See Ya Later Gladiator (1968) User Reviews

Even Speedy can't save this disaster!

[llltdesq · 4/10 · 1 May 2003]

A great many Warner Brothers cartoon fans consider the cartoons produced in the mid to late 1960s to be lousy beyond description as a class. While I don't tend to agree with that blanket judgment (or with most blanket judgments, come to that), I feel that, for this one particularly, lousy is an understatement. If someone argues there is a worse effort out there, I'd have to seriously disagree. Everything about this one screams, "Garbage" and at the top of its lungs. Every complaint (most legitimate, some not) that is made about the later cartoons as a class is here-bad music, horrid backgrounds, no imagination, lousy writing, bad animation (even for limited animation)-everything about this one makes it the nadir of Warner Brothers animation. Not even ridicule can make this one sufficiently entertaining to make it worth watching more than once and only that if you are a hardcore Warner Brothers completeist. Watching it will temporarily lower your IQ 20 points. You have been warned.

Not even Daffy Duck can save this disappointment of a cartoon

[TheLittleSongbird · 4/10 · 25 May 2010]

I really wanted to like this, while I love Daffy Duck I don't care much for Speedy Gonzales. I still watched it regardless and was disappointed. Well admittedly I have been disappointed with a vast majority of Speedy cartoons, but this in particular could and should have been MUCH better! For one thing, the animation here looks really cheap, no colour, vibrancy or fluidity, instead the backgrounds are lifeless and all the characters especially Emperor Nero look really odd. In short, it looks like mediocre at best TV animation standard. I didn't like the music either, generic and forgettable, and some of it was annoying. The writing was lousy, and the visual gags are very unimpressive. In fact, the sole saving graces really are that it goes by quickly, one or two "funny" lines from Daffy(who deserves better than this) and Mel Blanc's voice characterisations. Everything else is pretty much disposable. 4/10 Bethany Cox

Meh, but they were budgeted

[cartoonnewsCP · 6/10 · 3 July 2017]

Ouch, this cartoon was a bummer. But Mel Blanc's voices do save the day. The cartoons plot is kind of weird. You have Speedy traveling with Daffy back to the Roman empire and then back with the emperor. Animation is okay, but do keep in mind that these were very strictly budgeted so I'll give it some credit for trying. Alex Lovy was not the best, but he definitely wasn't the worst.

See Ya Later Gladiator [1968]

[gcarras · 16 February 2010]

In a weird way, I sort of liked this as Daffy actually HAS good authority in a way to go after Speedy -the latter's musical mayhem-and in the main parts of the short, the two don't fight but go against Emprorer Nero and his lions. But yeah, this is far from the best. No wonder the two retired. BTW Marty, I've seen you on another forum I use doing those Daffy-Speedy threads..my advice is to watch it...

Oddly, the open theme music is somewhat good, and likewise the payoff gag at the end. I noted something. Besides Blanc doing all the voices on these, there is no star billing for the duck and mouse in these shorts, as with the newer characters - Norman Normal, Merlin the Magic Mouse,etc.etc.etc.

The open music, like that one most is heavily compressed even in the original version as shown theatrically, as far as I know.

One of the lamest of the late-60s

[wile_E2005 · 1/10 · 5 February 2006]

Of course, the Daffy and Speedy cartoons of the 1967-1969 period (when Warner Bros. Animation had a new executive producer, Bill Hendricks) are usually mediocre, and this is no exception. You can tell it's going to be a cheap cartoon when you see the bizarre stylized Warner Bros.- Seven Arts opening titles (with even more bizarre theme music than usual!) The background music isn't really WB-like, but more TV cartoon-like, and the animation resembles that of a Hanna-Barbera and Filmation cartoon. Daffy and Speedy look really hideous in this short, as well. In fact, one of the only high points in it is that Mel Blanc, the original voice actor providing Speedy Gonzales's and Daffy Duck's voices, lends his talents to this odd-ball cartoon. Some parts are a bit predictable, but I think it was pretty funny when after destroying Nero's fiddle, the Roman emperor says, "Now I'm gonna break your neck!" Then they must stop and wait at an old "Rome-style" crosswalk, with a torch flame that changes color with the traffic light! Nonetheless, with its cheap animation, it looks more like a cheap parody on MAD TV rather than a real Looney Tunes cartoon, but at least it's better than the WB animation studio when it was run by Sander Schwartz.

What A Sad Way To End An Already Flawed Series

[MartyD82-1 · 4/10 · 16 July 2006]

Daffy's a Physicist's assistant assigned to clean the laboratory with the strict order of "not pulling the chain" (ie. setting off the physicist's time machine). In one of the lamest musical moments ever in a WB cartoon, he overhears Speedy and his Mexican folk band. To get rid of the pest, Daffy tries to trick Speedy into pulling the chain to send him back to 65 AD Rome. Unfortunately, the trick backfires and both wind up being sent back to 65 AD, where they are thrown into a coliseum as gladiators.

This was the last Daffy/Speedy cartoon produced (and, therefore, the last cartoon with "classic" WB stars), and unfortunately, it only works to reinforce what everybody hated about the series. The plot shows promise but is marred by sloppy writing (particularly the ending) and poorly timed gags - the only even remotely funny one being the lion's facial expression after his mane has been cut off and he looks in the mirror. The animation is poor even by 1968 standards. And the generic Mexican-style soundtrack is even more sloppily scored than in previous Daffy/Speedy shorts (it's just generic background noise with virtually no interplay with what's happening in the cartoon).

Overall, this is a sad swan song to an already maligned series of cartoons. While my personal feelings towards the Daffy/Speedy cartoons tend to be a little softer than most, several of them completely miss the mark. This is one of them.

Watch it strictly out of curiosity.

Embarrassing at best

[KalloFox34 · 1/10 · 5 September 2020]

This was the final cartoon to use any of the classic Warner Bros. characters; after this, new characters and one-shot cartoons were their entire output.

First off, the animation and music are very poor. There are two scenes with Daffy looking out a window, and the exact same animation is used even though he was in a different room each time (first the lab, then Daffy's bedroom). There's also the score, which is generic at best. The cartoon itself looks like something out of Hanna-Barbera (complete with an overuse of their sound effects).

That's nothing to say about the writing. Daffy gets angry at Speedy for his "corny music"? Is that the best the writers could come up with? On another note, they at least tried to make Daffy less of a jerk in previous cartoons after getting horribly flanderized through much of the 60s (the Daffy/Speedy cartoon before it actually had them as friends).

Then the two get sent back in time, where they are fed to a lion. This culminates into a series of rather bland gags with awful timing (just one example is the scene with the lion eating Speedy's wooden sword).

Then they break Nero's fiddle, get chased by him and then get sent back to the present. Also, Nero got brought along with them. Why didn't the scientist just send him back to Ancient Rome? And why did he have to join Speedy's band?

A sad end for classic characters

[bonwardulr · 1/10 · 17 March 2021]

Daffy and Speedy cartoons are not good to begin with, but this is ever worse than normal. The plot is ridiculous, sound effects lame, and the characters, especially Daffy, look off model at times. It looks like they spend about $12 to make this.

Avoid at all costs.