Truly Dreadful Film

recommended

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

A story that's too fascinating to pass by...

Love animation, it was a big part of my life as a child, particularly Disney, Looney Tunes and Tom and Jerry, and still love it whether it's film, television or cartoons.Speedy Gonzales is not a favourite character of mine and his cartoons overall are very variable (the worst cartoons being the worst of his outings with Daffy Duck and 'Mexican Cat Dance'). Am a fan though of Sylvester, regardless of any character he was paired with he was always the funnier and more interesting while also being one to root for. Generally, their outings are better than Speedy's with Daffy though some are better than others, and their pairing makes much more sense and isn't too much of a mismatch. This is evident here.'A Message to Gracias' has the same strengths and faults as 'Pancho's Hideaway' and 'Nuts and Volts', hence the reiteration. Like those two cartoons, 'A Message to Gracias' is generally one of the better Looney Tunes cartoons to appear in a patchy decade and during a severe declining period that got worse 1965 onwards. There are serious issues still here in 'A Message to Gracias', though fewer than many of the cartoons from 1965 onwards (namely the worst of the Daffy/Speedy series and that for Roadrunner/Wile E. Coyote) certainly and all done far worse in those cartoons. There are also things that are done well. Budget and time constraints, with the budget being lower, resources being fewer and time constraints tighter, show in the animation. This aspect is very limited, apart from some good flow in how the characters move, especially in the scrappy and incomplete-looking backgrounds. The story is basic and obvious, not an awful lot to it and the predictability factor is high.Know that comparing Bill Lava unfavourably to Carl Stalling and Milt Franklyn is unfair, but it is difficult not to when the quality difference is so big. Lava did worse later, but the score is not an appealing one in sound, lacks energy and doesn't fit very well with the action. On the other hand, Speedy is not too annoying thankfully and his chemistry with Sylvester is fun. Sylvester as was predicted is the funnier and more interesting character of the two by quite some way, he's cunning, provides the laughs more than naturally and is easy to root for.The dialogue is not particularly fresh but it is quite sharp-witted and amusing and there is a crisp pace throughout. The gags are nothing innovative but raised still a number of smiles and laughs. There is an unexpected twist that gives a little more freshness than most Speedy Gonzales cartoons.Mel Blanc's vocals as expected are very exuberant and full of vigour, few actors have voiced multiple characters in one cartoon alone and give all of them a different identity with such conviction.Overall, pretty good once again for past prime Looney Tunes. 7/10 Bethany Cox

The messengers working for El Supremo, a fat and lazy mouse, are a nervous bunch and we soon see why; Manuel is given the task of delivering a message to General Gracia and before he has got far El Pussy Gato Sylvester and caught him and another name is added to the memorial wall. With El Supremo upset that his messages aren't getting through one of the mice suggests contacting Speedy Gonzales. What follows is the usual series of scenes showing Speedy racing along as Sylvester constantly gets hurt as he tries to catch him. Ultimately it is Sylvester who gets caught though! When Speedy delivers the message he learns that it was just a birthday greeting and when El Supremo arrives with the cake Speedy releases Sylvester who promptly chases after El Supremo and Gracias while imitating Speedy.This Speedy Gonzales short was rather fun; Sylvester's attempts to catch him and the way he failed each time were fun and while his failure was inevitable the way he failed each to wasn't entirely. The highlight though was the twist in the tail where Speedy frees Sylvester to chase the other mice... I honestly didn't see that coming! Another thing I didn't expect was Manuel's death; it may have happened off camera but it was clear that he was a goner.

in this entry, Speedy is called upon to deliver a message to a General Mouse with Sylvester on Speedy's trail the entire way. This cartoon represents one of the few times where Speedy turns on his own kind...he traps Sylvester and wraps him up in rope and then Speedy finds out this important message was simply a birthday card, this causes him to free Sylvester and in a bizarre turn of events, Sylvester imitates Speedy's catch-phrases and runs after the top military mice as the cartoon fades.To respond to the earlier post...the reason why Friz started up his own company and continued to release cartoons is because he and the people involved wanted to continue doing what they loved doing. Although Warner Brothers shut down it's theatrical division for the first time in the early 1960's, that didn't mean Friz and company were suppose to retire. So, Friz and his business partner, David DePatie, started up their company. Chuck Jones and his associates started up their company. Then, when Warner Brothers decided to start releasing cartoons theatrically again, Friz and David were on hand to fulfill the demand with a series of Speedy cartoons among other characters. I would not say the cartoons of the late '60s ran out of steam...that's a popular belief, though.I think those cartoons were a victim of children's advocate groups insisting cartoons be somewhat non-violent and be more appealing to a child's mind...they're good cartoons but they aren't presented with the same execution as the adult-aimed cartoons Warner Brothers had been known for. So, the reason why Friz continued on is because he loved what he was doing as did Chuck Jones. I believe Chuck's company was called Sib Tower 12 and Friz's was simply DePatie-Freleng. I also want to add that THE BUGS BUNNY SHOW and other characters in the Warner Brothers cartoon family ran on network TV for almost 40 years. 1960-1999. Afterward the cartoons have aired on cable-TV...and it's only been the last decade that Saturday morning TV has been without those characters.I know it sounds bizarre to those outside the loop when it comes to cartoons but 1940's and 1950's cartoons were running on Saturday mornings throughout the '60s, '70s, '80s, and '90s...and someone at ABC-TV, which was the last network to air the theatrical cartoon shorts, came up with the idea to drop the show in 1999. Since they've not been on mainstream TV for 10 years now there's an audience totally unaware of the characters and because they are so different than what's on TV now, you will be lucky to find someone under 20 who will have much knowledge of the cartoon characters.

Speedy Gonzales, on the verge of becoming the top Warner Bros. cartoon star (as they retired most of the characters), starred in Robert McKimson's "A Message to Gracias". This one has Speedy getting hired to deliver a letter to a revolutionary general - who looks like a mouse version of Ernest Borgnine - after Sylvester eats the other messengers. You can probably guess what sorts of things Speedy does to Sylvester.This isn't exactly related, but I would like to talk about why Warner Bros. closed its animation department in 1963. The Looney Tunes were products of vaudeville-style entertainment. This type of humor was becoming old-school by the Kennedy era, and members of the baby boom were starting to come of age. So, WB closed its animation department. I don't really know why Friz Freleng established a new studio and sold cartoons to WB. Granted, I like Looney Tunes cartoons as much as the next person, but anyone can see that they were starting to lose steam by this point. This cartoon is OK in a pinch.