Wile E. Coyote Gets His Day in Court: Movie Review

At long last, we have a hit.

PUCKETT'S MOVIE PICKS

Mark Puckett reviews Coyote vs. Acme

I was 20 when Who Framed Roger Rabbit burst onto the screen in 1988, though the live-action hybrid stretches back to 1900’s silent short The Enchanted Drawing, and down through the dismal depths of Space Jam: A New Legacy. At long last, we have a hit. Coyote vs. Acme finally gives Wile E. Coyote his day in court against the corporate behemoth that supplied his defective anvils.

Naturally, Looney Tunes and Franken Berry were the holy sacraments of my farm-town Saturday mornings. Yet while nostalgia fuels the engine, the film succeeds on sheer, unvarnished merit. Will Forte is sublime as the wonderfully bumbling lawyer representing our endlessly battered Canis latrans, while John Cena exchanges inspired banter with Tweety Bird. Populated mostly by crisp character actors—including a deliciously befuddled Luis Guzmán on the bench—the picture retains a remarkably breezy, indie-adjacent charm.

Beyond the eye-popping slapstick, the true marvel here is the seamless, fluid orchestration of human and hand-drawn performers. It is a triumphant bit of filmic alchemy that left me equal parts awed by childhood magic and dazzled by modern technique. A new classic fusion.

Rating: 5 Pucks

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