Coyote v. Acme (1990)

(newyorker.com)

183 points | by ChrisArchitect 3 days ago

11 comments

  • ggambetta 21 hours ago
    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.
    • mholt 19 hours ago
      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.
      • kemayo 14 hours ago
        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.

        • AceJohnny2 12 hours ago
          Thanks for reminding me to watch Who Framed Roger Rabbit again. It's one of, like, 5 DVD/Blu-Rays I own, because of how excellent it is.
          • aidenn0 9 hours ago
            What are the other 4 movies you own?
            • AceJohnny2 6 hours ago
              Princess Mononoke & Spirited Away (and also Kiki's Delivery Service because it was a package. Not that it's bad, but not as important to me as the other two)

              Into the Spider-Verse, for breaking away from the 3D animation movie style

              • aidenn0 5 hours ago
                I'll have to rewatch Princess Mononoke; I haven't seen it since it was in the theater in the US. I remember not liking it as much as the other Miyazaki I've seen, but I'm a different person today.
                • AceJohnny2 4 hours ago
                  it was the first Miyazaki I saw, in college, and it blew me away. I still occasionally listen to Joe Hisaichi's soundtrack.
            • wolfi1 9 hours ago
              I hope one of them is Doctor Strangelove
              • AceJohnny2 6 hours ago
                ooh good call, I should fix that.
        • asdfasvea 12 hours ago
          Agree. Seemed more like something that should go direct to streaming instead of big screen.

          Decent, not amazing.

          • kemayo 10 hours ago
            I actually thought the big screen worked well for it. It was cramming a lot of background detail in that was fun to see.
      • sullivanmatt 16 hours ago
        Completely agree. My wife and I absolutely loved it. Tons of fun, and unexpectedly quite intelligent.
        • hn_acc1 13 hours ago
          I loved it too, and my daughters (who had access to several looney toons collections as kids) also seemed to enjoy it.
      • ChicagoDave 16 hours ago
        And yet not one person laughed when I saw it.

        It was not a good movie.

      • dekhn 14 hours ago
        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.
        • sanderjd 13 hours ago
          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 12 hours ago
            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

            • sanderjd 10 hours ago
              To me, this seems to be an expectations issue. I thought it was going to suck. It's a live action and cartoon mix about looney tunes, itself a broad and very meh cultural artifact IMO. Compared to my expectations, it was funny and good. It seems that you had very high expectations for it to "elevate the genre", which ... I struggle to understand why.
            • onetokeoverthe 8 hours ago
              [dead]
        • FpUser 14 hours ago
          Same here. It was really cheesy for my taste
        • rkuykendall-com 6 hours ago
          You missed some really good jokes.
    • AceJohnny2 12 hours ago
      As marketing goes, I appreciated the Reddit AMA [1] where "Coyote" responds in-character and only via signs.

      [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/movies/comments/1w58qjb/hi_reddit_i...

      My favourite is his answer to being compared to an actual coyote catching an actual road-runner: https://www.reddit.com/r/movies/comments/1w58qjb/comment/p7d...

      • kulahan 9 hours ago
        Him responding to why he's freeballing it in the new movie is another gem. Very cute thread.
    • Insanity 14 hours ago
      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 12 hours ago
        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...

        • persedes 7 hours ago
          Did wonder about the review, it probably sold well in the news papers and part of me thinks that the Odyssey team might even agree with her, but IMHO it's mostly overblown? The movie is good an wildly successful, and maybe I've gotten less jaded, but felt like her criticism did not land ( saying that as someone who loves to poke holes at things and reading a good polemic).
        • majormajor 7 hours ago
          Not a huge fan of the movie (largely because I think the story is rather meh and played out, sometimes classics can stay in the academy and are no longer fresh enough to merit a big budget retelling), but it had one major redeeming factor of not being as un-fun as that review.
    • bthallplz 18 hours ago
      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.
    • riffraff 14 hours ago
      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.
    • BloondAndDoom 18 hours ago
      I went for the kids but enjoyed way more than I thought I would. So many references to childhood memories.
    • kraquepype 15 hours ago
      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.

