Looney Tunes is an interesting IP, in that their iconography is one of the most recognizable in the world, and yet they rarely see a lot of effort in getting them back on screens. Sure there’s Bugs Bunny t-shirts and Porky Pig mugs strewn about at your average Six Flags, but only once in awhile do we see someone trying to jumpstart the Merry Melodies of old into a proper production again.

It was announced in November of 2023 that Warner Bros. had finished such a project, but that it was deemed of no real value to attempt a release and that it would be thrown out wholly for the purposes of a tax write off. Now the idea of spending months if not years on a project, completing said project, deciding on a release date for that project, and having some milquetoast carpet walker decide that instead of ever letting anyone see it, it would be deleted for the sake of the bottom line would drive me absolutely insane. And in a manner that doesn’t even make sense for the bottom line? Surely the movie would make more money out in the wild over the course of its life than if you just threw it away? But of course our version of late stage capitalism is not interested in legacy, but only in short term quarterly profits. So that was the fate set to befall Coyote vs. Acme, a fate that was already wrought upon a fully filmed Batgirl movie in August of 2022 by the very same studio, reportedly the same studio executive David Zaslav.

But then a small but scrappy distributor swooped in to save the day. Ketchup Entertainment, a production company that earlier this year released another Looney Tunes product The Day the Earth Blew Up purchased Coyote out from the clutches of WB and announced that the once doomed feature would be released after all. So even by the measure of a lot of movies I’m excited for, this one has a lot of goodwill purchased off the backs of everyone who worked on it, thinking it would never be seen, and of Ketchup Entertainment who saved it from its grizzly fate.

The movie follows Wile E. Coyote (genius according to his business card) who after a slew of attempts to nab the speedy Roadrunner decides that the cause of all his pain is the Acme Corperation, maker of all of his failed traps and gagets. It makes sense after 75 years of attempting to grab that bird, and having every single ACME invention fail him in ever hilarious ways that he met start to point the finger at another. It’s also poetic that after an attempted deletion this movie is about corporate greed and inepitude harming the public. You can’t spell David Zaslav without using least some of the letters in Acme, after all. But Coyote trapes to Albuqueque to hire Kevin Avery, attorney at law, portrayed by live action human actor Will Forte.

Kevin is an ambulance chaser for cartoons, someone who puts forward small claims by cartoons against Acme that they barely notice. He gets his clients a couple hundred dollars, keeps his head down, and goes about his day. The size of the case that Wile E. has against ACME is too rich for his blood, and he attempts to talk Wile E. down but the coyote is stubborn and determined to have his day in court. More than anything this movie is about perseverance, particularly about perseverance in the face of failure. The idea that anyone would do anything for 75 years and fail is insane, both to Kevin, and to most audiences. And yet Wile E. has continued his attempt to catch and eat The Roadrunner and never wavered in his pursuit. No matter how many cliffs he runs off of or explosions he subjects himself to, he brushes himself off, buys a new gadget and tries again. Sisyphus is hearkened to more than once in Coyote vs. Acme, and not in a way that makes it seem like a tortured hell. “One must imagine Sisyphus happy” is the end quote from Albert Camus, and in many ways that’s what this film is attempting to reinforce.

It also helps that cartoon hijinks are a genuinely good time. Coyote manages to explode himself in a number of ways, we’re visited by plenty of our Looney Tunes friends outside of him, Tweety Bird, Porky Pig, Sylvester the Cat, etc. The gang’s all back! And each get a moment to shine in a way that makes their bits seems fresh, new, and funny. Furthermore, amongst the jokes, and the philosophy is also a beating heart, a movie about friendship in unlikely places. It’s reminiscent of Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, a story of an unlikely duo teaming up to save the day. Coyote even attempts the same classist issues that Roger highlights, albeit with less subtlety. But even a movie that’s like Who Framed Roger Rabbit? is a movie worth your time, if it’s been too long since you’ve had a laugh there are many worse places to look.

3.5/5