Tabasco Road (1957)

An Exercise In Nonsense

A Masterpiece!

Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

Like many of the Warner Brothers cartoons of the late 1950s, the beautiful backgrounds and gorgeous animation were giving way to a UPA-style of cartoon making--with crappy backgrounds and simpler characters. While this particular cartoon is still very watchable, it's not up to the quality standards of the studios cartoons from just a few years earlier.This is a Speedy Gonzales cartoon. I am NOT a huge fan of this character, so keep this in mind--if you love him, I am sure your opinion will probably be a bit more favorable--though I did enjoy it. However, apparently Speedy and his alcoholic friends are not politically correct, as the film had an added speech in the prologue about hurtful stereotypes. However, I saw this same cartoon many times as a child and never once assumed all Mexicans (or Mexican mice) were alcoholics nor did they run at 100 miles per hour! And, unless you are VERY thin-skinned, I think you'll enjoy the heck out of this violent little cartoon (yeah, violence!). It's quite funny and very good despite the budget cutbacks at Looney Tunes.

"Tabasco Road," directed by Robert McKimson, is a very funny Speedy Gonzales cartoon. Following a boisterous celebration for Speedy at a "cantinita" the size of a mouse hole, Speedy is obliged to look after his two inebriated "compadres" (Pablo and Fernando) and to see that they arrive home safely. But in their drunken stupor, Pablo and Fernando feel obliged to fight any large "pussygato" adversary that gets in their way.Highlights: Speedy performs a very good hat dance while all the other mice shout, clap, and cheer. Throughout this cartoon, Pablo and Fernando are hilarious as they sing "La Cucaracha" with their own English lyrics. AND, for the benefit of the audience, Speedy replays in "slow motiono" how he manages to outwit a burly gray Mexican "gato"."Tabasco Road" is an entertaining cartoon that partially derives its humor from its freely mixing of Spanish and English. Speedy's adversary in this case is not the more familiar Sylvester, but that's okay. The important thing is that the legendary fastest mouse in all Mexico also has the fastest wits, thus enabling him to act "pronto" when his friends are in danger.

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.