Excellent, a Must See

It is so daring, it is so ambitious, it is so thrilling and weird and pointed and powerful. I never knew where it was going.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

. . . pay homage to prolific American dirty book author Erskine Caldwell, whose Pornucopia outpouring was led by TOBACCO ROAD. In Warner Bros.' minds, sex and Mexico apparently went hand-in-hand. The kinky gray "Pussygato" (this is the spelling of the most frequently used noun in Warner's TOBASCO ROAD, according to the English subtitles on LT Academy Awards Disc 3) is first pictured here wearing an adult diaper (not unlike the Crazy "Bill" cat in the comic strip "Bloom Country"), an obvious nod to the Caldwell story in which the young wife trimmed her sails down . . . perhaps you should read THAT one for yourself. This same feline constantly gives the in-and-out treatment to Speedy's friends Pablo and Fernando, clearly referencing the Caldwell tale in which the deranged chick approaches her sleeping overnight male guest from the local tavern with open over-sized shears and . . . maybe you should read THIS one for yourself, too. By watching Speedy Gonzalez Toons with English captions, Today's American Major League Baseball players can learn to communicate with the 26% of their foreign teammates born in Spanish-speaking countries. "El Steenko Sardinhas," for instance, is Spanish for "good grub." And if you're being paid $24 million annually while batting .220, Motor City fans will run you out of town beyond the "Ceety Leemits."

This time, Speedy Gonzales isn't fetching cheese, but is rescuing his drunken friends Pablo and Fernando, both in danger of getting eaten by a cat (not Sylvester). Watching "Tabasco Road", I get the feeling that it may be one of the Looney Tunes cartoons that drew criticism: it basically portrays Mexicans as drunks. On that subject, maybe the cartoon was intended as an anti-alcohol warning.Then again, maybe I'm trying too hard to analyze it. As long as we understand that it sort of makes stereotypes about Mexicans - namely with "ceety leemits" - we can enjoy it. And as long as we know to drink responsibly.

1957 must have been an awful year for cartoons for this mess of a short to be nominated. There are some very funny Speedy Gonzales cartoons out there, but TABASCO ROAD is not one of them. The Speedy Gonzales cartoons tend to be a little annoying anyway, but this movie is just plain unfunny and unbearable to sit through. If you really want to watch a Speedy Gonzales cartoon then check out CAT-TAILS FOR TWO or MEXICALI SHMOES. Now, those are funny. All three of these cartoons are available on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume Four. If you are easily offended by racial stereotypes then I would avoid this cartoon - actually all Speedy Gonzales cartoons for that matter.

Speedy Gonzales was essentially a one-note character (kind of like the Roadrunner) so the quality of a Speedy cartoon is largely dependent on the surrounding characters and situations they get themselves into rather than Speedy himself. The two mice Speedy is rescuing frequently, Pablo and Fernando are excellent characters. The songs they sing in this are very funny and the situations that arise from their actins are what makes the cartoon. Not easy to find and rarely aired on Cartoon Network, but well worth digging up and Recommended.