Coyote vs. Acme (2026) Review

I’ve got to be real with you guys, I was sceptical about this movie from day one. Don’t get me wrong, as a lifelong Looney Tunes fan and aficionado, I love these characters and the original shorts by Chuck Jones, Tex Avery, Bob Clampett, Friz Freleng and many others. However, prior to early last year, Looney Tunes feature films had always had been mixed at best. So when I heard they were making another yet live-action/animation hybrid film with these characters, this time based on a satirical New Yorker article about Wile E. Coyote suing Acme - my expectations weren’t exactly high.

I don’t think I need to tell you what happened next or recount the movie’s tumultuous production history, which has been well documented at this point. TO BE CLEAR: regardless of the film’s overall quality, it was bullshit that WB and David Zaslav cancelled a fully complete film just for a tax write-off. It's insulting to the filmmakers, actors, and hundreds of other talented artists and crew members who pour blood sweat and tears into this production, and their work deserves to be seen. I fully supported this film being released, and I’m glad Ketchup Entertainment was able to rescue the film.

That being said, none of that really changed my preconceptions about film: in fact, I felt it would only hurt the film. Usually in these kinds of situations the anticipation is better than the thing itself, and with the film being suppressed and the (rightful) campaign for its release, I felt it would create unrealistically high expectations it could never live up to. For decades Looney Tunes completionists have demanded WB to release the infamous Censored 11 – since their suppression only makes fans want them even more – but even taking their racial politics aside, with the possible exception of Coal Black, none of them are particularly good cartoons (ditto Disney fans with Song of the South).

It also didn’t help that when it looked like the film was never going to see the light of day, I read a leaked plot synopsis (spoilers): and as a hardcore Looney Tunes fan, I wasn’t impressed. While admittedly it’s difficult to judge the entire film’s quality off one-page plot synopsis, it gave off a similar vibe similar to that Chip and Dale: Rescue Rangers movie from a few years back (which I didn’t like): a cynical, edge-lord parody of the Looney Tunes, rather than a faithful adaptation of these great characters. Well, now that I’ve actually seen the movie, I’ll admit, I was completely wrong. I realise now that the leaked plot synopsis was probably working off an earlier draft of the script, and a lot of the concepts I thought I’d have problems with, were a lot better in their execution than in their simplistic descriptions.

Coyote vs. Acme is a funny, suspenseful and surprisingly heart-warming film, and (for the most part) is a very sincere love-letter to the original Looney Tunes shorts. 

Now, I previously claimed that last year’s masterpiece Looney Tunes: The Day the Earth Blew Up was not only the first objectively GOOD Looney Tunes movie, but also one of the greatest animated comedies ever made, and one of my all time favourite movies. 

Is Coyote vs. Acme BETTER than Day the Earth Blew Up? No.

However, Coyote vs. Acme is the SECOND BEST Looney Tunes movie (after DTEBU), and BY FAR the best of the Looney Tunes live-action/animated hybrid movies - and probably the best overall live-action/animated hybrid film since Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

Speaking of which, Coyote vs Acme wears its Roger Rabbit influence on its sleeve. As much as I LOVE Who Framed Roger Rabbit, a part of me was worried about this, since I feel as though the previous Looney Tunes movie attempts – Back in Action and the Space Jam films – have often tried way too hard to replicate that masterpiece and suffered as a result. In other words, focusing too much on human characters and side-lining the Looney Tunes, cramming too many of the iconic marketable Looney Tunes characters that have no connection to each other into one film, straining the plot to accommodate all of them, etc.

While, unlike Day the Earth Blew Up which masterfully managed to avoid all of those traps, Coyote vs. Acme admittedly does fall into some of them, but unlike the other previous Looney Tunes films, it does at least manage to execute them in the best and smartest way possible since Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

Whereas Roger Rabbit was a murder mystery in the style of 1940s film noir, Coyote vs. Acme is a modern day legal thriller: Wile E. Coyote hires a jaded small-time lawyer Kevin Avery (Will Forte) who tends to just take easy settlements, to lodge a class action lawsuit against the Acme Corporation for all their years of defective products. With the help of Kevin’s optimistic niece Paige (Lana Condor), the three of them uncover a secret plot by the Acme Corporation entitled Project Sisyphus. 

This film obviously has a lot of sincere affection for the classic Looney Tunes characters and shorts. While Wile E. Coyote has previously talked in his five shorts with Bugs Bunny; the film stays true to Chuck Jones’ most important rule of the Road Runner series: the two main characters never talk. Wile E. Coyote only communicates by holding up signs, and the Road Runner only goes “Beep Beep”.

Yet the movie still manages to give these two characters with an unexpected amount of depth that’s surprisingly touching at times, particularly in the climatic hearing where Road Runner expresses how much the Coyote means to him, but it never gets sappy. I even heard a few people choking-up and getting tearful towards the end. As someone who watched all 24 original Chuck Jones Road Runner cartoons in preparation for this film, in a way Coyote vs. Acme works well as a canonical series finale for these characters.

