Coyote vs. Acme intuitively understands many things: the timeless appeal of slapstick; the formal possibilities in combining animation and live-action; and the Sisyphean fascination of the original Coyote and Road Runner cartoons (the myth of Sisyphus is even name-checked here). But the reason the movie resonates so well in 2026 is because it riffs on the general enshittification of the consumer experience. The customer hasn’t been right for awhile now—and we’re paying more and more for the (lack of) privilege.
There is a meta element to this (Warner Bros., the movie’s parent company, initially intended to shelve Coyote vs. Acme to get a tax break), even as the notion of consumer exasperation is also baked into the actual plot. After decades of failing to capture the Road Runner, mostly because the Acme products he uses in his elaborate traps always backfire, Wile E. Coyote hires personal injury attorney Kevin Avery (Will Forte) to sue Acme for damages. (Acme’s slogan: “We’re a company of family values that values its family of companies.”)
Directed by Dave Green from a screenplay by Samy Burch, the movie makes the most of its live action-animated hybridity, as when a cartoon Daffy Duck, while sitting in a live-action garden, bounces off the corners of the screen. (He’s literally framed.) In another fun touch, the Road Runner gets to race along a real desert highway, with Wile E. in futile pursuit.
Forte is more than game as Wile E.’s sad sack attorney (“It is really super easy to lose,” he notes at one point), while John Cena, as Acme’s chief counsel, gets a priceless exchange with Tweety that I won’t spoil here. Coyote himself registers as a far richer character than in his various shorts, although he still doesn’t speak. (One of his familiar placards points out that he also has a “limited number of signs.”) Wile E.’s expressive ears say the rest, while he and Road Runner, at the climactic trial, even share an emotional exchange.
Part of the credit for that moment goes to Eric Bauza, who provides the voice for Road Runner, as well as Bugs Bunny, Charlie Dog, Daffy Duck, Tweety, Elmer Fudd, Gossamer, Porky Pig, and Foghorn Leghorn—other Looney Tunes characters who make appearances. The decision to have Foghorn Leghorn be Acme’s CEO is another wry touch, especially for those of us who have always looked at the character sideways. With his Southern sense of superiority, he’s a retrograde figure fitting for our retrograde era.
(9/9/2026)
