| Mexican Boarders | |
|---|---|
| Looney Tunes (Speedy Gonzales) series | |
Title card |
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| Directed by | Friz Freleng Hawley Pratt (co-director) |
| Produced by | David H. DePatie (uncredited) |
| Story by | John Dunn |
| Voices by | Mel Blanc Daws Butler (narrator) Tom Holland (uncredited) |
| Music by | Milt Franklyn |
| Animation by | Virgil Ross Gerry Chiniquy Bob Matz Art Leonardi Lee Halpern |
| Layouts by | Hawley Pratt |
| Backgrounds by | Tom O'Loughlin |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
| Release date(s) | May 12, 1962 |
| Color process | Technicolor |
| Running time | 6 minutes |
| Language | English |
Mexican Boarders is a 1962 Looney Tunes cartoon short directed by Friz Freleng. Voice actors are Mel Blanc (doing the voices of Sylvester the Cat and Speedy Gonzales), Daws Butler as the narrator, and an uncredited Tom Holland as the voice of Slowpoke Rodriguez.
The cartoon has Sylvester trying to catch Speedy in a house they share in Mexico. Sylvester switches targets when Slowpoke Rodriguez, Speedy's cousin, comes to visit. This is the second and final classic Looney Tunes short (after Mexicali Shmoes) to feature Slowpoke Rodriguez.
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Speedy Gonzales, "the fastest mouse in all Mexico", is living in the "fine hacienda of José Álvaro Meléndez" in an unnamed "big city" in Mexico where fellow resident Sylvester the Cat (dubbed "Sylvero Gato" here) is "the most pooped cat in all Mexico" from his futile attempts to catch Speedy. The cat is shown trying pep pills to get the energy needed to catch the mouse, to no effect. Their pursuit is interrupted when Speedy's country cousin, Slowpoke Rodriguez, knocks on the door.
Taller, thinner, and slower talking than Speedy, Slowpoke arrives carrying a bindle stick and singing "La Cucaracha". The cat, seeing easier prey, lets Slowpoke into the hacienda where he is quickly rescued by Speedy. Complaining of hunger, Slowpoke sets out for the kitchen to get food only to be rescued again by Speedy. Speedy successfully raids the kitchen for cheese but Slowpoke complains that his cousin forgot the Tabasco sauce. During this second raid, the cat paints the floor with glue and actually catches Speedy but winds up swallowing the hot sauce, not the mouse, and Speedy escapes.
After a very large meal, Slowpoke announces that he's ready for dessert. An incredulous Speedy makes another raid on the pantry where the cat has put up a wire mesh to stop the mice. Speedy runs right through the large holes with Sylvero right behind, stretching the mesh but passing through apparently unharmed. As the chase continues, the cat falls to pieces one cube at a time.
That night, as Slowpoke and Speedy go to sleep in bunk beds made from match boxes, Slowpoke protests that he's still hungry and gets up to stage his own kitchen raid over Speedy's objections. Slowpoke reassures him, "maybe Slowpoke is pretty slow downstairs in the feet, but he is pretty fast upstairs in the cabeza." The cat does swiftly capture Slowpoke but the mouse instantly mesmerizes the cat, making him am unwilling servant to bring them food and cool them with a fan.
On his arrival, Slowpoke sings the traditional first verse of "La Cucaracha". ("La cucaracha, la cucaracha, Ya no puede caminar, Porque no tiene, porque le falta, Marijuana que fumar." This translates as "The cockroach, the cockroach, Now he can't go traveling, Because he doesn't have, because he lacks, Marijuana to smoke.")[1] Mexican Boarders was one of several "Speedy Gonzales" shorts edited by Cartoon Network to avoid offending modern sensibilities then dropped from its lineup for several years.[2]
On Nickelodeon, this cartoon was edited to remove the scene where Sylvester opens a bottle of pep pills and chugs them down. Early appearances of the cartoon on Looney Tunes on Nickelodeon cut out the entire scene (having the narrator's line appear over a blacked-out screen) while later appearances replaced the shot of Sylvester downing pills with a freeze-framed shot of Sylvester lying exhausted on the ground.
Portions of this short were edited into the 1964 short Road to Andalay and the 1982 feature film Bugs Bunny's 3rd Movie: 1001 Rabbit Tales.[3] The unedited cartoon was released on DVD in November 2006 on the third disc of Looney Tunes Golden Collection, Volume Four.[4] This DVD release includes a commentary track by animator Greg Ford.[5]
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