"poses an absolutely ridiculous question and then commits wholeheartedly to answering it"

Three years ago, Warner Bros. Discovery shelved Coyote vs. Acme for a tax write-off. Saved by Ketchup Entertainment, Coyote vs. Acme is finally released on Friday and goes wider next Friday, which is excellent.

As a lifelong fan of the Looney Tunes, I am delighted to say that Coyote vs. Acme is so funny, and oddly heartfelt, that watching the credits actually makes the story behind its release even more baffling. James Gunn is among the writers and producers on the film, and given just how entertaining the finished movie is, the decision to shelve it for three years makes increasingly little sense.

Particularly when you consider that Warner Bros. released The Flash, a film that reportedly lost the studio a substantial amount of money, while Coyote vs. Acme — starring one of the most iconic characters in the Warner Bros. library — was almost denied an audience entirely.

And that’s the thing: this is a tonne of hilarious fun from start to finish. It plays into the insanity of the Looney Tunes, and thankfully the filmmakers show enough restraint not to make Wile E. Coyote or the Road Runner speak.

I do think you’ll get slightly more out of Coyote vs. Acme if you grew up watching the Looney Tunes cartoons. There are references, characters and little pieces of iconography that carry an additional nostalgic punch if Bugs, Daffy, Porky and Wile E. Coyote were part of your childhood.

But nostalgia isn’t doing all the work. There is a real narrative to Coyote vs. Acme; it isn’t just anvils and crazy defective products from ACME.

Based on the New Yorker article by Ian Frazier, Coyote vs. Acme poses an absolutely ridiculous question and then commits wholeheartedly to answering it: what if the Looney Tunes were real and interacted with humans, and what if Wile E. Coyote finally decided to sue ACME Corporation over the countless defective products that have exploded, collapsed, malfunctioned or otherwise spectacularly failed during his lifelong pursuit of the Road Runner?

That’s the movie.

And somehow, it works.

Will Forte plays Avery, a down-on-his-luck, rather lazy lawyer who unexpectedly becomes the straight man of the film. This is the man who played MacGruber, yet Forte wisely doesn’t try to compete with Wile E. Coyote’s shenanigans. He grounds them.

Lana Condor is an absolute delight as Avery’s niece, a lawyer in training from Oxford — something she will happily remind you of — while John Cena continues to demonstrate that comedy might be where he’s at his best. Like everyone involved, Cena understands that the premise is ridiculous.

More importantly, everyone commits to the bit.

Nobody is standing outside the joke apologising for it.

Visually, the animation is beautiful. Seeing the Looney Tunes interact with humans gave me strong Who Framed Roger Rabbit? vibes. It retains the recognisable style and physicality of the classic Looney Tunes while updating it for a modern feature film. There’s an inventiveness to the presentation that reminded me at times of the visual freedom of Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse: different techniques and heightened imagery can coexist because this universe was never supposed to obey reality in the first place.

And the filmmakers understand how much Looney Tunes is enough.

Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck are here. Porky Pig is here. There are familiar faces and references throughout, but they don’t hijack Wile E. Coyote’s movie. They’re seasoning rather than the entire meal.

And Luis Guzmán is always a delight. It doesn’t particularly matter what he’s playing or what he’s appearing in; I’m happy when Luis Guzmán turns up.

But underneath the anvils, explosions, malfunctioning ACME products and cartoon insanity, there’s something surprisingly sweet about Coyote vs. Acme. The film understands why people have loved this character for generations. Wile E. Coyote isn’t funny simply because he fails.

He’s funny because he gets back up.

Again.

And again.

And again.

That’s where the unexpected heart comes from.

Which brings me back to the question hanging over the entire thing:

David Zaslav, what the hell were you thinking?

These are the Looney Tunes. They’re not some obscure corner of the Warner Bros. catalogue; they’re a cornerstone of the studio’s identity. And whatever financial calculations led to Coyote vs. Acme spending three years on a shelf, watching the finished film makes the decision even harder to understand.

Because ultimately, this is the entertainment industry.

Job number one is to entertain.

And Coyote vs. Acme thoroughly entertained me from start to finish.

Meep meep.