★★★★★
Wile E. Coyote has spent decades falling from cliffs, swallowing explosives and being crushed by anvils. Now he has finally realised who should pay for it.
The film Coyote vs. Acme has already survived its own encounter with corporate power. Warner Bros. Discovery completed it, then shelved it in 2023 for a tax write-off. Public outrage followed. Ketchup Entertainment eventually bought the rights in 2025 and delivered the theatrical release.
That history makes the film’s target almost too perfect. A corporation tried to erase a finished film about a corporation treating lives and creative work as disposable.
Director Dave Green combines live action and animation in the tradition of Who Framed Roger Rabbit. The screenplay is by Samy Burch, from a story developed with James Gunn and Jeremy Slater. Its premise originated in Ian Frazier’s 1990 New Yorker piece, “Coyote v. Acme.”
Wile E. hires struggling lawyer Kevin Avery (Will Forte) to sue Acme for selling him defective products. Forte plays Kevin as a man already flattened by the machinery he wants to challenge.
He once believed the law could deliver justice. Years of losing to powerful opponents have left him cynical, broke and cautious. Wile E.’s persistence begins to restore something Kevin thought had died.
After watching Wile E. fail for years, we discover how deeply we have been rooting for him. We want him to find friendship; we want one plan to work. We might even want him to catch that beeping bird.
The film finally asks the obvious question: why not spend the Acme money on a supermarket roast chicken? Wile E is a single loner; why not go buy a bachelor’s handbag?
But purchasing dinner would not satisfy Wile E. He wants to prove that he is clever enough to capture it himself. There is no ego stroke in quietly buying a cooked bird.
Wile E. is Captain Ahab with rocket skates. The Road Runner is his white whale with a better top speed. He is also Sisyphus in the New Mexico desert. Each morning brings another plan, another product and another boulder rolling back downhill.
We have inherited our own version of his faith. Wake early. Work hard. Apply ingenuity. Buy the products advertised by enormous corporations. Eventually, we are promised, we will catch our Road Runner and secure the perfect life.
That is not how dopamine works. Increasingly, it is not how capitalism works either. Satisfaction would be disastrous for Acme. A contented coyote is no longer a high-value customer. Every failed purchase must therefore create the need for another one.
At moments, Acme resembles Amazon after a cartoon makeover. It sells everything and accepts little responsibility for what arrives or how it gets there. The customer and the workers bear the injuries while the company keeps the profit.
The courtroom battle allows the film to examine access to justice. Rights mean little when enforcing them requires money, time and expert representation. Poorer litigants can be correct and still lose through exhaustion.
Acme also hides a product-testing program built upon expendable subjects. The story recalls real histories of experiments conducted upon animals, poor communities and racial minorities. Harm becomes acceptable when powerful institutions decide the victim does not matter.
John Cena’s Buddy Crane embodies the type of man such systems reward. He is square-jawed, Goliath-muscled and polished by privilege. He is the corporate Chad who assumes victory is his natural condition.
Cena understands the joke without playing Buddy as a fool. His confidence comes from knowing the institution will protect him. Wile E. may have ingenuity, but Buddy has status, resources and the rules. Who thought we would ever see John Cena and Tweety face each other in battle?
Lana Condor brings energy and conviction to Paige Avery, Kevin’s idealistic niece. She has not yet absorbed his belief that resistance is pointless.
Eric Bauza recreates the sounds of childhood as Looney Tunes voices, including Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and Foghorn Leghorn.
Green and cinematographer Brandon Trost make the collision between the cartoon and real world feel physical. Bugs Bunny’s burrowing tears through real concrete. When Wile E. falls from the sky, his silhouette remains stamped into the red earth.
The metal-detector sequence is a glorious example of the film’s visual precision. Wile E. attempts to unload an impossible arsenal of Acme products before passing through security. The joke keeps escalating until snorts become more likely than ordinary laughter.
Beneath the slapstick sits a sharp political idea. The Coyote and Road Runner remain locked in permanent opposition. Each defines the other through conflict.
Their chase can even resemble the modern divide between left and right. Both sides remain consumed by defeating an opponent. Neither notice that the corporation supplies the weapons, sets the terms and profits from the pursuit.
The film does not excuse obsession. Wile E. must confront how much of his identity depends upon the Road Runner. Yet it understands why surrender feels impossible. Letting go would mean admitting that years of pain achieved nothing.
That is where Coyote vs. Acme becomes unexpectedly moving. It respects persistence while questioning the systems that exploit it. It lets failure hurt without treating the person who failed as worthless.
Those expecting light-hearted nostalgia will still find plenty of it. Almost every beloved character makes an appearance. Yet that is not all, folks.
Coyote vs. Acme is a warm, system-questioning collision of classic cartoons, Greek mythology, courtroom drama and social criticism. It asks why hard work so often enriches those selling the tools. It asks whether justice remains possible when a corporation can afford to outlast its victims.
Most importantly, it looks again at animation’s greatest loser and recognises something heroic: Wile E. keeps getting up. For once, the world gets up beside him.
Coyote vs. Acme opens nationally on Thursday 17 September at participating cinemas.
Find cinemas here.
Website: https://www.pinnaclefilms.com.au/films/
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Watch the trailer here:
Film details:
Title: Coyote vs. Acme
Director: Dave Green
Cast: Will Forte, John Cena, Lana Condor
Country of Origin: USA
Duration: 101 mins
Rating: CTC
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