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I’m still kind of amazed we actually got to see this thing. After everything that happened with Coyote vs. Acme, I was worried the story surrounding the movie had become more interesting than the movie itself. Thankfully, that wasn’t the case. I had a blast with it. The best thing I can say about it is that it feels like Looney Tunes. That sounds obvious, but I don’t think it is. It would’ve been very easy to take these characters, throw them into a live-action movie, load it up with references and call it a day. This doesn’t feel like that. The humor is stupid in the exact way I want Looney Tunes humor to be stupid. Things go wrong, then somehow get worse, and then the joke keeps going just a little longer than you expect.
Wile E. Coyote is also still Wile E. Coyote. They didn’t overcomplicate him. He’s still this unbelievably determined little maniac who will put himself through an unreasonable amount of pain because he’s convinced that maybe this time things will work out. There’s something weirdly endearing about that. I found myself rooting for him more than I expected, even while laughing every time life completely kicked his ass. And the physical comedy is where the movie really got me. I laughed at plenty of the dialogue, but watching a cartoon character get absolutely demolished by cartoon physics is apparently still enough to make me laugh. Some things don’t need improving.
Will Forte fits into all of this better than I expected. He already has this naturally awkward quality where even when he’s playing something seriously, there’s something slightly off about him in a funny way. That works perfectly here. John Cena is basically operating on a different frequency, which is also exactly what the movie needs from him. Neither of them acts like being in a Looney Tunes movie is beneath them. They commit to the stupidity. I do think the movie loses a little something whenever it gets too far away from that stupidity. There are stretches that didn’t grab me as much, and a handful of jokes feel like they belong in basically any modern family comedy. Those were the moments where I started waiting for the movie to get weird again. Luckily, it usually does.
I also forgot how much I missed this kind of live-action/animation movie. There’s just something fun about seeing a character who clearly should not exist standing next to an actual person and having everyone accept it. The movie gets a lot of mileage out of that without making the whole thing feel like a visual effects demo. What really stuck with me, though, was how much affection there seems to be for Wile E. Coyote. The movie knows he’s a joke. Of course he is. The entire existence of this character is basically one long setup for watching him fail spectacularly. But it never treats him like a joke. There’s a difference. You laugh at what happens to him, but you also understand why he keeps getting back up.
Maybe that’s why the whole situation surrounding this movie feels so strangely appropriate. I don’t want to give the behind-the-scenes drama too much credit for how I feel about the actual movie, because a movie should be able to stand on its own. This one does. But it’s impossible not to think about it. They basically dropped an anvil on Coyote vs. Acme, watched it disappear into a cloud of dust, and somehow the damn thing got back up.
COYOTE VS. ACME in theaters August 28th, 2026.
Rating: 3.5 out of 5
Daniel Schwartz (Contributor) is a New Jersey native who loves watching movies. His favorite genres include action, comedies, and sci-fi. Click Here to check out Daniel's Articles.