In the early 1990s during grad school, I stood outside Professor Derek Penslar’s office, waiting to talk about a class I was taking with him. He had a variety of cartoons and articles posted on his door. Two that I remember were an efficiency consultant’s report on Schubert’s Unfinished Symphony and Ian Frazier’s New Yorker article “Coyote v. Acme.” I picked up a copy of Frazier’s collection titled after that piece when it became available.

Tonight, my wife, a friend, and I got to see the movie inspired by that Frazier article: Coyote vs. Acme. We almost didn’t get to see it.

Filmed in spring of 2022, Warner Bros. Discovery announced plans to shelve the film in November 2023 in order to take a tax write-off, much as they did with Batgirl and Scoob! Holiday Haunt. After a private showing of the film for the cast and crew, however, Warner Bros. Discovery allowed the filmmakers to seek another distribution deal, partly because of public backlash to the decision caused by comments made by the filmmakers. In March of 2025, Ketchup Entertainment bought the distribution rights, screening it first at San Diego Comic-Con and then releasing it on August 28, 2026.

Coyote v. Acme, by Ian Frazier (Picador, February 9, 2002). Cover by Chip Wass

The concept behind the original essay and the film is the same. After years of using Acme products to catch the Road Runner, Wile E. Coyote has decided to sue Acme for their string of defective products. While the essay is written as the lawsuit filed against Acme, the movie fleshes that out to show the attorney who takes the case and how they go about suing the world’s largest maker of products for animated characters.

It is a wonderful blend of live action and animation and each of us was laughing out loud at different parts (and at one point, all three of us lost it). I had seen the scene with John Cena (say that three times fast) and Tweety in the trailer, but it was still funny in the movie. Wile E. Coyote’s animation is wonderful and displays a wide range of emotion.

I think of Will Forte as a supporting actor, so was surprised at how well he played a lead role. Lana Condor, who, if I’ve seen her at all was in X:Men: Apocalypse ten years ago, was fantastic in all of her scenes. One of the things that makes the movie successful is that Forte, Condor, and Cena play their roles earnestly. For them the stakes are real even when the situations are patently ludicrous.

The animation was a call back to classic Warner Brothers, without attempting to turn them into 3D characters and there were numerous Easter eggs and references to the classic cartoons.There were only about 13 people in the theater when we saw it and it can be enjoyed on a smaller screen, but I would suggest trying to see it in the theater if you have an interest in the film.

Actor	Role
Will Forte	Kevin Avery
Wile E. Coyote	Wile E. Coyote
Lana Condor	Paige Avery
John Cena	Buddy Crane
Tone Bell	Sal Maltese
Martha Kelly	Dottie Jones
Luis Guzmán	Judge Troppogrosso
P.J. Byrne	Bill Pelicanos
Eric Bauza	Bugs Bunny, Charlie Dog, Daffy Duck, Dr. Lorre, Elmer Fudd, Foghorn Leghorn, Gossamer, Porky Pig, Road Runner, Tweety (voices)
Candi Milo	Granny, Miss Prissy, Witch Hazel (voices)
Bill Cummings	Tasmanian Devil (voice)

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Steven H Silver is a twenty-two-time Hugo Award nominee and was the publisher of the Hugo-nominated fanzine Argentus as well as the editor and publisher of ISFiC Press for eight years. He has also edited books for DAW, NESFA Press, and ZNB. His most recent anthology is Alternate Peace and his novel After Hastings was published in 2020. Steven has chaired the first Midwest Construction, Windycon three times, and the SFWA Nebula Conference numerous times. He was programming chair for Chicon 2000 and Vice Chair of Chicon 7.