Coyote vs. ACME

Befitting its disaster-prone title character, Coyote Vs. Acme has faced many near-fatal obstacles in its path to cinemas. Originally set for release in 2023, by Warner Bros., it was shelved (for confusing tax reasons) and seemed destined for deletion, but was eventually sold to a new distributor. It’s an unpromising backstory. Yet, for once, Wile E. Coyote has emerged victorious. His film is no also-ran. It’s a work of unabashed chaotic comedy fun.

For over 75 years, Wile E. Coyote has devoted himself to catching the elusive Road Runner. Unable to compete in terms of speed, he employs a series of fantastical ACME-branded gadgets ­— rocket boots, giant magnets, a jet-propelled pogo stick — to help him snare the bird. They inevitably malfunction, blowing up Wile E. or sending him plummeting to the bottom of a ravine.

In Coyote Vs. Acme, after yet another foiled plan, Wile E. decides ACME is at fault. He’s going to sue the company for negligence, and he’s found just the wrong man to help him: Kevin Avery (Will Forte), a lazy, cheap lawyer who likes to settle cases quickly and is appalled at his new client’s silent determination. Where Coyote will stop at nothing to achieve his goals, Kevin believes you should try only until things start to get vaguely challenging.

It’s an enjoyably stupid set-up, logically ridiculous but somehow making perfect sense. Director Dave Green and screenwriter Samy Burch get this balance just right across the movie, taking a very similar approach to Who Framed Roger Rabbit, the Godfather of animation/live-action hybrids. It’s simply accepted that cartoon characters live among humans and the flesh-and-blood world is every bit as full of outsized villains with harebrained schemes, only theirs are more secretive and involve fewer anvils. Forte, often a very big comic actor, effectively plays the straight man to Wile E.’s silent madman. Their dynamic is well drawn, with a classic mismatched-buddy comedy arc. If the plotting in the final act gets a smidge muddled, leaning a little too much on formula, it never seems to matter too much.

For any Looney Tunes nerd, it’s a real treat to search the screen for innumerable Easter eggs. It goes so deep into the archives that it may leave the less Looney-attuned occasionally confused, wondering why Peter Lorre is ‘playing’ a scientist or why there’s an old lady chicken on a jury. But that respect for the viewer and love for the Looney Tunes world is what makes this movie work so well. It even feels edited to the same comic rhythms as a Looney Tunes short and, over its 100ish minutes, it maintains the same daffy joy.