Publication Date: 08-23-2026

Coyote vs. Acme (2026) review

Dir. Dave Green

By: Steve Pulaski

Rating: ★★★½

Outside of rampant concerns about artificial intelligence and the staunch opposition to data centers popping up around America, the only other unifying force amongst the divided masses appears to be Coyote vs. Acme. Back in November 2023, Warner Bros. Discovery and their contemptible leadership shelved the project in order to secure a tax write-off. The outrage amongst the filmmakers, artists not even associated with the project, and the masses led to WBD shopping the film. To the rescue was Ketchup Entertainment, who acquired the distribution rights last March after doing so with The Day the Earth Blew Up, the other Looney Tunes movie in 2024.

Was a movie about a shaggy underdog taking on a multinational corporation hellbent on owning anything and everything too on the nose for CEO David Zaslav, who we now know was in the middle of talks with Paramount Skydance about acquiring WBD? Possibly, but the David vs. Goliath plot of Coyote vs. Acme truly makes it a movie that meets this current moment in America, which is rife with unrest, frustration over the rising cost of everything, and the inescapable fact that billionaires and corporations are perfectly content with letting us suffer for scraps while they appease their almighty shareholders.

I’m sure director Dave Green (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows) and screenwriter Samy Burch (May December) didn’t envision their lively, silly live-action/animated hybrid becoming a martyr of sorts. Coyote vs. Acme is true to the spirit of the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts involving the silent Wile E. Coyote exhausting every opportunity to capture and kill the speedy Road Runner. Wile E. Coyote saw himself get blown up by a faulty detonator or crash-land after falling off a cliff in hot pursuit of Road Runner, who could only muster up the words “beep beep.” They were shamelessly violent cartoons, sure, but Wile E’s persistence and ability to bounce-back served as a subtle moral underscoring resilience.

Executed in the same artistic spirit as something like Who Framed Roger Rabbit, or even Looney Tunes: Back in Action, Coyote vs. Acme opens with an exuberant and faithful Coyote vs. Road Runner sequence involving magnetized gloves, missiles, and rocket shoes. It predictably ends with Coyote face-planting into the desert sand outside Albuquerque. Later that night, on TV, Coyote sees a commercial for the Avery, Jones, and Maltese law-firm, advertising financial compensation for those injured “in a cartoon accident.” An unambitious, sad-sack, Kevin Avery (Will Forte) is a lawyer used to losing, but capable of getting cartoons a couple hundred dollars in compensation, mostly from the all-powerful Acme Corporation, owned by Foghorn Leghorn.

Coyote brings a box of hundreds of Acme items that have left him injured or maimed to Avery’s desk, and what ensues is a massive lawsuit Coyote is committed to taking the distance, more-so than his representation. Avery is petrified of Buddy Crane (John Cena), Acme’s lead attorney, whose first instinct is to settle, but is more than content with taking the Coyote and his former classmate to court to trample them before a goofball judge played by Luis Guzmán. Holding Avery’s nose to the grindstone is his niece/assistant (Lana Condor), a recent Oxford grad who harbors that kind of post-collegiate fire and passion for her work that has long left her uncle’s spirit.

Burch’s screenplay peppers in cameos from Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Tasmanian Devil, Granny, and Tweety Bird — the center of one of the film’s funniest scenes in a back-and-forth with Cena — but the true stars are Coyote, Forte, Condor, and Cena, all of whom infused with the appropriate level of Looney-ness. Forte embraces his awkward, sarcastic everyman archetype, and allows his sweet-side to emerge as his representation of Coyote slowly manifests into an unlikely friendship. Cena transitions his alpha-male energy into a role that is physically involved and witty. He earns some of the biggest laughs, especially as he yuks up the courtroom setting and plays to the jury’s emotions.

Burch keeps the sight-gags and interplay consistent. Frequently, there’s something engaging to look at in the foreground or background of Coyote vs. Acme. While chockful of visual and verbal gags, it never becomes a muchness, or prompt a silent concession from the audience that they will need to scour reddit or YouTube to see the jokes they missed. I got a kick out of the Coyote’s (limited) use of signs as a means of communication, the same way I did as a child. While it’s always fun to see Bugs and Daffy Duck, it’s nice to see other Tunes who don’t get near the level of exposure as them, get more screentime. By the time Foghorn Leghorn waltzes into the courtroom to double-down on his southern charm, it’s not as if Green’s film is slowing down or wearing thin, it’s hitting another gear entirely.

Immense credit is due to Ketchup Entertainment, who put up the $50 million to save Coyote vs. Acme from being an unseen cinematic curiosity ala Batgirl. It’s not as if they’re flush with cash, what with films such as the Ben Affleck vehicle Hypnotic and a recent Hellboy reboot I’m convinced maybe 25 people saw, on their resume. Of any film released in 2026, this is one I hope succeeds at least enough to justify the company’s expense. It won’t be easy, and the Looney Tunes haven’t been a box office cash-cow since Michael Jordan was involved. Its late August release is particularly troublesome for now-exhausted parents who are sending their kids back to school in droves. But now I worry I’m starting to sound like Kevin Avery. I need to be more fearlessly stubborn and persistent like Wile E. You’re never to old to be a little Looney and learn from these timeless characters as well.

Simply put, the primary reason you should see this movie is so that loathsome executives don’t continue to exercise the ability to write-off projects people already worked on/completed in favor of a tax break that benefits none of them or us. Even better, however, the film is actually damn good, consistently funny, buoyed by strong morals of resilience and teamwork, and underscored by the spirit of Merrie Melodies that made us fans of Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner in the first place.

NOTE: I’m the last person who typically brings this up, but at about the midpoint of the film, DJ Shadow and Run the Jewels’ song “Nobody Speak” thumps during a scene in the desert. It’s the clean version, but I’ll leave you to view the lyrics to see that, even when scrubbed of profanity, have no business in a kids movie. The Migos’ song “Roadrunner” was right there to be included, and it even has “beep beep” adlibs.

My review of The Day the Earth Blew Up (2024)

Starring: Will Forte, Lana Condor, John Cena, Luis Guzmán, P.J. Byrne, Martha Kelly, Tone Bell, and Kenneth Choi. Voiced by: Eric Bauza, Candi Milo, and Jim Cummings. Directed by: Dave Green.