Coyote Vs. ACME Experience

After years of delays due to studio interference, Coyote Vs. ACME was finally released into theaters due to the passionate protests of curious fans wanting to see the movie that the studio in all its infinite wisdom, decided it’d be more profitable to use the completed movie as a tax-write off, rather than release it in theaters.  Being a mix of live action and animation, it’s very much a spiritual successor to Roger Rabbit.  It might not reach the highs of that modern classic (the bar was astronomical) but it comes close.

This is not a review of the movie itself, but of my experience of going into the theater itself.  I personally hadn’t attended a movie theater in years, due to being unable to understand what was going on, or having a concise summary beforehand.  (The last movie I saw was a foreign movie with subtitles, Cache, that I was less than enthused about)  Even when I was told that there were captioning devices that could transcribe the spoken lines to curious deaf people wanting to attend, I still didn’t come.  I preferred instead to wait for it to be released on home video, or available on cable, even if it meant being a year behind everybody else’s pop culture knowledge.

This was the first time I actually had a movie I was actually interested in seeing that I wanted to share with someone.  A movie I was aware of, thanks to a leaked plot summary that was released back when it looked like Coyote might never see the light of day.  A summary that I decided not to see again until I actually saw the results for myself.  A summary I only had vague memories of, not having read it in over 2 years, and wanted to preserve some semblance of surprise.

There were references to other movies, such as Deep Throat from All the President’s Men, and courtroom corporate dramas such as Erin Brockovich, A Civil Action, Silkwood (a Oklahoma nuclear facility worker whistleblower) and Dark Waters (a lawyer braving against a corporation dealing with the dangers of Teflon).

But enough of that, I’ll get back to the movie experience.

Before getting to the theater, I prepared myself by asking my sibling about their experience with using the subtitles.  They mentioned that there was some trickiness with the cable, lining it up properly against the screen.  (More on this later) my sibling also mentioned that in order to use the captioning device, they had to hand over their ID, such as a driver’s license or Medicare card, so as not to let the theatergoer leave their valuable device with them.  I also didn’t know if the captioning went by lines as a whole per scene, or scrolled like during news broadcasts.

I arrived at the theater half an hour early to make sure I would be on time, but also to make sure that there would be enough time to get the captioning device and beat the rush.  Turned out there wasn’t much of a lineup for the middle of the day in the middle of the week.  As I said, I don’t have much movie-going experience.

There was some slight panic on my part as the guy who was supposed to hand out captioning devices wasn’t there, but was reassured that he’d be around shortly.  After which, I was given the captioning device without having to sacrifice my ID in return.  Making our way to the seats, I set about trying to figure out how to wrangle the device in the dim previews lighting.  There was a gooseneck cable that could be bent, and a base that was supposed to fit into the cupholder portion of the seat.  Only, the base wouldn’t “click” properly, and there was a metallic base jutting from an awkward angle, and it took considerable time before I finally mange to wrestle it into a suitable shape for comfortable viewing.  I like my captions to be horizontal to the screen.

There were three buttons underneath, one for turning it on, one for selecting the language, and one for selecting the theater.  It was important to select the right button for the right theater, otherwise, you’d wind up getting captioning for the wrong movie.  Turns out it’s very easy to accidentally click the wrong button in the dark.  I was constantly rotating through the other 32 theaters in an attempt to get back to the right theater, and then going over the limit again.  Like channel flipping too quickly that the only way to get back is to go through the entire directory.

To my surprise, there were captions available for the previews, which I was sure wouldn’t be available, as I asked my sibling about their existence beforehand, and was told there likely wouldn’t be any available, so seeing the dialogue for these features came as a pleasant surprise.  The captions showed up in rapid succession, 2 lines at a time at a speed I was accustomed to.  Then during the 3rd preview, no subtitles appeared, which I thought was fine, as only music played for a silent movie staring Shaun the Sheep.  But during the 4th preview, no subtitles appeared, particularly during when dialogue should’ve shown up.

When the actual movie started, it started off not with the slapstick antics I expected, but a prologue starring (Dr.) Peter Lorre, the perpetual toothy smile fishy-bedroom eyed caricature so omnipresent in numerous Looney Tunes shorts.  There was essential dialogue being spoken throughout, and I decided to rely on my live transcribe app on my cellphone, something I’d hoped I wouldn’t have to use, as one of the people in the seats ahead of me was using her phone, and it was distractingly bright.  (She thankfully turned her phone off for the movie)   I tried to minimize my screen on dark mode so as not to disturb the watchers behind me, while my friend went to the manager to get a replacement captioning device.

I was essentially looking at three different screens at once.  The movie screen itself, the captioning screen, and my cellphone.  In addition, the live transcribe’s latest update now posts the newest lines right at the bottom, so I was missing several micro-second details than usual.  There were a lot of onscreen Easter Eggs I missed because of that.

But even with a replacement, there were times when subtitled lines failed to appear, and I had to rely on live transcribe more than once.

Only getting every other

very annoying.

You might get the gist, but

is lost.

