''Speedy Ghost to Town'' is a 1967

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...

Merrie Melodies ''Merrie Melodies'' is an American animation, animated series of comedy short films produced by Warner Bros. starting in 1931, during the golden age of American animation, and ending in 1969. Then some new cartoons were produced from the late 197 ...

'' cartoon directed by

Rudy Larriva Rudolph Larriva (February 12, 1916 – February 19, 2010) was an American animator and director from the 1940s to the 1980s. Early life Born in El Paso, Texas, which his parents moved out at the age of two, he attended several grammar schoo ...

. The short was released on July 29, 1967, and stars

Daffy Duck Daffy Duck is an animated cartoon fictional character, character created for Warner Bros. Cartoons, Leon Schlesinger Productions by animators Tex Avery and Bob Clampett. Styled as an Anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic American black duck, black ...

and

Speedy Gonzales Speedy Gonzales is an animated cartoon character in the Warner Bros. ''Looney Tunes'' and ''Merrie Melodies'' series of cartoons. He is portrayed as "The Fastest Mouse in all Mexico" with his major traits being the ability to run extremely fast ...

. It is the first cartoon released under the newly reopened animation department of

(which had been acquired by

Seven Arts Productions Seven Arts Productions was a production company which made films for release by other studios. It was founded in 1957 by Eliot Hyman, Ray Stark, and Norman Katz. History Seven Arts' first film was ''The Gun Runners'', released by United Ar ...

just two weeks prior) in 1967, as from 1964 to 1967, all Looney Tunes cartoons were developed at

DePatie–Freleng Enterprises DePatie–Freleng Enterprises (also known as Mirisch-Geoffrey-DePatie-Freleng Productions when involved with the Mirisch brothers and Geoffrey Productions; and DFE Films) was an American animation production company that was active from 1963 to 1 ...

and Format Productions instead. It is also the first Warner Bros. cartoon to be directed by

Alex Lovy Alexander Lovy (September 2, 1913 – February 14, 1992) was an American animator. He spent the majority of his career as an animator and director at Walter Lantz Productions. He was later a producer at Hanna-Barbera, and also supervised the cart ...

. The cartoon marked a dramatic turning point for the ''

Looney Tunes ''Looney Tunes'' is an American Animated cartoon, animated comedy short film series produced by Warner Bros. starting from 1930 to 1969, concurrently with its partner series ''Merrie Melodies'', during the golden age of American animation.

'' and ''Merrie Melodies'' series, making extensive use of

limited animation Limited animation is a process in the overall technique of traditional animation that reuses frames of character animation. Early history The use of budget-cutting and time-saving animation measures in animation dates back to the earliest commerci ...

similar to that of

Filmation Filmation Associates was an American production company that produced animation and live-action programming for television from 1963 until 1989. Located in Reseda, California, the animation studio was founded in 1962. Filmation's founders and pr ...

and

Hanna-Barbera Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, Inc. ( ) was an American animation studio and production company which was active from 1957 to 2001. It was founded on July 7, 1957, by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera following the decision of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to c ...

cartoons from the same time period (a drastic departure from the cartoons produced during the studio's heyday), simplistic backgrounds and character designs, and a more limited

sound effects A sound effect (or audio effect) is an artificially created or enhanced sound, or sound process used to emphasize artistic or other content of films, television shows, live performance, animation, video games, music, or other media. Traditi ...

library (including some of Hanna-Barbera's familiar stock sounds).

Plot

Speedy and his friend Miguel visit a ghost town in the desert, followed by Daffy. There, Speedy unveils what appears to be gold and a map to the location of the mine where more can be found. Daffy notices, and attempts to take the map; he is foiled by getting caught in the piano tape. Daffy's next attempt involves setting up a phone with explosives. Speedy answers it when it rings, but quickly hands it to Daffy, saying he has a call; his plan backfires as he is blown up. Speedy teases him, "What's the matter, epa loco? You got the wrong number?" He takes off, Daffy in hot pursuit. Daffy finds him in a barrel, and throws a grenade in; however, he accidentally throws the pin, and not the actual grenade. He then sticks his head through a hole in the fence, catching Speedy by the tail, but Miguel drops a horseshoe on him. Further antics ensue, including Daffy having a taxidermy bull head fall on him like a mask and Speedy (taking advantage of Daffy's appearance) acting as a matador, and Speedy hiding behind different-shaped bottles, only to get catsup in his eye on the last. Speedy and Miguel head to the mine, where Daffy repeatedly tries to throw dynamite in, to blow them up; it eventually blows up right next to him. Daffy then demands that Speedy give up the cart, which he does. However, it is not gold, but cheese! Daffy then really ''does'' go crazy, bouncing away and laughing hysterically. When Miguel asks "Gee whiz, Speedy, what's the matter with the loco duck?", Speedy shrugs, "I dunno. I guess maybe he don't like cheese."

References

External links

* 1967 films 1967 animated films 1967 short films Merrie Melodies short films Films scored by William Lava Daffy Duck films Speedy Gonzales films Animated films about mice Films set in Mexico Films directed by Alex Lovy 1960s Warner Bros. animated short films 1960s English-language films {{MerrieMelodies-stub