Warner Bros. may be looking to make a Speedy Gonzales animated feature

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

speedy gonzales, warner bros., looney tunes

It's a tough world out there for some classic Looney Tunes characters to exist and resonate with young audiences. The way we think about these characters from a bygone era has changed, and so it makes it difficult to look at the characteristics of what made many of them popular and see where they might fit into our modern-day sensibilities. Yosemite Sam is a bit of a chain smoker, which doesn't play well with us as we've become more health conscious. Pepe Le Pew is kind of a rapist, so… well, now we know. And Speedy Gonzales is built on being a Mexican stereotype, which we don't really do anymore as we've become more aware of racial sensitivities toward how they're portrayed in our media.

That makes it rather curious to hear Warner Bros. is eyeing Speedy Gonzales for his very own animated feature film right now with Eugenio Derbez voicing the exceptionally fast mouse. Tentatively titled SPEEDY right now, Hank Nelken (ARE WE DONE YET? and SAVING SILVERMAN) is working on the script which would takes Gonzales and put him in some sort of heist caper. There is no timetable for the film's turnaround at this point.

I wonder how anyone is going to approach Speedy Gonzales without making some wholesale changes to who he is. I cannot imagine them keeping him the same, because of the aforementioned issues, but, in changing him to make him less stereotypical, then he ceases to be the once-popular character. It's a tight line for Warner Bros. to walk, and I don't envy their position one bit.

Source: Deadline

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