You can have my Looney Tunes when you pry them from my cold dead hands
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – Speedy Gonzales is taking his folk-hero status, incredible speed and signature red kerchief to the big screen, with help from George Lopez.
The comedian is attached to provide the voice of the fastest mouse in all Mexico for a politically correct live-action/CG hybrid feature set up at New Line Cinema.
The Looney Tunes character debuted in the 1950s as a regular nemesis of Sylvester the Cat. A 1955 short about the tiny hero, “Speedy Gonzales,” won the Academy Award for best short subject, (cartoon). Pat Boone even released a hit song about the famous mouse in 1962.
Over the years, Speedy appeared in the live-action/animation features “Who Framed Roger Rabbit,” “Space Jam” and “Looney Tunes: Back in Action.” But the character has often courted criticism that the ethnic characterizations of him and his compatriots (especially lazy cousin Slowpoke Rodriguez) are stereotypically racist and severely outdated.
Aware of this, New Line and the producers plan to update the brand with a modernized sensibility.
“We wanted to make sure that it was not the Speedy of the 1950s — the racist Speedy,” said the comedian’s wife Ann Lopez, who will serve alongside him as a producer. “Speedy’s going to be a misunderstood boy who comes from a family that works in a very meticulous setting, and he’s a little too fast for what they do. He makes a mess of that. So he has to go out in the world to find what he’s good at.”
That path becomes clearer once Speedy befriends a gun-shy race-car driver.
“Garfield” scribes Alec Sokolow and Joel Cohen will write the script.
Lopez hosts “Lopez Tonight” on TBS and appears in New Line’s ensemble hit “Valentine’s Day,” which has grossed $158 million worldwide after two weekends. He also recently starred in “The Spy Next Door” and provided a voice for “Beverly Hills Chihuahua.
I’m going to ignore that the people associated with the project have shown themselves to be talentless hacks. The real issue here is that I can’t watch god-damned Speedy Gonzales cartoons because those fucks standing in front of Home Depot might get offended. That’s not even fair to say, Juan and Pablo don’t give two shits about it, they just want to landscape my yard for a few bucks. It’s the damn meddlesome lefty apologists that ruined this for us. Cartoon stereotypes are funny, why can’t we just leave it at that? Why do we have to pretend that there’s a deeper social commentary to them and that they are some relic from our racist past? Do you honestly believe Mel Blank hated the Mexicans? Or people with speech impediments? I doubt he gave it much thought. I’ll stake everything on the likelihood that he was just trying to make people laugh. But the PC Police have taken it away from me. Well I say no more! I say no further! The line must be drawn here!!! I’m taking my childhood (and my parents childhood) back! I’m taking it back and taking the power from it and saying it’s just supposed to be funny! People are generally cool, they can take a joke. I’ve never heard a Mexican get pissed over Speedy Gonzalez. I’ve never heard black people get pissed over Daffy Duck. I’m blind as hell but I don’t protest Mr. Magoo! It’s just a fucking joke, and you uppity white-folk with too much time on your hands? I’m cutting you off, you’re ruining life for all of us and sapping the fun out of everything. Shut it down, America.
I’m taking my shit back….
