Coyote vs Acme (2026): There’s No Success Like Failure

By Len Weiler

There’s no success like failure

And failure’s no success at all. 

- Bob Dylan,  Love Minus Zero/No limit

The new movie Coyote vs Acme is a wild, very funny affair - a seamless blend of Looney Tunes cartoon characters with live action ones -  rather like the blend of live action and animation in Who Framed Roger Rabbit nearly thirty years ago. With a completely different story, of course. I quite enjoyed it.  And it is now available for home viewing! (see below)

The star of the new movie is Wile E. Coyote, the protagonist of innumerable animated shorts known generically as Road Runner cartoons back in the day. Poor Coyote, with his hopeless fixation on someday catching the uncapturable Road Runner, is doomed - based on long experience - to a lifetime of frustration. His striking lack of success is due, in part, to poor judgment - represented by his overly elaborate schemes to capture the speedy bird. But many of his failures can be attributed to the highly misleading advertising  claims of mega-corporation, Acme, whose products - from rocket shoes to ultra-magnets to explosives - always  malfunction spectacularly, leaving poor Coyote  bruised, battered, painfully damaged. Only because he’s a cartoon does he survive to stalk his lightning-fast prey again.

One day, Coyote sees an advert for a law firm that specializes in suing Acme for its dangerous products.   And who is more entitled to money damages than he, whose whole life has been pain and suffering because of Acme? What a cool, outlandish idea. 

Faster than you can say  “Jumpin’ Jehoshaphat!”, Coyote is at the law offices of Avery, Jones and Maltese seeking damages and maybe a little redemption.  But there are a couple of difficulties with Coyote’s plan. First, the attorney that he hires,  Kevin Avery (Will Forte), is a defeatist coward who avoids litigation like the plague. Second, Acme is the world’s biggest corporation, and its chief lawyer is the supremely confident and intimidating Buddy Crane (John Cena), who reputedly has never lost a case. It’s a fraught and comical David and Goliath situation to be sure.   Eventually and illogically a products liability lawsuit does get filed, which winds up putting everyone to the test.  Along the way there are cameo appearances by Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Tweety Bird, Foghorn Leghorn, and other familiar characters, Daffy and Tweety being particularly ridiculous. 

The genesis of the story was an article by Ian Frazier published in The New Yorker’s regular satire section, “Shouts and Murmurs”, way back in February 1990, thirty-six years ago. How this evolved into a full-length movie over four decades is a story of its own, which you can read about elsewhere.  

Somehow, silly though it sounds, the project works. In addition to being laugh-out-loud funny, there’s some heart and even a wee lesson in human nature slipped in by the time we reach the closing credits. 

In addition to the laughs, one of the things I admired while watching Coyote vs Acme  was what an inventive, brilliant tale it turned out to be, which reminded me of the awe I felt about the inspired creativity that resulted in 2024’s Barbie. The narrative in Barbie was made up from scratch with no established backstory, personality or other touchstones for guidance, other than the generalized characteristics of a commodity, a doll. Similarly, the cartoon Coyote in Road Runner cartoons has no established personal history or other character definition other than his hopeless fixation on Road Runner.  He doesn’t even talk. Creating a full-length movie based on such a creature is a far different undertaking than a six-minute cartoon short.

And yet the writers (Samy Burch, James Gunn and Jeremy Slater) and the director (Dave Green) have successfully pulled it off. Coyote vs Acme is a lot of often clever, often witless fun and highly entertaining.

1 hour 43 minutes Rated: PG

Grade: A-

Theatrical release of Coyote vs Acme  was 8/28/2026, and it is still showing in some theaters; digital release for purchase or rental on pay-per-view platforms like Amazon, AppleTV and Fandango began on September 29.  [Currently, rentals are premium priced at $19.99. A date for reduction to a more normal fee has not been announced; but my guesstimate is in about 4 weeks, if you can wait that long.]