“Coyote vs. Acme” speaks volumes without saying a word. Wile E. Coyote conveys his hunger in a glower. The Roadrunner celebrates his escape with a “beep beep.” And next to the opening Warner Bros. logo, there’s an asterisk that reads, “A wholly owned subsidiary of the Acme Corporation.” As in, the bad guys of the film.

Harry, Albert, and Jack Warner purchased Looney Tunes in the 1940s just as the cartoon franchise was entering its prime. Today, the studio is run by the conglomerate Warner Bros. Discovery; tomorrow, that might metastasize into Paramount-WBD. The Warners weren’t saints (boy, are there stories about Jack), but I suspect they’d see that asterisk as a black mark on their reputation for green-lighting punkish crowd-pleasers while laughing their tails off at “Coyote vs. Acme’s” anarchic humor, as I did. The studio’s current leadership canceled the film’s release for a tax break. Upon protest, Warner Bros. reversed course and sold the movie, which did little to allay concerns that its favorite creatives are accountants.

Instead, “Coyote vs. Acme” is being distributed by Ketchup Entertainment, which also released last summer’s “The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie.” That one bungled the tone: Porky Pig twerked. But “Coyote” director Dave Green nails it. Working with screenwriter Samy Burch (of Todd Haynes’ twisted thriller“May December”— talk about range), he’s made a brisk comedy that looks, sounds and entertains just like a proper Looney Tunes feature. In salute, they’ve named their movie’s fictional law firm Avery, Jones and Maltese, as in animation legends Tex, Chuck and Michael, the latter of whom wrote the classic short“What’s Opera, Doc?” that stuck Bugs Bunny in blond braids and a bra.

Here in this alt-world Albuquerque, 2D creatures coexist with mundane strip malls. Porky Pig and Daffy Duck aren’t celebrities but second-class citizens forced to order their shoddy goods from Acme, a monopoly that ships everything in oddly familiar blue and brown boxes. Humans mostly shop at Acme, too, with Green slapping its logo on normal cellphones, computers and, yikes, government missiles. Everyone’s getting a raw deal. But only cartoons are continually getting concussed.

Timid personal injury lawyer Kevin Avery ( Will Forte ) scrapes by on quick, low-stakes payouts, Acme tossing his clients a couple hundred bucks for their fast-healing wounds. His idealistic intern and niece, Paige ( Lana Condor ), is disappointed that her mentor’s sole streak of boldness is promoting his services on billboards that scream, “Injured by a falling piano?”

However, Kevin’s tenacious new client Wile E. Coyote refuses to settle. He’s given Acme a pile of money for defective rocket-powered roller skates and flying suits and gotten zilch. Maybe in the courtroom of Luis Guzman’s impatient judge, the thwarted predator can finally win.

Or not. “Coyote vs. Acme” is funny but not fantastical about the odds of success in a David vs. Goliath fight. You’ll notice that the coyote isn’t even accorded a jury of his peers, merely two animated jurors out of 12, and one is a silly goose.

Worse, Acme is represented by John Cena’s ferocious defense attorney Buddy Crane, the former wrestler making full use of his cartoonish features: lantern jaw, perma-frown, and a bull neck thick enough for boulder-sized bolo ties. Where Forte’s wimpy Kevin is a send-up of human fragility, Cena’s Buddy has the shatterproof ego of the rooster Foghorn Leghorn, who also happens to be Acme’s CEO. Green has his braggadocious billionaire Foghorn barge into scenes like the second-coming of John Goodman, although it’s probably more accurate to guess that Goodman was inspired by him. Foghorn also gets one of the film’s best zingers, crowing that Acme is “a company of family values that values its family of companies.”

The cameos are so great that I won’t spoil a single surprise other than to say that voice actor Eric Bauza does a good Mel Blanc (and that skunk Pepé Le Pew is dealt with appropriately.) Still, Wile E. Coyote is the right star. Bugs may be Looney Tunes’ face, but the coyote is its soul. His mute misadventures are the purest expression of animation’s freedom to do and draw anything. From the Coen brothers’“Raising Arizona” to Mike Cheslik’s recent low-budget treat“Hundreds of Beavers,” the coyote’s style and tone and big sky landscapes have influenced so much of modern cinema that my editor once told me to stop bringing it up. Not today, pal.

Cinematographer Brandon Trost does an incredible job blending classic 2D animation into drab law offices and conference rooms. The naturalistic lighting design is especially clutch. Elsewhere, composer Steven Price playfully asks his choir to sing the Roadrunner’s signature sound atop his dramatic orchestral score, saving a few “beep beeps” to censor the DJ Shadow rap track that grooves as lawyers try to serve the bird a subpoena.

“Coyote vs. Acme” is the right comedy for right now. Acme is essentially running our society, too, crushing consumers with shrinkflation, planned obsolescence and help lines staffed by AI bots. Wile E. Coyote isn’t asking for a handout. If anything, he’s a true believer in the American Dream, willingly and literally breaking his back to put food on his table. Yet, every day ends with him retreating to his cave in exhaustion.

Green doesn’t go too far transforming him into a sympathetic hero. While the coyote’s expressive yellow eyes nearly make you sniffle, he remains a carnivore with sharp black claws. The film’s argument — even he deserves better from the company that’s made a fortune selling him bunk — feels rousing, even revolutionary.

I have no idea what children will make of a movie with as many semi-serious gags about extortionate legal bills as silly ones where a spider mugs a bug.“Who Framed Roger Rabbit,”“Coyote’s” closest analogue, had an easier job layering wacky chase scenes over its critique of Los Angeles’ potholed legacy of public transportation. Kids will have to grow up rewatching “Coyote” to fully appreciate it and I’m not confident they will.

Then again, maybe it’s fine if “Coyote’s” main audience is adults. After all, it originated as a highbrow humor piece in a 1990 issue of the New Yorker. “Coyote vs. Acme” would be very different if it had been made back in that decade where frivolous lawsuits were steady late-night joke fodder. Comics took so many shots at the 79-year-old Albuquerque woman who sued McDonald’s over a scalding cup of coffee that swayed Americans allowed tort reform to tilt the balance of power from customers to companies. Only afterward did the public see pictures of the plaintiff’s third-degree burns and realize she’d been right.

It’s been a long road from that pivotal New Mexican trial to this hilarious cartoon version, with corporations erecting bigger and bigger speed bumps. Consider “Coyote vs. Acme” a tantalizing pile of popcorn in the median. Green’s sign in it reads: Stop to laugh at the scam.

'Coyote vs. Acme'

Rated: PG, for cartoon violence and some language

Running time: 1 hour, 43 minutes

Playing: Opens Friday, Aug. 28, in wide release

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