Tabasco Road (1957)

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, whether it's with Daffy Duck, Sylvester or other characters, are extremely variable. Leaning more towards having more average or more misses than hits, and even the hits are rarely classics. It is always interesting to see supporting characters that aren't Daffy or Speedy, and 'Tabasco Road' is a good example. It is something of an odd cartoon to receive an Oscar nomination, but it is not an undeserving one by all means and the strange on paper idea that it has works well. 'Tabasco Road' has imperfections, none of the Speedy cartoons seen are even the best ones.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. As is the case with all Speedy cartoons, the story is basic and obvious, not an awful lot to it and the predictability factor is high.Music however in 'Tabasco Road' is full of beautiful and clever orchestration and lively energy. The songs sung are very catchy. No cheapness or repetitiveness here whatsoever. Furthermore, 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. Speedy is not annoying, serves a purpose and actually is in a situation where he is treated sympathetically. Pablo and Fernando though are funnier and more interesting.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. For a Speedy cartoon, 'Tabasco Road' is very violent but not in a sadistic way. Some of the characterisations are stereotypical but not in an offensive way. Overall, good fun. 8/10 Bethany Cox

. . . 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 is another outing for Speedy Gonzales, the fastest mouse in all of Mexico, however in this cartoon most of the laughs come from Pablo and Fernando, two of his friends who have had too much tequila in the taverna. As the stagger home they decide to pick a fight with an alley cat. Luckily for them Speedy is at hand to rescue them, although as soon as they get rescued they are back trying to fight the cat again meaning speedy has his work cut out for him.The combination of English and Spanish is well done, even if like me you don't speak Spanish it is easy to figure out the gist of what they are saying. Some people might not like the suggestion that Mexicans like their tequila a bit too much but as it is done in a funny way and didn't suggest that they were all like that, just those two I didn't think it was offensive. Definitely worth watching for a laugh.

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.