Coyote vs Acme: Allow Me to Get Sentimental

So I, like so many others, recently watched Coyote vs Acme. Between my joke review (about saguaro cacti) on letterboxd and various social media posts, I basically said I wouldn’t be doing a write up because there was nothing I could say that hasn’t been said. And that remains true. And it’s not just that I have no new thoughts, it’s that there have been so many wonderful analysis of this movie shared. This is not a self recrimination, I am simply not sure what I could add to the conversation.

This won’t be an entirely spoiler free overview, but the gist. Wile E. Coyote, after a montage of failures due to Acme products, sees a TV ad for lawyer Kevin Avery who takes on and settles cases for Tunes and their failed Acme products. This is a world where cartoons live along side humans, but the “Looney Tunes” are not a thing, Acme however is. They supply many products to humans and “Tunes” alike.

Wile E. Coyote is not satisfied with Avery’s attempts to settle and cons the lawyer into filing a massive lawsuit. Avery who has given up because he is tired of “trying and failing” over and over wants nothing more than to walk away, but slowly discovers how big this case is. Specifically Project Sisyphus.

The movie is not subtle. The case builds and builds with each character having their own purposes and goals, but eventually shapes into a David and Goliath type case that also examines of the idea that trying and failing might be worth it.

It’s obvious why Zaslav wanted to shelve this movie and take the write off, and it is not because the movie is bad, as he claimed. While it had a few stalled moments and some issues with pacing, it is overall a delight. Not only that but has solid messaging for all ages. I mean the front and center one is that corporations cannot be allowed to hurt us, crush us, (and have a monopoly). But it also says that trying, even in the face of known failure, matters. Which I’ll be getting to that more later.

The humor is clever and Wile E. Coyote is just top notch. I would not call myself a die-hard Looney Tunes fan. My father loved them, and I watched some with him, and some on my own, but I was never a “Looney Tunes Girl.” But this movie turned me into a ride or die Wile E. Coyote fan. He is in top form. Aside from the humor around him there were also a lot of great in jokes for older Looney Tunes fans. From references to characters, lines that used to be common place, or even the names of various characters.

It is also a movie with a lot of physical humor and clever lines and it delivers. And as a New Mexico gal, Albuquerque was in excellent form.

Will Forte and John Cena do a wonderful job and make the flow between cartoon and their acting seamless. One of the best moments in the entire movie is an exchange between John Cena’s character and a certain famous bird. Cena does his part perfectly and the animation flows in well so the timing is solid. It is a testament to the work involved.

So again none of this is new. I even read some of this before I saw the movie. So why? Because it is all worth repeating and the fact that I even got to see this movie at all, is worth celebrating. This movie was nearly completely erased. All the hard work, the passion, the artistry of it, it was going to be trashed for a tax write off. People got mad, they refused to stop talking about it, at one point a gauntlet was thrown with other Looney Tunes properties, and at the end of it all I watched this movie on the big screen recently. It wasn’t a special screening, it got a full release, and people showed up. They showed up to cheer on Wile E. Coyote and Kevin and Paige Avery as they stood up to the big guy. No matter what the original goal was, not matter the outcome, we collectively showed up.

And you might be noticing I am getting particularly sentimental, but it’s impossible not to. The movie is fundamentally about trying and failing, and trying and failing, and TRYING.

People kept pushing and fighting. People keep demanding. People kept acknowledging the work and the artistry, and people wanted to support that and this movie. And so they took on their own Project Sisyphus and they Never. Stopped. Pushing.

This movie and the real life obstacles it faced are almost unreal with how on the nose it is.

And yet there was a payoff. And that is why I have to write my own little thought piece on it. Because it is worth repeating.

And it goes beyond this movie, especially now, especially with all artists are facing.

And it also does this without being overly optimistic… mostly. It is, after all, a kids movie so the ending is a victory but there is a different victory before that. A victory where they hadn’t won, but they tried, and they failed with their heads held high.

“One must imagine Sisyphus happy”

If trying to create in the face of the world and the “Acmes” of society is a Sisyphean task this movie told us it’s worth it, even in failure, we can be proud we tried. And that’s a hard victory in the face of practical reality, but it’s one worth celebrating sometimes. And then because it’s a kid’s movie it gave us a little extra. We might actually do it. In the end Wile E. Coyote hasn’t caught Roadrunner, but Acme is seeing the start of getting theirs.

So this overly sentimental and cringe, but I think it needed to be said. In whatever form it can it needs to be said over and over. A lot of people gave their all to a piece of art that challenged the status quo and that same statue quo killed it. Then a bunch of people believed in what they thought that piece of art would be and refused to let it die. And then I, and millions of us, got to sit in a movie theater and watch a charming and funny movie and walk away from it with a feeling of victory.

It’s a point worth repeating.