Wile E. Coyote

Geek Punditry #190: This Time We’re on the Coyote’s Side

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For almost eight decades now, Warner Bros animation has brought us the misadventures of Wile E. Coyote, super genius, in his thankless quest to capture and consume his natural prey, a Road Runner. This is, of course, a normal part of the life cycle of a predator such as a coyote: to kill and eat smaller animals such as birds. However, in all this time, Mr. Coyote has not only failed at every attempt to capture his quarry, but has typically done so in such a spectacularly inept fashion that we have taken his misfortune as entertainment. We laugh at each ill-timed explosion, chortle every time he plunges off a cliff, and guffaw whenever a piece of a bluff snaps off and crushes him into an accordion. A good time has been had by all. Well, all except for Wile E. Coyote himself, of course.

But this week, all that changes. This week, for the first time since the Coyote and Road Runner were created by Chuck Jones and Michael Maltese in the 1949 short Fast and Furry-Ous, we’re rooting for the Coyote, as the feature film Coyote Vs. Acme is unleashed upon the world.

Will Wile E. finally taste…justice?

This newest Looney Tunes movie is, surprisingly, based on a humor piece first published in The New Yorker in 1990. Ian Frazier wrote his comedic essay “Coyote V. Acme” in the form of a legal brief outlining a lawsuit put forth by Wile E. Coyote against the Acme Corporation, whose products he always used in his pursuit of the Road Runner and which always seemed to malfunction in the most hilarious ways possible. The essay was very funny – in fact, when I first started teaching it was included in our ninth grade textbook as an example of satire, and I enjoyed teaching it. But the idea that it would one day blow up and inspire a feature film never would have occurred to me.

Coyote Vs. Acme, based on Frazier’s essay and developed for the screen by writers Samy Burch, Jeremy Slater, and James Gunn, is opening in theaters today. This film, directed by Dave Green, was filmed back in 2022 and was planned for a release the next year, but parent company Warner Bros. Discovery decided to cancel its release. This was part of a slate of films and TV projects that were unceremoniously dumped at the time so that the company could write their costs off on their taxes as a loss. (The most infamous of these, besides Coyote Vs. Acme, was an almost fully completed Batgirl movie starring Leslie Grace as Batgirl, America’s sweetheart Brendan Fraser as Firefly, and Michael Keaton reprising his role as Batman.) Despite the fact that everybody who had actually seen Coyote Vs. Acme was really supportive of the film, with people calling it the funniest movie in years, it seemed as though it would never see the light of day.

This was the look on both their faces when they got the news.

But this is a case, much like how we all collectively made Paramount change the design of Sonic the Hedgehog after the first trailer for his movie placed the character into some horrific uncanny valley situation that would have given children nightmares, where the internet actually did some good. As time passed, the groundswell of support for Coyote Vs. Acme only grew. Word leaked that it was one of the best unreleased movies ever, that it was a return to form for the Looney Tunes greats after disasters like the second Space Jam movie, and that the Coyote’s co-stars John Cena and Will Forte were at the absolute top of their game. People pushed. People put pressure on Warner Bros. And eventually, the media monolith relented and sold the rights to distribute the film to Ketchup Entertainment, which similarly saved the previous Looney Tunes film The Day the Earth Blew Up from being a cinematic footnote last year. 

Today, after all this confusion, the movie is finally hitting movie theaters, and I think it’s probably more important that you see this movie IN those theaters than any other film this year. Yeah, I know that Spider-Man: Brand New Day is the movie that’s made all the money. The Odyssey is probably gonna win all the awards. But those movies have a media push and corporate backing helping them out. Frankly – and I do not mean this as a slight against either film – they don’t NEED our help.

Coyote Vs. Acme does.

I’m not asking you to see this movie just because I love the Looney Tunes, although I do. I’m not asking because virtually every critic in the world is raving about how funny, heartfelt, and entertaining the film is, although they are. I’m asking you to see it because what Warner Bros. tried to do to this movie, what they did to Batgirl and other films is a load of horsecrap, and we need to show them that we know it’s not right.

Movies are art. Even corporate movies, even movies that are built on massive IPs are still art, and art is important. Art is how we explore our understanding of the world, and whether we’re doing it through some historical epic that enlightens us about our own past or whether we’re delving into things that terrify us or things that make us laugh makes no difference. The big studios greenlight movies based on an expectation of profitability, and I don’t object to that. It’s called show business, after all, and I’m not asking them to start making movies they EXPECT to lose money on. But any movie is a labor of love for the people involved: the writers, the directors, the actors, the musicians, the animators…almost any movie you see (and ESPECIALLY any studio movie you see) is the result of the efforts of hundreds of people. And with the exception of perhaps the Sharknado franchise, nobody is TRYING to make a bad film. 

