Coyote vs Acme

After being nearly permanently shelved years ago for the tax write-off, Wile E. Coyote has seen the light of day this past week with the first official trailer for the live action-animated Coyote vs Acme.

When Warner Bros. Discovery first shelved the completed film in November 2023, composer Steven Price (Gravity; Baby Driver; The World's End) went on (then-known-as) Twitter and posted a behind-the-scenes clip from the recording sessions. What greeted viewers disappointed with the news was a full choir performing Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture, with one key substitution: every note replaced by a sung "meep meep,” as the Road Runner is famously wont to do. Price's caption was pointed: ”As no-one will be able to hear it now, due to bizarre anti-art studio financial shenanigans I will never understand." It went viral—and now, that same arrangement is what plays through this trailer.

The trailer begins with a plaintive piano rendering of the _Marseillaise _from the overture as Wile E dons Acme rocket skates—a classic setup. The arrival of the Roadrunner on camera brings in brass to the arrangement and picks up the pace, adding in a sequencer at 0:15. At 0:24, tubular bells and pulsing synth greet the studio title card, adding a dramatic pulse that contrasts the 1812 melody floating on top as an injury lawyer makes his pitch. By 0:52 the melody escalates, with added epic percussion during an action montage because hey, it’s a trailer. Notice the additional harmonic flourish at 1:05 with the minor sixth in the brass as Daffy Duck yells “Ac-me? Ac-you!” in pure expostulation. Observe also that at 1:06 there’s a rhythmic complement that sounds much more like anvils than tubular bells, which would be on point.

The 1812 Overture is itself a piece about absurd escalation—Tchaikovsky scored cannons into his orchestration—literal artillery in a concert hall. The cartoon violence comes built in. It’s pure homage; Looney Tunes shorts were, for an entire generation, a back-door music education. Rossini's “Barber of Seville” in Rabbit of Seville, Wagner's “Tannhäuser” in What's Opera, Doc?, and more delivered the classical canon into living rooms with Acme TNT and anvils in tow. Dropping Tchaikovsky into a Coyote vs Acme trailer lands as a heritage moment.

Overall, the music blends classical with modern touches in a way that reflects the film’s mix of live-action with cartoon co-stars—a play that goes back to Space Jam and Who Framed Roger Rabbit before it.

Coyote vs Acme hits theatres August 28, 2026.

— Curtis Perry