‘Coyote vs ACME’: an Absolute Triumph for Ultimate Underdog

Coyote vs ACME Review

“Is there anyone, in the whole world, who cares what happened to the Coyote at all?!” Yeah…we do. For almost 80 years now, we’ve seen him try, fail, and try again to catch the Road Runner. And even though he never does, he doesn’t stop trying. And for millions and millions of people around the world, Wile E. Coyote is more than just some funny cartoon character. He’s the embodiment of determination itself, always refusing to give up no matter what. And when his owners, the people who were supposed to care about him, tried to shove his movie aside, like it didn’t matter, we proved them wrong. We drew a line in the sand, refused to let the big guys win, and we won. And that is how we got Coyote vs ACME.

And that’s also why, after getting to see it at a sneak preview the Sunday before it actually came out, I was asking myself one question: why the heck did Zaslav and the suits think that this movie wouldn’t do well?

ACME SUCKS!! COYOTE RULEZ!

All right, let’s go over this one more time for clarity. After years and years of failing to catch the Road Runner, Wile E. Coyote is fed up with ACME. He wants to bring them down for all the pain and suffering their horrible products have inflicted on him over the decades. So he travels to Albuquerque, which, as all Looney Tunes fans know, is the most important city in the world. There, he forces Kevin Avery, this jaded lawyer played by Will Forte, to help him sue ACME for everything they’ve got. And in doing so, they uncover a corporate conspiracy that reveals that it was never just the Coyote being reckless. It was always ACME.

Now, fun fact about Coyote vs ACME: this movie is based on a short story of the same name published in the New Yorker in 1990 by a man named Ian Frazier. The idea is simple, but brilliant: could Wile E. Coyote win an actual legal case against ACME. You can find the original short story on The New Yorker, but I’ll include a link to a free version at the end. It’s an entertaining read, and it makes a compelling case that, yes, the Coyote would be entitled to restitution. Decades later, Warner Bros. decided to make it into an actual film that was supposed to release sometime in 2023. That could have been the end of it; a one-and-done thing to entertain Looney Tunes fans. But then, Warner Bros did the worst possible thing they could’ve done: they tried to cancel the film.

Suddenly, Coyote vs ACME went from a fun movie to a real-life story.

Nice Try, Zaslav!

Now, if you’ve been following my posts on The Game of Nerds over the last few years, you’ll know that this wasn’t just an isolated incident. Ever since the Warner Bros-Discovery merger that saw David Zaslav take power, he’s been making a lot of poor decisions. Most of those decisions involved shoving cartoons, the thing that helped Warner Bros go from being another studio into one of the biggest studios in America, to one side. A lot of people were frustrated by this and were making their opinions known. But hearing that they shelved Coyote vs ACME, a film that was already completed, and by all accounts, was a good movie? It was the last straw for a lot of us.

Suddenly, it wasn’t just about getting to see our favorite Coyote fighting for justice in the courtroom. It was this meta-narrative about how big businesses kept pushing people around and getting away with it, and how people were starting to get sick of it. We were getting sick of rolling the boulder up the hill only to see it fall right back down. And sooner or later, people will get tired of letting the powers that be trap us in that loop and decide, “No, you don’t get to tell us what to do anymore. We’re going to do things our way now.” So we found another way to get the boulder up the hill, and made it stay there.

Why the boulder reference? Ever heard of Sisyphus?

The Coyote Who Chose to Spit in the Face of the Gods (ACME)

Now, what makes Coyote vs ACME such a good movie is that the people who make it understand who Wile E. Coyote is as a character: he’s a modern-day Sisyphus.

In Ancient Greece, Sisyphus was this King who was extremely clever. So clever, in fact, that he was able to outsmart the Gods and cheat death. TWICE. The Gods hated that, so when he finally died of natural causes, they cursed him to roll this boulder up a hill, only for the boulder to keep falling down just as he made it. It’s meant to be this story about hubris and how bad it is to try and outsmart the powers that be, but from my modern perspective, the Gods were being sore losers. And in the modern-day, Wile E. Coyote is Sisyphus, forced to do this impossible task and never succeeding.

