Why the Success of "Coyote vs Acme" is a Win for Everyone

The film industry is a tricky, cutthroat business, and nobody understands that more than the creatives who work in it. For the vast majority of people working in film, the smallest modicum of success can take years. But imagine finally making it to the top of that mountain, being told by one of tinseltown's top studios that your movie is officially in development. Now imagine spending thousands of hours with your team writing, filming, being on set all in the pursuit of your project, but then once its finally done...they cancel it. Years and years of work down the drain. Pure heartbreak, not just for your crew but the fans who waited with baited breath for the movie. For years, your work hangs in purgatory, finished but never to be seen. It's not until the public finds out that legions of fans and professionals alike begin rallying, petitioning and protesting to rise your film from the dead. For this movie, people, big and small created the difference between success and lost media. This is Coyote vs Acme.

In August of 2018, Warner Bros Pictures announced the development of a brand new project centering around one of their largest IP's The Looney Tunes. Principal photography concluded in May of 2022 but soon after, updates stopped. Over a year later in November of 2023, Warner Bros announced that despite being finished, they would not be releasing the film opting to instead collect a tax loss of $30 million. This made Coyote vs Acme the third cancelled project Warner Bros cancelled for the sake of a write-off after Batgirl and Scoob! A Holiday Haunt. The project went through various staff changes, eventually ending up with Dave Green as director, Samy Burch as screenwriter, with James Gunn and Jeremy Slater serving as producers.

Coyote vs Acme is a hybrid animation and live-action film centering around Looney Tune character, Wile E. Coyote who teams up with a small town lawyer to sue Acme, the corporation who manufactures all the faulty cartoon products that have kept him from his ultimate ambition, catching the ever-evasive Road Runner. It's a modern David and Goliath retelling, featuring a mix of live action and traditional animation like Who Frames Roger Rabbit and Looney Tunes: Back in Action. The film stars Will Forte, Lana Condor, John Cena, and Eric Bauza.

If I can play devil's advocate, I can absolutely understand why Warner Brothers would not want to make this film. Deciding to shelve the project after its been filmed is an undeniably cowardly move, less focused on quality in favor of the bottom line. But I find it downright baffling that Coyote vs Acme was greenlit in the first place. It is essentially a continuation of 2003's Looney Tunes: Back in Action which was not only a commercial but critical failure. The Looney Tunes are one of Warner Bros most culturally significant properties but they tend not to do anything with them, they consider the IP outdated and not nearly the moneymaker it used to be. 2024's feature The Day the Earth Blew Up just barely made back its budget at the box office. Not to mention this is a PG-rated courtroom comedy and what kids understand how the legal process works? The cards were stacked against Coyote vs Acme, and logistically, it's nothing short of a miracle that it ever made it past the pitch stage. But alas, after nearly a decade since it was announced, the film is finally available for the public. Only one question remains: was it all worth it?

I cannot stress this enough, I could not be happier that Coyote vs Acme is finally in theaters. The comedy is timeless, the performances are charismatic, and the story is almost too clever for its own good. Never before have I been in a screening that had such a diversity of generations all laughing at the same time. Children will love the wacky cartoon antics and adults will find Will Forte's character relatable and easy to root for. There truly is something for everyone. Every time the audience erupted into laughter from viewers big and small, it felt like world peace was achieved for just a few seconds.

When compared to Back in Action, the animation is so much smoother and vibrant, truly a feast for the eyes. I genuinely find a hard time coming up with criticism for this film. Sometimes I felt as if the film used all its funniest material in the first act, but the truth is there's plenty to laugh at from beginning to end. The humor is unapologetically cartoony and it's impressive how many belly laughs the script has with zero dialogue from its title character.

While the comedy is something to behold, the most impressive aspect of Coyote vs Acme is the script, which is bizarre for a movie about, well... the Looney Tunes. Samy Burch did the impossible and made the legal/court system easily understandable to young children, but that's far from the most surprising part. At the same time, it is yet another reason why this film being greenlit is so confusing. In its most basic form, Coyote vs Acme is a David and Goliath story about standing up to an unethical corporation corrupted by greed. In a way, this film is calling out the very company that brought it to life and then tried to kill it.

To anyone in the entertainment industry, the seemingly inevitable Warner Bros/Paramount merger is a looming threat that will have devastating consequences. At the center of this controversy is the concept of commercial greed and that even for the largest enterprises in the world, enough is never enough. Despite starting development nearly a decade ago, Coyote vs Acme feels more relevant than ever and I can't help but theorize that part of the reason Warner Brothers shelved this film was that it held up a mirror to the company, and they didn't like what they saw, so they dropped an anvil on the project.

The success of Coyote vs Acme is good news for everyone. Those who worked on it get to see their project in theaters, fans get a great time at the movies, and Warner Brothers gets paid...which at this point is all they care about.

For a film so unapologetically cartoony, that takes sweeping risks and attempts to call out the very system it benefits from, I would consider Coyote vs Acme essential viewing for any film fans at the moment. In the contentious, mud-slinging world we're living in, this film' sheer joyousness and commitment to creativity feels like a beacon of light in the dark. This week, take your kids, take your parents, take your grandparents and revel in the sheer comic stupidity of the past, revamped for a new audience. In the simplest terms, Coyote vs Acme is a downwight mastuhpiece.