A Message to Gracias

“To cousin Speedy, everyway is the shorts-cut.”

Directed by Robert Mckimson. Released in 1964

This short has a most fitting title. Unlike a majority of shorts, this one does not get it’s name from some form of wordplay or song title, but rather it flat out tells what the short will be about.

It begins at the H.Q. of a mouse named El Supremo. I don’t really know what kind of power that entails, but he’s fat so we can assume he’s a tyrant. He needs a message delivered to his friend, General Gracias. (Interesting name) He sends out a mouse named Manuel who is denied the privilege of finishing his will. The runs out into the cruel, hungry world, and while the other mice think he will make it, we know full well that he is going to be food. The mice mark another one down.

As El ponders how to get this message through, one of his mice suggests Speedy. Supremo agrees that it’s a good idea and is glad he thought of it. I’m not a fan when characters do that. Better add him to my list of annoying people I want to hurt. (…Fools who say Disney and Nintendo are only for kids, A-holes who kill animals but don’t eat them, The cast of “The tenth kingdom”…) They send a message and Speedy arrives. El gives him his orders of how he must cross a desert, climb over mountains, and cut through a jungle to get to Alcapulco. Which probably means if you’re bored enough, you can figure out where this errand is starting. Then you can challenge yourself to traverse the same route. Speedy runs over the waiting Sylvester, leaving behind some flames, and runs along the road making it bend much like the Roadrunner does. (I wonder which of those two would win a race. And on that note, why do I suddenly have four shadows?)

Sylvester is smart enough to chase him in a car, but Speedy stops for lunch break and Sylvester crashes. Next, they’re in the jungle. (Either nothing interesting happened in the mountains, or Speedy ran around them.) Sylvester takes aim from a boat in the river, but hits his head on a branch and shoots the boat instead. He ends up running from Caimans. He sets up a snare trap and catches a…I’ll be honest; I have no idea what that is. It looks kind of like Sam Sheepdog, the Tasmanian Devil, some green paint and some periods were all thrown in a blender. Maybe it’s just a radioactive jaguar?

Sylvester is eventually able to lasso Speedy, but the mouse drags him into a tree and ties him up. Speedy delivers the message which turns out to be a simple birthday poem. What’s more, it looks like Supremo only needed someone to distract the cat so he could come over with cake. Speedy is rightfully annoyed and lets Sylvester go. The cat chases the two bass turds into the distance. Speedy makes no effort to hide the fact that they will soon be eaten. (Can’t be good for the heart.)

Personal Rating: 3