"Pancho's Hideaway" (1964, Looney Tune)
This is the first cartoon of the post-1964 era of Warner Bros.cartoons, produced for Warner by Friz Freleng and production patner David H. DePatie. DePatie-Freleng Productions also produced the popular "Pink Panther" theatrical cartoon series, and later produced various cartoon efforts for television. A Yosemite Sam-like bandito, Pancho Vanilla, shoots up a sleepy Mexican town and steals all the money from the bank. When the town's mice find out, they're thrilled, because the people will have to get rid of all the cats because they can't afford them. Speedy Gonzales, however, sees it as bad news, because without money to buy food, the people will leave no crumbs for the mice. So, Speedy tracks Pancho to his hideout, scares him into losing count of the pesos with a "yee haw!" and proceeds to steal the money back, one coin at a time. Pancho's every attempt to stop Speedy fails, and eventually Speedy has all the money back to the bank. Vanilla gets even though, he sneaks up on Speedy and scares HIM into losing count at the teller window. Though the animation is markedly limited, Freleng and Pratt get some great facial expressions out of their new design of Speedy. Friz Freleng created only a few more cartoons for WB under D./F..E. before resigning to the studio's other non-Warner character cartoons and production work.
