Release Date:

January 18, 1958

Main Character(s):

Speedy Gonzales

Summary:

When the predatory Senor Vulturo swoops down on the Mexican mice’s Cinco de Mayo festival, Speedy Gonzales decides to dispose of him.

That’s Not All, Folks:

The production number is 1449 and was released as a Looney Tune.

This is the first Speedy cartoon (and the only one from the original studio) where the antagonist is a bird rather than a cat.

The title is a pun for the John Steinbeck novel, “Tortilla Flat”.

Speedy is now back to being the hero of the mice after getting on their bad side in “Gonzales’ Tamales”.

Ted Bonnicksen and George Grandpre are the only animators credited (Tom Ray did not animate on this one since it was in production before “Don’t Axe Me”).

Richard H. Thomas did the backgrounds for this one rather than William Butler.

Unfortunately, the animator draft for the cartoon does not exist anywhere online.

Favorite Scene:

Speedy startling Vulturo into jumping in front of his own cannon.

What Happens in This One:

The citizens in Mexico are having a fun time celebrating Cinco de Mayo. The mice are having their own Cinco de Mayo festival, using a large metal bucket as a makeshift stadium, among other things (animated by Warren Batchelder). The stadium’s attraction is “Presenta Speedy Gonzales En El Exhibition Grande Peeng-Pong”. One mouse observes, “He is very fast, this Speedy Gonzales!”, as another agrees, “The Fastest Mouse in All Mexico, amigo! You will see!” As it turns out, Speedy is playing ping-pong against himself, quickly dashing to each side to hit the ball with his paddle while the mice watch from egg cartons as bleachers (animated by George Grandpre). Two other mice talk, “Hey, you know this Speedy Gonzales?”; “Si! He goes dating with my sister!” Another mouse joins in and adds, “Speedy Gonzales goes dating with everybody’s sister!” and laughs (animated by Ted Bonnicksen). At one point, Speedy accidentally hits the ball out of the “Exito” so he runs out the exit to hit it back into the stadium (animated by Grandpre).

Meanwhile, Vulturo is flying through the air before he spots the mice’s festival below and laughs, “Mouse burgers! Time for supper!” He swoops down as the mice notice his shadow, “It’s Vulturo!”; “Bandito bird!”; “Run for your life! El Vulturo!” Everyone runs off into the numerous adjacent mouse holes and other hiding places. Confused, Speedy wonders, “Hey, why everybody vamosa?” He spots everyone running around in fear and one jumping into a can with a table in front of it as a hiding place (animated by Grandpre). Speedy peers into the can and asks, “Que pasa, senors?” One of the mice hiding in there points upward, “El bandito bird!” while the other adds, “El Vulturo horrible! Ferocioso!” Another mouse, who’s hiding in a vase behind Speedy, laments, “Our celebration! She’s ruined!”, before going back down. Speedy assures, “No, no, no, no, amigos. Don’t worry. I take care of Senor Vulturo. But good!” Another mouse points to him to show Speedy, “El Vulturo! See?” (animated by Bonnicksen)

Vulturo is swooping down on a fleeing mouse shouting something in Spanish and then “Help!” (animated by Grandpre) Speedy decides, “Uh oh. I think this is where I come in!” He runs to the rescue after shouting “Yee-ha!” (animated by Batchelder) The mouse is about to be grabbed as he shouts, “Help! Assitencio!” Speedy saves him in the nick of time as Vulturo grabs what Speedy substituted under this mouse’s sombrero- a dynamite stick that explodes on Vulturo’s left foot. He jumps around shouting in pain before dunking this foot into a nearby basin of water. The mouse who Speedy rescued is very grateful as he walks away backwards, “Gracias. Gracias, Senor Speedy. Gracias, Gracias”. Speedy replies, “Por nada, Senor. It’s nothing” before running back towards Vulturo (animated by Grandpre).

Vulturo, who’s sighing in relief, from dunking his blown-up foot into the water is startled by Speedy shouting “Yee-ha!” from behind, causing Vulturo to fall back first into the basin. Speedy then asks, “El pasa, seagull? Somebody give you el hots-foot?” Vulturo answers, “Si. I-I mean no!”, before getting wise, “Hey! Did you steal my supper?” Speedy replies, “Si”, to which Vulturo asks, “What for you steal my supper for!?” and then tries to attack him while shouting, “Cucaracha!” Speedy dodges the attacks while scatting to “La Cucaracha” and then getting Vulturo to chase him to a mouse hole. Vulturo ends up getting his beak flattened when sliding towards the hole, causing it to resemble a duck’s bill, which Speedy flicks, causing it to return to normal (animated by Bonnicksen).

