08/15/2026
We are sooooo looking forward to this !
Who else is? What is your FAVOURITE Looney Tunes character ?
28 years ago, when we were just starting , Looney Tunes was as big of a Studio as Disney! Merchandise galore!
This will take a new generation back in time 🙏
After Warner Bros. attempted to drop an anvil on it, Coyote vs. Acme is finally about to run its way into theaters. After Warner Bros. Discovery shelved the film in 2023 as a tax write-off, Ketchup Entertainment saved the Will Forte and John Cena-starring film in 2025, and, later this month, Looney Tunes fans will finally be able to see their favorite put-upon coyote, Wile E. Coyote, get justice for his ill-treatment at the hands of the ACME corporation in front of a judge. Speaking of judges, though, a very special audience of two has seen the film and is weighing in. The pair has a significant connection to the history of the film’s characters, and their verdict on the movie challenges a long-held belief from one of the defining artists behind Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner.
According to The Wrap, Ketchup Entertainment recently screened Coyote Vs. Acme for legendary Looney Tunes animator Chuck Jones’ daughter and grandson. The deceased cartoonist’s family, Linda Jones Clough and Craig Kausen, reportedly went into the movie hoping to like the film but “ended up loving it.” Kausen called it "the perfect bridge” between the animated world his grandfather created and reality. Jones Clough even went so far as to say that the movie does something her father didn’t think was possible, making Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner work in a feature-length movie.
Chuck Jones’ contributions to Looney Tunes and animation in general are countless. The animator is considered, with Mel Blanc, to be the architect of the characters’ personalities through his work on shorts like What’s Opera Doc with Bugs Bunny, Duck Amuck, a surreal adventure that puts Daffy Duck through his paces, and One Froggy Evening, the short that gave us the WB frog. His cartoons featuring Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner were perennial favorites that had very specific rules about how the characters were presented. The guidelines were built around speed, silence, repetition, increasingly elaborate punishments for the coyote, and most importantly, the coyote can never catch the Road Runner. Jones’ concern about stretching the formula across an entire feature was reasonable. A 7-minute short can survive on escalating Acme catastrophes, but a full film would require the kind of character development and plot that Jones thought would violate his well-defined rules for the characters. Though with a rule that he can never catch the Roadrunner, it sounds like Wile E. Coyote should be suing Jones over Acme.
That’s what makes Jones’ family’s endorsement of Coyote Vs. Acme so meaningful before its release. Jones, Clough and Kausen are saying the filmmakers found a way to expand Chuck’s vision into our world without losing what made it special and work so well for so many generations. For the family of the legendary animator to give that kind of badge of honor to the film is even more egg on WB’s face in this debacle, as the movie appears to match the standards and legacy of the man who created the characters.
The path of Coyote vs. Acme to cinema screens has been laid with as many traps and surprises as a Coyote and Roadrunner short in its own right. Every time fans thought it was near the finish line, the bottom dropped out, and our titular hero could only hold up a sign of anguish. Somehow, it’s scrambled its way back onto the desert cliffs for another bite at the proverbial apple. Chuck Jones may have doubted the comedic pairing could support a feature, but now his daughter says that’s not the case. Audiences will be able to decide who’s right when Coyote Vs. Acme races into theaters on August 28th. After everything the movie has been through, proving Warner Brothers wrong will only be the second most satisfying outcome. Proving Chuck Jones wrong, with his family’s blessing, is the real accomplishment.
