‘Coyote vs. Acme’ Review: The Looney Movie of the Moment

Most of the Looney Tunes cast of characters come in pairs: A charismatic hero and the bumbling villain he perpetually outsmarts. Bugs Bunny munches carrots as he stays a step ahead of Yosemite Sam; Tweety Bird tawt he taw a puddy tat, but Sylvester the puddy tat never gets him.That’s also true of Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote — to a point. Unlike most of the other Looney Tunes dyads, the Road Runner is not especially charming or compelling. He runs and he beeps. That’s it. Alhough Wile is the nominal villain of their shorts — he is trying to kill and eat that bird, after all — the cartoons are presented largely from his perspective. We follow him as he tries and fails over and over again. The Road Runner endures, Wile suffers. If the audience ever stopped to think about the mindless cartoon violence, they might observe the coyote is something of a pathetic, and even sympathetic creature.I watched a lot of cartoons growing up, but I must confess, I was one of the viewers who never spared a thought for Wile. But clearly the men and women who made Coyote vs. Acme did. This new Looney Tunes animated/live-action hybrid elevates the franchise’s most durable punching bag to the status of...