Gonzales' Tamales (1957) User Reviews

Speedy the womaniser

[Tweekums · 7/10 · 20 July 2009]

This short opens with two Mexican mice discussing their plans for the evening, one suggest that they should go out with pretty girls but the other points out that all the pretty girls are in love with Speedy Gonzales and that only chihuahuas are left. We then see various scenes where Speedy races in to steal the hearts of various mice's girl friends. Fed up with Speedy getting all the señoritas they hatch a plot to get rid of him by getting "the Gringo pussy cat" to run him out of town. What follows is what one would expect when Sylvester goes against Speedy... The poor cat ends up getting injured, blown up and tricked into eating chillies and drinking Tabasco.

While it is fairly predictable it also provided a few laughs, mostly at the expense of Sylvester.

WOW! looney tunes, subversive as always...

[mousie_hole · 7/10 · 9 August 2006]

i was watching this today on the third golden collection DVD set, and suddenly realized that in the scene when Speedy is singing in his hole, the words to his version of "la cucaracha," are translated to English thus:

the cockroach,

the cockroach,

no longer can walk,

because he doesn't lack

because he doesn't have

any marijuana to smoke!

leave it to the guys at Termite Terrace to sneak in subversive bits of humor past censors and such.

Not that great, but not awful either

[TheLittleSongbird · 7/10 · 8 May 2010]

This is not the best Speedy/Sylvester cartoon, but it is entertaining. It is standard and predictable and the production values are somewhat bland, plus Speedy is rather loud and repetitive here. However, what does make it entertaining are some good dialogue, some interesting sight gags, decent music and Mel Blanc's voices. Plus you feel sorry for Sylvester, the poor cat suffers horribly here, being forced to eat chilli peppers isn't that nice really and that's not even the worst of it. And I liked the title of the cartoon, it has real flair somewhat. And while I find the pacing off sometimes in Speedy cartoons, this one moves quite quickly. Overall, not great but watchable. 7/10 Bethany Cox

Not much to recommend this one

[slymusic · 28 June 2008]

"Gonzales' Tamales" is a good but not great Speedy Gonzales/Sylvester cartoon directed by Friz Freleng. Usually, all of the Mexican mice are Speedy's friends, but this time, things are different. Speedy lures away all of their women! Their only recourse is a certain "gringo pussycat" to chase Speedy out of town.

Only one memorable highlight: Sylvester dares Speedy to pull his tail out by its roots, and Speedy actually does it, exposing the slobbering feline's naked fanny.

There's an interesting footnote to "Gonzales' Tamales". When Speedy sings "La Cucaracha", listen very carefully to the last three words!

It's somewhat hard to imagine Warner Bros. predicting . . .

[oscaralbert · 7/10 · 3 September 2016]

. . . Victory for Trumplestiltskin in the 2016 U.S. Presidential Finals when you view the Looney Tune GONZALES' TAMALES (which works for a title ONLY if you read "Tamales" as a Mexican synonym for females, along the lines of the Americanism "Tomatoes," though SAUSAGE PARTY just made it clear that "Tacos" were, are, and always will be the preferred receptors for Fellas' Burritos). Trumpenstein began his campaign with the premise that Mexican rapists are pouring through a porous U.S. bottom periphery, which must be plugged up with a pile of bricks. GONZALES' TAMALES presents Speedy as a serial sexual opportunist through the eyes of his peers, who conspire to sic the Trumpster Fire--in the guise of Sylvester "the Gringo" P*SSY CAT"--upon the gluttonous seducer. Speedy's jealous fellow mice entice Sylvester onto THEIR side of Fortress America (just as Real Life Mexican Leader Enrique Pena Nieto bamboozled Mr. T into doing last week!), where the Fat Cat's promptly shaved, shot, and blown up (not to mention undergoing a symbolic Penectomy as Speedy yanks off his tail!). Though few (except probably Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio) wish to see Trumples similarly unmanned, it's hard to forget what Delilah did to that Samsonite Guy.

In a war between Speedy and the other male mice for the affections of all the senorita mice, the loser is Sylvester!

[llltdesq · 9/10 · 6 August 2006]

I can't really discuss this cartoon without including at least some details, so consider yourself warned as to spoilers: The male mice in a small village have something of a problem-his name is Speedy Gonzales. Every little senorita mouse is far more interested in the dashing Speedy than they are in anyone else. In a brilliant display of vigor and young mouse-hood, they decide the solution to their problems is by arranging for someone else to do their dirty work-"El gringo pussycat", for instance. So they make it look like Speedy's insulted Sylvester and the chase is on. As you might expect, Sylvester gets the worst of Speedy and things don't end terribly well from his point of view.