    • qingcharles 18 hours ago
      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 :)
    • sanderjd 13 hours ago
      I thought it was good! I had low expectations and they were well exceeded.
    • glimshe 21 hours ago
      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.

      • negzero7 21 hours ago
        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.
      • pizza234 21 hours ago
        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 18 hours ago
          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.
      • dragonfax 20 hours ago
        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.

      • steve_gh 21 hours ago
        Went to see it with family last night. We loved it.
        • laddershoe 20 hours ago
          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?
          • xrd 18 hours ago
            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).

            • wredcoll 15 hours ago
              Wait, are you implying you enjoyed macgruber??
              • xrd 15 hours ago
                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 13 hours ago
                  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.
                  • xrd 10 hours ago
                    I never really thought it was a parody of that show. The name is similar, but did not feel like it attempted to parody it in any other way.
            • ButlerianJihad 18 hours ago
          • mandevil 16 hours ago
            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.

          • hundt 19 hours ago
            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.
          • Doctor_Fegg 18 hours ago
            My 10-year old loved it. I'd shown him a few Road Runner cartoons on YouTube beforehand.
          • close04 20 hours ago
            > Will they still find it entertaining?

            Only one way to find out.

      • jolt42 18 hours ago
        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?".
      • fortyseven 21 hours ago
        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.
      • AnimalMuppet 20 hours ago
        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.

        • mattmcal 19 hours ago
          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.
        • PaulHoule 19 hours ago
          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.
        • tetris11 19 hours ago
          Yep, reasonable film to stream. Wouldn't pay theatre money to go see it
          • mandevil 16 hours ago
            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.

        • cultofmetatron 20 hours ago
          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.
        • Paul_Clayton 8 hours ago
          I wonder if ads (not 20+ minutes straight of ads!) would be less annoying if they were diverse and even moderately entertaining.

          E.g., have a customer standing in front of the concession stand saying "Man, the popcorn costs an arm and a leg." followed by an alien with many arms and legs saying "Here, I'll pay." detaching an arm and a leg. The original speaker leaves with his popcorn and the alien buys itself some popcorn (another arm and leg taken off), takes a taste and says "Mmmm. Worth it!" (That might not be a great ad, but I am not that clever at advertising. However, I think that would at least make me smile if not laugh, and a professional should be able to find better concepts and execute them well.)

          Having modestly different versions (like openings for The Simpsons) could be a cost effective way to made different versions that could actually draw attention by trying to see what is different and to see Easter eggs for movies for frequent theater goers (or those staying for a double feature).

          With big time movies, the movie production company could provide one or two generic ads with various small variations (like a character from the movie being shown or being promoted with a earlier trailer sitting down next to someone in a theater "watching" a trailer who says "I clearly got here too early." to which the character says "That's why took the time to stop by the concession stand" and waves his box of Milk Duds (or other item from the concession stand) while holding a drink in the other hand.

          I think there are so many ways to make advertising less annoying. However, even with no repeats and interspersing ads with trailers and shorts (possibly with some product placement, i.e., subtle advertisement), twenty five minutes sounds painful. Entertaining, or at least mildly interesting, advertisement also requires more effort and some appreciation of the audience. Why bother when one has a captive audience? Even with good targeting information, there is also the problem that those wanting to buy the movie goers time/attention may not be selling something of interest (though I could enjoy a clever car ad even though I do not drive and have a slight anti-car bias). With low effectiveness of ads (and so selling price), their number would be increased to compensate for individual ineffectiveness even if the theater is not especially greedy. Driving away movie goers with more ads, then means even more ads need to be shown to compensate for the reduction in eye count.

