Movie Review: COYOTE VS. ACME

By ABBIE BERNSTEIN / Staff Writer

Posted: September 1st, 2026 / 01:32 PM

COYOTE VS. ACME movie poster | ©2026 Warner Bros/Ketchup Entertainment

Rating: PG
Stars: Will Forte, Lana Condor John Cena, Tone Bell, Martha Kelly, Luis Guzmán, P.J. Byrne, John Early, Nancy Linehan Charles, Kenneth Choi, Eric Bauza (voice), Candi Milo (voice)
Writer: Samy Burch, story by James Gunn & Jeremy Slater and Samy Burch, based on the NEW YORKER article “Coyote vs. Acme” by Ian Frazier
Director: Dave Green
Distributor: Warner Bros./Ketchup Entertainment
Release Date: August 29, 2026

While there are previous examples – Gene Kelly dancing with Jerry the Mouse in 1945’s ANCHORS AWEIGH, whole sections of 1971’s BEDKNOBS AND BROOMSTICKS – the movie that is perhaps most associated with human performers interacting with cartoon characters is 1988’s WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT.

Apart from the awesome technical achievement of combining live-action credibly with cartoon animation (the technology has been improved upon vastly since then, but the movie still holds up), WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT has as a core piece of its plot the relationship between live-action people and animated folks, which creates class divisions and even a mystery.

Directed by Dave Green and scripted by Samy Burch from a story by James Gunn & Jeremy Slater and Burch, based on the NEW YORKER article by Ian Frazier, COYOTE VS. ACME feels something like the spiritual and conceptual child of WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT. In COYOTE VS. ACME, cartoon beings are now completely integrated into live-action human society, but there are still physical and legal distinctions between the groups, and the story engines are similar.

Anyone who has even passing familiarity with the classic Warner Bros. Looney Tunes “Roadrunner” cartoons knows that Wile E. Coyote has every right to sue the Acme Corporation.

For those who somehow have missed the original shorts, Wile E. Coyote is an animated desert canine who has devoted his existence to his (to date unsuccessful) attempts to capture, kill and eat the likewise cartoon Road Runner.

The Road Runner is perhaps the fastest-running bird on Earth. He makes his signature utterance “Beep, Beep” pretty much every time he’s about to dash off. This leaves Wile E. Coyote at the mercy of whatever defective Acme product he’s acquired this time that’s supposed to help him catch his prey, but instead just winds up decimating the aspiring predator.

After a pair of misfiring Acme rocket roller skates once again foil and maim poor Coyote, he sees a TV commercial advertising the law firm Avery, Jones and Maltese (the names meta-honor Looney Tunes animator/director Tex Avery, animator Chuck Jones and screenwriter/storyboard artist Michael Maltese). The firm’s spokesman Kevin Avery (Will Forte) asserts that he and his team are specialists in getting settlements for cartoon characters injured by faulty devices. Coyote decides to check them out.

Coyote isn’t the most cooperative of clients. When Kevin wants to settle with Acme the way his firm always does – for a few hundred dollars – Coyote brings in *all* the defective Acme products he’s purchased over the decades.

Kevin’s eager-beaver niece and well-trained attorney Paige (Lana Condor) looks at the almost-literal mountain of evidence and sees a winnable big case. Kevin desperately doesn’t want to go to court – especially opposite Acme’s chief defense attorney and Kevin’s old schoolmate Buddy Crane (John Cena) – but up with little choice. Kevin also discovers that he and Coyote may be ensnared in a sinister Acme conspiracy.

Director Green and his team of animators appear to have pored over every frame of every Looney Tunes short. Not only are their references superb, but so are the look and impeccable timing. Every joke sticks the landing; every sight gag is at home here without ever seeming anachronistic to the original.

There is plenty of employment of Coyote’s contemporaries, including a certain wascally wabbit, who is voiced in COYOTE by Eric Bauza in a seamless duplication of Mel Blanc’s original Bugs.

The filmmakers also devise ingenious, easy to comprehend methods of communication without compromising the never-speaking Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner.

Forte as the super-reluctant hero, Cena as the effortlessly confident foe and Condor as the indefatigable advocate all give excellent performances, especially when it comes to interacting with their to-be-added-in-post-production animated costars. Condor is particularly good at consoling the beleaguered Coyote.

While this is not its chief feature, COYOTE VS. ACME achieves the surprising feat of injecting some real emotion into the proceedings without violating character essentials.

Potential viewers may want to strap on their non-Acme-made rocket roller skates to get the into theatres playing COYOTE VS. ACME more quickly. It’s that funny and that entertaining.

Those who want to know more about the end credits thank you note reading, “Dedicated to everyone who posted, shared, held up signs and spoke out when it counted. This film made it to the big screen because of you” are advised to look up COYOTE VS. ACME Warner Bros. for some enlightenment.

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