Behind the Tunes: Needy for Speedy

As with the other "Behind The Tunes" features on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection, we get a short history of a particular cartoon character. In this case, it's "Speedy Gonzales," invented by Robert McKimson. His son, Robert Jr., begins by telling how his dad came to build up this character.

Speedy evolved from an "ugly toothy rodent" to a "very cute and likable character," according to a couple of the interviewees on the feature. The also talk about a character named "Slowpoke Rodriguez." Has anybody heard of that guy?

Anyway, when they first teamed up Speedy with Sylvester, it won an Academy Award....and Speedy took off, literally!

This short three minute featurette, which can be found as an extra on Disc 4 of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 1. It's nothing more than a basic primer about the Speedy Gonzales, I'm thinking, with an eye geared for newbies to the classical Looney Tunes. It details the various standout cartoons that he stared in. This is really REALLY basic stuff (the same can be said for pretty much all the other Behind the Toons feauterettes that are on Volume 1, fortunately the Behind the Tune features would get so much better starting with the ones found on volume 2).

My Grade: C-

One of the several mini-documentaries created for the Volume 1 Looney Tunes DVDs. "Behind the Tunes: Needy for Speedy" pretty much assumes that the viewer knows little or nothing about the Fastest Mouse In Mexico. I know that the obvious problem with Speedy Gonzales is that his cartoons push almost every stereotype about our southern neighbor. The featurette probably should have mentioned that, and that Hispanics actually liked the fact that the cartoons portrayed a Mexican as the good guy. Overall, this and the rest of the mini-documentaries are OK, although there's little that we hardcore fans won't know. Worth seeing maybe once. I agree with the previous reviewer that the mini-documentaries significantly improved on Volume 2.

In my opinion, on the next DVD set, they should not only include many of the 1930s cartoons not yet included, but include a featurette about the pre-1948 color cartoons. Starting in 1956, Warner Bros. loaned the pre-1948 color cartoons to Associated Artists Productions, and United Artists acquired the rights to them in 1968 (WB regained the rights in the 1990s). Many of these cartoons not only ended up with the AAP logo at the beginning, but also ended up with the Blue Ribbon logo in place of the credits. I've always wanted to know more about all that.

OK, I digress. Anyway, the Speedy Gonzales documentary passes.