A Message to Gracias (1964)

A Message to Gracias Review

A Message to Gracias is a 1964 animated short film from the Looney Tunes series. It is a pretty dark cartoon.

Speedy Gonzales is sent by a Mexican Revolutionary mouse on a mission to evade Sylvester and deliver the message to an important mouse. This short is all about the beginning and the ending sections with the middle portion faring the worst. Sylvester basically employs different transporting vehicles to catch the mouse, but of course he fails every single time. These sequences were not great gags at all. They were serviceable and nothing more than that.

However, the reason why the short clicked for me lies in its inherent darkness. The Speedy Gonzales series has always been darker than most other series in the Warner Bros. animated canon, but this is the new level of heightened stakes. In the beginning, it is clearly stated that many mice before had been murdered by Sylvester. The ending is even more disturbing as Speedy literally sends the mice to their death by releasing Sylvester and letting him chase them. He does it out of revenge because he was sent on a dumb mission, but still this just goes to show that he is by far the most antiheroic of all the Looney Tunes protagonists.

A Message to Gracias is weaker in the middle parts, but it features an unforgettable opening and ending that set the new standard for heightened stakes.

My Rating – 4