The exception that proves the rule.

The long and short of it is, I don’t care about Warner Bros and their pocketbooks, but I DO care very much about the people who MADE the movie, and THEY are the ones I want to support.

The value of art should go beyond just what the numbers on a page add up to. Art should be evaluated by what it does to an audience, the emotions it evokes, the joy that it brings, the tears that it wrings from your heart, the laughs that erupt from your throat. These are the things that give a movie true value, and that’s not the sort of thing that can be quantified. It can’t be decided by an accountant. It can only be decided by an audience. And I believe that any movie deserves, at bare minimum, the CHANCE to find that audience. I prefer theatrical releases, of course, but at least direct-to-streaming or DVD or TV movies have a SHOT at being seen. If you chalk up a movie as a loss and stuff it in a drawer somewhere before anyone gets to see it, nobody ever has that chance, and that’s simply not right.

A movie that is never released never has a chance to find an audience, and it deserves that chance. And even if it turns out to be terrible, WE should be the ones who get to decide that, not some jackass trying to balance a ledger.

Again, the exception that proves the rule.

In one of those little quirks of fate, my son Eddie and I happen to have birthdays within a few days of each other, and we both have movies we wanted to see this weekend, so we made a deal. I’m going to go with him to see Paw Patrol: The Dino Movie, and he’s going with me to see Coyote Vs. Acme. (His mom is going to be there with us too, of course, so if you’re reading this Erin, you get to pick the next movie, okay?)

But when we get there, I want to see that theater full. I want you all out there with me, watching the Coyote get smashed by an anvil, swallow some dynamite, and finally take the fight back to the Acme Corporation. Because more so than any previous Looney Tunes movie, this one has a meaning beyond what’s on the screen. If you love movies, you should see this in theaters. If you love animation, you should see this in theaters. And if you want to send a message to Warner Bros and the rest of them that these things mean more to us than numbers in a column, then you need to come out to the theater with Eddie and me and see this movie. 

And in the immortal words of the Coyote’s ancient nemesis, “Beep-beep.”

Blake M. Petit is a writer, teacher, and dad from Ama, Louisiana. His most recent writing project is the superhero adventure series Other People’s Heroes: Little Stars, volume one of which is now available on Amazon. He’s also started putting his LitReel videos on TikTok. 

Geek Punditry #116: The Looney, Looney, Looney Bugs Bunny Crisis

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It’s critically acclaimed! It’s the #1 family movie at the box-office! The preorder is currently the top-selling comedy Blu-Ray on Amazon! And yet somehow, there’s a pretty good chance you didn’t even know it exists! I’m talking about the new cinematic masterpiece The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie!

Well, I can’t necessarily guarantee “masterpiece” – I haven’t had a chance to see the movie yet, but I am terribly excited for it. My excitement, in fact, is matched almost by how baffled I am at how badly Warner Bros is mishandling the Looney Tunes franchise at the moment. The Day the Earth Blew Up is the first ever feature-length fully-animated theatrical Looney Tunes movie – every other time they’ve been on the big screen in anything other than a short, it’s been with human guest-stars. This time around, though, it’s all toon all the time. The stars of this movie, Daffy Duck and Porky Pig (both voiced by Eric Bauza), haphazardly uncover an alien mind control plot. With the fate of the world at stake, these two most unlikely heroes are the only hope we have – assuming they don’t drive each other crazy first. 

They may not be Will Smith and Jeff Goldblum, but I believe they can get the job done.

Since the movie made some festival appearances last year, the buzz has been fantastic. Critics are very high on this movie, with more than one even going so far as to call it the best comedy of the year. And yet somehow Warner Bros, the studio that made it, the studio that has been making Looney Tunes cartoons since the dawn of animation…decided NOT TO RELEASE IT. Instead, it wound up getting shopped around to other distributors and was finally picked up by a lesser-known company called Ketchup Entertainment, which in the past has mostly been known as a distribution hub for smaller, independent movies. In fact, until now, the highest-profile film they had ever released was last year’s flop Hellboy: The Crooked Man. 

Now, not only is Ketchup reaping the benefits of The Day the Earth Blew Up, but word has it that they may be able to resurrect another seemingly-dead Looney Tunes movie, Coyote Vs. Acme –  a courtroom comedy about Wile E. Coyote suing the Acme corporation over all their flawed products that have tormented him for decades. In addition to Wile E. himself, the movie stars John Cena and Will Forte and is completely finished, and once again, those who have seen it have been very very positive. But in 2023, Warner Bros shelved it as part of the same tax write-off scheme that killed the almost-finished Batgirl movie, and it was feared that it would never see the light of day. 

This isn’t what I expected when I heard there was a new John Grisham movie.