The live-action actors also do a great job. Keep in mind: performing in a film like this is one of the hardest things for an actor to do, since it’s almost like mime acting and they’re literally working with thin-air. While some of the most talented actors of all time have fallen flat when put in live-action-animated hybrid films like this, here Forte, Condor and John Cena as Acme’s evil corporate lawyer Buddy Crane, all act seamlessly with the Tunes: their sightlines are perfect and it always feels natural when they’re talking with them, as if they were really there.

Plus, the film has cameos galore: not only from the obvious ones like Bugs, Daffy and Porky - but also from obscure ones like Charlie Dog and even Cool Cat… for some reason. There’s even a brief cameo from a non-Looney Tunes character created by a Termite Terrace alumni. I’m not going to lie, I almost lost my shit in the first few minutes, when I saw Babbit and Catstello from Tale of Two Kitties (1942) in the background. Hell, while Kevin Avery and his firm – Avery, Jones & Maltese – are obviously a reference to Termite Terrace creators, Cena’s Buddy Crane may even be a reference to the failed early-1930s character of Buddy - i.e. the worst and most hated Looney Tunes character of all time.

As a hardcore Looney Tunes fan who has incredibly high standards, all the characters (with one exception) are portrayed accurately: even Tweety, who's forced to work as an evil Acme henchman against his will.

Like Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Coyote vs Acme uses cartoon characters as a racism allegory. Cartoon characters are treated like second class citizens, whose pain is seen as unimportant to most humans. Whereas Roger Rabbit was an allegory for black entertainers in the Golden Age of Hollywood, and the protagonists uncover an evil plan based on real-life Post-World War II gentrification of urban neighbourhoods, in this film Project Sisyphus (without giving too much away) bares similarities to infamous and absolutely horrific Tuskegee Experiment - or at least as similar as PG-rated family-film in 2026 will allow.

But not only does Project Sisyphus carry a similar name to the disease in which the victims of the Tuskegee Experiment were infected with, it also draws parallels between the ancient Greek myth of Sisyphus and the main character of Wile E. Coyote. Like Sisyphus, who was doomed by the Gods to push a boulder up a hill for all eternity, Wile E. Coyote is doomed to forever chase the Road Runner and never catch him. Yet in spite of his constant failures, he never gives up: inspiring the rest of our heroes to do the same and fight to the end.

I only have two major problems with this movie that keep me from loving this film as much as Day the Earth Blew Up.

Firstly (and I’m by no means the only critic to voice this complaint): the cel shaded CG animation. While cel shaded CGI can be done well, unfortunately here it’s not. Some shots look okay, but unfortunately most of the time – especially on Granny, Foghorn Leghorn and a scene towards the end… they just look like crap. It’s especially jarring whenever the film cuts to clips from classic Road Runner cartoons. In those, Chuck Jones imbued the Coyote (along with all of his characters) with exquisite and highly detailed key poses, particularly with facial expressions. While it’s possible to replicate that in CG, in this film the 3D models of the Coyote aren’t rigged to be flexible enough to properly capture the Jones-isms. 

A handful of the supporting characters in the film are done with traditional hand-drawn animation (most notably the scenes with Bugs Bunny) – and it just looks SO MUCH BETTER. Honestly, it would’ve been better if the whole movie had been done in that style. (I mean, I know why it’s not – because executive hacks think hand-drawn animation is box-office poison and would never greenlight an entire movie like Roger Rabbit anymore).

However, I want to go easy on the visuals, because it’s probably a result of WB scrapping the movie before it was complete, and Ketchup not having enough money to finish the animation properly. If WB had finished the movie themselves, maybe the cel-shaded CG would’ve turned out better, but as it currently stands it doesn’t look very good.

Secondly (and this was the main issue I had ever since I first read the leaked plot synopsis) – I don’t like Foghorn Leghorn being portrayed as the villain. Don’t get me wrong, as someone who has seen all the Foghorn Leghorn cartoons, I’m not going to pretend like he was a good person (...or chicken). He was often a selfish dick, and – as the film puts it – “...a blowhard with a massive ego” – regularly shirking responsibilities and inexplicably tormenting Barnyard Dawg. Still, I’m not really 100% sure he would be actively malicious enough to become a ruthless billionaire CEO, who sells out and tortures his cartoon brethren. As one of my Facebook followers suggested to me, Yosemite Sam - who’s WAY more greedy, villainous and aggressive - would’ve fit this role A LOT BETTER, but using Foghorn just feels extremely out of character for him.

Still, Coyote vs. Acme is a lot of fun, and while, in my opinion, not quite on the same level as Day the Earth Blew Up, is still a damn good film and definitely worthy of the Looney Tunes name. Do I wish Day the Earth Blew Up got the same level of marketing, hype, attention and praise that Coyote vs. Acme is currently getting? Yes, but that in no way detracts from Coyote vs. Acme.

The release of this film couldn’t be more timely. Not only does the film’s own production mirror Coyote's David and Goliath struggle to be released, but also considering fascist-goon David Ellison’s recent hostile attempts to take over Warner Bros., and merge it with Paramount (with one of these two legendary studios destined to follow the same fate as 20th Century Fox after the Disney acquisition) – a film about holding mega-corporations accountable for their shitty actions couldn’t be more topical.

Let’s hope the judge makes the right call this week. (UPDATE: He didn't, we're fucked.)