TheLittleSongbird Love animation, it was a big part of my life as a child, particularly Disney, Looney Tunes and Tom and Jerry, and still love it whether it's film, television or cartoons.Speedy Gonzales is not a favourite character of mine and his cartoons overall are very variable (the worst cartoons being the worst of his outings with Daffy Duck and 'Mexican Cat Dance'). Am a fan though of Sylvester, regardless of any character he was paired with he was always the funnier and more interesting while also being one to root for. Generally, their outings are better than Speedy's with Daffy though some are better than others, and their pairing makes much more sense and isn't too much of a mismatch. This is evident here.'A Message to Gracias' has the same strengths and faults as 'Pancho's Hideaway' and 'Nuts and Volts', hence the reiteration. Like those two cartoons, 'A Message to Gracias' is generally one of the better Looney Tunes cartoons to appear in a patchy decade and during a severe declining period that got worse 1965 onwards. There are serious issues still here in 'A Message to Gracias', though fewer than many of the cartoons from 1965 onwards (namely the worst of the Daffy/Speedy series and that for Roadrunner/Wile E. Coyote) certainly and all done far worse in those cartoons. There are also things that are done well. Budget and time constraints, with the budget being lower, resources being fewer and time constraints tighter, show in the animation. This aspect is very limited, apart from some good flow in how the characters move, especially in the scrappy and incomplete-looking backgrounds. The story is basic and obvious, not an awful lot to it and the predictability factor is high.Know that comparing Bill Lava unfavourably to Carl Stalling and Milt Franklyn is unfair, but it is difficult not to when the quality difference is so big. Lava did worse later, but the score is not an appealing one in sound, lacks energy and doesn't fit very well with the action. On the other hand, Speedy is not too annoying thankfully and his chemistry with Sylvester is fun. Sylvester as was predicted is the funnier and more interesting character of the two by quite some way, he's cunning, provides the laughs more than naturally and is easy to root for.The dialogue is not particularly fresh but it is quite sharp-witted and amusing and there is a crisp pace throughout. The gags are nothing innovative but raised still a number of smiles and laughs. There is an unexpected twist that gives a little more freshness than most Speedy Gonzales cartoons.Mel Blanc's vocals as expected are very exuberant and full of vigour, few actors have voiced multiple characters in one cartoon alone and give all of them a different identity with such conviction.Overall, pretty good once again for past prime Looney Tunes. 7/10 Bethany Cox

Edgar Allan Pooh . . . applies EQUALLY to knives and guns (neither of which is explicitly mentioned, but only presumed to be among the "arms" we have a right to "bear"). Warner Bros.' Looney Tunes Civics Lesson contained in A MESSAGE TO GRACIAS is an urgent plea for America to adopt Common Sense "Open Carry" guidelines for Bowie Knives, Samurai Swords, Battle Axes, Bazookas, Flame-Throwers, Poison Dart Blow-Guns, Pipe Bombs--and, of course, for the would-be Davids wishing to take on the myopic Goliath of the NRA--Sling-shots. Sylvester Cat is presented initially in GRACIAS as an NRA Poster Boy, with "Manuel" becoming his 10th kill, as he wields a mean long gun. But the knife-toting Speedy Gonzalez soon is running circles around the rifle-lugging cat, who misfires in frustration, sinking his own speedboat. When Speedy realizes how corrupt America's current interpretation of the Second Amendment actually is, he cuts the captured and tied up Sylvester loose to chase after Gen. Gracias and the other hateful gun-promoting honchos with a knife. I'm sure that the Looney Tunes people would expect anyone Open Carrying a Rocket Propelled Grenade Launcher (RPG), Broad Sword, or Sharpened Hatchet in a crowded public place to have had the same sort of five-minute "safety course" the NRA brags that its members are exposed to with their shooting irons. But as they say, "All's fair in Hate and War," and many people have stronger teeth to pull the pins on their Open Carry Hand Grenades than they do arthritic trigger fingers.

Tweekums The messengers working for El Supremo, a fat and lazy mouse, are a nervous bunch and we soon see why; Manuel is given the task of delivering a message to General Gracia and before he has got far El Pussy Gato Sylvester and caught him and another name is added to the memorial wall. With El Supremo upset that his messages aren't getting through one of the mice suggests contacting Speedy Gonzales. What follows is the usual series of scenes showing Speedy racing along as Sylvester constantly gets hurt as he tries to catch him. Ultimately it is Sylvester who gets caught though! When Speedy delivers the message he learns that it was just a birthday greeting and when El Supremo arrives with the cake Speedy releases Sylvester who promptly chases after El Supremo and Gracias while imitating Speedy.This Speedy Gonzales short was rather fun; Sylvester's attempts to catch him and the way he failed each time were fun and while his failure was inevitable the way he failed each to wasn't entirely. The highlight though was the twist in the tail where Speedy frees Sylvester to chase the other mice... I honestly didn't see that coming! Another thing I didn't expect was Manuel's death; it may have happened off camera but it was clear that he was a goner.

Lee Eisenberg Speedy Gonzales, on the verge of becoming the top Warner Bros. cartoon star (as they retired most of the characters), starred in Robert McKimson's "A Message to Gracias". This one has Speedy getting hired to deliver a letter to a revolutionary general - who looks like a mouse version of Ernest Borgnine - after Sylvester eats the other messengers. You can probably guess what sorts of things Speedy does to Sylvester.This isn't exactly related, but I would like to talk about why Warner Bros. closed its animation department in 1963. The Looney Tunes were products of vaudeville-style entertainment. This type of humor was becoming old-school by the Kennedy era, and members of the baby boom were starting to come of age. So, WB closed its animation department. I don't really know why Friz Freleng established a new studio and sold cartoons to WB. Granted, I like Looney Tunes cartoons as much as the next person, but anyone can see that they were starting to lose steam by this point. This cartoon is OK in a pinch.