Movies - Acme Corporation

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	Movies - Acme Corporation

:For other uses of the word Acme, see Acme.

The Acme Corporation is a fictional corporation that exists in the Looney Tunes
universe. It made its first appearance in a Buddy cartoon (Buddy's Bug Hunt), and it also appeared in the Egghead cartoon Count Me Out in which Egghead purchases a "Learn How To Box" kit from Acme. The Acme Corporation was featured most prominently in the Road Runner/Wile E. Coyote cartoons.

The company name is never clearly defined, but one explanation is that it exists as a version of the conglomerate which produces everything and anything imaginable (leading to the backronym "A Company that Makes Everything"), no matter how elaborate or extravagant. Another explanation is simply that the cartoons' creators capitalized on the popular early twentieth century trend of real companies using Acme in their name (to create name recognition, and so that they would appear at the front of the phone book).

In Warner Bros. cartoons, Acme products were most commonly purchased (by mail order) by Wile E. Coyote who ordered many weapons in his failed attempts to catch the Road Runner. They were also commonly seen in Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck cartoons. Acme products usually tend to backfire in a comedic fashion; at least one internet site (see below) has used the repeated failure of Acme products (and Coyote's frequent resulting physical injuries) to create a fictitious "lawsuit" against Acme.

The Tiny Toons Adventures series expanded on Acme's influence, with the entire setting of the show taking place in a city called "Acme Acres". The show's young protagonists attended "Acme Looniversity."

In the cartoon Pinky and the Brain, the duo lived in "Acme Labs."

The 1988 movie Who Framed Roger Rabbit
attempted to explain Acme's inner workings in greater detail. The movie's plot is centered on the murder of Marvin K. Acme, the multi-millionaire founder and CEO of Acme Incorporated. His motto was, "If it's Acme, it's a gasser!"

In an episode of the Animaniacs, Albert Einstein was having trouble coming up with his E=mc² equation, and Yakko, Wacko and Dot came in and wrote the word "ACME" backwards (Wakko wrote the "A" in "ACME", which looked like a "2") and Einstein proceeded to include an "=" between the "M" and the "E", ending up with "E=mc²".

Most recently, the 2003 movie Looney Tunes: Back in Action
showed the head offices of Acme, revealed to be a multinational corporation whose executive officers were led by a Bond-esque supervillian. Called "Mr. Chairman" and portrayed by Steve Martin, this man is the executor of his father's estate, and whose real name is not revealed, but presumably Marvin K. Acme, Jr.

Cultural references

In the movie Last Action Hero
with Arnold Schwarzenegger, some bad guys throw ACME dynamite at the hero Jack Slater.

In the movie The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
, ammunition boxes labeled "ACME EXTRA" are in the background in the ammo shop scene where Tuco (Eli Wallach) builds himself a customized revolver.

In MGM's Tom and Jerry short O-Solar-Meow, Tom buys a jet pack from "Ajax".

Acme is a brandname found on a wide variety of fictional products in Gary Larson's Far Side comics, although on some the logo shown is "A1".

In most of the recently-produced Disney cartoons seen in the series House of Mouse, Disney created their own answer to Acme, a fictional company called "Ajax."

In some Microsoft Office installations, there is an ACME.EXE, that just launches the setup.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Acme Corporation ]

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