This is a great little cartoon featuring one of my childhood favourites; Speedy Gonzales, the fastest mouse in all of Mexico.The cartoon opens outside the Ajax cheese company warehouse, a group of Mexican mice are at the fence drawing lots to see which of them will run in and try to get some cheese without being caught by Sylvester the cat. Manuel draws the short straw and hand his sombrero to another mouse before rushing in. Judging by the reaction of the mice he doesn't survive and his sombrero is thrown onto a pile of hats. One on the mice says his sister is a friend of Speedy Gonzales to which another mouse retorts that everybody's sister knows speedy. The mouse goes off and returns with Speedy. Speedy has much better luck, nothing Sylvester does to stop him succeeds, not nets, not traps nor land mines... eventually he plans to lure Speedy in with a huge pile of cheese which he has packed with TNT, he detonates it too soon and the cheese rains down on the grateful mice.I enjoyed everything about this cartoon; Speedy and his friends' dodgy Mexican accents, the slightly racy joke about him being friends with everybody's sisters and Sylvester's increasingly desperate attempts to stop him... a must for all fans of Warner Brother's cartoons.

Friz Freleng's 'Speedy Gonzalez' was the second cartoon to feature the title character after Robert McKimson's 'Cat-tails for Two'. In that cartoon, Speedy has been an ugly little creature with a big gold tooth but by his second appearance the famous design had already been adopted. Despite looking significantly more handsome, Speedy never developed into much of a character. A big hat, tremendous speed and a bad Mexican accent do not a classic character make and that's pretty much all Speedy ever had going for him. Nevertheless, the cocky little mouse proved enormously popular and went on to star in many shorts including some truly abysmal films from the studio's latter days. While these early Speedy shorts are better than those later atrocities in which he was frequently (rather oddly) paired up with Daffy Duck, they still leave much to be desired, relying on predictable gags usually based around a similar chase formula. In this self-titled episode, Speedy is recruited by some other mice to steal cheese for them from the local factory which happens to be guarded by Sylvester the cat. Although he brings the extra weight of a star turn to the cartoon, Sylvester's role here could just as easily been filled by any other generic cartoon cat. His personality is sapped by his being forced into the predictable. undemanding role of pursuer. This was always a problem in the Tweety cartoons too but Speedy makes an even duller adversary thanks to his detestable cockiness and the blatant impossibility of his capture. Poor old Sylvester would be forced to appear alongside Speedy for many years to come. Despite it following a pretty basic formula and featuring minimal laughs, 'Speedy Gonzalez' won an Oscar and a thoroughly undeserving star was born.

Speedy Gonzales is another one of my favorite Looney Tunes characters along with Bugs Bunny, Pepe le Pew, Tweety and the lesser-known Hubie & Bertie. This award-winning short is one of my favorites out of Speedy's filmography. This short marks as Speedy's second screen appearance, being that his first appearance was in a 1953 Bob McKimson cartoon called "Cat-Tails for Two". But of course, he didn't look the way we know him now.I love seeing Sylvester on all fours when guarding the cheese factory, it kind of cracks me up. I also love the pseudo-Spanish conversation between Speedy and the mouse villager.

The native mice of Mexico want some American cheese, but Sylvester the cat is guarding the border. After a few disastrous attempts to get at it. They send for Speedy Gonzales to get pass this gringo pussycat. The second appearance of Speedy is a classic and cemented yet another great character in the already impressive array of Looney stars. Don't listen to the mind-stealing PC police, Speedy is funny. This Oscar-winning animated short can be found on disc 4 of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 1 and features an optional music only track as well as a commentary by Jerry Beck.My Grade: A