There was no reason other than greed for shelving a movie that tested well and featured the most recognizable and famous characters in the Warner Bros. canon. After giving the completed film a “funeral screening” for the cast that included stars Will Forte and Lana Condor, it appeared that they would be the last people to see the movie director Dave Green worked on for three years. “Coyote vs. Acme” was slated to suffer the same fate as “Batgirl” and “Scoob!: Holiday Haunt,” the other two unreleased films Warner Bros. shelved for tax write-offs.
And yet, here I am reviewing a movie that, like its hero, Wile E. Coyote, lives to fight another day despite being temporarily defeated by the deficient actions of a major corporation. The best part of all is that “Coyote vs. Acme” is a superb piece of filmmaking, a loving tribute to the most hapless of all Looney Tunes characters and the many fans who love him.
We begin with a flashback that honors Peter Lorre, one of the many famous WB stars parodied by the animators of Termite Terrace. The animated Dr. Lorre works in research and development for the Acme Corporation, but he knows too much about something called “Project Sisyphus.” After Acme’s goons dispatch him with a familiar product seen in numerous cartoons, the film jumps to the present.
Next, we’re in Albuquerque, New Mexico, site of Bugs Bunny’s many wrong left turns. The desert locale is also the home of Wile E. Coyote and his preternaturally fast nemesis, the Road Runner. The coyote whips out one of his trusty Acme products, which malfunctions as usual. Like Sisyphus rolling his rock up that hill for all eternity, Wile E.’s relationship with Acme products has been the same since he first bought their Super Suit product in his 1949 debut “Fast and Furry-ous.”
Distraught after his latest set of blueprints leads to failure, Wile E. is inspired by an ad he sees on TV. Attorney Ken Avery (Will Forte) asks if he’s been in a cartoon-related accident. After describing several scenarios, Avery suggests calling the law firm of “Avery, Jones & Maltese” to file a lawsuit. The firm is named after directors Tex Avery and Chuck Jones, and writer Michael Maltese. The latter two were the creators of the Road Runner-Coyote series, which they saw as parodies of chase cartoons like Tom & Jerry.
Unfortunately, Ken is no Johnnie Cochran. He’s a lazy, jaded, Harvard-educated lawyer who settles every lawsuit brought against Acme by his toon clientele. His younger, idealistic niece, Paige (Lana Condor), is interning with the firm, and her perky desire to make a difference drives Ken crazy. So, when Wile E. brings his case to the firm, the attorney is quick to dismiss him despite his examples of Acme products malfunctioning.
Wile E. refuses to settle despite Ken’s pleas. An accidental filing of lawsuits involving every single Acme product that failed Wile E. puts Ken at odds with his law school rival, Buddy Crane (John Cena), the hard-as-nails attack lawyer for the Acme Corporation. And it’s a lot of lawsuits; the coyote’s been a loyal Acme customer for 77 years. That’s a lot of exploding detonators, failed catapults, round bombs with short fuses, and malfunctioning power skates.
From here, “Coyote vs. Acme” becomes not just the tale of a consumer David taking on a conglomerate Goliath — it’s also a story of friendship and acceptance. Wile E. Coyote is clearly a compulsive whose existence must revolve around chasing an uncatchable bird — it’s what defines him and gives him purpose. The clever, tight screenplay by Samy Burch (“Late Fame,” “May December”) excels at acknowledging this quirk, as well as recontextualizing the entire Wile E.-Road Runner dynamic without ruining their characters.
Working off a screen story by James Gunn (“Superman”) and Jeremy Slater, Burch also creates a fun, crackling conspiracy theory yarn that sneaks in an anti-corporate message while putting the Looney Tunes characters in roles you’d expect. In this paranoid thriller, it makes sense that Bugs Bunny is a Deep Throat-style informant and Foghorn Leghorn is a backwoods Southern lawyer working for Acme. Of course hopeless hunter Elmer Fudd would be a senator. After all, he’s a millionaire who owns a mansion and a yacht!
Forte and Condor are both excellent, with Forte providing an unexpected level of sentiment. West Newbury native Cena is a fun villain, and Luis Guzmán shows up in a fun cameo. There are also some blink-and-you’ll-miss-them gags that are absolutely hilarious. I’m still laughing at what happens to Pepe Le Pew, and stunned that the filmmakers included Cool Cat (the late 1960s Looney Tunes character) in a scene. The Looney Tunes characters look and sound great, too. Kudos to Eric Bauza, who voices many of them, and to voice artists Candi Milo and Jim Cummings. The cartoony score by Steven Price includes an appropriate choir of Road Runners singing “Beep Beep.”
Ketchup Entertainment, the company that made the entertaining Porky Pig-Daffy Duck animated feature “The Day the Earth Blew Up,” deserves credit for saving “Coyote vs. Acme” from the abyss. It’s one of the year’s best movies, and deserves to shame Warner Bros. by raking in boffo box office numbers. For once, an Acme product would work as intended.
★★★★
COYOTE VS. ACME
Directed by Dave Green. Written by Samy Burch. Screen story by James Gunn, Jeremy Slater. Based on the New Yorker article by Ian Frazier. Starring Will Forte, Lana Condor, John Cena, Eric Bauza, Candi Milo, Jim Cummings, Luis Guzmán. At AMC Boston Common, Alamo Drafthouse Seaport, suburbs. 101 min. PG (slapstick violence. That’s all, folks.)
Odie Henderson is the Boston Globe’s film critic.