Edgar Allan Pooh
. . . there was no need to wait until the 2016 U.S. Presidential Primaries to find out. Long before any American had even heard of Trump or Cruz, Warner Bros. was predicting trouble along the Southern U.S. Border as early as the animated short SPEEDY GONZALEZ from the Mid-1950s. Warner uses rodents to represent Mexican citizens eager to steal the fruits of American Labor and Industry. These lazy creatures are portrayed as not lifting a finger to produce their own food, harboring the sole interest of illegally crossing our border to steal our stuff. Their entire survival is dependent upon filching food from the American Working Class. Warner uses Sylvester Cat to symbolize the heroic American Border Guards risking Injury & Death to stand as a Last Line of Defense against the Economic Terrorists to the South. About 1:38 into this story, Sylvester adds "Manuel's" sombrero to those of at least 7 other Mexicans (and more likely 50 or 100) that this extraordinary border nemesis has dispatched so far. Then a new racing robber literally tears Sylvester a new one. Warner then suggests that the only way to protect our cheese (or the Wealth of America) from these rapacious Mini-Rats to the South is to create a No Man's Land with a full stock of land mines and other defenses. But Milhouse Nixon turned a blind eye toward SPEEDY GONZALEZ, and now an expensive wall must be built.
Horst in Translation (filmreviews@web.de)
This is a 7-minute animated short film that won the Academy Award 60 years ago. It was the first (or second) that featured Speedy Gonzalez, the fastest mouse in all Mexico. His pals really need him as a bloodlusty cat is guarding the local cheese factory and it has taken many mice from them already. Only their hats still exist. I thought this was a good watch with a couple funny moments, for example when all the mice sit in an egg carton which looks like a stand at a stadium and they applaud him. This cartoon also has a touch of Roadrunner vs. Coyote to it, mainly because of Speedy's velocity, but also because of all the technical equipment Sylvester uses to catch him and it backfires all the time, sometimes even in the truest sense of the word. Oh yeah and all that cheese looked really delicious too at the end. Good short film. Recommended and if you enjoy it take a look at the many more Speedy cartoons out there from the years after this one.
MartinHafer
This is probably one of the best Speedy Gonzales cartoons. While I strongly agree with another reviewer who said they "hated Speedy Gonzales" and he was "overrated", I must admit this was a pretty good cartoon. It was a lot of fun watching Sylvester get tortured throughout the film by Speedy as he ran back and forth grabbing goodies for his starving mouse friends. I think, though, that apart from a few early Speedy cartoons, they were definitely a few notches below the other Loony Toons cartoons. In fact, in the 1960s, they inexplicably paired Speedy with Daffy Duck to produce what were probably the worst Warner cartoons since the mid-1930s. Watch and enjoy this film--just be forewarned about other Speedy pictures.
movieman_kev
The native mice of Mexico want some American cheese, but Sylvester the cat is guarding the border. After a few disastrous attempts to get at it. They send for Speedy Gonzales to get pass this gringo pussycat. The second appearance of Speedy is a classic and cemented yet another great character in the already impressive array of Looney stars. Don't listen to the mind-stealing PC police, Speedy is funny. This Oscar-winning animated short can be found on disc 4 of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 1 and features an optional music only track as well as a commentary by Jerry Beck.My Grade: A
AD
