned by James Gunn, Jeremy Slater, and Samy Burch — features moments where Coyote and Avery grow to see one another as friends, but it’s mostly focused on showcasing how chaotic life would be in a world filled with beings who regularly defy the laws of physics with their cartoonish antics. This makes Coyote vs. Acme an excellent showcase of the way its creative team blends traditional animation with live-action footage. The movie’s set pieces are mildly amusing, but its story is so by-the-numbers that one would be hard-pressed to call it riveting.
What is interesting about the film’s story is the way it makes WBD seem like a studio that’s afraid of poking fun at itself. You can almost hear Gunn, Slater, and Burch having a laugh at Zaslav’s expense as Foghorn Leghorn (Eric Bauza) is introduced as Acme’s conniving leader, and those kinds of jokes are what makes the movie feel like it might actually resonate with audiences. By going meta and not exactly trying to be a movie for children (remember, this is about a legal battle), Coyote vs. Acme highlights how WBD could be getting a bit more use out of characters like Bugs Bunny (also Bauza) and Granny (Candi Milo). Had the studio just put the movie out on its own, it might have made Zaslav and his fellow executives seem like people with an understanding of how to capitalize on legacy intellectual property. But whatever accolades Coyote vs. Acme ultimately receives will largely be attributed to Ketchup Entertainment, which bought the rights to distribute it.
The box office performances for WBD’s last few Looney Tunes projects suggests that Coyote vs. Acme won’t be breaking any records before it winds up on one streaming platform or another. But when the film releases on August 28th, it will remind the public of how ready WBD was to throw it in the chipper. Especially now as the studio navigates a potential merger with Paramount, that kind of cavalier attitude toward jettisoning people’s work makes Zaslav’s WBD seem like a company that isn’t exactly committed to art. That might not matter to Zaslav, who stands to make bank regardless of whether the Paramount merger goes through. But it’s a terrible look for a studio that’s trying to maintain its reputation as one of Hollywood’s biggest players.