Coyote v. Acme (1990)

(newyorker.com)

61 points | by ChrisArchitect 2 days ago

5 comments

  • ggambetta 1 hour 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.
    • glimshe 1 hour 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.

      • pizza234 1 hour 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.
      • negzero7 1 hour 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.
      • dragonfax 50 minutes 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 1 hour ago
        Went to see it with family last night. We loved it.
        • laddershoe 21 minutes 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?
          • close04 2 minutes ago
            > Will they still find it entertaining?

            Only one way to find out.

      • AnimalMuppet 26 minutes 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.

        • cultofmetatron 12 minutes 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.
      • EGreg 42 minutes 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.
      • fortyseven 1 hour 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.
      • troupo 1 hour 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.

  • flint 41 minutes ago
    How big a miss in not turning production and direction over to Bob Odenkirk?
    • imglorp 17 minutes 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?
  • ChrisArchitect 2 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)

  • ubermonkey 21 minutes ago
    Ha! I remember reading this in print.

    In other news, I am old.

  • ingen0s 54 minutes ago
    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.
    • mcmcmc 9 minutes ago
      [delayed]
    • lstodd 10 minutes 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.