Director: Dave Green
Writer: Samy Burch, James Gunn, Jeremy Slater
Stars: John Cena, Lana Condor, Will Forte
Synopsis: A story set in the ACME warehouse, the manufacturer of anything and everything used by the Looney Tunes characters.
What you will find absurdly ironic about the new film Coyote vs. Acme only strengthens the movie and, for that matter, the source material’s satire. The once-great and mighty studio that produced films like Casablanca, A Clockwork Orange, Goodfellas, and The Lord of the Rings trilogy tossed the Looney Tunes film into the ACME dustbin of corporate history.
Then, somehow, some way, Ketchup Entertainment found a bucket of ACME paint, threw it against a wall, and found the film, bringing a great comedic brand back to the people. A David-versus-Goliath story in its own right, Coyote vs. Acme has finally seen the light of day, bringing back the Looney Tunes brand’s classic recipe that remains sophisticated and subversive.
The experience is full of incredible, escalating, visceral visual gags and intellectual satire that few can match, even fewer can replicate, and that remains timeless. How many comedic institutions can be so cultured while combining social satire with an anarchic slap in the face of the establishment? In that sense, Coyote vs. Acme is practically punk rock: erudite, irreverent, and hilarious.
The story follows Wile E. Coyote, who is sick and tired of ACME putting dangerous products in the hands of him and his cartoon compatriots, placing them in almost daily peril. Coyote then travels to see Kevin Avery, Esquire (Saturday Night Live’s Will Forte), a personal injury attorney he sees advertised on billboards along a desolate desert highway.
Kevin wants nothing to do with the case, probably having read “A Civil Action,” because taking on a corporation like ACME could bankrupt his practice. However, his niece, Paige (Lana Condor of To All the Boys fame), is an idealist who encourages him to take the case. After Wile E. takes matters into his own legal hands, Buddy Crane (John Cena), ACME’s corporate lawyer and Kevin’s former Harvard classmate, tends to buy their way out of this mess.
However, before Wile E. is sent packing with a bindle full of cash, the desert-dwelling canine refuses the offer. Despite objections from Kevin’s staff, including Sal (Tone Bell) and Dottie (Euphoria’s Martha Kelly), the case moves to court, sparking a national debate over what matters more: our enjoyment versus the exploitation required to produce it?
Coyote vs. Acme comes from Dave Green, in easily his best film to date, working from a script by, get this, Academy Award nominee Samy Burch (May December). It’s hard to believe the studio wanted to bury this film, considering the enduring popularity of the source material and Hollywood’s insatiable need for intellectual property in the streaming content wars.
The movie strikes a near-perfect balance of nostalgia, comedy, innovation, and satire. The film turns a cartoon premise into a surprisingly sharp commentary on product liability and corporate accountability. Then there is the endlessly clever legal and entertainment-industry subversion, which is about as meta as it gets.
Then there are the Looney Tunes easter eggs and “cameos” from classic characters, dropping one-liners and sight gags that will induce the giggles for kids and belly laughs for adults. The animation is beautiful and wonderfully playful, while at times harkening back to the live-action/animation heyday of Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
Yet, at the end of the day, it is the nature of what Wile E. is actually trying to accomplish that gives the film some unexpectedly ominous juice. Is he really fighting for cartoon rights, or is he using the legal system to trap his nemesis finally? It is a surprisingly sophisticated question that Burch’s script layers into the story, giving the film an unexpected degree of moral ambiguity.
While Will Forte is no Bob Hoskins, he is the perfect straight man for the nonverbal, obsessive canine because Forte can be naturally sympathetic and awkwardly earnest. There is a surprisingly emotional scene in the third act where both Kevin and Wile E. lay their cards on the table and face their own demons, giving unexpected depth to the typically nonverbal scavenger.
Yet, Coyote vs. Acme, beneath all those observations of exploitation and commodification, are enough anvils that drop like rain to the sky, cartoon explosions, and classic Looney Tunes mayhem that make this David-versus-Goliath one of the year’s best comedies and most heartfelt. See it in a theater near you, and let the corporate bigwigs and Warner Bros. Discovery know they made an ACME-size mistake.
You can watch Coyote Vs. Acme exclusively in theaters August 28th!
