Yet another Hacker News

Coyote v. Acme (1990)

148 points ChrisArchitect 3 days ago 71 comments

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coyote_vs._Acme

ChrisArchitect 3 days ago | parent

New Yorker magazine article the 2026 film Coyote vs. Acme is based on. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coyote_vs._Acme)

WorldMaker 3 hours ago | parent

Technically the 2023 film. It's delayed release to theaters was an interesting debacle of Hollywood Accounting. Given it claims to be "Based on a True Story" the biggest implication is that Discovery did not want you to see this film.

ggambetta 9 hours ago | parent

Can't wait for the movie. I grew up on Roadrunner cartoons (among others, most notably Top Cat and Scooby Doo), and some of my earliest childhood drawings are elaborate diagrams of traps to catch the Roadrunner, with detailed if implausible Rube Goldberg mechanics. The Coyote might have nudged me towards engineering, not even joking.

glimshe 9 hours ago | parent

It's a bit disappointing, I'm sorry to say. It's just not as funny as it looks. I went to the movie with the whole family and, despite loving Road Runner, it felt repetitive and stale.

Not too bad, but not great either. If you lower your expectations you may enjoy it more than we did.

steve_gh 8 hours ago | parent

Went to see it with family last night. We loved it.

laddershoe 7 hours ago | parent

I'd love to take my kids (ages 7-11) but they didn't grow up with the cartoons. Will they still find it entertaining?

close04 7 hours ago | parent

> Will they still find it entertaining?

Only one way to find out.

hundt 7 hours ago | parent

I took my 7- and 10-year old and they enjoyed it, especially the 10yo. We watched a couple hours of Looney Tunes compilations on YouTube the day before to introduce them to the characters.

xrd 5 hours ago | parent

My kids (9 yr old girl, 11 y/o girl, 13 y/o boy) said it was the best movie they have ever seen. They are not super familiar with Looney Tunes. It isn't uncommon that they would see something and immediately it becomes their favorite movie, but the discussions afterward were different.

I loved it (52 y/o dad). I've been fascinated by it since hearing a few years ago about the tax write off situation.

A bit of extra context: since seeing MacGruber, I want to see anything with Will Forte (I know that's misguided, but I can't help it).

ButlerianJihad 5 hours ago | parent

Here you go: Will Forte on Studio C https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLGVpxD1HlmJ9bjg-IbceIVOul...

wredcoll 3 hours ago | parent

Wait, are you implying you enjoyed macgruber??

xrd 2 hours ago | parent

I LOVE MacGruber. And, I'm not afraid to be public about it.

I know it is silly and the jokes are juvenile. But, he is so fully in the character for the entire movie, and it is a joy to watch.

wredcoll 54 minutes ago | parent

I loved macgyver growing up (unusual I know) and I found macgruber just incredibly mean spirited, like, it wasn't a parody that loved its source material and audience, it felt like it hated it.

Doctor_Fegg 5 hours ago | parent

My 10-year old loved it. I'd shown him a few Road Runner cartoons on YouTube beforehand.

mandevil 4 hours ago | parent

My kid (9yo) had seen a couple of Roadrunner cartoons on Youtube, no more than that. e.g. I don't think he's ever seen a Sylvester-Tweety cartoon. It didn't matter, he enjoyed the movie a lot. Beyond the very basics of Coyote and Roadrunner, which everyone picks up very quickly- and if you don't they do a great modern version in the opening minutes to bring you up to speed- the movie doesn't need deep knowledge of the WB cartoon universe. It's not like the MCU that way.

And the fact that it reinforced a message his mom and I have been trying to teach him (about the importance of not letting failure keep you from trying again) was a bonus for us.

troupo 8 hours ago | parent

I feel like all Looney Tunes movies are that: not too funny and drawn out.

A complete aside: nothing wrong with that. A forgettable afternoon entertainment is also fine. And it ahouldn't be delegated to Illumination near-monopoly on it.

fortyseven 8 hours ago | parent

It's just might be the first negative word I've heard about it. I saw it opening weekend and it was a blast. Not groundbreaking, Roger Rabbit style, but a strangely wholesome, funny flick.

pizza234 8 hours ago | parent

I personally liked it a lot (although I don't think it's "great" either), because I find it very funny to see cartoon characters in roles that are far from their canon. I've even found moving the scene where Wiley shows the value of persistence.

jolt42 6 hours ago | parent

The Looney Toons Show from 2011 - I thought the same about role changes, but the show is an absolute gem, at least the second season when they got the characters to gel.

negzero7 8 hours ago | parent

It was a good popcorn movie. My family and I loved it and thought it was funny. The story line itself was predictable and repetitive as you said but the throwbacks, cameos, and nostalgia was very fun.

dragonfax 8 hours ago | parent

Loved it myself. Brought a friend that grew up on Looney Tunes and he had a blast. Couldn't stop laughing the whole time.

