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Coyote vs. Acme

While there have been loads of Looney Tunes feature films, this is the fourth to mix live action with the animated favourites. There are two Space Jam films, but if you can remember 2003's Looney Tunes: Back in Action, you're doing better than me. This new hybrid, directed by Dave Green, stars Will Forte and John Cena as opposing lawyers in a case brought against Acme by Wile E. Coyote.

Oddly, this film is actually based on an article for the New Yorker magazine, written by Ian Frazier, about the downtrodden desert dog and his annoyance with Acme Corporation and their faulty products. I realise that some younger crew will have no idea of the content of the Looney Tunes Road Runner cartoons, so to sum it up:

"Road Runner, the Coyote's after you. Road Runner, if he catches you, you're through."

Yep, it's a classic, constant chase, and as this film posits, maybe the chase is the point. Logically, and in nature, the coyote would probably eat the bird, if it ever caught it. But this is cartoon world, where animals can produce superhuman feats of strength and resilience, and where the laws of physics are totally out the window. So perhaps Coyote is only interested in the hunt, not the result. Road Runner is on board, he's having a great old bubble.

But this theory has some faults. Why then, would Coyote feel pissed off enough to enlist a law firm to help him in his ultimate aim of eating the Road Runner? I might be overthinking it. Incidentally, the law firm is named Jones, Avery and Maltese, after three of the important figures in Warner Bros cartoon production, Chuck Jones, Tex Avery and Michael Maltese (I wasn't familiar with the latter, but he co-created the Road Runner and Coyote characters with Jones). They even have a website set up for the fake company - averyjonesmaltese.com.

The film boats a few ingenious set pieces, reminiscent of the best of the old cartoons, some even outdoing them with newer technology. Coyote's maniacal genius is very funny, as is his unfathomable lack of speech - if a rabbit, duck, pig and rooster can talk, why not a coyote? The steps he takes to communicate are brilliant, even a bit affecting as Avery tells him at one stage that they don't need the signs any more.

The human performers are great - Forte as loser-ish Kevin Avery; Cena as blowhard Buddy Crane; Lana Condor as Kevin's niece, Paige Avery; Tone Bell as Sal Maltese; and especially Martha Kelly as Dottie Jones. But it's really the nostalgia of seeing the old WB characters in this weird context that draws you in, particularly members of older generations like yours truly.

There are cameos from Bugs, Daffy, Porky, Tweety, Granny, Foghorn Leghorn, even minor contributions from Pepe Le Pew and, off camera, Speedy Gonzalez. Painted holes, exploding detonators, dodgy rocket skates, magnetic bird seed, some fantastic old gadgets make appearances. And there's even a nod to taking a wrong turn at Albuquerque. My favourite was probably the deposition given by the Tasmanian Devil.

Look, the message is kind of formulaic and I was hoping for slightly more madness (Daffy can always bring that) but, for a burst of zany fun and a bunch of throwback moments for the grownup kids, this does the trick.

Coyote vs. Acme opens around Australia on Sep 17th.

See also:

Robert Zemeckis gave us Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) but before that, Mary Poppins (1964), directed by Robert Stevenson, and Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971), directed by Ward Kimball and Stevenson again, both had elements of animation mixed in with live action.

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