'Coyote vs. Acme' review: Courtroom drama wastes cartoon icons

Key Points:

• "Coyote vs. Acme" is a live-action and cartoon hybrid film based on a 1990 New Yorker parody, depicting Wile E. Coyote suing the Acme Corporation over defective products; it faced nearly three decades in development hell before its 2022 production and initial shelving by Warner Bros.
• The story is set in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where humans and Looney Tunes characters coexist, focusing on a personal injury lawyer and the mute coyote battling corporate greed and a conspiracy within Acme, led by Foghorn Leghorn and opposed by John Cena's legal counsel character.
• Despite attempts to blend legal drama, corporate satire, and zany cartoon antics, the film struggles with tone and pacing, underutilizing beloved characters like Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, and presenting Wile E. Coyote as a violent, psychopathic figure.
• The plot includes a bizarre assassination attempt in Washington, D.C., and shifts genres multiple times, culminating in a moral about perseverance that feels at odds with the coyote's menacing nature.
• Critically, the film is seen as poorly executed and clunky, with effective integration of toons and humans but a weak screenplay; it received a one-star rating out of four and is described as a movie that mainly personal injury lawyers might appreciate.