Old School. Biblically Independent.
By Lindsay Traves | Film | August 27, 2026
It’s hard to know who is more resilient: the creators of Coyote vs. Acme or the titular Wile E. Coyote. While the former spent time thinking their move was a DOA casualty of tax write offs and mergers or whatever, the second has spent a lifetime struggling to catch a speedy bit of prey using unreliable gadgets. Not by its initial intent, but Coyote vs. Acme is something of a meta story. A movie about a small animal versus the multinational conglomerate that was at once sidelined by another giant company. Even without this external context, this snappy joke factory is a blast of a cinematic outing. It’s, dare I say, the next great legal comedy following My Cousin Vinny, and the cartoons-mixed-with-humans story that harkens back to the magic of Who Framed Roger Rabbit? and the original Space Jam. I’d claim it has the juice to be the next rewatchable comedy that, in another era, would be replayed on TBS every Sunday.
Samy Burch’s script (based on Ian Frazier’s 1990 parody article, and the story by Burch, James Gunn, and Jeremey Slater) imagines Wile E. as an ever-determined master plotter obsessed with catching his chosen prey, Road Runner. After his latest outing, foiled by the comedic (to us) failures of his latest plans and related tech, a hungry and withering Coyote retreats to his cave to plot his next attempt. He’s interrupted by a retro lawyer commercial for the law firm of Avery, Jones, and Maltese seeking out victims of “cartoon grievances,” which causes him to rethink his latest plan. Stick and bindle in hand, he sets off to the city to hire a lawyer to file a claim against the makers of all his failing items, Acme. Though Kevin Avery (Will Forte) is more of a shifty injury lawyer than a motivated brilliant mind, his whippersnapper student intern and niece, Paige (Lana Candor), is still bright-eyed about the law and rebuffs his attempts to push Coyote into a quick settlement. With his box full of evidence and backlog of injuries, Coyote wants to go to trial. Paired with Paige’s encouragement and some wily maneuvering from the canine, they’re all thrust into a David and Goliath game of legal chess filled with corporate secrets, elusive witnesses, and the dark confessions of long missing cartoons. Throughout, Kevin finds the inner Vinny Gambini buried within his Saul Goodman and the crew takes on the big boys in an epic battle of silliness.
It feels magical how many jokes-per-minute Coyote vs. Acme flings at the audience, and even more, how many of them land. It opens with “based on a true story” before catching us all up with the habits of our former favorite Saturday morning cartoon and hits us with a one-two punch… then a few more, of Wile E. hitting walls. It never lets up, and even in its most dramatic and heartfelt moments, laughs are chucked at the viewers in rapid succession.
Coyote vs. Acme stays afloat with not just a cavalcade of slapstick gags, but with an ever-present cleverness. The cartoon jokes still hit all these years later, and the legal system, government, and self worth and relationship themes are cleverly tackled in a way that makes this movie special and gives it lasting relevance. Dave Green’s direction, and the animation and set design, blend seamlessly the world of cartoons and that of humans making it all feel continuous when Avery is in a room full of corporeal overflowing files or Coyote is laying brick and mortar on their office walls. Coyote is animated and isn’t even voiced, but he is a fully fleshed out character by virtue of the craft of the makers and the way they stayed true to the work of the original cartoonists.
In some ways, this incidental meta-story speaks to our inner children in a really special way, allowing us to have a laugh along with our favorite characters while not letting up on the idea that corporate monopolies could be detrimental to our daily lives. It’s a story about fighting the man, made by the man, and that has been harmed by the man. Just like watching stories about fighting global superhero conglomerates on Amazon Prime, we can enjoy our fun stuff while still pushing back at the system, and that ends up being one of the backward messages of this delightful little flick. And if that doesn’t hit, we can all learn something from the resilience of Wile E. Coyote and the joy of having purpose from Road Runner.
Coyote vs. Acme hits theaters August 28, 2026
