Coyote Vs Acme | 2026
- Locations |
- New Mexico
- DIRECTOR |
- Dave Green
The clever and entertaining part-animated homage to Looney Tunes cartoons stays true to the supposed setting of New Mexico, being filmed around the state's largest city, Albuquerque.
Thankfully rescued from Tax Write-off Hell, Coyote Vs Acme finally hits the big screen. The roadrunner is the state bird of New Mexico, so that's where we assume the cartoons were set and appropriately the live-action parts of this part animated romp were filmed around Albuquerque.
After years of suffering injuries caused by falling anvils, jet-powered roller-skates and magnetic gloves in his pursuit of Roadrunner, Wile E Coyote is finally prompted by a TV ad to sue the ACME Corporation over their notoriously faulty products.
Cartoon characters seem more than usually prone to accidental injuries – Porky Pig gets squashed by the wrecking ball on Central Avenue at the intersection with 3rd Street in Downtown Albuquerque.
The TV ad is for personal injury law firm 'Avery, Jones and Maltese' which specialises in cartoon-related injuries. Coyote heads to the firm's office, 9631 Menaul Boulevard NE at Eubank Boulevard NE, on a strip mall in the Conchas Park district, eastern Albuquerque.
There are plenty of nods to the classic Warner Bros Looney Tunes animations, particularly in the names of the law firm's partners – obviously referencing animators Tex Avery and Chuck Jones, but also the less well-known screenwriter Michael Maltese who, along with Jones, created Coyote and Road Runner back in 1949.
According to the rules of the series set down by Chuck Jones "All materials, tools, weapons, or mechanical conveniences, must be obtained from the Acme Corporation."
Hapless attorney Kevin Avery (Will Forte), lodging in the 'Prickly Pear Motel', finds himself lumbered with the annoyingly hyperactive Coyote staying in the adjoining room. Under all the set dressing, the motel is the Downtown Inn, 1213 Central Ave NW.
The modest law firm finds itself pitted against the resources of the mighty 'Acme Corporation', whose intimidatingly vast glass frontage is the UNM Film & Digital Arts Building, 5700 University Boulevard SE, at Mesa del Sol, way south of Albuquerque International Sunport.
The building's lobby, though, is that of the Audi dealership at 8900 Pan American Fwy NE, south of Eagle Rock Avenue NE.
And the company's legal office, where ruthless lawyer Buddy Crane (John Cena) tries every trick in the book to thwart Coyote's case, was in New Mexico Mutual, 5201 Balloon Fiesta Parkway NE.
The hidden park behind '666 Scary Road Drive' where Daffy Duck is discovered is the ABQ Biopark Botanic Garden, 2601 Central Avenue NW, a 36-acre living environmental garden east of Downtown, beside the Rio Grande, which showcases the varied plants of the Southwest USA and similar arid climates.
When the claim is finally heard, it's in Bernalillo County Metropolitan Court, 401 Lomas Boulevard NW, Albuquerque. That's not the court's actual interior but that's the court's Rotunda on which Kevin finds himself besieged by the press.
The case finally gets to Congress so it's off to "Washington DC" – kind of. The DC scenes were filmed around Copper Avenue in the Albuquerque Original Townsite, just south of Downtown.
Here you'll find the 'DC' hotel, which is Albuquerque's Clyde Hotel, 330 Tijeras Avenue NW.
Most of the New Mexico landcapes through which Roadrunner gets chased are animated, but when Kevin finally bids farewell to Coyote, those striking banded cliffs are on Hwy 550 in the private tribal Jemez and Zia Puebos area about 35 miles north of Albuquerque itself.
* Grateful thanks to Cyndy McCrossen of the Albuquerque Film Office for invaluable assistance.
