Mucho Locos

Mucho Locos
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Airdate:	5 February 1966
Series:	Merrie Melodies
MPAA Number:	21171
Production Number:	329
Vitaphone Number:	3244
Copyright Renewed:	22 November 1993
Starring:	Speedy Gonzales Daffy Duck Porky Pig Señor Vulturo Jose and Manuel
Crew
Voice Characterizations:	Mel Blanc Tom Holland (uncredited)
Director:	Robert McKimson
Written By:	David Detiege
Producer:	David H. DePatie Friz Freleng
Animated By:	George Grandpré Bob Matz Manny Perez Tom Ray Don Williams
Layout Artist:	Dick Ung
Background Artist:	Tom O'Loughlin
Film Editor:	Lee Gunther
Musician:	Herman Stein

• The aftermath of this scene was edited when shown on CBS in the 1970s and 1980s

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Mucho Locos is a 1966 Merrie Melodies short directed by Robert McKimson.

Plot

Two mice, Pelon and Jose, are watching a broken television at the garbage dump. Jose says you just have to use your imagination, but a frustrated Pelon says he's going home to watch a real TV, and even insults and berates Jose that he's stupid and crazy, or in his words, "loco in the cabeza."

Jose gets depressed, lamenting on his own poverty-stricken life. Soon after, Speedy arrives and begins narrating scenes that show that the stupidest animal is the duck and the smartest one is the mouse. Together, they envision a Robin Hood scene where the duck, Daffy, can't even beat the pig, Porky. Speedy describes the time he outwitted El Vulturo. Then they imagine a time when Daffy failed as Sherlock Holmes, and a time when Speedy outwitted two cats named Jose and Manuel. Finally, Speedy tells of the Hong Kong Dragon Lady breathing fire on the duck.

When the story is over, Jose asks about the new duck on the television, with Speedy asking "What duck?". Just then, Daffy, angered about Speedy making him look like a complete fool, leans through the broken TV and heckles Speedy before using a mallet to flatten him. Speedy decides to go home now, because he thinks the imagination TV gives him the terrible headaches. Jose wonders if it is real or not.

Availability

Streaming

Warner Bros. Discovery RIDE (2021 - 2023) (restored)

Censorship

• On CBS, the scene recycled from the 1959 Robert McKimson short "China Jones", where Daffy is burnt and featherless after the Chinese dragon lady breathes fire on him was cut.

Goofs

Cel number visible near the bottom right of Manuel

• When Manuel is waving his sombrero at the lit dynamite fuse, a cel number "#5" is visible on the bottom right of Manuel during one frame of the animation loop.
• Due to redrawn animation, as well as budget cuts, some characters are erroneously colored incorrectly compared to the original shorts. Daffy's Robin Hood suit is green and yellow instead of red and green, Señor Vulturo is colored black instead of blue (hence giving him a crow-like appearance), and Jose and Manuel are colored lighter than in their original appearances.
  • Even the background art of these archive footage are colored drastically differently compared to the original shorts for this reason, for example in the clips from "Tortilla Flaps" and "Mexicali Shmoes", the sky colors in both cartoons are changed from blue to pink. In addition, the background art in all these cartoons tend to look more flat and less detailed with a notable lack of background shading and reflection compared to the original shorts as well.
• When Daffy as China Jones talks to the dragon lady, the color of his hat flashes between a lighter and darker yellow as he talks.
• As Daffy smashes Speedy with the mallet at the end of the short, Speedy does not disappear once Daffy slams the mallet, causing Speedy to briefly appear behind the mallet as it rebounds.
• The restoration that aired on MeTV has a fake cutaway from the opening sequence to the title card, as with the other handful of 1960s cartoons that got a restoration in 2020.

Notes

• As opposed to previous "cheater" shorts which use unmodified archive footage from previous cartoons, this short heavily relies on new animation made up of recycled animation from previous shorts, complete with newly recorded dialogue and music. This is due to legal restrictions from DePatie-Freleng Enterprises where the original animation archives couldn't be used, so they were retraced from pre-existing reference material. This short uses clips that are re-animated and re-dubbed from "Robin Hood Daffy" (1958), "Tortilla Flaps" (1958), "Deduce, You Say" (1956), "Mexicali Shmoes" (1959), and "China Jones" (1959).
  • It is also the last "cheater" short in the Golden Age of Animation.
• This is the final short to feature Porky Pig in the Golden Age of American Animation, albeit in footage taken from "Robin Hood Daffy".
• This was the second of three times that Daffy defeated Speedy, with the others being "Chili Corn Corny" and "Feather Finger". This is also the only Golden Age short where Speedy is unambiguously defeated.
• When the short was shown on The Bugs Bunny Show, the title was changed to Muchos Locos.
• This is the only Looney Tunes or Merrie Melodies short scored by Herman Stein.
• MeTV aired a previously unreleased restored print of this cartoon on Toon In With Me.
• While one of the lobby cards of the cartoon (pictured in the gallery below) depicts Speedy narrowly dodging the mallet which Daffy uses to smack him, the actual cartoon short itself depicts the exact opposite as Daffy successfully smacks Speedy with the mallet immediately in one attempt with Speedy failing to dodge said attack.
• This is the final short to be copyrighted in 1965. As a result, this is also the final short to have the 1964-1966 (1965 in copyright years) opening and ending titles.
  • This is also the only exception to the 1966-copyrighted abstract opening and ending rules, as the previous episode, "Out and Out Rout", was the first episode to use it. The rule would officially apply to the intro starting with "The Solid Tin Coyote", up until the Seven Arts/W7 era.

Gallery

Comparison of scene from "Robin Hood Daffy" (left) and this short (right)

Comparison of scene from "Tortilla Flaps" (left) and this short (right)

Comparison of scene from "Deduce, You Say" (left) and this short (right)

Comparison of scene from "Mexicali Shmoes" (left) and this short (right)

Comparison of scene from "China Jones" (left) and this short (right)

Lobby card

Lobby card

TV Title Cards

The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Show