3 Reasons Families Will Love ‘Coyote vs. Acme’

Everything you remember about Looney Tunes from your childhood is packed into Coyote vs. Acme – the hilariously defective products (the “canned” live lion is great, but the dehydrated boulders – just add water – may top it), the memorable characters (Bugs Bunny makes a cameo, while Daffy Duck, Tweety Bird, Foghorn Leghorn, the Tasmanian Devil and Elmer Fudd all have roles), and, of course, the over-the-top slapstick.

The film even includes flashbacks to the cartoons of yesteryear as Coyote builds his case against Acme – including the TNT detonators that exploded in his face rather than setting off the dynamite.

Perhaps most significantly, the movie gives us these characters largely as we remember them. Coyote and Road Runner never talk, instead communicating with signs and gestures just as they did in the classics. In one clever scene, Coyote even plays a charades-like game to communicate with his attorney.

Photo Credit:© Ketchup Entertainment

The movie opens in 1992, with scenes of an Acme employee who turns out to be a wannabe whistleblower being chased out of the factory as he warns, “Someday, the truth will be known.”

Fast-forward to today, and Coyote is hanging out in his cave lair, bemoaning his many failed attempts to catch Road Runner while surveying a pile of defective Acme products. Suddenly, an infomercial for a law firm flashes across his television, offering hope with a hilariously specific pitch: “Have you gotten into a catapult, hoping to be gently and sensibly flown to a destination of your choosing, only to be violently pile-driven, face burst into the ground? Have you ever set a big stack of TNT on the road, hoping to blow up your nemesis, but when you press the detonator, the detonator itself explodes?” Then the man on the screen delivers the kicker: “It's not your fault. There's probably someone to blame.”

Coyote travels to Albuquerque and visits the attorney’s office, but is disappointed when the spokesperson – Kevin Avery – tells him that the law firm typically pursues settlements and that Coyote, at best, might get $300. Undeterred, Coyote goes rogue and files his own lawsuit, using the law firm’s letterhead.

“We won’t beat Acme. Nobody ever has,” Avery warns.

The film presents Acme as the largest company in the world, churning out products that remain popular with the masses even though its cartoon customers – Coyote included – routinely end up harmed.

Eventually, Avery gets on board with Coyote’s crusade. But can the unlikely duo gather the evidence they need in time – and before Avery’s struggling law firm runs out of cash?

Photo Credit:© Ketchup Entertainment

I was explaining the movie’s plot to my 11-year-old son as we drove to the theater when he replied with a question that, at the time, surprised me: “What’s Acme?” After a brief moment of fatherhood horror, I realized: The Looney Tunes cartoons I loved as a child are now decades old – between 70 and nearly 100 years old in some instances.

Coyote vs. Acme offers families a chance to introduce the cartoons of yesteryear to a new generation. And that, perhaps, could open the door to an entire era of animation that was different – and, I would argue, better – in several ways. Looney Tunes shorts were often slower-paced, less noisy, and less visually cluttered than much of today’s children’s entertainment – offering kids plenty of laughs without the near-constant stimulation that defines so much modern animation.

Coyote vs. Acme isn’t a perfect family film, though. It includes some mild language – still jarring in a kids’ movie, by the way (details below) – along with a handful of questionable moments. We learn that Daffy Duck is an artist who paints nude models, although none are shown. In the film’s final moments, Acme’s attorney gives an obscene hand gesture, although it is pixelated. The movie also features a heavily bleeped version of a vulgar rap song – a puzzling choice considering the countless clean hip-hop songs that could have been included. (And why include a song whose entire premise is depraved?)

Overall, though, Coyote vs. Acme is the film everyone fought to see when Warner Bros. tried to bury it: a smart, hilarious trip down nostalgia lane. Along the way, it delivers worthwhile lessons about perseverance (Coyote is the embodiment of it, after all) and doing what’s right.

It’s one of the best family movies of the year.

Rated PG for cartoon violence and some language. Language details: pi-s (1), OMG (3), d–n (2), single misuse of “God” (1), h-ll (1).

Entertainment rating: 4 out of 5 stars.

Family-friendly rating: 4 out of 5 stars.

Photo Credit:© Ketchup Entertainment