Pairing Sylvester and Speedy up in a cartoon is an obvious and effective teaming, when you think about it a bit. It does have the same obvious limitation the Sylvester versus Tweety shorts have-you know from the outset that no one will be lunch, even if one character does consider the other a part of their basic food groups. The reason these shorts work (when they do) is because of the gags involved and the background material. You hear a character singing a couple of lines of "La Cucaracha" (which are particularly funny if you understand Spanish), or you see the physical results of Sylvester trying to catch Speedy and it doesn't matter that Sylvester has a better chance of hitting the lottery than does of catching his prey du jour.

This is available on Looney Tunes Golden Collection Vol. 3 and is most definitely worth getting. I recommend the Collection without reservation. Highly recommended.

Holy mother of...! They said it!

[lee_eisenberg · 10/10 · 16 April 2007]

In case you've ever doubted just how in-your-face the Looney Tunes cartoons were, just check out "Gonzales' Tamales". In this one, Speedy Gonzales - who, as you may have noticed from other cartoons, is a total playboy - is seducing the female mice, and making the male mice very angry. So, they get Sylvester to go after him. Needless to say, Speedy knows just how to avoid getting caught.

Anyway, the real "gotcha" moment comes towards the end. Speedy was singing "La cucaracha". Since I knew what the lyrics were, I listened to see if the people making the cartoon would use them. Sure enough, it ends with "marijuana que fumar" (meaning "marijuana to smoke")! To think that in the midst of the strict McCarthyism world of the 1950s, they sneaked in something about Mary Jane! Only the Termite Terrace crowd could do that! Overall, a really funny cartoon.

Speedy Is A Pain In The Butt

[ccthemovieman-1 · 4/10 · 19 May 2007]

Pedro and Manuel are frustrated that all the pretty girls go out with Speedy Gonzales. "All that are left are Chihuahuas," they say.

Every time one of those poor guys is starting to get somewhere with a pretty females, the obnoxious Speedy races in and beats them to the punch. Finally, the mice organize because "we've got to do something about Speedy Gonzales, who is taking away all our girls."

Jose comes up with the best idea: to hire a "gringo pussycat" to run Speedy out of town. Enter: good 'ole Sylvester! You know who lost this battle. The best gag was the gun in the cat's hand being dismantled piece by piece until only a bullet was left, floating in the air.

I remember liking Speedy when I was a kid, but now he's just loud, too repetitive and just plain obnoxious. I'm sorry Sylvester didn't devour him.

My fave of the series--& top-drawer Sylvester!

[nnwahler · 9/10 · 23 August 2023]

Most consider the self-titled Speedy Gonzales film the best of the bunch, but this takes the cake IMHO. (Actually, I'd give "Mexicali Shmoes" nine stars too.)

Director Friz Freleng was under pressure to produce entries for the most popular series (with and without Bugs/Sylvester). One really has to give him credit for trying a new spin on each of these films, but he DID resent having to produce potboilers for the Speedy series. In this one, Speedy (and, ultimately the other mice) are the culprits, putting supreme fall-guy Sylvester through all sorts of hell, ultimately rocketing up to the moon via lots of hot tabasco! The director always said what happened to THE CAT was the fun of the picture. Some of Freleng's best-timed gags in this one.

Hats off to animators Art Davis & Gerry Chiniquy for executing the funniest gags here. Top-drawer Sylvester.

Run-of-the-mill Speedy cartoon that fails to deliver on an initially promising premise

[phantom_tollbooth · 3/10 · 9 January 2009]

Friz Freleng's 'Gonzales' Tamales' is a typically so-so Speedy Gonzales cartoon. It seemed to be Sylvester's fate to be paired with some of the least funny characters in the Warner Bros. repertoire and the poor gringo pussy cat got lumbered with Speedy for a long time, until he was finally relieved of that duty by Daffy Duck, bizarrely enough. 'Gonzales' Tamales' actually starts out promisingly with an interesting premise: all the other Mexican mice are tired of Speedy taking all their women so they decide to dispose of him. How? Therein lies the cartoon's problem. They decide to manipulate Sylvester into chasing Speedy out of town, at which point 'Gonzales' Tamales' becomes a standard Speedy and Sylvester cartoon, in which Sylvester tries to lure Speedy out of his hole in a variety of different ways. While there are a couple of laughs (I particularly like a scene in which Sylvester attempts to shoot Speedy only for the mouse to quickly dismantle the gun piece by piece), 'Gonzales' Tamales' largely seems like old hat. Even as a child when I loved even the dullest Sylvester and Tweety cartoon, I was disappointed when a Speedy cartoon came on and that feeling hasn't left me. 'Gonzales' Tamales' is just another in a long line of Speedy clangers.