| Speedy Gonzales | |
|---|---|
| Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies character | |
 | |
| First appearance | Cat-Tails for Two (August 29, 1953; 72 years ago (1953-08-29)) (preliminary version) Speedy Gonzales (September 17, 1955; 70 years ago (1955-09-17)) (official version) |
| Created by | Robert McKimson Friz Freleng |
| Voiced by | Mel Blanc (1953–1989) Noel Blanc (1990, 2012) Jeff Bergman (1990, 2002) Joe Alaskey (1991–2008) Greg Burson (1994–1995, 1998) Eric Goldberg (2003) Billy West (2003) Bob Bergen (2006–2008) Fred Armisen (2011–2015) Tim Dadabo (2011, 2014) Eric Bauza (2014–present) Dino Andrade (2018) Gabriel Iglesias (2021) Raul Ceballos (2023–present) see below |
| In-universe information | |
| Species | Mouse |
| Gender | Male |
| Family | Slowpoke Rodriguez (cousin) |
| Nationality | Mexican |
Speedy Gonzales is acartoon character in theWarner Bros.Looney Tunes andMerrie Melodies series of cartoons. He is portrayed as "The Fastest Mouse in allMexico" with his major traits being the ability to run extremely fast, being quick-witted, heroic, and speaking with aMexican accent.[1] He usually wears a yellowsombrero, white shirt and trousers (which was a common traditional outfit worn by men and boys of rural Mexican villages), and a redkerchief, similar to that of some traditional Mexican attires.[2] There are 46 theatrical shorts that feature or star the character.
Speedy's first appearance was in 1953'sCat-Tails for Two though he appeared largely in name (and super speed) only.[3] It would be two years beforeFriz Freleng and layout artistHawley Pratt redesigned the character into his modern incarnation forthe 1955 Freleng short of the same name. The cartoon featuresSylvester the Cat guarding a cheese factory at the international border between the United States and Mexico from starving Mexican mice. The mice call in the plucky, excessively energetic Speedy (voiced byMel Blanc) to save them. Amid cries of "¡Ándale! ¡Ándale! ¡Arriba! ¡Arriba! ¡Epe! ¡Epe! ¡Epe! Yeehaw!" (Spanish for "Go on! Go on! Up! Up!", although "Ándale arriba" may have been intended as meaning "hurry up"), Sylvester soon gets his comeuppance. The cartoon won the 1955Academy Award for Best Short Subject (Cartoons).
.jpg)
While Speedy's last name was given asGonzalez inCat-Tails (on a printed business card shown in the cartoon), it was spelled with an 's' fromSpeedy Gonzales onward. Today, the earlier spelling is sometimes used.
Freleng and McKimson soon set Sylvester up as Speedy's regular nemesis in a series of cartoons, much in the same wayChuck Jones had pairedWile E. Coyote and the Road Runner in his Road Runner cartoons (and indeed, all four characters ended up competing with each other in the shortThe Wild Chase). Sylvester (often called "ElGringo Pussygato" by Speedy) is constantly outsmarted and outrun by the mouse, causing the cat to suffer all manner of pain and humiliation from mousetraps to accidentally consuming large amounts ofTabascohot sauce. Other cartoons pair the mouse with his cousin,Slowpoke Rodriguez, the "slowest Mouse in all Mexico." Slowpoke regularly gets into all sorts of trouble that often require Speedy to save him—but one cat inMexicali Shmoes says that as if to compensate for his slowness, "he pack a gun!"[4] In the mid 1960s, Speedy's main rival and second nemesis becameDaffy Duck, whom Speedy usually referred to as "theloco duck."
Feeling that the character presented an offensive Mexican stereotype,Cartoon Network shelved Speedy's films when it gained exclusive rights to broadcast them in 1999 (as a subsidiary ofTime Warner, Cartoon Network is a corporate sibling to Warner Bros.). In an interview withFox News on March 28, 2002, Cartoon Network spokeswoman Laurie Goldberg commented, "It hasn't been on the air for years because of itsethnic stereotypes."[6]
However, the Hispanic-American rights organizationLeague of United Latin American Citizens called Speedy acultural icon, and thousands of users registered their support of the character on the hispaniconline.com message boards. Fan campaigns to put Speedy back on the air resulted in the return of the animated shorts toCartoon Network in 2002.[7][8]
Speedy Gonzales remained a popular character in Latin America. Many Hispanic people remembered him fondly as a quick-witted, heroic Mexican character who always got the best of his opponents, at a time when such positive depictions of Latin Americans were rare in popular entertainment.[9]
In a March 2021 essay,Los Angeles Times columnistGustavo Arellano wrote, "I love Speedy so much, I keep a large painting of him in my home office. His kind smile and brown skin takes me back to my childhood — and reminds me of where we as Mexicans exist today."[10]
In 1983, he co-starred with Daffy Duck once again inDaffy Duck's Movie: Fantastic Island. He also made a cameo appearance in the finale sequence of the 1988 filmWho Framed Roger Rabbit.[11] He had one appearance in theTiny Toon Adventures episode segment "The Acme Acres Summer Olympics", as the coach, and serving as the mentor ofLightning Rodriguez. He had a minor role in the 1996 filmSpace Jam.[11] He made a cameo appearance alongsidePorky Pig in the 2003 filmLooney Tunes: Back in Action,[11] making fun of hispolitically incorrect status. At around the same time, he made a non-speaking cameo in an episode of¡Mucha Lucha! titled "Lucha, Rinse and Repeat".
