Second chances are powerful things. Receiving another opportunity to right a past mistake or failure can create huge positive repercussions in one’s life. While not everybody or everything deserves a second chance, for the most part, they can be valuable learning tools. And for Warner Bros., that statement should be loud and clear by now: Stop disrespecting Looney Tunes!
Initially, The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie and Coyote vs. Acme were both shelved by Warner Bros. Discovery in exchange for a tax write off, even though both films were totally completed. After harsh public backlash, their respective filmmakers were given the chance to find a different distributor and Ketchup Entertainment stepped up to the plate (The Music City Film Critics Association even awarded TDTEBU the Best Animated Film last year).
Without this second chance, many Gen-X fans of the franchise, like me, would not have received the opportunity to relive our childhood, and that would have been a shame. Not only that, but these films also introduce the younger ones of the audience to classic characters like Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and Porky Pig, who they may not otherwise recognize, which is wild to imagine!
Now that Coyote vs. Acme has finally premiered, I am happy to say that watching this film inside a movie theater felt like the best kind of result I could have given to its second chance at accumulating a positive box-office total. As of this posting, the domestic box office estimate for the feature film is $47.8 million on Week 3 and rising.
“Is this supposed to be funny? Cause it’s not. And cartoons are meant to be funny.”
Coyote vs. Acme creates a world where cartoon characters interact with humans. Photo Courtesy: Ketchup Entertainment.
So, what’s the byline for Coyote vs. Acme?
After years (decades, actually!) of scheming plans to catch the Road Runner — which always ends in failure — the Coyote’s patience in using Acme’s products has reached an all-time low. These hunger games have led him to take notice of a billboard attorney (Will Forte, as personal injury attorney Kevin Avery) who specializes in low-risk cases. Unknown to Avery (a character named after Looney Tunes’ original animator, Tex Avery), the case of Wile E. Coyote is more complicated than expected, as a mysterious whistleblower unpeels the layers of “Project Sisyphus,” which could be a gamechanger for the case… if only a lineup of witnesses can be found.
Loosely based on Ian Frazier’s 1990 New Yorker magazine article “Coyote vs. Acme,” this slapstick legal drama depicts a world where cartoon characters and humans live together. As innovative as that concept was in 1988’s Who Framed Roger Rabbit and later in films like Space Jam and the like, here, the shared world feels unimaginative and is rarely explored, to say the least.
While Elmer Fudd, Foghorn Leghorn, Tasmanian Devil, Tweety, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig and even Bugs Bunny make cameos, they’re nothing more than background noise as the film focuses its attention on the past and present of the Coyote. For any of the others, developing the main character could be relatively easy, but this one doesn’t speak a word throughout the entire runtime of 103 minutes, although he sometimes communicates through printed signs.
As such, not all of the jokes land in this buddy comedy (which was mostly expected). Oddly enough, I enjoyed the more dramatic elements of the film instead of the humor, which was not expected. While familiar characters make brief appearances, they sound better than they look, which speaks to their respective voice actors. Millennials will most likely miss the references to past Looney Tunes episodes, but this Child of the ’80s remembered them fondly.
I’m thankful that Coyote vs. Acme will drag Looney Tunes kicking and screaming into the new millennium with mostly positive critical and audience reactions (The Day the Earth Blew Up had as shorter timeframe at movie theaters and as a result, a smaller box office). I also enjoyed Coyote more than TDTEBU, which leads me to cheering on Ketchup Entertainment for taking a financial risk on these legacy characters’ second chance at success.
From the outside looking in, Coyote vs. Acme might look like a low-rent Roger Rabbit clone (when comparing budgets), but this underdog story involving legacy characters is actually amusing and quite enjoyable. I recommend watching this film inside a movie theater before it disappears, hopefully proving to Warner Bros. Animation that future releases are feasible (and profitable in the long run).