9 Must-Watch Movies if You Love 'Coyote vs. Acme'

4 days ago 14

Wile E. Coyote flying into a windshield in Coyote vs. Acme

Published Sep 6, 2026, 11:04 AM EDT

Michael John Petty is a Senior Author for Collider who spends his days writing, in fellowship with his local church, and enjoying each new day with his wife and daughters. At Collider, he writes features, reviews, recaps, and conducts interviews. In addition to writing about stories, Michael has told a few of his own. His novella, The Beast of Bear-tooth Mountain, was released in 2023. His Western short story, The Devil's Left Hand, received the Spur Award for "Best Western Short Fiction" from the Western Writers of America in 2025. Michael currently resides in North Idaho with his growing family.

Although Warner Bros. tried to bury Coyote vs. Acme as a tax write-off, the Looney Tunes-centric feature finally hit theaters this past August. For longtime fans of the Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner cartoons, this was great news. Even better, the movie is loads of fun, combining 2D-animated characters with live-action stars to craft a legal drama like you've never quite seen before. If you've already hit the theater and are looking for more, don't worry because we have some suggestions for you.

Whether you're looking for something kid-friendly or a bit more adult, there are plenty of great cartoon/live-action mashups out there worth revisiting after Coyote vs. Acme. Some are Looney Tunes focused, while others deal with other cartoon characters who have made their way to the big screen. Either way, there are a host of animated antics out there for folks looking for more beyond the Coyote's latest legal snafu. So, without further ado, give these movies a go if you adored Coyote vs. Acme as much as we did!

'Space Jam' (1996)

Bill Murray, Bugs Bunny, and Michael Jordan talk in a huddle on the basketball court in Space Jam.

Space Jam is probably one of the first movies that comes to mind when you think about the Looney Tunes in live-action. Featuring some of the best Looney Tunes characters out there, this is a sports movie that goes above and beyond by infusing Michael Jordan's basketball history (and brief baseball career) with the wild and wacky world of Warner Bros. animation. When the alien Monstars threaten to steal the Tunes away forever, Bugs Bunny (Billy West) and the rest of the Looneys bring Jordan in to save the day.

Space Jam is probably better than it should be and, as the introduction of Lola Bunny (Kath Soucie), is certainly an important installment in Looney lore. With fun appearances from Bill Murray and a "who's who" of cartoon characters littering the background, this is the Looney Tunes film that really put these characters on the map for many who grew up in the '90s and early 2000s. Just don't waste your time with Space Jam: A New Legacy.

'The Day the Earth Blew Up' (2025)

As the only movie on this list that doesn't merge live-action and animation, The Day the Earth Blew Up deserves its place here as Ketchup Entertainment's other Looney Tunes film, which hit theaters just last year. Another feature that would have been shelved by Warner Bros. forever, this sci-fi adventure echoes the era of 1950s B-movies by tossing Daffy Duck and Porky Pig (both voiced by Eric Bauza) into the fire in the wake of an alien invasion. It's silly and outlandish, yes, but it's loads of fun for Looney Tunes fans.

The Day the Earth Blew Up may not be one of the very best family movies of the 2020s, but it's pretty close. Daffy and Porky are in rare form here as they, along with Petunia Pig (Candi Milo), have no choice but to do everything they can to save their home — literally, their house is falling apart around them because Daffy has no self-control. This comedic adventure is a perfect precursor to Coyote vs. Acme.

'Cool World' (1992)

Frank Harris and Holli Would talking in Cool World

Undoubtedly one of the weirdest live-action/animation hybrids out there, Cool World has been forgotten by most. From the strange mind of visionary director Ralph Bakshi, this noir-ish fantasy picture sends cartoonist Jack Deebs (Gabriel Byrne) into his own fictional world, only to be seduced by his own creation — the undeniable Holli Would (Kim Basinger), who desires above all else to become a real person. Brad Pitt stars as Detective Frank Harris, a man who had been sucked into "Cool World" years ago and now hopes to keep the worlds from merging.

Cool World is definitely not for younger audiences, so keep that in mind before turning this one on with the whole family. That said, though it was a major box-office disappointment, it's a fascinating look at how human characters could interact with a cartoon world — almost like a darker side to many of the other movies on this list. Pitt is great, of course, and Basinger is a real knock-out.

'Scooby-Doo' (2002)

Scooby gang looks startled in the film Scooby-Doo

You may not have known that James Gunn had a hand in writing Coyote vs. Acme, but most are aware that he also penned the live-action Scooby-Doo movie. A kids' movie that is equally enjoyable for adults, the live-action take on Mystery Inc. — with an animated Scooby (Neil Fanning), of course — is probably one of the most perfectly cast adaptations out there. Freddie Prinze Jr. as Fred, Sarah Michelle Gellar as Daphne, Linda Cardellini as Velma, and Matthew Lillard as Shaggy... It's just the best.

