'Coyote vs. Acme' Is No 'Roger Rabbit,' But the Almost-Cancelled Movie Gets One Thing Right | Review

There’s an impulse to be overly generous to Coyote vs. Acme, to recommend it as an act of protest against Warner Bros. The studio had so little faith in director Dave Green’s finished film that, in late 2023, the studio shelved it, preferring to take a $30 million tax write-off. It was a cruel, corporate, talent-unfriendly maneuver, and the best revenge would be to reward Ketchup Entertainment —which acquired the film in 2025 — with Scrooge McDuck-approved piles of box-office dough. But despite its unfairly torturous road to the multiplex, the movie should be judged on its merits — and this $70=million live-action/animation hybrid has plenty going for it. Coyote vs. Acme is smart, witty, and packed with so many in-jokes that it’ll take multiple viewings to spot them all. It’s a nostalgia play that never feels mercenary because it contains more story than it needs and more commentary on corporate greed than expected, both courtesy of screenwriter Samy Burch. But the film stops short of earning a place on the pedestal with 1988’s Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, still the apex of the form.

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