This wasn’t an isolated experience.  My TV would also

shows had important lines missing.

beginning sentences would be cut off.

single word.

constantly puzzle out the clues from the brief scraps I was

sometimes the captioning device would repeat the last line

moving onto the next

sometimes the captioning device would repeat the last line

where a solitary line of the next dialogue showed up.

When the movie was over, my friend went to the manager to complain on my behalf, and said I should have a refund.  Something I didn’t know was possible.  I captured about 85% of what was being said, which was quite verbose for a feature featuring silent pantomimic cartoon characters dealing in slapstick.  Ironically enough, the movie’s theme which was about dealing with faulty products was almost spoiled due to the result of a faulty captioning device.

I still feel a little bad about getting my money back, even though it sent a message that the theater could’ve worked on their captioning devices better.  When the time comes that this movie gets released on physical media, I’ll get my personal copy.  As for the captioning devices, there’s several tips I have to improve the design:

1. Make the gooseneck cord more flexible AND sturdier.

2. Have the base snap into the cupholder more accurately.

3. Regarding the above, shorten the gooseneck cord significantly so that it doesn’t wind up winding all over the place.

These are basic solutions that anybody who’d field tested these things in the field could’ve suggested during production.

After that experience, I think I prefer watching movies in the privacy of my home.

In Search of an Elusive Good Rabbit Artist

When it comes to sharing age-old comics that only registers in the memory of old-school comic readers, there's the borderline legal impetus to share that joy by posting scans of some notable short stories, like The Horrors of it All,  Four Color Shadows, Big Blog Comics, Pappy's Golden Age, and recently, the defunct Looney Comics of Matthew Hunter who started his blog to share some Looney Tunes comics with his opinions on them.

For the most part, most of the Warner Bros. Comics had sub-par art and stiff off-model characters.  But there was one exception.  In the few Looney Tunes comics that happened to fall in my hands, there was always one story that seemed to be slightly above average than the others.

For some reason, Elmer's line of "That's my Gwandfather you're punching!"
is endearably funny to me.

A long time ago (circa 2016), Mike Sterling made the claim that there never was a “Good Rabbit Artist” and the reason Carl Barks comics was fondly remembered while Warner Bros. Comics weren’t.  For the longest time, this confused me, since I thought this was the elusive artist that'd fit the profile.

It's unusual for Bugs to build up to trickery, rather than just bulldoze his way
into forcing others into whatever reality he deems plausible.

Nowadays, we'd recognize Bugs' tactics as gaslighting,
but at the time, I thought it was typical trickster tactics.

I started doing some research, but absent a name, I had no way of identifying him.  By process of elimination, I knew he wasn't Ed Volke, Pete Alvarado, Chase Craig, Roger Armstrong, Tom McKimson or Charles McKimson [no relation?].

It was only by going through the Comics Database that I found this elusive clean line artstyle showcasing Bugs Bunny with highly defined buck teeth than usual was most likely Phil de Lara, who also did the Porky Pig and Daffy Duck comics in the same issues.  The Bugs Bunny comics were also 10 pages long, which gave rise to the allusion that these were higher quality material, especially since the shorter comics weren’t as strong.

He was quite the prolific artist, working in animation, for both Warner Bros. and Walt Disney, Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Foghorn Leghorn, Chip & Dale and Woody Woodpecker.

My enthusiasm upon finding these comics was dampened upon actually seeing them all at once.  One factor that comes up is that the Warner Bros. Comics bear little resemblance to the cartoons that inspired them.  The majority of the Bugs Bunny comics had Bugs be on a frenemy terms with Elmer, and there were plots involving cursed idols, running across crooks, and casual racism which would make reprinting such stories a problem.

As with any adaptation of licensed products, there was a tendency to misunderstand the allure of the characters, grafting known marketable traits onto new properties that were known to work.  Somewhat similar to the Weekday episodes of The Real Ghostbusters where the team temporarily branched out into Crimebusters, cracking down on criminals.  Not exactly the same as tracking down and analyzing ghosts, which made the team more like cops than anything, which wasn’t what they were supposed to be doing anyways!

The difference between the nameless comics and the Carl Barks classics is that for all of Phil de Lara's skills, he worked off someone else's anonymous script.  If given the chance, could he have used his imagination to create something that could've expanded on the nature of the Warner Bros. cartoons?  We may never know.

There's no animal such as a pip-squeak, but if there were, would it behave any differently from how Elmer portrayed one here?

I normally would’ve ended this post here had I not in my searches come across this otherwise unremarkable story from 1957 where Bugs encounters Elmer on the docks in an inconspicuous disguise and WAITAMINIT.

That steamboat with cargo looks awfully familiar...

In fact, this whole setup is directly lifted off from The Crab with the Golden Claws, which was published in 1947, a full decade later, basically summarizing a 48-page comic classic in under 10 pages.

For any American ignorant of Tintin, this would be another unremarkable story, but for any comic connoisseurs in the know, this would be deliberate plagiarism, or at the very least, an indirect homage.

One other fault with these Warner Bros. comics is that the ending can be abrupt and with a somewhat unsatisfying joke, even for a condensed 10-page comic like this one.  As such, it seems we won't be seeing a collection of Phil De Lara's works anytime soon.