Speedy Gonzales, the rocket-heeled Mexican mouse whose battles with Sylvester the Cat lit up the golden age of American animation, looks set to return to the big screen in a new adventure, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
Studio Warner Bros, which owns the rights to the Looney Tunes stalwart, is developing a new movie based around the racing rodent. Mexican actor and film-maker Eugenio Derbez is in line to voice Gonzales himself.
Speedy debuted in a self-titled, Oscar-winning 1955 short film and is believed to have starred in another 45 episodes up until the present day. He is known for his catchphrase “arriba, arriba … andale, andale”, meaning “up, up … go on, go on!”
The hapless Sylvester the Cat, referred to by the mouse as “El Gringo Pussygato”, is Gonzales’ main antagonist in the majority of his adventures. Sylvester usually ends up being outsmarted by his opponent, and is often injured by the same mousetraps he set for the rodent.
Derbez, 54, is a well-known figure in Mexico. The creator of a number of popular television series, he is also famous for voicing Donkey in Latin American versions of the Shrek movies.
Speedy Gonzales’ fellow Looney Tunes alumni have appeared in a half dozen or so feature-length movies, with Bugs Bunny (four movies) and Daffy Duck (two films in 1983 and 1988) the most popular leads. Gonzales himself appeared briefly in 1988’s Who Framed Roger Rabbit, while the majority of the gang were on hand for 1996’s Space Jam and 2003’s Looney Tunes: Back in Action.
