Snow Excuse (Looney Tunes)

Snow Excuse
Snow excuses on how bad this cartoon could be.
Series: Looney Tunes Episode Number: 968 Air Date: May 21, 1966 Writer: David Detiege Director: Robert McKimson Previous episode: "A-Haunting We Will Go" Next episode: "A Squeak in the Deep"

Snow Excuse is a 1966 Warner Bros. cartoon starring Speedy Gonzales and Daffy Duck from Warner Bros/DePatie–Freleng Enterprises.

Plot and Setting

Speedy Gonzales is freezing, hoping for some refuge to borrow some of Daffy Duck's wood for a fire in his house on the upper slopes of snow-crowned Mt. Popocatepetl. However, the duck refuses, prompting the mouse to fight back and steal some by surprise.

Why There Was Snow Excuse To Create This Cartoon

1. This short feels like a poor man's version of the Tom and Jerry short Snowbody Loves Me, but with none of its charm and likability.
2. Just as expected with the other shorts from the DePatie-Freleng and Seven Arts era, Daffy is now miscast as an outright evil and villainous antagonist due to very bad flanderization. In this short, he heavily disregards Speedy and his risk of dying from hypothermia in favor of only getting what he wants, and doesn't care if Speedy dies from hypothermia while attempting to even murder him. Even when Speedy at least wanted to bargain with him as all that he wanted was some wood for a fire so that he can survive as well. His sign of hypocrisy also shows itself by the end where he expects to get warm shelter from Speedy in return, when he was the reason Speedy couldn't get any in the first place as he was freezing to the point of endangering himself throughout the short.
3. At that, it can even give out a bad message to the audience watching by showing us that greed fixes everything, which does not work because greed can't fix a single thing at all.
4. Stock-like music by William Lava, as typical with most of his scores.
5. Very slow pacing.
6. Poor animation and art designs, as expected with the rest of the 1960s Looney Tunes shorts.

Redeeming Qualities

1. Speedy Gonzales is still a likable character, as with his other appearances.
2. Mel Blanc, as always, does a flawless job with the voice work.
3. Daffy Duck still gets somewhat of a comeuppance in the end, and for once in the DePatie-Freleng era of Looney Tunes, he tries to redeem himself later on in the short as well by joining Speedy Gonzales in his home, ending the short on a good note.
   • It's such a shame that this didn't last long though, as he was reset back to his evil, diabolical, and grouchy characterization in his next appearance.
4. Unique among cartoons set in Mexico, the environment in this cartoon is frozen.
5. The postman's take when Daffy shoots off his pants earns a chuckle, even if Daffy didn't mean to startle or threaten the postman.

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