The many fans of the Road Runner cartoon series will be interested to know that there is a full length Road Runner movie featuring live action opening on August 28 called "Coyote vs. Acme." It has the fascinating premise of Wile E. Coyote suing the Acme company. A New Yorker review of this film, "Toons Have Seldom Been Loonier Than in 'Coyote vs. Acme,'" on August 14 by Justin Chang provided some interesting details such as the fact that this film was placed on the shelf by Warner's for three years. Unfortunately, Chang couldn't resist the temptation to let his TDS reveal itself in the review.
First let us look at the sad insertion of TDS which has absolutely nothing to do with the film itself:
The movie’s final showdown takes place at a U.S. Senate hearing, presided over by none other than Elmer Fudd. I couldn’t help but think of the congressional proceedings that have already happened, and of the federal trial that looms, as Paramount Skydance — the bloated, Trump-aligned Acme of the media landscape —seeks to devour what remains of Warner.
Wait! Warner shelved this film for three years and now you expect sympathy for that company via your gratuitous shot at Trump?
We now return you to the rest of Chang's review which approaches some semblance of sanity since he got his TDS out of his system:
One of the modest but telling charms of Coyote vs. Acme, a new feature-length comedy from the director Dave Green and the screenwriter Samy Burch, is that the eponymous canine never breaks his vow of silence—a nod to tradition that also serves a narrative purpose. In a story that draws loose inspiration from Ian Frazier’s brilliant humor piece “Coyote v. Acme,” which was published in this magazine in 1990, Wile E. Coyote needs someone who can speak on his behalf. He finds that someone in Kevin Avery (Will Forte), a bumbling personal-injury lawyer from Albuquerque, who reluctantly agrees to represent him in a lawsuit against the Acme Corporation, the manufacturer of the many, many products that his client has ordered by mail over the years to help catch the Road Runner, to worse than no avail. The movie’s early passages are an epic ode to buyer’s remorse, reminding us, with a mix of newly shot action scenes and excerpts from classic “Looney Tunes” shorts, that every one of the plaintiff’s Acme purchases—they include rocket-powered roller skates, electromagnetic gloves, tiny slingshots, enormous catapults, and anvils and explosives galore—has malfunctioned and backfired, with hilariously punishing results.
...Kevin, hapless and lazy, is no match for Acme’s army of super-slick lawyers, who are led by Buddy Crane, a heavyweight in every sense; he’s played, with beefy swagger, by the actor and former professional wrestler John Cena. But Kevin is fortunate to have an ambitious intern, Paige (Lana Condor) — she’s also his niece — who takes one look at Wile E.’s sky-high pile of Acme junk and sees not just a damning mountain of evidence but also signs of a sinister conspiracy. The film, blending animation and live-action footage, takes the form of a detective story, following such precursors in this hybrid medium as Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) and Looney Tunes: Back in Action (2003). Truth be told, the plotting isn’t quite up to the strength of the premise, but the slight slackness of structure has the benefit of being able to accommodate an array of “Looney Tunes” characters in bit parts, with narrative priority for the birds: here’s Daffy Duck as a fount of mournfully deranged backstory, Tweety as a kind of diminutive double agent — a canary trap — and, most effectively, Foghorn Leghorn as a preening, menacing Acme overlord.
The premise of this film sounds interesting so don't let the brief TDS outbreak of a reviewer deter you from viewing it. For more on the film, check out this trailer.
The trailer ACME doesn’t want you to see. Coyote vs. ACME. In theaters August 28. pic.twitter.com/8ADr6p9w1V
— Coyote vs. ACME (@CoyoteACMEMovie) April 22, 2026
BEEP! BEEP!
