Coyote vs. Acme(2026)

From the premise to the execution, Coyote vs Acme is relentlessly entertaining and fiercely creative, full of witty one-liners and a surprising amount of heart. I highly recommend.

I didn’t grow up with Looney Tunes, so I watched about half an hour of it to prepare for this movie. I had started making a list of cases where Coyote would have a claim, but that turned out to be unnecessary because the film goes through them in detail. The natural comparison was to Tom & Jerry, which I did grow up with, but the fact that Road Runner is never in danger made me feel a lack of tension. I know that's kind of the point of the cartoon, but that also makes it hard to take advantage of this dynamic for a feature film. Nonetheless, they found a way. Coyote's undying persistence in the face of repeated failures as a virtue certainly isn't a novel reading of this cartoon, but I still find it quite clever for the writers to have come up with this David vs Goliath parallel pitting a personal injury attorney against a seemingly omnipotent corporation. They also knew how to leverage the invincibility of Road Runner to create very satisfying scenes. The feeling of anticipation I felt when I realized I was going to see the combined might of Apple, Amazon, and Raytheon failing to catch a bird was pure delight.

The cameos by the other cartoon characters did go over my head, since I didn't grow up with them either. The ending was a bit messy and paced just a smidge awkwardly, but I think those are forgivable flaws. The real missed opportunities were: 1) Cameo by Ann Phong, and 2) I am not sure if this is a bit to make John Cena play his most clothed character ever, which I admit is a mildly funny bit. Even if it is a bit, I think it would still have been better for that commotion at the end to strip his clothes off. Objectively that is the funnier bit.