Part parody and part love-letter to the longtime supernatural mystery franchise, Scooby-Doo takes what made the original cartoons great and infuses it with some added character development and referential humor. While the film doesn't take place in the animated world, it brings Scooby and the various demons involved to life in a way that looks and feels quite seamless. Looney Tunes fans will probably love it.

Collider Exclusive · Action Hero Quiz Which Action Hero Would Be
Your Perfect Partner? Rambo · James Bond · Indiana Jones · John McClane · Ethan Hunt

Five legends. Five completely different ways of getting out alive — with style, with muscle, with charm, with luck, or with a plan so intricate it probably shouldn't work. Ten questions will reveal which action hero was built to have your back.

🎖️Rambo

🍸James Bond

🏺Indiana Jones

🔧John McClane

🎭Ethan Hunt

FIND YOUR PARTNER →

You're dropped into a dangerous situation with no warning. What do you need most from a partner? The first few seconds tell you everything about who belongs beside you.

ASomeone who already has three contingency plans running and is calmly working through all of them. BSomeone who reads the terrain instinctively and knows exactly how to use it against the enemy. CSomeone who keeps their nerve and their sense of humour when everything is falling apart. DSomeone who knows the history of wherever we are and what we're walking into. ESomeone with the right contact, the right cover identity, and the right exit already arranged.

NEXT QUESTION →

You have to get somewhere dangerous, fast. How do you travel? How you get there is half the mission.

AOn foot through terrain no one else would attempt — I move where vehicles can't follow. BOn a motorcycle, a cargo plane, or anything else that gets me there before I think too hard about it. CIn something that belongs to someone else — borrowed, stolen, or improvised under fire. DFirst class, with a cover identity and a gadget that does something I won't explain until it's needed. EBy whatever means are available — I've driven, flown, and once arrived by camel. The destination matters, not the method.

NEXT QUESTION →

You're pinned down and outnumbered. What does your ideal partner do? This is when you find out what someone is really made of.

ADisappears into the environment, flanks them silently, and ends it before I've reloaded. BCracks a one-liner, grabs a fire extinguisher or a chair, and improvises something that somehow works. CProduces a gadget specifically designed for this exact scenario and uses it with infuriating precision. DPulls out a whip, a pistol, and an archaeological insight that somehow gets us out alive. ENeutralises the threat with maximum efficiency and minimum words — they were already three moves ahead.

NEXT QUESTION →

The mission is paused. You have one evening to decompress. What does your partner suggest? Who someone is when the pressure drops is who they actually are.

AA bar with terrible lighting, cold beer, and absolutely no questions about feelings. BThe finest restaurant in the city, a bottle of something expensive, and a conversation that is equal parts brilliant and exhausting. CA local dig site, a museum after hours, or a long story about why that particular artefact matters to human civilisation. DPizza. Bad TV. Falling asleep halfway through a movie neither of you were watching anyway. EA debrief that turns into three hours of contingency planning that somehow becomes the most fun you've had all week.

NEXT QUESTION →

How do you prefer your partner to communicate mid-mission? Good communication is the difference between partners and a liability.

APrecise and minimal — tell me what I need to know and nothing else. Every word has a cost. BDeadpan and dry — keeping it light keeps me sharp, even when everything is on fire. CEnthusiastic and slightly chaotic — but always with useful information buried somewhere in the noise. DCalm and controlled through an earpiece, with a plan that covers every variable I haven't thought of yet. EBarely at all — silence is a language and they speak it fluently.

NEXT QUESTION →

Your enemy is powerful, well-resourced, and has the upper hand. How should your partner approach them? The approach to the enemy defines the partnership.

AInfiltrate their inner circle, learn everything, and dismantle them from inside out before they know we're there. BStudy the historical pattern — every villain of this type has a weakness written somewhere in the past. CGet them talking. The more they monologue, the more time I have to figure out how to beat them. DGo through them. Directly. With as much force as the terrain allows. EFind the one thing they haven't accounted for — there's always one thing — and make sure we're holding it.

NEXT QUESTION →

Things go badly wrong and you're captured. What do you trust your partner to do? Who someone is when you need them most is the only thing that matters.

ACome in alone, quietly, and get me out before anyone knows they were there. BHave already been working on the extraction since the moment I disappeared — the plan is already running. CCome in loud, come in fast, and worry about the collateral damage later — I'd do the same for them. DUse every resource, every contact, and bend every rule until I'm out — they don't leave people behind. ECharm their way in somehow, bluff through the hard part, and still manage to look good doing it.

