Coyote vs. Acme Review: Pure Looney Tunes Magic Worth Fighting For

Wile E. Coyote finally gets his day in court in a hilarious, heartfelt and visually stunning triumph that proves this movie was always worth fighting for.

Coyote vs. Acme is pure movie magic, and it is wonderful to have another Looney Tunes adventure released by Ketchup Entertainment following The Day the Earth Blew Up. Its seamless blend of live action and animation brings the wild world of Looney Tunes to life with humor, heart and incredible visual wonder. No matter how many times I see these characters interact with the real world, I remain in awe of how magical it feels when everything comes together.

Director Dave Green understands that the secret is not simply placing familiar cartoon characters beside human actors. They must feel like real scene partners who belong in the same world. Every interaction, reaction, and wonderfully destructive gag sells that illusion.

The result is one of the most inventive, satisfying, and heartfelt family movies in recent memory. It honors the history of Looney Tunes while finding something completely new to say about one of its most beloved underdogs.

Wile E. Coyote never says a word, yet the film makes us understand, root for, and emotionally connect with him like never before. After spending more than 75 years watching him get crushed, blown up, and thrown from cliffs, we finally get to see the world from his perspective.

It turns out that all he needed was his day in court.

Wile E. Coyote Finally Fights Back

Based on Ian Frazier’s 1990 New Yorker article, Coyote vs. Acme asks a question that should have been raised decades ago: Why does Wile E. Coyote continue buying products from a company whose inventions constantly explode in his face?

After suffering through countless defective rockets, magnets, spring-loaded shoes, bombs, and other dangerous devices, Wile E. realizes that ACME is responsible for nearly every disaster in his life. Instead of constructing another complicated trap for the Road Runner, he decides to fight back through the legal system.

He teams with Kevin Avery, a struggling billboard accident lawyer played by Will Forte. Kevin has spent years accepting easy settlements for cartoon clients because their injuries are rarely treated seriously. After all, a cartoon character can be flattened by a piano and appear perfectly healthy the next morning.

Wile E.’s case forces Kevin to confront his own fear of failure.

Kevin experienced one professional setback and stopped taking risks. Wile E. fails almost every day but always gets back up. Their unlikely friendship becomes the emotional foundation of the movie.

Samy Burch’s screenplay, developed from a screen story by James Gunn, Jeremy Slater, and Burch, treats the ridiculous legal battle with surprising sincerity. The courtroom drama is not simply a backdrop for jokes. The case matters because the filmmakers convince us that Wile E. matters. The humor remains wonderfully silly, but the characters never act like they are above the material. That commitment allows the comedy and emotion to strengthen one another.

The movie never attempts to reinvent Wile E. Coyote completely. He remains stubborn, overly confident, and hilariously obsessed with catching the Road Runner. However, it expands our understanding of him without losing what made the character an icon.

For the first time, we do not merely laugh when an anvil lands on his head. We understand why he keeps standing beneath it.

Live Action and Animation Come Together Perfectly

The technical achievement behind Coyote vs. Acme is remarkable. Green and his team preserve the hand-drawn appearance and physical freedom of the classic Looney Tunes shorts. The characters stretch, squash, and transform in ways that feel connected to the original work of Chuck Jones and other legendary animators.

They have not been converted into realistic animals or forced into a visual style that works against their identities. Wile E. looks exactly as he should, complete with expressive eyes, imperfect lines, and a body capable of surviving every imaginable disaster.

The production also gave the actors more than a tennis ball to perform against. Legendary puppeteer Dave Barclay, whose credits include Who Framed Roger Rabbit, The Dark Crystal, and several Star Wars characters, helped create a full-sized Wile E. Coyote puppet for the set.

That puppet gave Forte and the other actors a physical scene partner with real expressions and movements. The puppet was replaced by animation in the completed movie, but the emotional connection created during filming remains visible in every scene.

Brandon Trost’s cinematography gives the live-action world a beautiful, cinematic texture. The sun-soaked New Mexico locations feel like the natural home of Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner. The movie can resemble a serious legal thriller in one moment before becoming a giant cartoon playground in the next.

Composer Steven Price also walks that line beautifully. His score combines the detailed musical timing of classic Looney Tunes cartoons with the sweeping emotion of a courtroom drama. The production even recorded a 40-piece choir at Abbey Road Studios performing elaborate variations of the Road Runner’s famous “Meep Meep.”

That perfectly captures the creative spirit of this movie. Everyone involved took the filmmaking seriously without forgetting how wonderfully ridiculous Looney Tunes should be.

