Everyone that cares about movies wanted Coyote vs. Acme to succeed. Warner Brothers finished the movie, but decided the film was better as a tax write off, content to bury it and never show it to anyone. Props to the creatives and fans, who pressured the film to be released, a mini miracle on its own. And, I’m happy to report, thank goodness for the push, cause Coyote vs. Acme is the best Looney Tunes movie…maybe ever? Definitely in recent memory.
After a harrowing intro, we go to New Mexico, where Wile E. Coyote has failed yet again to capture and eat the Roadrunner. Crestfallen, he sits in his lair, and sees small time late night TV lawyer infomercialer Kevin Avery (Will Forte) talking about Acme’s defective products. Light bulb goes off, and Wile E. pays Kevin a visit, saying he wants to sue them for everything. Kevin’s niece Paige (Lana Condor) wants them to go after Goliath, but Kevin knows what’ll be waiting for him: his rival Buddy Crane (John Cena) and the endless money and power of the whole Acme corporation coming down on his fledgling business.
What Dave Green and Samy Burch have come up here is family film magic. The pitch is simple but enticing: what if the Looney Tunes were in a political thriller legal thriller? The writer and director have their framework: Erin Brockovich meets Who Framed Roger Rabbit?. Green and Burch give us all the beats of a story like this: the scary opening sequence to raise the stakes, scared beaten down hero lawyer paired with a determined client, plucky 2nd in command, imposing corporate lawyer, evil CEO, courtroom twists and countertwists. Stuff we’ve all seen. On top of that story base, it’s just comedians and cartoons as the main characters. The big first meeting of lawyers has Wile E. Coyote set fire to the contract, burning everyone’s eyebrows for silly laughs. Buddy Crane shakes down a witness for more information…but that witness happens to be Tweety Bird. Like Roger Rabbit, that wonderful ironic duality gives Coyote vs. Acme a joyous momentum, having you smile from ear to ear as you hope Wile E. gets the payout he deserves: maybe the luckiest fusion of real life and movie themes that ever could have happened.
Like Daffy and Porky in The Day the Earth Blew Up, Wile E. Coyote gets his big glow up in Coyote vs. Acme. I forgot he never speaks except in signs (an amusing running gag), and relies heavily on getting laughs from his misfortune. But those years of being the butt of the joke have made Wile E. a shockingly sympathetic figure; as he goes deeper into the battle against the Acme corporation, you actually feel the real pain Coyote experiences: emotional baggage from being alone all the time and never getting what he wants, almost making you tear up because of Green and Burch’s film. What Wile E. can’t say, the humans make up for him. Each of the 3 leads was meant for the part they end up in. Will Forte is basically a cartoon himself when he gets figuratively animated, but also has the comedic acting chops to carry the film talking to a tennis ball. Lana Condor bubbles with overflowing energy, idealistic but infectious in all the perfect ways for the movie. And John Cena’s years of wrestling have taught him how to make menace funny as hell for an audience which he nails here never smiling once.
Keep your billions David Zaslav. You can buy anything you want: except actual artistic taste. There’s no price for that, and it fills my soul in ways Warner, er Acme’s soulless existence never could satisfy. Meep meep!