Volume 4 of theLooney Tunes Golden Collection DVD series, released on November 14, 2006, has an entire disc of Speedy shorts, although some of his other shorts had previously been released on Volumes1 and3. Speedy is mentioned in oneDuck Dodgers episode, afterCadet sits on Dodgers, prompting him to say, "I knew I should've chosen Speedy Gonzales as a sidekick!"
Speedy Gonzales appears inBah, Humduck! A Looney Tunes Christmas. He is an employee at the Lucky Duck Superstore for the greedyDaffy Duck where he confuses Daffy with the Feliz Navidad comment.
Speedy Gonzales serves as a supporting character onThe Looney Tunes Show. He is seen living with Bugs and Daffy as their "mouse in the wall" and running the pizza parlor Pizzarriba. Speedy is shown to act as Daffy's conscience, which is a far cry from the antagonistic relationship they had in the old days. The episode "Sunday Night Slice" showed that Bugs bought his favorite restaurant, Girardi's, to prevent it from being closed and hired Speedy to help him. When Bugs decides he does not want to own a restaurant anymore, he hands ownership of it to Speedy, who renames it to Pizzarriba. In the episode "Beauty School", Speedy is revealed to be teaching dance classes above the Pizzarriba on Monday nights: Bugs - who has spent the episode being a less-than-willing model for Daffy's hairdressing practice - gets dragged into attending with Porky and is mistaken for a woman, who Speedy becomes besotted with. In "The Black Widow", Speedy Gonzales answers Daffy Duck's call and races to Tacapulco to convince his cousin Sheriff Slowpoke Rodriguez to let Daffy Duck and Porky Pig out of jail.
Speedy Gonzales appeared in the 2015direct-to-video movieLooney Tunes: Rabbits Run. He is seen asLola Bunny's landlord.
An elderly Speedy Gonzales (voiced byCarlos Alazraqui) was "interviewed" byAl Madrigal for Madrigal's one-hour comedic documentary specialHalf Like Me.[12]
Speedy Gonzales appeared occasionally inNew Looney Tunes, often as the leader of a gang of mice that also includesHubie and Bertie,Sniffles, and "Minnesota Rats" (originally Minniesoda Fats; an aborted 1970s character revived and fleshed out in this series). He seems to have reverted to his personality fromMerrie Melodies.
Speedy Gonzales appeared in the 2021 filmSpace Jam: A New Legacy. Here, he is picked up alongsideGranny fromThe Matrix part of the Warner Bros. 3000 server-verse and becomes a member of the Tune Squad during their basketball match against the Goon Squad.[13][14]
Speedy Gonzales appeared in theBugs Bunny Builders episode "Speedy", voiced by Raul Ceballos. In the show, he is a professional soccer player and hired the Looney Builders to fly to Mexico and build a soccer stadium for his soccer game with his four teammates. He also made a cameo in the episode "The Snuffles", where he watches the world premiere of the movieWonder Rabbit on his laptop in the soccer field.
Though Speedy Gonzales is purely a fictional character, the name was inspired by Frank Gonzales, an assistant animator who was working at Warner Bros. at the time. These facts were described by another Warner Bros. employee,Martha Goldman Sigall, who was present during the event.[15]
In 1962, pop singerPat Boone scored a top 10 hit in the United States with the song "Speedy Gonzales" which featured Mel Blancsamples as Speedy. It wascovered byManolo Muñoz and several other artists.
In 1965, the movieWild on the Beach included the song "Little Speedy Gonzales" which was written by Stan Ross and Bobby Beverly and performed byThe Astronauts.[16]
In 1995, he appeared in a video game,Speedy Gonzales: Los Gatos Bandidos, for theSuper Nintendo Entertainment System.
In 2006,Volkswagen licensed Speedy Gonzales for a series of Spanish-language commercials for theVolkswagen Golf, using footage from thecartoon of the same name.[17]
In 2010,Virgin Media struck a deal with Warner Bros. to use Speedy in a television advertising campaign promote its superfast broadband services.[18][19][20] The campaign was developed byDDB,[18] directed by Dan Colley,[21][22] Jerry Hibbert,[23] and Guy Bradbury;[24] and produced by Chris Lapham and Aaron McGuirk.[21]
Speedy Gonzales starred in several video games:Cheese Cat-Astrophe Starring Speedy Gonzales for theMega Drive/Genesis,Master System, andGame Gear,Speedy Gonzales: Los Gatos Bandidos for theSuper Nintendo Entertainment System,Speedy Gonzales for theGame Boy andSpeedy Gonzales: Aztec Adventure for theGame Boy Color. He also appeared as an enemy inLooney Tunes: Back in Action, andLooney Tunes: Marvin Strikes Back! as both aminiboss andplayable character. Between 2008 and 2009,Deadline Games pitched a video game based on Speedy, but it was never developed.[25]
In 2010,Warner Bros. Pictures andNew Line Cinema announced a new Speedy Gonzales live action/animated feature film.George Lopez was attached to voice the character.[26] In December 2015, it was reported that an animated film was in development at Warner Bros.[27] In April 2016, it was announced thatEugenio Derbez would voice the character.[28] In April 2024, during an interview, Derbez said that he doubted that the movie would happen, saying, "I feel that the studios are afraid that, nowadays, it's so politically incorrect. I've been telling them constantly that we love Speedy Gonzales inMexico".[29] On December 2, 2025,Jorge R. Gutierrez teased that a Speedy Gonzales film was in development.[30][31] On January 16, 2026,The Hollywood Reporter announced that the project got greenlit byWarner Bros. Pictures Animation.[32]
Media related toSpeedy Gonzales at Wikimedia Commons
