The new film Coyote vs. ACME revisits the beloved cartoon featuring a voracious coyote haplessly hunting a speedy and cunning road runner. This time, however, the film blends animation with real life to produce a warm and delightful crossover that perhaps the whole family can enjoy together.
After spending most of his adult life being foiled by the Road Runner, he so desperately wants to capture and devour, Wile E. Coyote has decided that perhaps the reason for his every undertaking against the speedy bird has failed may be due to the faulty products sold to him by ACME, Inc. to facilitate said homicide attempts, and not his own incompetence.
To go about proving this, Coyote enlists small-claims nuisance lawsuit attorney Kevin Avery (Will Forte) to take on ACME and their corporate counsel Buddy Crane (John Cena). While Avery’s firm is small and understaffed, his altruistic belief in Coyote’s cause (as well as the big payoff they hope is at the end of the lawsuit) allows he and Coyote to forge a friendship that, despite some turbulent ups and downs seems rooted in honest appreciation of one another (as does Coyote’s adversarial one with the Road Runner).
Director Dave Green – whose previous feature endeavors include Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows (2016) and Earth to Echo (2014) – delivers a solid and entertaining big-screen adaptation of the beloved cartoon. The film’s color is bold and bright and the blending of live action with animated characters harkens to the work in Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988). Fans of the original Warner Bros. cartoons will not be disappointed by this jump to the big screen.
The real credit for the success of the film falls to the screenplay by Samy Burch, which is based on a story by Burch, James Gunn, and Jeremy Slater. This story doesn’t merely retread the same formula ad nauseum throughout the film. Instead, it explores the root of the formula and the essence that drives both the Coyote and the Road Runner to act the way that they do. It also delivers a fine “buddy” picture in depicting the friendship forged between Avery and the Coyote.
Will Forte, Eric Bauza, and Lana Condor in “Coyote vs. Acme.” © Warner Bros. Discovery
Throughout it all the film moves at an effective pace and rarely seems too slow or meandering to retain anyone’s attention. The art direction of Peter Borck and editing from Carsten Kurpanek allows Brandon Trost’s cinematography to bring life to the blending of real life and animation used in the film. It is a testament to how well it works that when animated characters interact with their human counterparts it comes across as natural and an everyday occurrence.
While it may not reach the pinnacle of the greatest of animated/real-life crossovers, Coyote vs. ACME delivers a solidly entertaining film that contains enough visual treats and delights to keep a viewer entertained and engaged with a heart-warming moral lesson.
WHERE TO WATCH: (powered by JustWatch)
| Producer: | Christopher DeFaria, James Gunn |
| Release Date: | August 28, 2026 |
| Running Time: | 101 minutes |
| Starring: | Will Forte, John Cena, Lana Condor, Eric Bauza, P.J. Byrne, Tone Bell, Martha Kelly, Jeff Bergman, Bob Bergen, Fred Tatasciore, Luis Guzmán |
| Writer: | Samy Burch |
| MPAA Rating: | PG (for cartoon violence and some language) |
| Director: | Dave Green |
| Distributor: | Ketchup Entertainment |
| External Info: | Official Website / Instagram / TikTok / X (TWITTER) / #CoyotevsACME |
