User Reviews

. . . Warner Bros.' Looney Tunes Think Tank came up with a far more practical solution to stem the periodic incursion of unauthorized North-Bounders: Land Mines. After spending the first five minutes of MEXICALI SHMOES--pointedly set in a border town--illustrating that even crack law enforcement teams (represented here by felines Manuel and Jose) are absolutely no match for any determined Homeland Invader (epitomized during SHMOES by Speedy Gonzalez), the action of the next minute suggests that land mines will slow if not entirely dry up the incoming Red Tide. (Mr. Gonzalez will be a little less Speedy minus a leg or two.) The remainder of SHMOES' running time is devoted to showing the consequences of NOT mining the Southern U.S. border: murder by gun-waving thugs. Few if any Americans would anticipate the U.N. giving us grief about duplicating the success of the current border between North and South Korea. However, to avoid any appearance of inconsistent favoritism, America probably should mine her Northern Border, as well, to safeguard us against baby seal clubbers gone rogue.

Apart from a few early Speedy Gonzales shorts, the rest were very pitiful and annoying. In fact, in the 1960s, they actually paired Speedy with Daffy Duck in some shorts that made absolutely no sense (why would a duck hunt a mouse?) and were perhaps the worst cartoons Warner Brothers made.

Despite all this, this is still a very good cartoon--probably the best Speedy Gonzales cartoon of them all. Two stupid cats try again and again to catch Speedy and they end up getting the stuffing knocked out of them by the rodent. Then, in a very funny conclusion, they given up on chasing Speedy Gonzales and one of them quickly chases after "Slowpoke Rodriquez"--the slowest mouse in Mexico. But his friend begins yelling at him to stop, as he then explains that Slowpoke also carries a gun! Well, unfortunately for the other cat, this warning comes a bit too late and you see a wonderful scene of a very lazy mouse carrying a huge smoking revolver!

In this Speedy Gonzales short he takes a secondary part with the leads being Jose and Manuel, two cats that have decided that they have the brains needed to catch the fastest mouse in all of Mexico. Of course all of their plans back fire in amusing fashion. I particularly liked when one of them tried to catch Speedy with a fishing rod baited with cheese... all he succeeds in doing is getting dragged off by Speedy and when he finally returns he tells his friend that his sister in Los Angeles sends her regards. Eventually they realise they have no chance against Speedy so go after Slowpoke Rodriguez the slowest mouse in all of Mexico instead, I won't reveal how this turns out but will say it was the funniest part of the cartoon.

The two cats were pretty funny, I think the cartoon worked better because it concentrated on them rather than on Speedy. For some reason incompetent cartoon characters are inherently funnier than their more successful counterparts.

Directed by Friz Freleng, "Mexicali Shmoes" is a very entertaining Speedy Gonzales cartoon. This time around, Speedy must dodge and outwit two shaggy Mexican gatos.

My favorite scenes: During the opening credits, the fat cat Jose plays guitar and sings in a very weak, off-key voice, with the skinny cat Manuel emitting a few cries in between phrases (I'm not fluent in Spanish, but I imagine the "Spanish" that Jose sings is nonsense). The two cats aren't much better during their singing & dancing of "In Guadalajara we go to catch Gonzales..." Upon arriving in Guadalajara, Jose and Manuel trick Speedy into joining them with their little guitar/dancing fiesta before they attack him. And Jose tricks Manuel into sticking his head in Speedy's mouse hole and getting a stick of dynamite blasted in his face.

Speedy Gonzales' cousin Slowpoke Rodriguez makes a brief appearance in "Mexicali Shmoes", and the two pussygatos make a surprise reference to the "gringo" Bugs Bunny as well. A fun cartoon!