Then, this very week that The Day the Earth Blew Up hit theaters, another bit of shocking news: Warner Bros’ streaming service, MAX, has quietly removed ALL Looney Tunes content. The classic shorts, the movies, the spin-off cartoon series…it’s all gone.

WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON AT WARNER BROS?

I mean, I think that’s a fair question at this point. The Looney Tunes should be the crown jewel in their portfolio. It should be one of the most important things they push and promote. There is literally no property on Earth more closely associated with the Warner Bros brand than the Looney Tunes. Oh sure, there are other big IPs in their library – DC Comics, Harry Potter, and The Wizard of Oz all come to mind. But not a single one of those was originally a WB creation. They got DC Comics when they bought another company that owned it, they license Harry Potter, and Oz was one of the many acquisitions they bought from the floundering MGM Studios when it was going under. When it comes to characters and series that were created and crafted there, in the Warner Bros offices, by Warner Bros employees, there is nothing else as well-known as the Looney Tunes. There’s not even anything close. 

You don’t see Steven Universe just chilling with the logo, do you?

I don’t usually like to play the comparison game, but in this case I think I have to. Look at the difference between the way Warner Bros treats the Looney Tunes and the way Disney treats its classic characters, especially those who were around in the golden age as short film stars: Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy, and Pluto, primarily. Every one of those characters is still around, still iconic. You can get them on t-shirts, you can buy their toys, they appear in new cartoons and childrens’ books, and they have for years.

Now try to find some merchandise with Bugs, Daffy, Porky, or the Road Runner. It’s not impossible, but it’s not nearly as easy, either.

Over the decades, Disney has worked hard to make sure their classic characters remain in the public eye. Warner Bros has not. And I think part of the problem is the way that animation in general is still often thought of as children’s entertainment. The original Looney Tunes cartoons are the greatest cartoons of the 40s and 50s, and by a large margin. Even the funniest Disney shorts – and here I am thinking specifically of things like the Goofy “How to” cartoons or the ones where he teaches us how to play a sport – are no match for the likes of Rabbit Seasoning, Rabbit of Seville, One Froggy Evening, or Feed the Kitty. Hell, Chuck Jones’s Duck Amuck should be put in a museum and studied in school as an absolute masterpiece of surrealist comedy, something that has been unmatched before or since. 

This belongs in a museum! Right next to the Mona Lisa! And that chick with no arms!

Part of the reason those cartoons were so great is because they were being made for a mass audience, NOT specifically for children. When you paid your nickel to go to the movies in 1939, you would also see a newsreel, a chapter of a serial, short films, and cartoons – and if you were lucky, they were Looney Tunes cartoons. The likes of Friz Freling, Tex Avery, Bob Clampett, and Chuck Jones were making cartoons that THEY thought were funny…and everybody else agreed. 

But that DOES mean that the audience for the Looney Tunes skews a bit older than the Disney audience. Stuff like Mickey Mouse Clubhouse gave the classic Disney characters a preschool audience that grew up with them, but efforts like Baby Looney Tunes just…aren’t as good. 

“Meeska, Mooska, your move, Warner Bros!”

To give Warner Bros at least a LITTLE bit of credit, they do seem to recognize this part of the problem. The Looney Tunes audience is older, so a lot of the merchandise they make is for an older fan. On my shelf of Superman stuff, for instance, I’ve got the McFarlane Toys Bugs Bunny-as-Superman action figure that came out a year or two ago. It’s a gorgeous figure, because McFarlane makes gorgeous figures…but these figures are “collectibles.” They’re almost statues. They’re not really TOYS, not something for kids to play with. There’s nothing wrong with that, but…where ARE the toys for kids? Or the books? Or the clothes? It’s fine to cater to the existing audience, but to make no effort to create a NEW audience is insane, and that’s exactly what Warner Bros is doing. 

Nobody is allowed on this shelf until they earn the “S.”

This is not to suggest that Looney Tunes is the only problem Warner Bros has. For several years now they’ve been in absolute crisis mode, not seeming to know what to do with any of their major properties. The struggles with DC have become the stuff of legend, although I – and many of us – have strong hopes that James Gunn and Peter Safran have finally found the key to righting that particular ship. In their efforts to “modernize” Scooby-Doo, WB canned a sequel to the charming Scoob! movie (another tax victim) while giving a greenlight to the odious Velma series. A few years back, they even hastily turned out the direct-to-DVD movie Tom and Jerry: Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, an ill-conceived effort to maintain their license to the property that was so poorly received the Roald Dahl estate shifted future Dahl properties to Netflix. 

