Speedy Gonzales

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"¡Ándale! ¡Ándale!"

Speedy Gonzales is a recurring character of the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies franchises, starring in 46 short cartoons. He is a Mexican mouse endowed with Super Speed. Initially he got into escapades with Sylvester the Cat, later getting into conflicts with Daffy Duck.

While his shorts are fairly popular, the series has come under fire for accusations of ethnic stereotyping—not Speedy himself, mind you, but rather his many acquaintances, who are portrayed as lazy, pejorative stereotypes of Mexican culture. As such, the shorts were banned from TV for several years—fortunately, thanks to Speedy's large Mexican fanbase (who perceive him as a good role model) petitions persuaded Warner Bros to put the cartoons back on the air.

Speedy made appearances in The Looney Tunes Show, taking up residence in the house of Bugs Bunny.

Filmography:

1953

  • Cat-Tails for Two (MM): Features a completely different character design for Speedy.

1955

  • Speedy Gonzales (MM): Co-starring Sylvester. Won an Oscar for Best Animated Short Film.

1957

  • Tabasco Road (LT): Nominated for an Oscar for Best Animated Short Film.
  • Gonzales' Tamales—Co-starring Sylvester. (LT)

1958

  • Tortilla Flaps (LT)

1959

  • Mexicali Shmoes (LT): Nominated for an Oscar for Best Animated Short Film.
  • Here Today, Gone Tamale (LT): Co-starring Sylvester.

1960

  • West of the Pesos (MM): Co-starring Sylvester.

1961

  • Cannery Woe (LT): Co-starring Sylvester.
  • The Pied Piper of Guadalupe (LT): Co-starring Sylvester. Nominated for an Oscar for Best Animated Short Film.

1962

  • Mexican Boarders (LT): Co-starring Sylvester.

1963

  • Mexican Cat Dance (LT): Co-starring Sylvester.
  • Chili Weather (MM): Co-starring Sylvester.

1964

  • A Message to Gracias (LT): Co-starring Sylvester.
  • Nuts and Bolts (LT): Co-starring Sylvester.
  • Pancho's Hideaway (LT)
  • Road to Andalay (MM): Co-starring Sylvester.

1965

  • It's Nice to Have a Mouse Around the House (LT): Co-starring Daffy, Granny and Sylvester.
  • Cats and Bruises (MM): Co-starring Sylvester.
  • The Wild Chase (MM): The only Speedy cartoon to feature Tweety and the Road Runner. Also co-stars Sylvester.
  • Moby Duck (LT): Co-starring Daffy.
  • Assault and Peppered (MM): Co-starring Daffy.
  • Well Worn Daffy (LT): Co-starring Daffy.
  • Chili Corn Corny (LT): Co-starring Daffy.
  • Go Go Amigo (MM): Co-starring Daffy.

1966: All cartoons co-star Daffy Duck and Speedy.

  • The Astroduck (LT)
  • Muchos Locos (MM)
  • Mexican Mousepiece (MM)
  • Daffy Rents (LT)
  • A-Haunting we will Go (LT): featuring Witch Hazel.
  • Snow Excuse (MM)
  • A Squeak in the Deep (LT)
  • Feather Finger (MM)
  • Swing Ding Amigo (LT)
  • A Tase of Catnip (MM)

1967: All cartoons co-star Daffy and Speedy.

  • Daffy's Diner (MM)
  • Quacker Tracker (LT)
  • The Music Mice-Tro (MM)
  • The Spy Swatter (LT)
  • Speedy Ghost to Town (MM)
  • Rodent to Stardom (LT)
  • Go Away Stowaway (MM)
  • Fiesta Fiasco (LT)

1968: Both cartoons co-star Daffy and Speedy.

  • Skyscraper Caper (LT)
  • See Ya Later Gladiator

1980

  • The Chocolate Chase (part of Daffy Duck's Easter Show)
Speedy Gonzales is the Trope Namer for:
Tropes used in Speedy Gonzales include:
  • Badass: His cousin, Lento ("Slowpoke") Rodriguez, the slowest mouse in Mexico... who packs a gun and knows how to use it.
  • Bandito: Pancho Vanilla (Yosemite Sam) in "Pancho's Hideaway".
  • Blind Idiot Translation: In "The Pied Piper Guadalupe" one of the mice carries a "Loco El Gato" sign. This is a wrong translation of "Crazy Cat", reading "Crazy The Cat" (O rly?). It should have said "El gato loco", or, even better "¡El gato está loco!" ("the cat is crazy!") or "¡Qué gato tan loco!" ("what a crazy cat!").
  • Catch Phrases: "¡Ándale, ándale!" (Come on, come on!) and "¡Arriba, arriba!" ("Get up, get up!") usually shouted vigorously as he ran about.
  • Chivalrous Pervert: Speedy Gonzales like everybody's sister! In at least one cartoon, Speedy proves to be quite the romantic, serenading a female mouse with a guitar; until Sylvester interrupts their date, that is.
  • Dashing Hispanic: In more ways than one.
  • Early Installment Weirdness: Speedy's early design (in which Speedy wore a pink shirt, had no pants, had a gold front tooth, and looked stereotypically Mexican with his mop of greasy black hair and broken Spanish (the latter of which stayed when the character was changed) looks nothing like his current self.
  • The Dark Age of Animation
  • Funny Foreigner
  • The Golden Age of Animation
  • Gratuitous Spanish: ¡Por supuesto!
  • Hero Antagonist: Like a lot of other Looney Tunes protagonists, he flip-flopped with this, a lot of shorts giving the main focus to the blundering of foes such as Sylvester or Daffy. Granted there were a fair few pairings against Daffy where it seemed you were really meant to root for him.
  • Invincible Hero: The amount of times a villain actually defeated Speedy can be counted on one hand. The amount of times a villain so much as challenged him actually aren't much larger than that.
  • Knight of Cerebus: Astonishingly enough, Daffy is actually this to the rest of Speedy Gonzales' Rogues Gallery. While still highly comical in tone, the situations Speedy was placed in were sometimes a lot more dire against Daffy, who stands as the only villain competent (and malicious) enough to hold ground against the mouse, even beating him a couple of times.
  • Meaningful Name: With a name like his, there's a reason why he's the "Fastest Mouse of all of Mexico".
  • Nice Hat: His ever-present sombrero.
  • Political Correctness Gone Mad: Made even funnier by the fact that real Mexicans loved it (it had a Mexican making his Gringo foes look like idiots, after all.)
  • Spexico: Another reason Mexicans didn't mind it much was because it was an obvious intentional exaggeration of Mexican stereotypes, which even they love to use; for example, the mice weren't lazy, they just like taking Siestas (naps).
  • The Other Darrin: Speedy on The Looney Tunes Show is now voiced by Fred Armisen (who is Hispanic, but is actually Venezuelan on his mother's side of the family; his father, is Japanese and German) from Saturday Night Live
  • Token Minority: One of the few Mexican characters in the Looney Tunes cast.
  • Took a Level in Jerkass: Daffy Duck, in his encounters with Speedy.
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