Martinez Tribune The website of the Martinez Tribune.
BY TYLER HENSON
Coyote vs. Acme (103mins) is finally here, after being completed in 2023 and shelved by Warner Bros. for tax purposes. Most of us probably remember the public outcry a few years ago that brought enormous attention to the film, leading to Ketchup Entertainment purchasing the finished movie from Warner. Now that it’s here, how does it stack up? Many notices, critical and audience, have been encouragingly positive. I myself found Coyote vs. Acme to be something of a disappointment.
Wile E. Coyote, Genius, has had enough of his Acme products backfiring on him over the course of his ceaseless attempts to capture the Road Runner. Traveling into nearby Albuquerque, New Mexico, the Coyote hires a lazy small claims attorney, Kevin Avery (Will Forte), to file a massive lawsuit against the Acme mega-corporation. Kevin is none too happy about getting wrapped up in a long-shot case like this, especially since he’ll be going up against his far more successful and competent law school contemporary Buddy Crane (John Cena). But with help from the Coyote, his spirited niece Paige (Lana Condor), and an assortment of familiar Looney Tunes characters, Kevin might work up enough motivation to see the case through.
As a novel use of the Looney Tunes property, Coyote vs. Acme is an appealing idea. Like anyone of my age, I grew up watching the classic shorts on TV and Space Jam (1996) on VHS. I know those story formulas and characters like the back of my hand. After years of obligatory failures, Wile E’s disillusionment makes perfect sense. I instinctively agreed with the movie’s premise – this Coyote deserves some justice. I’m sure I wasn’t the only one secretly rooting for characters like him and Sylvester the Cat. His underdog fight with Acme has satisfying parallels with the real-world story of this film’s production, and I can’t fault anything about the movie in concept.
Writer Samy Burch and the team of credited story contributors, which includes James Gunn, have found a smart new way of approaching the Looney Tunes world. They invert the formulas, including the role the toons play in the film’s world. Instead of the characters pulling someone into their universe, as happened with Michael Jordon in Space Jam, the toons themselves are transplanted into a more mundane reality not far from our own. They seem to work regular jobs and live in ordinary homes, except for Wile E, who can only afford a cheap motel. For him, even the simplest parts of regular human society, like communication, turn out to be somewhat challenging. The Coyote has never had to speak before. A thing like that can make pleading your case extra difficult. One running gag involves the Coyote’s finite supply of written signs.
Director Dave Green and his collaborators have used mostly 3D animation to render the toons. I must admit, it’s not as pleasing to look at as traditional 2D animation, especially with the Looney Tunes characters. They seem to belong in 2D. Somehow it gives them more presence. Go back a few years before even Space Jam and look at Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), the movie that set the gold standard for combining cartoon and human performers within the same frame. Roger Rabbit was not just a technological innovation for its time, it was movie where cartoons actually felt alive. Robert Zemeckis and company created a living, breathing world onscreen. Coyote vs. Acme, unfortunately, comes nowhere near that benchmark.
Compared to previous Looney Tunes films as well, this one comes up a bit short. Space Jam, and Joe Dante’s Looney Tunes: Back in Action (2003), an unsung classic as far as I’m concerned, both did better jobs integrating the characters. More than that, they actually built their stories around the toons and their boundless energy. They kept the plots loose, leaving room to play. Michael Jordon and Brendan Fraser were great co-stars for Bugs and Daffy, because they knew it wasn’t really about them. They gave the toons the necessary space to go wild.
These are some of the biggest flaws in Coyote vs. Acme. Too much plot and too much focus on the human characters. A courtroom conspiracy thriller with the Looney Tunes sounds great in theory. In execution however, it felt as though it had been engineered in the wrong direction. The toons seem to have been wedged inside the rigid constraints of a plot, instead of placed within a story that naturally suits them.
Most of the iconic roster of characters are relegated to cameos. Everyone puts in an appearance, some to clever effect; I particularly liked Elmer Fudd popping up as a senator. But aside from Wile E., the majority of the main cast is human. When Bugs Bunny shows up as a whistleblower, or Daffy Duck as a victim of Acme’s faulty product testing, they basically just come and go. A few minutes are spared for some of the expected routines and that’s about it.
I found myself wondering how many kids will actually care about the details of the legal process and the moral ramifications of a corporate cover up. I have a two-year-old, and he’s probably too young for Looney Tunes anyway, but even for older kids, I’m not sure this is the type of genre that grabs their attention. But then again, I wouldn’t have guessed a noir would work as a kids’ film either. Again, we have Roger Rabbit to thank for showing us what’s possible.
I think the crucial mistake here was not allowing the cartoon characters to really take center stage. Will Forte is a good choice to lead a movie like this. He’s schlubby and sympathetic in all the right ways. He’s exactly who I would cast in a live-action version of One Froggy Evening, the Chuck Jones masterwork. There are scenes where he plays well with the animated Coyote. But this feels more like his movie when it should be the Coyote’s. We spend too much time identifying with Kevin’s dilemmas and not enough with Wile E’s.
John Cena’s role strikes a better balance. He plays Buddy Crane with slick charisma. His best lines are delivered with a gravity that makes them even funnier. And when the toons show up, Cena knows to either step aside or meet them at their own game. One of the most brilliant scenes has him verbally sparring with Tweety and effortlessly lapsing in the little canary’s own peculiar speech patterns. It’s further proof of Cena’s nimble capability as a comic performer. I can imagine a great Looney Tunes vehicle built around him as the star.
I’d like to say Coyote vs. Acme is a great movie. It would be the perfect climax to this whole behind-the-scenes drama. Let me state, for the record, that I enjoyed a fair amount of what I saw. I laughed at in-jokes, like the flight out of Albuquerque where the pilot apologizes about a wrong turn. I was surprisingly moved at a moment when the Coyote realizes he and the Road Runner share a bond. But in all honesty, I didn’t find Coyote vs. Acme to be the triumph one would hope for after its now famous fight to reach theater screens.
Still, it didn’t deserve to be buried for tax reasons. No movie deserves that. I’m not immune to the goodwill surrounding the context of this release. Regardless of my criticisms, I find myself rooting for the film to succeed. Its early performance doesn’t appear to have been particularly strong, so perhaps the online support is not going to entirely translate into ticket sales. Here’s hoping it beats the odds.