          I have not gone to a movie for about a decade — Interstellar, which was released in 2014 — and I did not really enjoy the experience. Beside problematic aspects of the movie, the sound volume was not comfortable, the social environment was not comfortable, and I went because my host family urged me to go. However, there was not a long feed of ads, so that experience was relatively good. Anyway, I may not be the best person to ask about the contemporary movie going experience.:-)

        • ViktorRay 19 hours ago
          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.
          • skeeter2020 17 hours ago
            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 17 hours ago
              Exactly this... when I was a kid it was all movie trailers, now they play the same fucking ads I get on youtube.
          • qingcharles 18 hours ago
            It's not the trailers most people are mad about, but ads for products that they stick before the trailers even.
      • troupo 21 hours ago
        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.

      • EGreg 20 hours ago
        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.
  • jimmySixDOF 13 hours ago
    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

    • alterom 5 hours ago
      Acme is just a way of calling your company "Best Brand" or "Peak Product" while being just a tiny bit less pretentious about it (and, conveniently, getting yourself listed before "American Anything" in lexicographically sorted lists).

      It was only a matter of time before company names like that would be mocked.

      That said, Best Buy is still a thriving business / brand (as are American Apparel and AAA).

  • gorgoiler 12 hours ago
    1. Re: complaint (1) the court should be aware of clear video evidence that, contrary to the claimant’s statement that a “rocket sled” was delivered via parcel post, that in fact the delivery was twofold: one 33” acme jet motor and a set of acme handlebars.

    2. That the claimant used these to construct their own “rocket sled” is clearly outside any realms of liability for the defendant, who has not ever warranted that these two products be safely combined into a makeshift vehicle on the grounds that it would patently unsafe to use an acme jet engine for anything other than its intended purpose.

    3. On this material inaccuracy alone we move that the claim be immediately struck out. See https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8JuVMoGj6fE&t=180

  • ChrisArchitect 3 days ago
    https://archive.ph/KgB6h

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

    • WorldMaker 16 hours ago
      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.
  • GarnetFloride 8 hours ago
    We saw it over the weekend and had a blast. There were a lot of easter eggs and cameos that we saw but we know we missed a fair number of them. Not enough to see it in theaters again but at home with freeze frame.

    You could tell the people who made this movie really loved doing it. That's the real thing about it.

    Its also commentary on corporate media, that the execs tried to kill it only tells on them.

  • hurtbaseball 15 hours ago
    I can't recommend the movie enough. Saw it over the weekend and it's very funny and entertaining.
  • flint 20 hours ago
    How big a miss in not turning production and direction over to Bob Odenkirk?
    • imglorp 20 hours ago
      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 19 hours ago
        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.
  • SilentM68 7 hours ago
    Excellent Movie. Wish it had more publicity.
  • ubermonkey 20 hours ago
    Ha! I remember reading this in print.

    In other news, I am old.

  • ingen0s 20 hours ago
    [flagged]
    • gwbas1c 17 hours ago
      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 16 hours ago
      You've been complaining about this for years now, have you still not read the FAQ for this site?
      • zahlman 12 hours ago
        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.)
    • doodpants 18 hours ago
      Is it paywalled? Not sure why I can access the article, then. (Firefox, Windows, uBlock Origin)
      • latexr 17 hours ago
        Do you have JavaScript off? That also works, as the article is hidden after it’s shown.
    • etc-hosts 17 hours ago
      Some of us regretfully pay for the New Yorker.
    • mcmcmc 20 hours ago
      The virtue of HN is depriving journalists of income? Or paying for everything with data and attention?
    • hombre_fatal 19 hours ago
      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.
    • lstodd 20 hours ago
      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.
    • Jtariiiii 19 hours ago
      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 16 hours ago
        Not sure what you mean - capitalists famously hate paying for labor.
    • bryanrasmussen 19 hours ago
      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.
  • piekvorst 18 hours ago
    Nice text editor