After being shelved as a tax-writeoff, this Looney Tunes reboot redraws the hapless hunter as the Erin Brockovich of the cartoon world<\/p>\n
Here is a quirky, peculiar, yet strangely diverting live-action-toon hybrid of the kind that hasn\u2019t been popular at the movies for many a day; it gives us a new twist on the surreal forever war between Wile E Coyote and the speedy Road Runner (catchphrase \u201cbeep beep\u201d, pronounced \u201cmeep, meep\u201d). The music over the closing credits will incidentally disappoint fans of this animated franchise; they\u2019ve gone with the Clash\u2019s I Fought the Law, but surely it should be Roadrunner from Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers?<\/p>\n
Coyote Vs Acme is a comedy whose obsessive and hyperactive pedantry is exhausting, but arguably part of the point, aimed at America\u2019s litigious culture, corporate arrogance and monopoly capitalism. So when producers Warner Bros initially decided to shelve the whole thing as a tax writeoff, that must have felt to director Dave Green like an ironic cartoon anvil to the head. Well, the film was rescued and it would be great therefore to discover that this is a masterpiece. Sadly it\u2019s not, but there are some laughs and the pure fanatical oddity makes this watchable.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s based on a 1990 gag from humorist Ian Frazier in the New Yorker\u2019s Shouts and Murmurs column, about Wile E Coyote suing the Acme corporation because all the wacky gadgets he\u2019s bought from them to capture Road Runner \u2013 the rocket-powered boots etc \u2013 always go terribly wrong. Of course the film takes place within the original cartoon\u2019s hyperactive slapstick-violent world; Wile E Coyote and Road Runner and many other Looney Tunes stars \u2013 including the animated version of Peter Lorre \u2013 appear as their own 2D cartoony selves. But flesh-and-blood Will Forte plays Wile E\u2019s hapless underdog lawyer and John Cena is Acme\u2019s sinister, smoothie counsel.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s an odd comic realignment of Wile E Coyote. Once a homicidal psychopath, he\u2019s now the Erin Brockovich of the cartoon world, and Acme are the villains, with a creepy conspiracy to cover up. Jerry Seinfeld\u2019s Bee Movie was actually a much funnier and more ingenious comedy about cartoon creatures suing corporate behemoths. But Wile E\u2019s bizarre day in court is certainly distinctive.<\/p>\n
Coyote Vs Acme is out in the UK on 21 August, 28 August in the US and 17 September in Australia<\/p>\n