COYOTE VS. ACME Is a Nostalgic, Funny Ride for the Whole Family
There are some cartoon characters that immediately transport you back to being a kid. For me, Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner are absolutely on that list. I grew up watching Looney Tunes on Saturday mornings, waiting to see what ridiculous ACME product Wile E. Coyote would order next—and, of course, exactly how badly it would backfire.
So getting the chance to watch COYOTE VS. ACME with my youngest daughter, Harlow, was one of those great full-circle parenting moments. She loved the movie, found it really funny and surprisingly heartwarming, while I got a huge dose of nostalgia watching characters I grew up with come back to life for another generation.
After decades of being blown up, flattened, launched off cliffs, smashed by boulders and generally abused by just about every product in the ACME catalog, Wile E. Coyote (Genius) has finally had enough.
This time, instead of ordering another rocket or giant magnet, he gets a lawyer.
Wile E. teams up with billboard accident attorney Kevin Avery (Will Forte) and decides to sue ACME, Inc. for all those years of defective products and catastrophic results. Standing in their way is ACME’s slick corporate attorney Buddy Crane (John Cena) and a company that isn’t particularly interested in taking responsibility for what its products have done to one very persistent coyote.
The setup alone is wonderfully ridiculous—and exactly the kind of ridiculous that works in the Looney Tunes universe.
What surprised me was that underneath all of the cartoon insanity there is actually a lot of heart here. Harlow was laughing throughout the movie, but she was also invested in Wile E. Coyote. After spending our entire lives watching him get smashed, dropped, exploded and flattened, it’s kind of nice to finally root for the guy.
And yes, there is plenty here for parents.
COYOTE VS. ACME understands that a lot of the adults bringing their kids to see this movie grew up with these characters themselves. The movie doesn’t just dust off Wile E. Coyote for another adventure; it plays with the absurd logic that made the original cartoons so much fun. ACME could apparently mail you anything from rocket-powered roller skates to enough explosives to level a mountain—and nobody ever questioned whether any of this stuff actually worked.
Until now.
That nostalgia worked on me, but the best part was seeing that Harlow didn’t need any of it. She just thought it was funny. That’s usually a pretty good test of whether bringing back characters from our childhood actually works: the parents can enjoy remembering them while the kids discover them as something new.
I also had the chance to interview Lana Condor, one of the movie’s co-stars, and asked about her own memories of growing up with Looney Tunes. Her answer immediately made me laugh because apparently Sylvester and Tweety caused her a little childhood anxiety.
She remembered being stressed watching Sylvester constantly going after Tweety Bird, thinking basically, it’s over for you, Tweety.
I completely understand.
That’s part of what makes Looney Tunes work across generations. We know Wile E. is going over that cliff. We know the rocket isn’t going where it’s supposed to go. We know Sylvester probably isn’t catching Tweety. Somehow, we still watch every ridiculous plan unfold.
COYOTE VS. ACME captures that spirit while giving Wile E. something he hasn’t had very often over all these years—a chance to actually fight back.
For our family, it worked. Harlow thought it was hilarious, I got to revisit a huge piece of my Saturday-morning childhood, and we both walked away having enjoyed the movie for completely different reasons.
That’s exactly what I want from a family movie.
If you grew up with Bugs, Daffy, Tweety, Sylvester, the Road Runner and one extremely determined coyote, there’s plenty here to make you smile. More importantly, there’s a pretty good chance your kids are going to understand why we loved these characters in the first place.
DaDa Rocks Recommendation: Definitely worth seeing with the kids—and parents who grew up on Saturday morning Looney Tunes may end up enjoying it just as much as they do.
Disclosure: I attended a screening of COYOTE VS. ACME to facilitate this review and had the opportunity to interview Lana Condor. All opinions are my own.