NEXT QUESTION →

What does your ideal partner bring to the table that you couldn't replace? A great partner fills the gap you didn't know you had.

ATechnology that shouldn't exist yet and the training to use it under any conditions. BSurvival instinct so refined it borders on supernatural — and the scars to prove it's been tested. CKnowledge of history, language, and culture that makes them invaluable in places where force is useless. DThe ability to walk into any room in the world and immediately become the most trusted person in it. EStubbornness that refuses to accept a situation is hopeless — and the improvisational skill to back it up.

NEXT QUESTION →

Every partnership has a cost. Which of these can you live with? No one comes without baggage. The question is whether you can carry it together.

AA partner who never fully switches off — always watching exits, always calculating threats, even at dinner. BA partner who gets the job done brilliantly but has the emotional availability of a locked filing cabinet. CA partner who makes everything ten times more complicated than it needs to be — but who always comes through. DA partner who gets personally attached to every relic, ruin, and artefact we encounter, which slows everything down. EA partner who was not built for this and knows it — but shows up anyway, every time, without being asked.

NEXT QUESTION →

It's the final moment. Everything is on the line. What do you need from your partner right now? The last question is the most honest one.

AOne line. Absolutely dry. Delivered like the world isn't ending. Then we move. BNothing said at all — just a look that means we both already know what has to happen. CA plan I don't fully understand that somehow accounts for everything, delivered in thirty seconds flat. DA piece of historical context that reframes the entire situation and tells us exactly what to do next. ESomeone who steps forward instead of back — because that's who they've always been.

REVEAL MY PARTNER →

Your Partner Has Been Assigned Your Perfect Partner Is…

Your answers have pointed to one action hero above all others. This is the person built to have your back — for better or considerably, spectacularly worse.

Rambo

Your partner doesn't talk much, doesn't need to, and will have assessed every threat in your immediate environment before you've finished your first sentence. John Rambo is not a man of plans or politics — he is a force of nature shaped by survival, loyalty, and a capacity for endurance that goes beyond anything training can produce. He will not leave you behind. He has never left anyone behind who deserved to come home. What you get with Rambo is the most capable, most quietly ferocious partner imaginable — one who has been through things that would have broken anyone else, and who chose to keep going anyway. You'll never need to ask if he has your back. You'll just know.

James Bond

Your partner will arrive perfectly dressed, perfectly briefed, and with a cover story so convincing it'll take you a moment to remember what's actually true. James Bond is the most professionally dangerous person in any room he enters — and the most disarmingly charming, which is the point. He operates in a world of layers, where nothing is what it appears and every advantage is used without apology. You'll never be bored. You'll occasionally be furious. But when it matters — when the mission is genuinely on the line and the margin for error has collapsed to nothing — Bond is exactly the partner you want. He has survived things that have no business being survivable. He does it with style. That is not nothing.

Indiana Jones

Your partner will know the history, the language, the cultural context, and exactly why the thing everyone else is ignoring is actually the most important thing in the room. Indiana Jones is brilliant, reckless, and occasionally impossible — but he is also one of the most resourceful, most genuinely knowledgeable partners you could find yourself beside. He approaches every situation with a scholar's eye and a brawler's instinct, which is an unusual combination and a remarkably effective one. He hates snakes and gets personally attached to objects of historical significance, both of which will slow you down at least once. It doesn't matter. What Indy brings is irreplaceable — and the adventures you'll have together will be the kind people write books about. Assuming you survive them.

John McClane

Your partner was not supposed to be here. He does not have the right equipment, the right information, or anything approaching the right odds. He has a sarcastic remark and an absolute refusal to accept that the situation is as bad as it looks. John McClane is the greatest accidental hero in the history of action cinema — a man whose superpower is stubbornness, whose contingency plan is improvisation, and whose capacity to absorb punishment and keep moving would be alarming if it weren't so useful. He will complain the entire time. He will make it significantly more chaotic than it needed to be. And he will absolutely, unconditionally, without question come through when it counts. Yippee-ki-yay.

Ethan Hunt

Your partner has already run seventeen scenarios by the time you've finished reading the briefing, and the plan he's settled on involves at least two things that should be physically impossible. Ethan Hunt operates at the absolute edge of human capability — technically, physically, and intellectually — and he brings the same relentless precision to protecting his partners that he brings to dismantling organisations that shouldn't exist. He is not easy to know and he will never fully tell you everything. But he will carry the weight of the mission so completely, so absolutely, that your job is simply to trust him — and the remarkable thing is that trusting him always turns out to be the right call. The mission will be impossible. He will complete it anyway.

↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ

'Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers' (2022)

Speaking of movies that Looney Tunes fans may enjoy, Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers pulls from the Disney side of the animation department by revealing that Chip (John Mulaney) and Dale (Andy Samberg) are washed-up cartoon actors looking for another break. However, the former Rescue Rangers stars are soon pulled into a criminal conspiracy that involves likewise washed-up old Disney cartoon stars. It's meta on every level, and you won't expect where it all goes next.

Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers may have been a disappointment to fans who actually wanted more Rescue Rangers cartoons, but for the rest of us, it's chalk-full of industry in-jokes, homages to classic Disney animation, and commentary on the state of modern animation — the fact that there's a 3D-conversion surgery for old 2D cartoons is both brilliant and kind of sad. With plenty of surprising cameos throughout, you'll wish they made a sequel.

'The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle' (2000)

robert de niro, jason alexander, and rene Russo in the adventures of rocky and bullwinkle

Okay, give us the benefit of the doubt here. Admittedly, The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle may not be a sell for everyone. As far as live-action/cartoon hybrid movies go, it leaves a bit to be desired. However, for longtime fans of classic cartoons and youngsters who are discovering them for the first time, this 21st century take on "Moose and Squirrel" is actually lots of fun. Especially if you're already familiar with the original cartoon.

When a new film starring these two anthropomorphic forest dwellers is green-lit, Rocky (June Foray) and Bullwinkle (Keith Scott) find themselves thrust into the real-world just in time to stop Borris (Jason Alexander), Natasha (Rene Russo), and Fearless Leader (Robert De Niro) from taking over the world. With more celebrity cameos than you'll know what to do with, The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle is a strange film to be sure, but one that certainly feels in-step with the likes of Coyote vs. Acme.

'Sonic the Hedgehog' (2020)

After Sonic the Hedgehog was sent back to the literal drawing board after an egregious first attempt to bring the blue hedgehog into live-action, the film hit theaters and stunned audiences everywhere. When Sonic (Ben Schwartz) finds himself on Earth, the alien speedster befriends Montana sheriff Tom Wachowski (James Marsden), who aids him in evading the villainous Dr. Robotnik (Jim Carrey). Parents and kids alike will love this goofball take on the popular video game/cartoon franchise.

Of course, the best part about Sonic and its sequels goes beyond the titular character. Jim Carrey is back in rare '90s form here as he dives head-first back into the sorts of roles that made his career in the first place. Sonic the Hedgehog is a blast, following in Scooby-Doo's footsteps by inserting a talking animated character into the real-world without anyone batting an eye. Well, they bat a few eyes since he's technically an alien, but people are not nearly as freaked out as they should be.

'Looney Tunes: Back in Action' (2003)

When it comes to Looney Tunes interacting with the real world around them, there's possibly no better take on the concept (meta or otherwise) than Looney Tunes: Back in Action. The stunning collaboration between toons like Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck (both voiced by Joe Alaskey) and popular stars like Brendan Fraser and Jenna Elfman, Back in Action is a meta take on Hollywood and the Looney Tunes in general that doubles as a family-friendly adventure flick. It's a great time.

Sure, it may not be counted among the greatest Brendan Fraser movies, but Looney Tunes: Back in Action is a blast that deserves to be remembered after Coyote vs. Acme. Fraser and Elfman are great, but it's the emphasis on Bugs and Daffy that really makes this movie work. Sure, some of the gags are a bit dated, but you'll laugh far more than you think when you revisit this gem after all these years.

'Who Framed Roger Rabbit' (1988)

Bob Hoskins looks annoyed as he is handcuffed to Roger the cartoon rabbit in Who Framed Roger Rabbit

Last but certainly not least, no list of movies like Coyote vs. Acme would be complete without Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Not only did it pioneer the animation/live-action hybrid concept by using photo-realistic interactions between characters, but it perfected the idea as a neo-noir murder mystery with comedic overtones and plenty of cartoon cameos — including the only ever on-screen pairing of Bugs Bunny (Mel Blanc) and Mickey Mouse (Wayne Allwine). Based partially on the book by Gary K. Wolf, director Robert Zemeckis reworked the material into something truly groundbreaking.

Who Framed Roger Rabbit follows depressed P.I. Eddie Valiant (Bob Hoskins) as he's tossed into a new case that intersects Roger Rabbit (Charles Fleischer), his cartoon wife Jessica (Kathleen Turner), and the Acme Corporation. Of all the films on this list, this one is easily the most iconic for its innovations in the world of live-action and animation hybridization, making entire generations wonder how our world might look if cartoons really were real. This is Hollywood animation that has aged like fine wine.