Now why might a work of art about a group of – well, not people, but cute protagonists – whose lives have been damaged by a major corporation’s terrible products strike a nerve? Coyote vs. Acme is a howl against how everything is getting worse all the time, and how people with power can do pretty much whatever they want. How interesting that Coyote vs. Acme was therefore, for some reason, out of all the movies in the Warner Bros. Discovery schedule, shelved as a tax write-off back in 2023. Who could say why this decision was made? We are all going to have to wonder for a long time why that was! But fortunately literally everybody on the internet complaining about this for years made the studio change its mind, and now we can judge Coyote vs. Acme for ourselves. On its own merits, it’s a hoot and a half. On its own merits combined with this ridiculous backstory? It’s one of the most essential movies of the year.
It’s a world exactly like ours, except cartoons and people jointly roam the earth. Kevin (straight-man extraordinaire Will Forte) is a miserable personal injury lawyer in Albuquerque, New Mexico (no Breaking Bad references; this is a kids’ movie) who largely spends his time advising his cartoon clients to take small settlements in injury cases against Acme Corporation. Acme makes everything from cars to phones to clothes and is perfectly happy paying a couple hundred here, a couple hundred there, to make all these claims go away. Kevin’s fellow lawyers are also lazy and depressed, but his niece Paige (Lana Condor), who is interning with them for the summer, still thinks real justice is possible. Out in the desert, the Coyote (who of course does not talk, but occasionally communicates by holding up signs) is working on his eternal pursuit of the Road Runner (voiced by Eric Bauza) until he has an epiphany. The reason he has never caught the damn bird is because of the shoddy equipment sold by Acme! It’s Acme’s fault he has endured all those terrible injuries over and over (and over) again! Now all he needs is a lawyer who will take on the case. At Paige’s urging Kevin does, but it might have been just another settlement until they realise Acme’s attorney is Buddy Crane (John Cena doing heroic work), who was a big meanie to Kevin in college. So suddenly it is ON. And Acme, of course, will not stand for that.
Of all the weird, strange and startling things in this movie, the strangest is the presence of a character modelled on and named after Peter Lorre (also voiced by Eric Bauza). Will the kids be rushing to see Casablanca or Arsenic and Old Lace or The Maltese Falcon or – dare we dream – M as a result? Older cineastes very sincerely hope so! No one was ever better at played a demented killer and the Warner Bros. cartoons of the 1940s and 50s capitalised on his image to make sure everybody knew it. The weirdest is possibly how well the combination of animation and the real world merge so seamlessly. Items are tossed back and forth, the laws of physics are bent as well as broken without anyone batting an eye, and yet there’s a huge sense of fun in how things keep going so wrong for Coyote. The bit where a wall is destroyed at Kevin’s office which the Coyote swiftly repairs while Kevin and Lana have an argument is a perfect example of how expertly slapstick comedy mixes with the age-appropriate high drama. Director Dave Green, who cut his teeth in 2016 on the unloved Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows, has mastered the art of juggling with dynamite. Cinematographer Brandon Trost (who has also shot all of Marielle Heller’s films as well as Crank: High Voltage, meaning it’s also weird we aren’t talking about his range way more often) keeps things cartoonishly clean and bright without ever overdoing it.
But the most startling thing is how perfectly this tale of unfairness and pointless striving meets the current moment. It is based on a New Yorker short story from 1990, decades before “enshittification” became 2023’s word of the year. That was the same year Coyote vs. Acme was shelved, meaning it’s almost certain the people who made that decision saw themselves in this mirror and did not like it. In the subsequent years the world really does feel like it’s gotten worse – artificial intelligence shoved into everything whether we want it or not, prices going up as quality goes down, and everything tailored to the 1% while the rest of us are meant to fight over the scraps. Suddenly everyone’s lives are just running to stand still, and the idea of hoping for a better outcome does leave us feel like the Coyote, legs windmilling in the air as he realises the Road Runner has gotten away again. It’s a lot for a movie to carry!
The extraordinary thing is Samy Burch’s script pulls it off. There’s a message of hope and solidarity here that feels so genuine it’s a total surprise. The lesson is the importance of trying to do the right thing whether or not you succeed at it, but you will certainly make some good friends along the way. In the current moment it’s hard to think of a message people of any age more need to hear. Best of all the movie is so silly! Just so, so silly! Mr Forte hopefully got hazard pay for having to keep such a straight face to all the tomfoolery and shenanigans around him. So you shouldn’t go see Coyote vs. Acme just to stick it to the man – not that there’s anything wrong with that, of course. Go see Coyote vs. Acme to be reminded that a group of children laughing is the best sound in the world, and a group of people laughing have more power than most people would like to admit.
Coyote vs. Acme is now in theaters.
Learn more about the film at the IMDB site for the title.
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