Lisa Johnson Mandell’s Coyote vs Acme review says that this animated/live action Looney Tunes movie is finally getting its closeup, and most fans will find it worth the wait.

After three years of shelved release dates, a tax write-off, a fan uprising, and one very unlikely rescue by an independent distributor most audiences have never heard of, Coyote vs. Acme has finally, gloriously, arrived in theaters. The question worth asking isn’t how it got here — we covered that saga at length — it’s whether the movie was worth the wait.

Here’s a quick “ketchup,” if you will — Coyote vs. Acme was shot for HBO Max, based on Ian Frazier’s 1990 New Yorker piece imagining Wile E. Coyote suing the Acme Corporation for decades of shoddy, exploding products. Warner Bros. Discovery shelved the finished film in late 2023 as part of a tax-motivated write-off, alongside Batgirl.

Unlike that film, this one had a passionate fandom and a studio willing, eventually, to let it be shopped elsewhere. Independent distributor Ketchup Entertainment — fresh off rescuing The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie from a similar fate — bought the film in 2025 and finally gave it the theatrical release its finished, tested-well cut always deserved.

Director Dave Green, a relative newcomer best known for smaller studio fare, helmed the picture, while James Gunn — now running the DC universe but never far from his affection for oddball ensemble comedy — is credited as a story contributor and producer.

Coyote vs Acme review — The setup

The premise is simple, and it’s a good one: after one exploding rocket sled too many, Wile E. Coyote decides that if he can’t outrun the Road Runner, he’ll outlawyer Acme instead. He tracks down the cheapest, laziest attorney in Albuquerque — Will Forte’s down-on-his-luck ambulance chaser, not unlike Better Call Saul’s  strip-mall Saul Goodman. He’s all bad suits and worse instincts, and Coyote convinces him to take on the case of a lifetime: a class-action lawsuit against the Acme Corporation for decades of catastrophically defective merchandise.

The film has a field day cataloguing the evidence, from rocket skates that fire in reverse to giant rubber bands that snap back with the force of a freight train to portable holes that open in exactly the wrong spot at exactly the wrong moment. It’s less a plot than an exhibit list, and that’s part of the charm.

What starts as a straightforward liability case curdles into something stranger once Forte and Coyote start digging: Acme’s faulty products aren’t just bad manufacturing, they’re being deliberately routed to specific cartoon customers for reasons that go well beyond corporate negligence.

Cena’s slick, overconfident opposing counsel is the visible layer of a scheme with considerably higher stakes, and the back half of the film turns into an unlikely buddy-lawyer caper as Forte and Coyote race to expose it before Acme can bury the case entirely.

Naturally, the whole thing hinges on getting the right witness to the stand — and naturally, that witness happens to be the one creature Wile E. Coyote has spent his entire existence trying to catch and eat. Watching him white-knuckle his way through cross-examination prep without lunging across the courtroom is, frankly, some of the best physical comedy in the film. No further spoilers here; suffice to say the verdict is worth sticking around for.

The real star

John Cena and Will Forte give the comedic performances we’ve come to expect from them — Cena leaning into oversized, self-serious bluster as Acme’s opposing counsel, Forte doing his reliable hangdog-underdog routine as the coyote’s lawyer.

But the real heavy lifting is done by Eric Bauza, who single-handedly voices Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Tweety, and Foghorn Leghorn. Bauza has quietly become the sole custodian of the entire Looney Tunes ensemble over the past several years, inheriting the roles once split among Mel Blanc’s several successors, and Coyote vs. Acme asks him to carry all five at once — live, unaltered, no digital pitch-shifting or AI trickery involved. It’s the same analog magic trick Blanc pulled off decades ago, and Bauza sells it completely; every honk, lisp, and drawl lands exactly where nostalgia wants it to.

Coyote vs Acme review: The Verdict

As for the movie itself? It’s fine. The fans got exactly what they wanted, and there’s real pleasure in that. But it’s not a great movie. Don’t expect Who Framed Roger Rabbit, the greatest animated/live action movie of all time. The comic timing in C vs A is slightly sluggish, the color palette is muddier than the bright, candy-colored world Looney Tunes has always lived in, and where the film could have been laugh-out-loud, ROFL funny, it mostly settles for mildly amusing.

What it lacks in sharpness, though, it makes up for in heart — and really, who can complain about getting the lovable Looney Tunes band back together? Bugs, Daffy, Tweety, and Mr. Coyote himself remain forever endearing, lackluster execution and all. Sometimes just watching the anvil finally, actually land is satisfaction enough.

Rated PG

1 Hour 41 Minutes

If this Coyote vs Acme review encourages you to put on your rocket skates and jet over to the cineplex, get times and tickets at Fandango.com.

Lisa Johnson Mandell’s Coyote vs Acme review says that this live action/animate Looney Tunes movie is finally getting its closeup, and most fans will find it worth the wait.