You can avoid a bad case of Acme by taking a left at Albuquerque.
If only Wile E. Coyote took that turn he might have saved himself all that grief. But no, his tunnel vision pursuit of turning roadrunner into tucker fed into his reliance of the technological trap of the malfunctioning crap of the Acme company and he is forever fast tracked to futility. A not so merry malady.
In the new looney tune feature length ‘toon, COYOTE VS ACME, the carnivorous canine takes the company to court.
The film’s source was the satirical article, published in The New Yorker and written by acclaimed humorist Ian Frazier, that imagined the legal briefings of a case brought by one Wile E. Coyote against the ACME Corporation. A suit alleging corporate malfeasance and liability, born of the string of disastrous products, everything from ACME’s patented Rocket Sleds to Spring-Powered Shoes, that had, over the years, argued the plaintiff, caused him no end of “personal injury, loss of business income, and mental suffering”.
But Coyote has his flaws. He’s foolhardy, has an ego, is prideful and devious. Maybe he should run for President. If persistence is a virtue, it is his only one. Pestilence is persistent and this prairie predator is a pest plagued by his reliance on consumer goods created by conglomerate capitalism and his own greed to feed on fleet footed fowl.
COYOTE VS ACME is a hybrid live action animation with human actors Will Forte, John Cena, Lana Condor and a deliciously deadpan Martha Kelly.
There’s carrot gold in cameos from Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Elmer Fudd and Tweetie Pie.
High on antic, low on anarchy, nourished by nostalgia, and dangerously close to Disneyfication in its silly closing sentimentality, COYOTE VS ACME is still a slapstick triumph trumping the treacle of the current cartoon crop.