With the Looney Tunes cartoons removed from MAX, it seemed like the only place to find them in the wild would be on MeTV and MeTV Toons. But a few days ago came another announcement – Tubi (which is rapidly proving itself to be the best free streaming service out there) is picking up at least a FEW Looney Tunes properties. They are the new home for The Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries – a decent series from the 90s that’s all about the titular duo and Granny travelling the world solving crimes – as well as the excellent Looney Toons Show from 2011. If you’ve never heard of that last one, that’s the one to watch. It was a Cartoon Network series that was a sort of a mashup between the classic Looney Tunes sensibilities and those of a standard American sitcom. The premise is that Daffy Duck has to move in with Bugs Bunny, Odd Couple style, and they get into hijinks. It’s not AS wild as the old shorts were, but the show still finds ways to careen between plots like Daffy trying to make himself look good for his high school reunion to such unlikely things as a discarded soda can making the two of them fugitives from the law, racing across state lines and painting themselves yellow in an effort to avoid the police. It’s good stuff.

Bugs is a Felix. Daffy, oddly, a Samantha.

But what about the classics? The original theatrical shorts from the 40s and 50s? Well, good news – Warner Bros has a new line of Blu-Ray releases coming out soon that will collect the best of those! And you can purchase them with your own American dollars!

Of course, this has left some people angry, with the suspicion that the only reason they pulled the cartoons from MAX is to get people to buy the Blu-Rays and, understandably, they are reluctant to do so. But I’ve got to recommend a different approach. I know you don’t want to do what it seems like Warner Bros WANTS us to do, but if you really care about the future of the Looney Tunes like I do, the only way to show that it to support it. That means watching the cartoons on Tubi, being vocal about the reruns on MeTV, going out to see The Day the Earth Blew Up while it’s still in theaters, and – yes – even getting these new Blu-Rays. I’m not saying you should purchase something you don’t want, but I AM saying that if the only reason you’re refusing to buy them is to spite Warner Bros, that’s not a good reason. And let’s be fair – Warner Bros is far from the only company that has demonstrated very clearly to us that it’s best to keep buying the physical media of the things that you love. 

The Looney Tunes are legends, and all of this is to say that if you can’t figure out a way to make money with the Looney Tunes, the single greatest property ever created by the Warner Bros Studios, maybe you shouldn’t be in charge of Warner Bros Studios. 

“Well Blake, if you’re so smart, why aren’t YOU in charge?” Somebody always asks that sort of stupid question, so let me address it. I, sir, am not the one being paid hundreds of millions of dollars to steer this studio. I am not an executive, I do not have an executive mindset. But I’m not the one who is claiming that I do. On the other hand, I bet I can at least come up with SOMETHING to promote the brand that’s better than anything Warner Bros is doing to get the Looney Tunes back out there.

Give me five seconds.

Okay, I’ve got it. 

It’s simple, and it’s relatively inexpensive, but it would open up the Looney Tunes to a potentially gargantuan audience that is going completely untapped right now. And as much as I hate to say it, I have to ask this question.

WHY THE HELL AREN’T THE LOONEY TUNES ON TIKTOK?

There are approximately 1.5 BILLION people using TikTok every month. That’s not a joke. I checked. And a hell of a lot of them fall into that young demographic that Warner Bros so desperately needs. Since I’ve started putting my own reels there, I’ve found feeds for dozens of current TV shows using the platform to bolster an audience. I’ve also found feeds of classic TV shows that show short clips. And even as we speak, a full 217 people have signed up to watch my goofy ass, and at least twelve of them are NOT my wife. How hard would it be to grab 30-second segments from the legendary Looney Tunes shorts and drop them on the platform? An INTERN could do this job. Follow it up with a trailer for The Day the Earth Blew Up. Put a link to the damn Blu-Rays in the TikTok shop. This is an audience that is being allowed to lay fallow, and they’re all RIGHT THERE, mindlessly scrolling. They might as well be scrolling to something that will enrich their culture and expose them to true art, like Duck Dodgers in the 24th ½ Century. 

You can’t tell me some woman in her car screaming about her neighbors is more deserving of a platform than THIS.

There, Warner Bros. You can have that one for free. But you are sitting on the greatest library of comedic characters in the history of western civilization, and you’re letting them wither on the vine. Even worse, WHEN you create good content, you BURY it. It’s absolutely insane. On behalf of all of us out here who love Bugs and Daffy, Porky and Speedy, Marvin the Martian, Foghorn Leghorn, and all the other giants of the comedic art, I say this from the bottom of our collective hearts:

Get your shit together. 

Blake M. Petit is a writer, teacher, and dad from Ama, Louisiana. His most recent writing project is the superhero adventure series Other People’s Heroes: Little Stars, volume one of which is now available on Amazon. You can subscribe to his newsletter by clicking right here. He’s also started putting his LitReel videos on TikTok. And while we’re at it, stop screwing around with the Flintstones, too.