Here’s the thing about Wile E. Coyote, though: he doesn’t care. He is at the point where he doesn’t care if he’s spitting in the face of the Gods, the Gods being ACME. He knows his situation is unfair, and that there’s almost no chance of him actually being able to win his case. So why do it? There’s this very important scene in the film where Wile E. makes a show to Forte’s character of trying to jump across a canyon. He keeps failing over and over, but despite that, he doesn’t give up. Because giving up means letting the Gods (ACME) win, and he won’t give them that satisfaction. And this is why the film gets Wile E. Coyote so well, and all without him saying a word.

Will Forte and Coyote’s Relationship Was Highlight of Movie

Speaking of not saying a word, the highlight of it has to be the relationship between Coyote and Will Forte’s character of Kevin Avery. They are absolutely perfect foils to each other. They’re both these guys with a tremendous amount of talent in their professions, only for the world to keep beating them down. The difference is that Avery became so scared of failing that he gave up on trying and took the easy way out. And then Coyote, this person who just refuses to give up. And in most stories, when you get a jaded washout hanging around an optimist, the optimist ends up reawakening the optimism in the washout.

Wile E. and Avery have this absolutely great dynamic as they end up bonding over their shared failures. Yeah, it does get a little messy right before the third act, but that only makes seeing Avery stand up for the Coyote so worth it.

Keep in mind, none of the Tunes are real or present when they film these scenes. They all had to be animated in after the actors were done filming. Some of those actors, like John Cena, could at least with the character’s VAs when needed. But Forte’s performance with Wile E. stands out since, as we all know, Wile E. is mute and only talks through signs. Yet it looks like Forte was still able to pull a convincing performance despite his co-star not actually being present. That’s not an easy thing to do, and he does it so well. Not bad, Will! Not bad!

Which brings me to my next point about the film: the hybrid of animation and live action.

This is what Space Jam: A New Legacy Should’ve Been

There’s just something magical about seeing cartoon characters being in the real world. Whether it’s Roger Rabbit, Rescue Rangers, or the original Space Jam, it’s just so much fun. Note how I didn’t include Space Jam: a New Legacy. I did have a soft spot for it, but I have to admit, the photorealistic CGI of the Tunes isn’t that good. Thankfully, Coyote vs ACME has the common sense to return to more traditional animation. As close to traditional as possible. The Tunes are clearly made using cel-shading techniques, and there are plenty of moments where you can tell that they use CGI. That’s a risky move, especially if the CGI doesn’t end hold up well as time passes.

But whoever did the animation for the films, you deserve a pat on the back. You managed to seamlessly blend 2D and 3D together while also keeping the spirit of the Looney Tunes intact at all times.

Speaking of that spirit, one of the big arguments that ACME tries to make is that, since Tunes can shrug off injuries for the sake of funny, it won’t kill or maim them. As the original short story and this film deconstruct, though, just because it’s not permanent doesn’t make the injuries any less painful. Not to mention the emotional and psychological damage it inflicts. By the start of the film, Wile E is shown to be near his breaking point, and that shouldn’t be possible. And poor Daffy! Ever wonder why he’s so screwy and laffy? ACME! It’s not so easy to laugh if you know it’s causing that kind of pain, is it?

COYOTE VS ACME ONE OF THE BEST FILMS OF 2026

So, at the end of the day, was Coyote vs ACME everything that we wanted it to be? Of course it is! So many people wouldn’t have raised hell over it if we didn’t think it was going to be good. In fact, I still don’t know why Zaslav thought that the movie wouldn’t do well. It’s only been shown in sneak previews so far, and it’s already killing it with critics!

Do you want to know the funny part? By trying to shelve it, Zaslav turned what would’ve been another movie and made it into a rallying cry against corporate greed. By the end of the film, it doesn’t even matter if Wile E. and Avery win the case against ACME. They already proved their point by humiliating the GODS. More than that, though, Wile E. had the chance to get his boulder up the hill, and chose not to. He chose to keep doing it on his own terms. Put some respect on the name of Wile E. Coyote!

It still feels so surreal to think that the last three years of watching and getting the word out about this film managed to pay off. But it was worth every second to see the Coyote get a day in the limelight. I’m not even sure if I’m done with this yet, though. I think we need a book about the story behind this film! More on that later, though. For now, for the love of all that is holy, get your butts to whatever movie theater is showing Coyote vs ACME and help fill them! Do it for Wile E!

I Give “Coyote vs ACME” a 5/5

THANKS TO MY FELLOW FANS FOR HELPING GET THIS MOVIE OUT

Oh, and here’s the original story that started it all.