I don’t think I need to get into much detail how incredible it is that I’m reviewing this movie at all, but if you didn’t already know, here’s a recap. Coyote vs. Acme was not supposed to come out. It had a release date, was finished, even rated by the MPA, but in 2023, Warner Bros. decided to shelve the movie in order to take a $30 million tax write-off. Animation fans the world over were pissed, including myself, not only because the hard work of the artists and actors involved was never going to be seen, but because I had actually been looking forward to this film for quite a while. A live-action/animated Looney Tunes movie based on a New Yorker piece about Wile E. Coyote suing Acme, with James Gunn involved with the script? To say that sounded intriguing would be an understatement. Then, a miracle. Ketchup Entertainment, who had also gotten the rights to 2024’s The Day the Earth Blew Up (another shelved Looney project), heard the fans and managed to get the rights to Coyote vs. Acme to give it a wide theatrical release. Thank goodness too, because this more than lives up to the hype, resulting in one of the best Looney Tunes projects in years.

After decades of Acme products failing him in his attempts to catch the Road Runner and finally get a decent meal, Wile E. Coyote is taken by a TV ad featuring Kevin Avery (Will Forte) of Avery, Jones, and Maltese, a small law firm specializing in cartoon injuries. Kevin meets with Wile E., expecting to have a small sit-down with Acme lawyer Buddy Crane (John Cena) and reach a decent-enough settlement, preferably involving maybe just one of their products. Instead, he finds himself taking on the entirety of the Acme product line in a David vs. Goliath lawsuit. Now, Kevin and his niece Paige Avery (Lana Condor) have to find enough evidence of Acme’s wrongdoings or else it’ll bring down their firm…and that’s assuming Acme doesn’t get to them first.

One of the most surprising things about Coyote vs. Acme is just how much it doesn’t feel like a movie for children. I’m not talking about the occasionally edgy humor peppered throughout (including a licensed needledrop that, even censored, I cannot believe they were allowed to put in a PG-rated movie, let alone a Looney Tunes film). I mean that it feels less like a kids’ movie with stuff parents will like, and more like the kind of general-audience humor of the original shorts. Cartoon characters aside, this is still a legal comedy, and one that mixes the franchise’s violent slapstick with a straight-faced story of an underdog taking on major corporate interests. Much like the most immediately comparable film that comes to mind (and the gold standard example), Who Framed Roger Rabbit, nailing the tone is integral, and I feel like this film does a great job at accomplishing that. It can be goofy and anarchic one minute, and heartfelt the next. Even when the film’s dramatic moments are played for laughs, they still hit emotionally, which is extremely impressive.

Admittedly, some of the animation work might prove a sticking point for some people. Rather than render the characters in their usual 2D, or go with a more realistic CGI style, the film opts for a middle approach with a cel-shaded, extremely cartoony 3D look. I will say that for the most part, it looks fine, but there were times it looked kind of awkward, like a 2000s video game cutscene, though that is a minor complaint. The animation work taken as a whole, however, is top-notch. In an era of superhero movies where live actors are replaced with CGI creatures when they suit up, seeing a real person pick up an obviously cartoon object is the kind of effect I didn’t know I was missing. Plus, even in CGI, the film manages to fit an impressive amount of animated visual gags into the movie, many of them being of the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it variety. This is a movie that has deep adoration for its source material, and it shows in every rendered frame. There’s also many nods to Looney Tunes history throughout, some obvious, and some I really did not expect.

I expected Coyote vs. Acme to be fun and hilarious, but what I didn’t expect was that it can often be scathing. This is not just another use of the Looney Tunes IP. This is an official Looney Tunes movie based on a satire of the franchise from The New Yorker, and at some point in the plot, the film takes a turn that honors that original work in a way that genuinely impressed me. While the writers could’ve simply stuck to a basic comedy script and crammed as many franchise characters and cameos as possible (and believe me, there are a lot), without giving anything away, they instead use these characters to make biting social commentary in a way that really stuck with me well past the ending credits. It’s the kind of film that utilizes animation in ways that I wish Hollywood would do more and, considering what happened with this movie, they almost didn’t to begin with. It’s great that this film is getting released, but I also want it to be successful, because I want more family films like this to be made. Please, go see Coyote vs. Acme, and tell your friends to see Coyote vs. Acme. It’s smart, snappy, heartfelt hilarious entertainment for all ages and it deserves to be seen.