Edgar Allan Pooh
" . . . you're nothing but a bunch of rats," Warner Bros.' Looney Tuners rage through their mouthpiece of Sylvester Cat in the VERY FIRST American Presidential Endorsement for Donald Trump, noted author of Capitalist How-To-Be-A-Billionaire-Like-Me books, such as WHO STOLE MY CHEESE? Sylvester's goal as the title character for THE PIED PIPER OF GUADALUPE is to round up all Spanish-speaking Americans, no doubt with an eye toward their eventual deportation (sound familiar yet?). Warner's animators depict a Mexican Gang--led by Speedy Gonzalez--as Lawless Terrorists, defying Authority (Sylvester), blowing up random bystanders (a bulldog), and causing a public transit vehicle to crash by sabotaging street signs. (This being a cartoon aimed at BOTH kiddies and their parents, the only Trump Campaign Slur about Mexicans Warner does not echo-in-advance is the Trumpster's comment about "rapists.") Of course, as a stand-in for Trumpenstein, Sylvester's ability to transform everyone into mindless automatons through a few musical phrases also foreshadows the millions of Angry Loonies who've already voted for the Trumpeter Swan so far in the Primaries.
Tweekums
This is a fairly funny Speedy & Sylvester short. Sylvester is fed up up being tormented by the mice of Guadalupe so learns to play the flute so he can lure them out of their mouse hole and into a large jar. This works well until he tries it on Speedy who seems immune to the musics hypnotic effects. He starts rescuing his friends; freeing another each time Sylvester uncorks the bottle to catch him.The best gag is when Sylvester chases him on a motor bike and is lured over a cliff, as Sylvester realises his inevitable fate his eyes bulge out so far they burst through his goggles. After more chasing he crashes his bike through a bus and ends up in hospital, as he leaves Speedy offers him the flute back but Sylvester makes the mistake of saying he can keep it.
slymusic
Directed by Friz Freleng, "The Pied Piper of Guadalupe" is a brilliant Speedy Gonzales/Sylvester cartoon. Sylvester learns to play the flute so that he can hypnotize a group of mice into dancing and subsequently trapping themselves inside a jug. It's then up to Speedy to outwit Sylvester and rescue his "compadres".Highlights: Speedy dances gracefully to Sylvester's flute melody (a familiar Mexican hat dance) before clobbering the slobbering cat with a mallet. As Sylvester rides a motorcycle to chase Speedy, Sylvester's bulging eyeballs break the glass on his goggles just before he rides off a cliff in an overhead shot; completely underwater, his motorcycle elicits some flatulent sounds. In the end, Speedy turns the tables on Sylvester (who is now on crutches and wrapped in bandages, with his foot in a cast) by playing HIS flute; Sylvester loudly protests as his body hypnotically hops along to the hat dance! "The Pied Piper of Guadalupe" will surely tickle your funny bone as it does mine. In fact, it's one of my favorite Speedy Gonzales cartoons!
Lee Eisenberg
A fairly entertaining short in which Sylvester tries to become the Pied Piper to catch the mice, but Speedy Gonzales outdoes him once again. I think that my favorite part in "The Pied Piper of Guadalupe" was how Sylvester plays the flute and attracts the mice (or maybe when they keep conking him on the head). In a way, it seems like Speedy actually has a smaller role in this one than in his usual pairings with Sylvester. But Sylvester always has some neat things to do (as you may have guessed, one of them involves dynamite). So, it's not the greatest Looney Tunes cartoon, but I think that it deserved its Oscar nomination. I can't help but wonder what would have happened had this cartoon portrayed the townspeople hiring Sylvester to rid the town of mice; what could Speedy have done in that case?In a way, we're all just a bunch of rodents.
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