Prince Mario-Max Schaumburg-Lippe: Coyote vs. Acme Is the Comeback Comedy of the Year

Some films arrive. This one fought its way into the room, grinning. Coyote vs. Acme, produced by Warner Animation Group and Warner Bros. and distributed by Ketchup Entertainment, takes a one-line joke from Ian Frazier’s 1990 New Yorker piece “Coyote v. Acme” and builds a full, warm, very funny courtroom comedy around it. After decades of faulty rockets, anvils and paint-on tunnels, Wile E. Coyote hires a struggling billboard lawyer to take the Acme Corporation to court. That is the plot. It is enough. Director Dave Green knows it is enough, and he lets the case play out with real affection for both sides of the aisle.

A lawyer, a niece and a coyote with a case

Will Forte plays Kevin Avery, a billboard lawyer whose practice has seen better decades. Forte is perfect casting. He plays Kevin as tired but not beaten, a man who still believes a well-argued point can save the day, even when his client communicates mostly through signs held up at speed. Lana Condor plays his niece and intern Paige Avery, and she gives the film its steady center. Paige is sharper than her uncle about the modern world and kinder than the case deserves, and Condor makes every reaction land without pushing.

John Cena plays Buddy Crane, Acme Corporation’s chief lawyer, and he is the surprise delight of the picture. Cena leans into the polish, the smile, the courtroom theater. He is not a snarling villain. He is a true believer in the Acme catalog, which makes him funnier and, oddly, harder to beat. Opposite him, Eric Bauza voices Wile E. Coyote with classic-style timing. The coyote never speaks in words. He does not need to. A raised eyebrow from that face, held a beat too long, gets the biggest laughs in the film.

Luis Guzman, Martha Kelly, P.J. Byrne and Kenneth Choi round out the ensemble, each given a clean moment rather than a pile of exposition. The screenplay is by Samy Burch, from a story by James Gunn, Jeremy Slater and Burch, and it trusts the audience. Jokes are set up, paid off, then paid off again twenty minutes later when you have half forgotten them.

Live action meets hand-drawn chaos

The film mixes live action with classic-style 2D animation, and the blend is handled with care. The animated world keeps its squash, stretch and impossible physics. The live-action world keeps its dust, sweat and courtroom wood. When the two meet, the film finds its best visual gags in the friction: evidence bags holding items that should not fit, exhibits that tick, a tunnel entrance that works for exactly one character and nobody else.

At 103 minutes and rated PG, the pace never sags. Families get the slapstick. Adults get the legal satire, which is gentle but pointed about fine print, product liability and the quiet fine art of blaming the customer. Fans of smart studio comedies will enjoy the company this film keeps alongside stories like Heat 2 gathering a dream cast for Michael Mann’s return – very different films, same welcome sign that ambitious, cast-led pictures are getting made and marketed with confidence again.

The comeback behind the camera

The road here was unusual, and the film wears it lightly. The finished film was shelved in 2023. Fans and fellow filmmakers rallied for it in public. Ketchup Entertainment bought worldwide rights in a deal that closed in early 2025. The film premiered at San Diego Comic-Con on July 25, 2026, opened in the United States on August 28, 2026, and Green marked release day by declaring “WE WON.” One short paragraph, because the movie itself is the celebration. The rest is on screen.

Audiences answered

They answered loudly. The film opened to $15.9 million, finishing second only to Spider-Man: Brand New Day, then dropped just 29 percent in its second weekend. That is an unusually strong hold, the kind driven by people telling friends to go. It has now grossed more than $120 million worldwide, and MovieWeb reported this week that it passed $126 million, making it the highest-grossing Warner Bros.-produced film of the summer.

Critics agree with the crowds. The film holds 96 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, with critics calling it one of the year’s best surprises, and audiences gave it an A CinemaScore. It also debuted at No. 1 on Fandango’s premium video-on-demand chart for the week of September 28 to October 4, so the second life at home started as strongly as the first one in theaters. That staying power echoes the appetite behind a fifth Halloweentown film entering early development at Disney and Game of Pets heading to Amazon MGM Studios: audiences keep showing up for playful, character-first stories told well.

Produced by Chris DeFaria and James Gunn, Coyote vs. Acme earns its verdict the honest way. It is beautifully cast, patiently built and very, very funny. See it with someone who grew up watching Saturday morning cartoons. Stay for the closing argument. Verdict: a triumph, and the comeback comedy of the year.

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