There are times when I (and Will Forte) thought we would not get here; when I doubted that we’d make it to a tomorrow where the wrongs of the past would be righted. But dear friends, that day is today! I should not have forgotten that the arc of the cartoon universe is long, but it bends towards looney. At long last, the Coyote vs. Acme trailer is finally HERE!! And in the spirit of Mr. Wile E. Coyote himself no longer letting the big Acme Corporation trample all over him, so too does the trailer invoke the film’s fight for its very existence, a fight it’s been waging against the Looney Tunes own parent company, Warner Bros., while the studio has been under the inauspicious stewardship of David “Dethpicable” Zaslav. As Esquire points out, the parallels land like an anvil on the head:
Let’s be honest here: We all clicked on this at Roadrunner speed. Coyote vs. Acme, the formerly-vaulted comedy featuring the Looney Tunes and starring John Cena and Will Forte, finally has a trailer to promote its victorious theatrical release on August 28. It’s as delightful and sharp as we’ve heard the movie to be, with excellent swipes at the forces that canceled it nearly three years ago.
On April 22, independent distributor Ketchup Entertainment released the trailer for Coyote vs. Acme. The movie uniquely frames Wile E. Coyote as the underdog protagonist in a legal battle against the Acme Corporation—represented by their lawyer, played by John Cena—for selling faulty and dangerous products. The movie adapts the February 1990 article “Coyote V. Acme,” published in The New Yorker.
On its own merits, the movie promises all the charm you expect from a “live-action” Looney Tunes film, with a throwback energy to Space Jam and Looney Tunes: Back in Action. It’s got Will Forte, John Cena, and Lana Condor locked in a deadly-serious dispute over barrels of dynamite and falling pianos. (Classic.) The Looney Tunes themselves are a sight to behold, with Porky Pig, Daffy, and Foghorn Leghorn in a hybrid of 2D and 3D CGI for shading and depth. In an era of AI monstrosities … it’s a joy to see some familiar characters exactly as you remember them.
Where Coyote vs. Acme has more bite is in the real hoopla surrounding its years-long delayed release. If you recall, the movie was shelved by a David Zaslav-run Warner Bros. in November 2023 as a tax write-off. (It was the third WB film in a single year to suffer this fate, after Batgirl and Scoob! Holiday Haunt.) Despite overwhelmingly positive test screenings, per director Dave Green on X, the studio expressed no confidence that a Looney Tunes movie could compete in the modern theatrical landscape. Suddenly a story about greedy corporations exercising undue might feels heavier, and a bit too real.
…While the movie will finally shine in theaters where it belongs, the trailer nods to lingering bitterness towards Warner Bros. The standard studio cards make room for a joke, making it clear the Acme corporation are WB stand-ins. It could also be a Paramount stand-in, too. As we speak, one of the biggest and potentially most devastating studio mergers in Hollywood history is under regulatory review; if it goes through with the Trump administration, Paramount will swallow WB wholesale. “These companies think they can do whatever they want!” screams Forte in the trailer. That’s practically the rallying cry of this moment.
Kudos to Ketchup Entertainment and whoever cut the trailer, because they really do roast WB so slyly. The studio cards moment happens about 20 seconds in — it’s a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it bit where, as I believe they legally have to, the WB logo flashes on the screen with the words “A Warner Bros. Discovery Company” appearing in small print underneath. But then the screen does a quick flip and changes to a WAC logo with an asterisk that notes in even smaller print (that they zoom in on): “A Wholly Owned Subsidiary of the Acme Corporation.” BOOM! In all of three seconds, they’ve let us know in unequivocal terms that WB is Acme. And you know what? WB cast themselves in that role. Which in turn makes us the Looney Tunes! (But we already knew that.) Bravo to Coyote vs. Acme for meeting the moment and making this whole rocky, winding, cliffside road to release mean something bigger. For a gal named Kismet, I should’ve had more faith that Coyote vs. Acme would finally be released when it was meant to.
The countdown is ON for August 28, see you at the movie theater!
PS — Foghorn Leghorn seemingly aligned with Acme? Excellent choice; that bird’s voice positively drips with corruption.
Photos are screenshots from YouTube. Movie poster via Instagram/KetchupEntertainment