It's pretty much constant jokes except for a few emotional bits that actually work, surprisingly.

EGreg 8 hours ago | parent

Saw it the other evening and I have to agree. The plot is — lame and inconsistent? I would recommend “who framed Roger Rabbit” over this.

AnimalMuppet 7 hours ago | parent

I thought it was reasonably good. A few moments were laugh-out-loud, a few were touching, a few surprise reveals, a few plot holes. Worth watching once, but not spectacular.

But not worth watching in a theater. The big turn-off to me wasn't the movie itself. (Yeah, this is going a bit off topic.) I got in the theater ten minutes early. Eight minutes before the start time, they started showing ads for popcorn and soda. Ad after ad after ad after ad. Those ads continued until twenty five minutes after the scheduled start time. Total ads: thirty three minutes. Attached to a movie that I paid for. If theaters wonder why people don't go to movies any more, that's why. Or at least, it's a big part.

cultofmetatron 7 hours ago | parent

the price for movie tickets in america are insane too. I went to see the odyssey in malaysia. It was less than half the price for an equivalent experience.

ViktorRay 7 hours ago | parent

For me I actually like seeing trailers before the movies. Personally I feel like the trailers are part of the experience and I can’t help but feel some disappointment when a movie starts with no trailers in front of it.

qingcharles 5 hours ago | parent

It's not the trailers most people are mad about, but ads for products that they stick before the trailers even.

skeeter2020 5 hours ago | parent

Trailers have been a big part of the movie-going experience as long as I've gone to theatres. Coca-cola, Ford and Government of Canada ads? Not so much.

Hugsbox 4 hours ago | parent

Exactly this... when I was a kid it was all movie trailers, now they play the same fucking ads I get on youtube.

tetris11 6 hours ago | parent

Yep, reasonable film to stream. Wouldn't pay theatre money to go see it

mandevil 4 hours ago | parent

Is it going to be streaming? On which platform? With the "HBO canceled it, wouldn't even release it to streaming" already in its history I am very unsure that it will even end up on streaming, and so decided to see it in the theater.

And I hit a Sunday matinee with my 9 year-old so it was $10.75/person, which felt worth it to me.

PaulHoule 6 hours ago | parent

I can't complain. I live near a small city that was showing this film at a small and intimate cinema downtown and and at a multiplex at the mall. So there's competition and at the downtown cinema I showed up at the start time saw a few trailers and enjoyed the feature.

mattmcal 6 hours ago | parent

If you buy tickets online from AMC, they now show a disclaimer that tells you the movie starts around 25 minutes after the listed show time, though usually it starts 30+ minutes after.

jolt42 5 hours ago | parent

I didn't find the original R.R. particularly funny like the other Looney characters, I was more drawn in by the cleverness or "what is going to happen next?".

mholt 6 hours ago | parent

Reading these replies and you'd think HN'ers have no fun (or feelings) at all. The movie is funny, clever, clean (good for families/kids), emotional, and has important lessons and metacommentary that adults will enjoy. Not to mention the irony of the plot with what happened to the movie in real life. Go see the movie.

ChicagoDave 4 hours ago | parent

And yet not one person laughed when I saw it.

It was not a good movie.

sullivanmatt 3 hours ago | parent

Completely agree. My wife and I absolutely loved it. Tons of fun, and unexpectedly quite intelligent.

hn_acc1 1 hour ago | parent

I loved it too, and my daughters (who had access to several looney toons collections as kids) also seemed to enjoy it.

dekhn 2 hours ago | parent

I watched it (I'm a big old school looney tunes fan) and I don't think I laughed even once in the entire movie.

FpUser 1 hour ago | parent

Same here. It was really cheesy for my taste

sanderjd 1 hour ago | parent

My 5 year old spent the whole time laughing. We have the expression "grow up!" that we tell kids. Sometimes I think we need the opposite expression for adults who are peeved when cartoons don't make them laugh.

dekhn 13 minutes ago | parent

I simply feel that it could have been 10X better. They had everything for it to be great, and it was just.... adequate.

Here's an example of Looney Tunes elevating the genre: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What%27s_Opera,_Doc%3F

kemayo 1 hour ago | parent

I saw it last night with my spouse. It was good, we laughed at a bunch of the visual gags.

It's not as good as Who Framed Roger Rabbit, which is the obvious comparison, but it's legitimately fun.

bthallplz 6 hours ago | parent

Watching it in the theater was a fun experience. It seemed like most of the audience were containing their laughter, but me and one other guy were just belting out laughing. It'd be fun to go see again simply to get a sense for how many people will be less reserved with their laughter.

