Looney Tunes Wiki
Register
Advertisement

Gonzales' Tamales is a 1957 Looney Tunes short directed by Friz Freleng.

Plot[]

The majority of male mice in a Mexican village lament the fact that Speedy Gonzales has been getting between them and the "pretty girls." One of the mice suggests that they get the "gringo pussycat" Sylvester to chase Speedy out of town. The mice forge a note from Speedy, stating that he will pull Sylvester's tail out by the roots, which Speedy happily does when confronted. In trying to get Speedy, Sylvester first uses a shotgun and then a hand grenade, with the usual disastrous results. Speedy, however, falls for the cat's final attempt: a wind-up doll. With Sylvester hot on his feet, Speedy grabs the wind-up toy, and takes refuge in a box of red hot peppers, forcing the hungry pussycat to swallow them one by one in order to find the resourceful rodent. In between each ingestion of pepper, Sylvester runs to a nearby water cooler for relief. On his last trip to the cooler, he fails to notice that he's drinking out of a similar cooler filled with Tabasco Sauce, which sends the cat fly high into the horizon.

Availability[]

Streaming[]

Censorship[]

  • On most TV channels worldwide (including Nickelodeon, the Italian TV station Mediaset Italia 1, the Polish TV station Canal+ Poland.[1], the French TV station Canal+ Family, and various Cartoon Network/Boomerang feeds[2], though Cartoon Network America's only time airing this short actually had the line intact), a rather innocuous part where Sylvester says, "I'll get you if I have to eat every one of these things," as he is trying to find Speedy Gonzales in a box of chili peppers was cut.[3]
  • When this short aired on CBS in the 1970s and 1980s, the two times Sylvester gets blown up (by a disembodied bullet and a hand grenade, respectively) were cut to remove Sylvester's appearance after the smoke clears.[3]
  • International dubs of this short shown in Latin America (on Cartoon Network's Latin America channel), Italy (on Mediaset Italia 1), Poland (on Canal+ Poland), and France (on Canal+ Family) have the same edits done to this cartoon that CBS and Nickelodeon's American channel have done, only Cartoon Network Latin America deletes the entire hand grenade part, not just for the violence, but also because of the drug references in the song, La Cucaracha[4] (see below in "Notes").
  • This short prompted Cartoon Network America to keep Speedy Gonzales cartoons out of rotation in the United States starting in 1999 due to their stereotypical depictions of Mexicans, though several Latino and Hispanic fans protested that Speedy Gonzales was not a stereotype and demanded the shorts to be shown. In Cartoon Network's final days of regularly airing classic cartoons (between 2002 and 2005), some Speedy Gonzales cartoons did crop up on the network (mostly the late-1950s ones and a few from the post-1964 era). However, this one only aired once, possibly because the censors caught the "...marijuana par fumar" line of La Cucaracha and decided to shelve the entire short rather than cut the line (contrast with the short "Mexican Boarders", where Cartoon Network's and Boomerang's Latin American feeds did air the short, but cut the "...marijuana que fumar" part of La Cucharacha rather than shelve the entire short).

Goofs[]

  • Sylvester lays a sizable wedge of cheese on the ground to lure Speedy out of his hole. When Speedy takes the cheese, it has changed to a small, thin slice of cheese.
  • Most televised prints of this short (including in European countries) have a glitch at the end of the ending title card. After the ending title card, the screen then cuts to black, while the ending music still plays intact. However, copies of this transfer do exist without this glitch, which is only on The Looney Tunes Video Show VHS release. The glitch in the transfer is evident by the extremely washed-out colors.

Notes[]

  • This version of La Cucaracha Speedy sings is the first verse from the Mexican Revolutionary version of the song from 1910 to 1920.
  • This short provides an anomaly in the Speedy Gonzales shorts: In this one, Speedy is the antagonist/aggressor whom is a menace whom the Mexican mice hate as opposed to the hero that is adored by the Mexican mice, and the Mexican mice try to get Sylvester to chase Speedy out of town, with unsuccessful results.
  • The title card background is reused from the title card of "Speedy Gonzales".
  • This is one of the only two post-1948 Looney Tunes shorts which were shown censored with a minor edit on the unrestored TV prints (even on the PAL masters) worldwide regardless of the TV channel. The other one is "Prince Violent", which, for a time, was retitled, "Prince Varmint" on all domestic and international channels. As of 2021, both shorts have been released uncut and fully restored on home media (though "Gonzales' Tamales" is not on HBO Max in America. It is on the Latin America and Brazil feed).
  • The European TV prints have the 1959-64 Merrie Melodies ending card (with the "A Vitaphone Release" byline) replacing the original.
  • Some airings of this short on Boomerang France have the original ending card replaced with a better colored version of the original ending card, presumably edited in from the ending card from "Show Biz Bugs".
  • This cartoon is the latest non-Bugs Bunny cartoon to get a Blue Ribbon reissue.