Vulturo pursues Speedy out of town with Speedy asking, “Senor? Are you following me?” Vulturo answers innocently, “Oh, no, senor. I wouldn’t do thing like that!” Speedy replies with “Okay!” and runs off even faster, managing to go over a railroad crossing safely. He briefly goes back on the track to see that a train is approaching, before going back off and warning Vulturo, “Stop, senor!” Vulturo fails to stop in time and is hit by the oncoming train (animated by Batchelder). Speedy runs over to Vulturo lying face-first on the tracks, and takes his tail feathers off to use as a feather duster on him while tsking, “Didn’t your mother ever tell you to look both ways before crossing the railroad track? You could get hurt!” He then returns his tail feathers, “I think this belong to you, senor. I go now!” and dashes off. Vulturo puts his tail feathers back on, and begins to resume his pursuit of Speedy only to be hit by a luggage railroad car with two people sitting atop it (animated by Grandpre).

Speedy runs to a flat rock next to a cliff side out of town, “You know, I got the feeling like somebody is looking at me!” And someone is indeed doing that as a chuckling Vulturo is aiming a cannon at him from an opposite cliff. After he lights the cannon’s fuse, Speedy dashes behind him and scares him with a “Yee-ha!”, causing Vulturo to jump in front of the cannon’s barrel. With his beak missing after the blast, Vulturo lets out an exasperated “Hmmph!” (animated by Batchelder)

Speedy then runs up to Vulturo with his detached beak, “Is this yours, senor?” Vulturo takes it and after putting it back on his mouth, thanks him, “Gracias”. Speedy informs him, “Senor, look like you never gonna be able to catch me. But I know where is one fat little mouse you can catch real easy-mente! I show you!” Speedy runs off, doing his shouts, with Vulturo following him back into town. Speedy eventually runs into a mouse hole with Vulturo crashing into the wall headfirst and giving him a literal splitting headache as his head feathers begin to split apart (animated by Grandpre). After putting his sombrero back on, he asks, “Hey! Where is fat mouse you promise me for supper?” From inside the hole, Speedy calls to him, “Oh, you have the wrong house, senor! Nobody here but us chickens!”, before clucking like one. Realizing Speedy lied to him, Vulturo plays dumb, “Oh, excusa please, senora chickens! (laughs) I am stupid! I go look somewhere other!”, walking away with an evil chuckling expression (animated by Bonnicksen).

Scatting to “La Cucaracha”, Vulturo heads into an explosives shed with a ball and cup game, filling the cup with nitroglycerin. He then leaves it in front of the hole with a card in front of it before knocking on the wall and sneaking around the corner. Speedy looks out of the hole and upon spotting Vulturo’s foot sticking out of the corner, plays along with the scheme. He reads the card aloud, “To Speedy, Happy Cinco de Mayo. Your own, Lupe”. Speedy comments, “Oh, how nice of my own Lupe! I wonder WHICH my own Lupe it is! I thinkin’ I play this game!” He plays with the ball by tossing it back and forth to each side and running to each side to catch it numerous times, “Oh, this is fun!” Vulturo becomes annoyed at Speedy not doing it right, “Oh! Stupid?”, prompting him to come out himself and take it to demonstrate correctly, “No, no, no! SWING IT!” Speedy runs off, with Vulturo looking up and seeing to his horror that Speedy has caught the ball from atop a windowsill, “Give up, senor?” Vulturo replies, “No!”, before Speedy literally drops the ball, where it explodes on Vulturo upon hitting the cup. Now featherless, Vulturo waves a white flag and surrenders, “Correction, senor. I give up” (animated by Bonnicksen).

The mice’s festival has resumed with Speedy assuming the role of a carnival barker and using an alphabet block as his stand, “Ole! Ole! Step right up! Three balls for uno centavo! Win a Swiss cheese! Three for uno centavo! Ole! Arriba! Arriba!” This is revealed to be a ball-tossing game with mice throwing balls at Vulturo’s head as a target, sticking out of a large sheet. Although Vulturo is exclaiming in pain, he confides, “All the balls don’t bother me, but those darn darts! Ouch! They hurt my pride!” His body from the neck down is seen on the opposite side of the sheet with darts being thrown at a target on his rear end as a similar game “3 Darts por Un Centavo” (animated by Grandpre).

Where Can I Watch It?

At toontales.net!

Carrot Rating:

🥕🥕🥕🥕 ½