Unlikely as it may seem, midway through “Coyote vs. Acme,” the new Looney Tunes film directed by Dave Green, I found myself thinking of Robert Bresson’s World War II prison drama “A Man Escaped” (1956).

Specifically, I thought of the scene where captured French resistance fighter Fontaine explains to another prisoner why he scrapes at the wooden door of his cell with a spoon everyday, despite the near-impossibility of escape. Fontaine replies: “To fight. To fight the walls, to fight myself, to fight the door.” He encourages his compatriot also to “fight and hope.”

It’s hard to imagine anything further from Bresson’s sparse, meditative style than a Looney Tunes movie. But ridiculous as it sounds, I believe the eternally thwarted Wile E. Coyote would identify with Fontaine’s philosophy. After all, why would he continue to chase the Road Runner when his attempts always end in painful, humiliating failure, unless he drew some sense of purpose from the struggle itself?

The film opens after another one of those failures, abetted—as always—by malfunctioning gadgets produced by the Acme Corporation. Frustrated, Wile E. sees a commercial for the personal injury lawyer Kevin Avery (Will Forte), who specializes in Acme-related lawsuits, and decides to fight back. But Kevin is no crusader: He stays in business by settling those Acme cases for modest sums before they go to trial. But spurred by his go-getter niece/intern Paige (Lana Condor) and the coyote’s insistence, Kevin finds himself preparing for a major trial against Acme’s razor-sharp corporate lawyer, Buddy Crane (John Cena, who interacts so naturally with his animated co-stars that I am now dying to see him in a Muppets movie).

As you might glean from this description, “Coyote vs. Acme” takes place in a hybrid world where real people and cartoon characters exist side-by-side. This isn’t the first time the Looney Tunes have done this (most famously, of course, in the 1996 Michael Jordan vehicle “Space Jam”), but the film’s primary point of reference is clearly Robert Zemeckis’ “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” (1988). As in “Roger Rabbit,” the cartoons of “Coyote vs. Acme” stand apart from the human populace in one very important way: They recover almost immediately from any injury. This makes their pain a source of humor for others (that’s the entire ethos of the Looney Tunes series)—and leaves them vulnerable to exploitation by sinister forces like Acme.

The corporate satire of “Coyote vs. Acme” is unusually sharp for a children’s film. We see Acme’s close ties with the defense industry, its bribery of state and federal politicians. They make everything from phones to sprinklers. They’re not just Goliath; they’re practically God. When an issue of legality arises, Crane laughs it off: “The law is on our side, because we wrote the law.” Holding corporate wrongdoers accountable for their crimes seems as futile of a quest in this half-cartoon world as it does in our own.

Hammering home the point, the film makes frequent reference to the myth of Sisyphus, the Greek king cursed by the gods to eternally roll a boulder up a hill only to watch it roll back down again (this extends to the marketing: the poster shows Wile E. rolling a massive cartoon bomb up a hill). The myth itself is a nightmare of futility, but the film seems to share existentialist philosopher Albert Camus’ interpretation, as outlined in his famous 1942 book The Myth of Sisyphus. Camus concludes: “The struggle itself towards the heights is enough to fill a man’s heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy.” 

Wile E. Coyote, the film says, is such a Sisyphean figure. He continues in his pursuit of the Road Runner despite the likelihood of failure because he is fueled by a transcendent hope. That hope largely involves a bird roasted on a plate, but it is transcendent nonetheless because it inspires him to persevere in the face of despair and frustration. The struggle itself gives his life purpose and meaning, even if he never achieves his ultimate desire.

And while Camus was writing about finding personal meaning in a godless universe, this idea resonates for people of faith as well. What is faith, if not pursuing a seemingly ridiculous goal based on a hope that defies logic? A friend and fellow Millennial dad texted me the cover of Søren Kierkegaard’s book Purity of Heart Is to Will One Thing after seeing “Coyote vs. Acme,” and I think that’s a perfect comparison. In his absurd and tireless pursuit, Wile E. Coyote acts with pure faith.

It’s a testament to the movie that it can provoke this much intellectual meandering in a parent while also being wildly entertaining to children. My kids, believe it or not, were not thinking about Bresson, Camus or Kierkegaard: They were cracking up at the slapstick and getting deeply emotionally invested in a cartoon coyote. But I like to think that the next time we watch a Coyote and Road Runner cartoon (as we do from time to time), they’ll have a different perspective on Wile E. That, perhaps, they will see him as a more sympathetic, even dignified, figure, not simply the butt of a joke.

Like its protagonists, “Coyote vs. Acme” had its own battle with a corporate giant. The film was completed in 2023 but shelved indefinitely by Warner Bros. Discovery in order to claim a $30 million tax write-off. After fierce backlash, Warner Bros. reversed the decision and allowed the filmmakers to shop the film around to other distributors, resulting in its acquisition by Ketchup Entertainment last year. The film, which Warner Bros. originally claimed would be a commercial failure, had a sensational opening weekend, coming second only to summer box office juggernaut “Spider-Man: Brand New Day.” In layman’s terms: The cartoon David knocked Goliath off his feet.

Both the film itself and its behind-the-scenes drama offer one of the most inspirational messages of the summer movie slate: Don’t lose faith. We will face struggles and obstacles in our lives. So often doing the right thing seems futile and the forces of power—the Acmes of the world—seem unbeatable. But we find meaning in dedication, even if we never see the fruits of our labors. Wile E. Coyote fails again and again, but when the dust clears he thinks: “Maybe tomorrow.” Sure, it’s ridiculous. But that’s what makes it an act of faith.

John Dougherty is the director of mission and ministry at St. Joseph’s Preparatory School in Philadelphia, Pa.