Review: Coyote vs. Acme was worth the wait (and the fight)

Once destined to be a movie lost to history, a tax write-off for David Zaslav, Coyote vs. Acme is now finally making its way to the big screen. The film includes a note toward the end of the credits thanking all the fans who made a lot of noise about the film possibly being permanently shelved. It's thanks in large part to their outcry that the film was saved. Thanks to Ketchup Entertainment (who also distributed the wonderful The Day the Earth Blew Up) for making sure this movie made it to the big screen.

Over the past few years, as this movie's fate was up in the air, I thought how funny it would be if it finally got saved and released and ended up not being good. Like, everyone was out there banging their drums, hashtagging their hearts out, creating Zaslav voodoo dolls, etc., and then the big day comes and the movie sucks. That would be ironic right? (Not that bad movies don't also deserve to be released -- it takes a lot of work by a lot of people to make any movie.)

But I'm so happy to report that not only is Coyote vs. Acme an absolute joy of a comedy, it's also the best Looney Tunes movie of all-time. Handily. Here's a movie that's so smart, funny, timely, and unexpectedly heartfelt. It's the best kind of re-energization of a classic franchise, respectful of what came before while giving it a smart, modern shot in the arm, helping us to see these characters in a new light and fall in love with them all over again. I watched a ton of Looney Tunes growing up, all kinds of iterations, Space Jam, Tiny Toons, that's all part of my pop cultural DNA. Part of what shaped my taste in comedy and animation. And Coyote vs. Acme feels like the apotheosis of the series, like the whole swatch of what came before was all leading to this: a brilliant addition that is brimming with love for one of animation's definitive brands.

Coyote vs. Acme puts the spotlight on Wile E. Coyote, the scrawny schemer who's always chasing the Road Runner. Over the years, we've watched as Wile E. has tried out countless Acme products: magnets, catapults, rocket skates, countless others. And every single time, we've watched the products backfire. It's a classic set-up, always funny, and always the same result: the Road Runner gets away while Wile E. gets banged up.

In this movie, the tables finally turn. Wile E. realizes that after years and years (decades and decades, really) of failed attempts, maybe he's not the one to blame. Maybe it's the Acme Corporation that's at fault, selling all of these faulty products that consistently (literally) blow up in his face. Wile E. sets off for Albuquerque (the most beautiful city in the country) and enlists the help of a lawyer, the frazzled Kevin Avery (Will Forte). Kevin takes on all kinds of cases for cartoon clients who have issues with Acme: they're small beans, a quick-and-easy settlement, a few hundred bucks for the injured party and on we go. But Wile E.'s case is a different beast, because of how many products have failed him. It's such a massive case that it ends up getting the attention of the entire country, a stage that Kevin and his team (including his plucky intern/niece Paige, played by Lana Condor) are not used to occupying.

The film does a great job of blending its various genre interests. It's obviously first-and-foremost a hysterically funny comedy. But then it's also a courtroom movie, and a conspiracy thriller. It has shades of All the President's Men and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (Mr. Coyote Goes to Albuquerque?), great narrative bones supporting the plethora of silly hijinks. The narrative builds and twists and turns in consistently satisfying ways, always finding clever ways to incorporate more characters from the world of Looney Tunes: Daffy, Porky, Elmer Fudd, Bugs Bunny, and so many others pop up as supporting characters, and always in ways that feel like they serve the story rather than just being easy fan service. (Shout-out to the extremely talented Eric Bauza who voices a ton of the characters.)

Like Space Jam or Looney Tunes: Back in Action, Coyote vs. Acme is a live-action/animation hybrid, where the animated characters occupy the real world alongside their human co-stars. It's all pulled off really nicely, with a lot of fun gags kind of blurring the lines between the two media via special effects. The animated characters have a bit of extra dimension to them, which took me a bit of adjusting in a few cases, but these are still the characters we know and love, though some of them are cast in very different lights because of the roles they play in the story.

Most importantly, this movie is funny. Like, really really funny. Samy Burch (May December hive, rise up) wrote the script, based on a story by Burch, James Gunn, and Jeremy Slater (in turn based on Ian Frazier's story). This thing just sings. It's endlessly clever and packed with fantastic wordplay, sight gags, one-liners, and plenty of explosions (obviously). It's also got fangs, smartly commenting on corporate greed, monopolies, and the way common people are just fodder in the grinding gears of capitalism. Maybe it's not a surprise that a major studio didn't want to release this...

Coyote vs Acme will always have a bit of extra weight on its shoulders, and a bit of extra shine to it, because of the history of its release. But at the end of the day, what matters most is that a bunch of talented artists came together and made a fantastic movie, one that we now get to enjoy, one that belongs to fans and movie lovers. I really hope the movie is a big success, not just as a message to the Hollywood powers-that-be, but also because this movie rocks and deserves to be a hit.