Coyote Vs Acme - Quick Review

9/01/2026

Coyote vs Acme is a great movie. I felt a huge, overwhelming sense of relief when the film started and I chuckled at Wile E blowing up and all that. It suddenly felt like I could let my guard down and relax going into this movie that features lovable, familiar characters in our world. A world where, they, the cartoons, and our human heroes fight for justice and accountability against a huge corporation with endless resources and money. God, did I need to see that.

This kind of social...consciousness? Is a part of Who Framed Roger Rabbit as well, that movie’s villain was buying his way through elections and utility companies to ultimately destroy Toontown by constructing a highway. But in Coyote vs Acme it’s a little less schemey, and more straightfoward after everything comes to light. The Acme Corporation is knowingly, intentionally putting the Looney Tunes through harmful product testing to enrich themselves via their products for humans, that’s the gist of it anyway.

It’s that casting and role of the Looney Tunes that really warmed my heart. The idea that they’re worth fighting for, that it’s worth trying and fighting for rights and decency and respect, even when you seem like a lesser person to a lot of others. Foghorn even tries to pull a “Does anyone even care about Wile. E Coyote?” At the end. As a marginlized person myself, that one kind of stung. In a good way, he’s a bad guy.

Despite how the trial ultimately goes, at the end, other Looney Tunes are inspired to take action, they all appear ready to go through the same thing, to work hard for a kind of collective justice. I think the the movie paints the picture well enough, that even though the point is raised the cartoons might not really get hurt or put in lethal danger like humans can, it’s still wrong to to hurt them, especially for something stupid like profits.

The movie has a little more bite than I was expecting. One of my favorite jokes in the movie is when Avery enters the Acme building while the commercial audio plays. You hear the voiceover say something like “We’re a family friendly company” and the footage is of FIGHTER jets blowing something up. It’s one of those things that’s hilarious because it’s real. You see how thew news media can glaze companies and do their PR work for them, if they’re not outright owned by them. John Cena’s character, Buddy Crane, really has the completely asshole playbook, and again, it’s hilarious because it feels real in our modern day. He tries to bribe people, has Avery and Will E Coyote stalked constantly, tries to blow up their office, and he gives that hilariously awful speech in the courtroom scene. If you’ve seen the movie, I think you know what I’m talking about.

Now, it’s still a commercial, family friendly movie and all that, but when Avery gives his speech, the same one that’s in the trailer “These companies think they can do whatever they want, and we’re sick of it!” I think I felt a tear well up in my eye. Like, oh, thank god, someone said this is in a movie. And you can probably imagine from that statement I’m not a well-read expert on things like class warfare, social justice, workplace organization tactics, or even movies, but still as far as mainstream entertainment is concerned, I found it inspiring and it aligns with my values in a way I don’t see too often. But again that’s probably me being uncultured.

The movie’s humor, in general, is the exact kind of thing I was looking for from a new live-action animation hybrid movie. Maybe my favorite joke in the entire thing is Avery saying “Who is this?” completely exasperated after someone on the phone says ‘What’s up, Doc?” I love that kind of... absurdity, I think I’d call it. There’s a definite silliness to everything, that sense of relief I felt at the theater really settled in when I accepted, “Ah, this is actually gonna be funny!” is rooted in that humor. It does feel like a classic cartoon in terms of the timing and gags, and I think that goes beyond the more referential stuff. It’s in the timing of jokes, the ridiculousness of certain things, but the movie keeps the heart and the characters in the right places to keep it interesting to watch. It never feels like you’re watching a gag compilation on YouTube or anything.

And, also, just saying there are a lot of awesome looking explosions in this, and they happen like, pretty frequently, so that was fun for me too.

Now for some anecdotal things I want to say about the film. First one is about the end, so, super spoilers, but, the whole idea that the Road Runner actually likes Wile E Coyote and considers him his friend. That came out of nowhere for me and I wasn’t completely expecting it so I damn near sobbed at the theater, his smiley little face was killing me. But like, did his voice change? It seemed like all the Beep Beeps were archive recordings of something, but in that scene it seemed like a different actor? Am I crazy? Still though it was so sweet and, a bit of a different kind of friendship so I really liked it.

There’s one big scene with Bugs Bunny and he’s 2D animated, he looks AWESOME. It kind of made me wish that everyone in the movie was 2D animated, but, for the most part, I liked the 3D animation. Something about Foghorn Leghorn in 3D was crazy, he looks like Goldlewis from Guilty Gear Strive, I mean he’s HUGE, but that’s really fun. It’s pretty interesting that he plays a straight villain, he’s almost like a traitor to the cartoons or something, another element that was in Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

Overall, I really loved this movie. I dunno that it’s gonna land so strongly with everyone who sees it, but for me, it just perfectly hit. The humor is spot on, it has messages and themes that really resonate with me personally, and, dammit I just love cartoons doing stuff, to get a new movie like when it was so close to being lost media forever, thank goodness for Ketchup Entertainment. This is, so far, the only movie I’ve seen at the theater this year, so, it is with great pleasure I preemptively award Coyote vs Acme my movie of the year award! Congratulaaations!

-Jane 'Beep' Parker