Not by much though. Mexican Cat Dance does have its values, Bill Lava's music score is pleasantly orchestrated and rhythmically very catchy, Mel Blanc still gives his all to the vocal characterisations but this immensely talented voice actor deserved so much better than this and some of Sylvester's facial expressions did crack me up. His entrance was pretty cool too. The main problems however with Mexican Cat Dance were that it is not at all funny and that it looks cheap. The animation in the Speedy cartoons have been known to look basic, and it's certainly that here and worse. The colours have no life or vibrancy at all and everything just looks scrappily drawn and sparse, Speedy and Sylvester have been much better drawn before too. With the humour, the writing has no real freshness or wit and there are a few groaners too, while the gags are incredibly predictable and limp, even the best of the visual gags felt recycled and to much inferior effect due to the complete lack of energy in the pace. The story has that lack of energy and never gets out of being simplistic, it feels stretched even for the short running time, or derivative. The opening looks like a rehash of Bully for Bugs and actually contains the best-looking animation of the entire cartoon, not saying an awful lot though. Neither Speedy or Sylvester are written well. Their chemistry certainly makes much more sense than that of Daffy and Speedy but they still don't gel because the material for both are so weak here. The mice are annoying and unnecessary and Speedy is no better, he's also unnecessarily sadistic towards Sylvester here. Sylvester is certainly Mexican Cat Dance's most rootable character, only because you hate everybody else, but in doing so what was so endearing about him in the first place is lost. The charisma is there, the craftiness is not and you are feeling too sorry for him to be amused by him, in his cartoons he's always the character that provides the laughs but it sure doesn't feel like that here because of how he's treated. In conclusion, a very weak Speedy/Sylvester cartoon, quite possibly their worst, and even worse than anything in the much-maligned Daffy/Speedy series put together(of that series the only one to come close to this level is See Ya Later Gladiator). 3/10 Bethany Cox