Will Forte and John Cena Make Perfect Rivals

Will Forte delivers one of his most lovable performances as Kevin Avery. Rather than playing another completely unhinged character, Forte becomes the movie’s emotional anchor and straight man. His natural warmth allows Kevin to remain sympathetic even when the character starts out as a lazy lawyer more interested in quick settlements than in justice.

Forte also develops fantastic chemistry with an animated character who cannot speak. He reacts to Wile E.’s smallest expressions with complete sincerity. Their partnership becomes funny, touching, and unexpectedly inspiring. John Cena is equally entertaining as Buddy Crane, the polished corporate attorney defending ACME. Cena uses his natural charisma in a completely different way here, transforming it into something slick, intimidating, and deliciously arrogant.

Buddy is the perfect nemesis for Kevin and Wile E.

He represents a powerful corporation that believes it can avoid responsibility because it has more money, more lawyers, and more control over the system. Cena gets plenty of laughs, but he also makes Buddy feel like a legitimate threat. The role allows him to rely on sharp dialogue, comic timing, and presence instead of simply being the biggest person in the room.

Lana Condor brings tremendous energy and optimism to Paige Avery, Kevin’s niece. She represents the ambitious, hopeful person Kevin once was and pushes him to become that person again. Condor’s chemistry with Forte adds another layer of heart to the story. Tone Bell and Martha Kelly contribute excellent comedic support, while P.J. Byrne, Luis Guzmán, John Early, and Kenneth Choi each make memorable impressions. Even with animated icons flying through the frame, the human ensemble never feels overshadowed.

Eric Bauza provides the voices of 10 characters, though a few are best kept under wraps. His ability to jump between these legendary personalities is astonishing. Bauza brings energy, precision, and genuine love to every voice while respecting the performers who originally made these characters famous.

The movie is packed with familiar Looney Tunes faces, but their appearances never feel like empty cameos. Some contribute to the case, others deliver perfectly timed jokes, and several surprises deserve to be discovered inside a packed theater.

We Won—Now We Must Show Up

The story behind Coyote vs. Acme became almost as wild as anything Wile E. Coyote experiences in the movie.

Warner Bros. Discovery completed the film but announced in November 2023 that it would not be released. The studio planned to shelve the project and take an estimated $30 million tax write-off.

The decision created immediate outrage among filmmakers, animation fans, and movie lovers. This was not an abandoned concept or unfinished experiment. Hundreds of artists had completed a major motion picture, yet audiences were being told they might never have the opportunity to see it.

Following the backlash, Warner Bros. reversed course and allowed the filmmakers to shop the movie to other potential buyers. However, the future remained uncertain as months passed without a completed sale.

Then Ketchup Entertainment stepped in.

In March 2025, Ketchup completed its purchase of the movie from Warner Bros. The company acquired worldwide rights in a deal reportedly valued at approximately $50 million and committed to giving Coyote vs. Acme a real theatrical release.

WE WON.

The filmmakers won. The animators won. The cast won. Looney Tunes fans won. Everyone who believes completed art deserves the opportunity to be seen won. Most importantly, the movie is excellent. Ketchup did not merely rescue an interesting piece of Hollywood history. It rescued a hilarious, visually stunning, and deeply meaningful film that deserves to become a major theatrical success.

However, receiving a release date was only the first victory. The true success of this fight will be determined by what audiences do next. If we want studios to understand that animation matters, finished movies deserve to be released, and Looney Tunes still belongs on the big screen, we must prove it by purchasing movie tickets.

A hashtag helped keep the conversation alive. Buying a ticket completes the mission.

Do not wait for streaming. Do not assume everyone else will support it. See Coyote vs. Acme in a theater, preferably during its opening weekend, and experience its biggest laughs with a crowd. Wile E. Coyote never gives up. Neither did the filmmakers nor the fans. Now it is our turn to show up.

Verdict

Coyote vs. Acme is pure movie magic and an absolute triumph. It delivers huge laughs, thrilling cartoon chaos, stunning animation, and far more emotional depth than anyone might expect from a movie involving exploding birdseed and rocket-powered roller skates.

This is not just a good movie rescued from a studio vault. It is a great movie that never should have been placed there. After surviving a real-life battle that mirrored its story about persistence, corporate power, and refusing to accept defeat, Coyote vs. Acme finally gets the ending it deserves.

Make sure you are part of it.

Coyote vs. Acme opens in theaters Aug. 28, 2026.

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