Gallery[]

References[]

External Links[]

Speedy Gonzales Cartoons
1953 Cat-Tails for Two
1955 Speedy Gonzales
1957 Tabasco RoadGonzales' Tamales
1958 Tortilla Flaps
1959 Mexicali ShmoesHere Today, Gone Tamale
1960 West of the Pesos
1961 Cannery WoeThe Pied Piper of Guadalupe
1962 Mexican Boarders
1963 Mexican Cat DanceChili Weather
1964 A Message to GraciasNuts and VoltsPancho's HideawayRoad to Andalay
1965 It's Nice to Have a Mouse Around the HouseCats and BruisesThe Wild ChaseMoby DuckAssault and PepperedWell Worn DaffyChili Corn CornyGo Go Amigo
1966 The AstroduckMucho LocosMexican MousepieceDaffy RentsA-Haunting We Will GoSnow ExcuseA Squeak in the DeepFeather FingerSwing Ding AmigoA Taste of Catnip
1967 Daffy's DinerQuacker TrackerThe Music Mice-TroThe Spy SwatterSpeedy Ghost to TownRodent to StardomGo Away StowawayFiesta Fiasco
1968 Skyscraper CaperSee Ya Later Gladiator
1979 Fright Before Christmas
1980 The Chocolate Chase
Sylvester Cartoons
1945 Life with FeathersPeck Up Your Troubles
1946 Kitty Kornered
1947 Tweetie PieCrowing PainsDoggone CatsCatch as Cats Can
1948 Back Alley OproarI Taw a Putty TatHop, Look and ListenKit for CatScaredy Cat
1949 Mouse MazurkaBad Ol' Putty TatHippety Hopper
1950 Home, Tweet HomeThe Scarlet PumpernickelAll a Bir-r-r-dCanary RowStooge for a MousePop 'Im Pop!
1951 Canned FeudPutty Tat TroubleRoom and BirdTweety's S.O.S.Tweet Tweet Tweety
1952 Who's Kitten Who?Gift WrappedLittle Red Rodent HoodAin't She TweetHoppy Go LuckyA Bird in a Guilty CageTree for Two
1953 Snow BusinessA Mouse DividedFowl WeatherTom Tom TomcatA Street Cat Named SylvesterCatty CorneredCats A-weigh!
1954 Dog PoundedBell HoppyDr. Jerkyl's HideClaws for AlarmMuzzle ToughSatan's Waitin'By Word of Mouse
1955 Lighthouse MouseSandy ClawsTweety's CircusJumpin' JupiterA Kiddies KittySpeedy GonzalesRed Riding HoodwinkedHeir-ConditionedPappy's Puppy
1956 Too Hop to HandleTweet and SourTree Cornered TweetyThe Unexpected PestTugboat GrannyThe Slap-Hoppy MouseYankee Dood It
1957 Tweet ZooTweety and the BeanstalkBirds AnonymousGreedy for TweetyMouse-Taken IdentityGonzales' Tamales
1958 A Pizza Tweety-PieA Bird in a Bonnet
1959 Trick or TweetTweet and LovelyCat's PawHere Today, Gone TamaleTweet Dreams
1960 West of the PesosGoldimouse and the Three CatsHyde and Go TweetMouse and GardenTrip for Tat
1961 Cannery WoeHoppy DazeBirds of a FatherD' Fightin' OnesThe Rebel Without ClawsThe Pied Piper of GuadalupeThe Last Hungry Cat
1962 Fish and SlipsMexican BoardersThe Jet Cage
1963 Mexican Cat DanceChili WeatherClaws in the Lease
1964 A Message to GraciasFreudy CatNuts and VoltsHawaiian Aye AyeRoad to Andalay
1965 It's Nice to Have a Mouse Around the HouseCats and BruisesThe Wild Chase
1966 A Taste of Catnip
1980 The Yolks on You
1995 Carrotblanca
1997 Father of the Bird
2011 I Tawt I Taw a Puddy Tat




Advertisement