BloondAndDoom 5 hours ago | parent

I went for the kids but enjoyed way more than I thought I would. So many references to childhood memories.

qingcharles 5 hours ago | parent

I really enjoyed the movie. Had some really, really funny moments. I was hoping for more of the legal aspects to be explored, but that doesn't happen :)

kraquepype 2 hours ago | parent

The best times were chilling out with my grandmother watching Roadrunner and other looney tunes.

She always felt bad for the coyote... not in a root-for-the-bad-guy kind of way, but because it was always stacked against him.

I know the movie is about Acme selling him defective goods, but I wonder how they'll address the way that his entire world including it's physical properties seemed to conspire against him.

riffraff 2 hours ago | parent

I expected the movie to be crap, but a friend went and enjoyed it a lot and I trust their judgement. He also shared with me the idea that Wile E. Coyote was basically what inspired him to get into engineering as a kid, and I think he's probably not the only one.

Insanity 2 hours ago | parent

I watched it on release day because a friend wanted to go, I had no expectations and wasn't even aware of the film before.

But it was definitely one of the most fun films I've seen this year. Honestly if I had to choose a film to rewatch, I'd rewatch Coyote vs Acme instead of Nolan's The Odyssey.

mauvehaus 20 minutes ago | parent

Depending on just how uninclined to rewatch The Odyssey you are, you may enjoy the hell out of Emily Wilson's review. For a taste: "It lacks psychological, emotional, political and ethical depth. Its narrative structure is gimmicky. The writing is abysmal. None of the characters has convincing motivation for their actions or words. There are no sex scenes, and all the food looks horrible."

https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v48/n14/emily-wilson/an-unco...

sanderjd 1 hour ago | parent

I thought it was good! I had low expectations and they were well exceeded.

ingen0s 8 hours ago | parent

Cant we all agree that posting paywalled content is a little bit misaligned with the virtue of HN? Even if someone opens it up in the comments later.

lstodd 7 hours ago | parent

Doesn't matter. They're instututionally incapable to rising back to the art of "Who Framed Roger Rabbit", so it's all water under the bridge.

mcmcmc 7 hours ago | parent

The virtue of HN is depriving journalists of income? Or paying for everything with data and attention?

Jtariiiii 7 hours ago | parent

I'm not sure how people asking to be paid for their labour is against the virtue of a board run by a venture capitalist entity.

nearlyepic 4 hours ago | parent

Not sure what you mean - capitalists famously hate paying for labor.

bryanrasmussen 7 hours ago | parent

it sounds like we can't all agree, but frankly I also think the writing on the wall is that there won't be much out there that isn't paywalled, and much of that will have a bunch of ads.

hombre_fatal 6 hours ago | parent

No, I don’t only want personal blogs and content that’s supported by ads. And you should know how to bypass paywalls by now.

doodpants 5 hours ago | parent

Is it paywalled? Not sure why I can access the article, then. (Firefox, Windows, uBlock Origin)

latexr 4 hours ago | parent

Do you have JavaScript off? That also works, as the article is hidden after it’s shown.

etc-hosts 5 hours ago | parent

Some of us regretfully pay for the New Yorker.

gwbas1c 5 hours ago | parent

See https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html

> Are paywalls ok?

> It's ok to post stories from sites with paywalls that have workarounds.

> In comments, it's ok to ask how to read an article and to help other users do so. But please don't post complaints about paywalls. Those are off topic. More here.

Jtsummers 4 hours ago | parent

You've been complaining about this for years now, have you still not read the FAQ for this site?

zahlman 29 minutes ago | parent

Sometimes people join a community and believe the rules are wrong and that they can convince others of it. (And sometimes they believe they shouldn't have to do the work to convince others.)

flint 8 hours ago | parent

How big a miss in not turning production and direction over to Bob Odenkirk?

imglorp 7 hours ago | parent

Bob is a genius, sure, and has a little voice acting, and yes dark comedy, but why would he have been especially fitting for Looney Tunes style silliness?

Rooster61 6 hours ago | parent

His voice acting in Tim & Eric regarding the Cinco line of products seems to go right along with the humor of the iconic Acme brand. I think he'd be great at this.

ubermonkey 7 hours ago | parent

Ha! I remember reading this in print.

In other news, I am old.

itomato 1 hour ago | parent

Yes, it's like an seeing an issue of "Space Jam" from the original treatment

piekvorst 5 hours ago | parent

Nice text editor

hurtbaseball 2 hours ago | parent

I can't recommend the movie enough. Saw it over the weekend and it's very funny and entertaining.

jimmySixDOF 53 minutes ago | parent

Years ago, I worked on some equipment from a company called Acme Packet that made Session Border Controllers for the telco IP voice space and was just trying to remember why they called it ACME and it's interesting to trace the history of the term from the classical Greek (Apex) to the pejorative "A Company Making Everything".

https://remosince1988.com/blogs/stories/acme