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by Jared Bahir Browsh

“¡Ándale! ¡Ándale! ¡Arriba! ¡Arriba!”

Meaning “hurry up, let’s go,” the trademark slogan of Speedy Gonzales was, for generations of children, the first Spanish words they learned.

But by the 1980s, ABC had pulled his cartoons due to concerns that his dress, accent and characters like his cousin, Slowpoke Rodriguez, were insensitive toward Mexicans and Mexican Americans. The Cartoon Network followed suit in 1999.

I’ve studied and written about the history of animation, including how characters have been received around the world. Though rooted in a well-intentioned effort at cultural sensitivity, taking Speedy Gonzales off the air was a step too far for many viewers. He was one of the few cartoon characters rooted in Mexican identity, and he’d become a cultural icon across all of Latin America. The ensuing uproar in the wake of his cancellation prompted the Cartoon Network to reinstate the cartoon mouse in 2002.

With Warner Bros. greenlighting a new Speedy Gonzales movie in January 2026, the character’s redemption arc appears complete.

A speedy rise to stardom

“The fastest mouse in all of Mexico” first appeared in the 1953 animated short “Cat-Tails for Two.”

He was redesigned with his iconic yellow sombrero and red kerchief when he starred in his eponymous 1955 film, which won the Oscar for Best Animated Short.

The short film features the general framework for future plots: Speedy helps members of his border community – a place inspired by Ciudad Juarez, just south of El Paso, Texas – evade the conniving Sylvester the Cat.

It opens with a town of starving mice looking longingly at the AJAX cheese factory through a fence establishing an “international border.” They try to determine who will try to outrun Sylvester, the factory’s guard. One of the mice says that his sister is friends with Speedy Gonzales. (Another pipes in that Speedy is friends with everybody’s sister, signaling Speedy as something of a Don Juan.) After they call on Speedy, he uses his speed and smarts to outrun and outwit Sylvester.

The basic premise also appears in a number of cartoons, from Tom and Jerry to Roadrunner and Wile E. Coyote: An antagonist is consistently thwarted by a clever protagonist who avoids increasingly complicated traps and attempts at capture.

Speedy Gonzales is unique, though, in that he was the first cartoon star to be from a Latin American country.

In the 1940s, with the European and Asian markets cut off due to World War II, Disney had turned to the Latin American market. The studio produced “Saludos Amigos” in 1942 and “The Three Caballeros” in 1944 to abide by President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Good Neighbor Policy, which aimed to leverage diplomacy, trade and cultural exchange to improve relations with Latin America.

Speedy ended up appearing in 45 theatrical shorts. In 1969, Warner Bros. shut down its animation studio, but the character lived on in Saturday morning cartoon anthologies like “The Bugs Bunny Show,” which repackaged older cartoons for younger audiences.

Animation’s racial reckoning

The Cartoon Network pulled Speedy Gonzales from the air at a time when networks and studios were starting to reassess animated characters from earlier eras.

Many early cartoon characters, including Mickey Mouse, had been modeled after blackface minstrel characters. Warner Bros.‘ first star, Bosko, was originally patented as “Negro Boy.”

Since racist tropes were ubiquitous in early-20th-century animation, films and shorts like Disney’s “Dumbo,” “Mickey’s Mellerdrammer” or Warner Bros.’ “All This and Rabbit Stew” were either pulled, edited or updated to feature a content warning.

But after The Cartoon Network pulled Speedy Gonzales from the air in 1999, there was unexpected pushback from the Hispanic American community and the character’s Latin American fans. Groups like League of United Latin American Citizens, the oldest Hispanic civil rights organization in the United States, declared Speedy a cultural icon and requested that his cartoons return to the air.

Back when Speedy Gonzales was first introduced to audiences, Hollywood had been filming more movies in Mexico and at the U.S.-Mexico border. However, most of these films depicted Latinos as either incompetent or villains.

In this regard, Speedy represented something different. Though the character’s English speech and accent reflected stereotypes – and he was voiced by a white actor, Mel Blanc – the character was ultimately a clever, quick-witted and good-natured protagonist. And the Spanish dubbing of his cartoons in Latin America had removed the stereotypical accent altogether.

Let the people decide

The trajectory of Speedy Gonzales resembles that of another controversial cartoon character: Apu Nahasapeemapetilon from “The Simpsons.”

An Indian immigrant who earned his Ph.D. in computer science in his home country, Apu becomes the manager of a convenience store in the U.S.

Some critics viewed Apu’s depiction as problematic; voiced by a white actor, Hank Azaria, Apu’s exaggerated Indian-American accent and catchphrase – “Thank you, come again” – was routinely mimicked and mocked by viewers of the show. Others, however, saw Apu as the embodiment of the American Dream: He was intelligent, hardworking and morally grounded.

Cultural theorists like Jacques Derrida and Stuart Hall have written about the complexities of how audiences understand – and either resist or embrace – what they read and watch. They ultimately argue that viewers and readers often interpret media however they see fit, regardless of the creators’ intent. For example, many minority groups who are underrepresented or misrepresented in popular culture will nonetheless find their own meaning and inspiration in characters, even if those characters weren’t supposed to represent those groups in the first place.

This happened with “The Goofy Movie.” Some audiences went on to describe the 1995 film as Disney’s first “Black” animated feature, despite the fact that the characters’ race is never mentioned. There were hints, of course: Black R&B singer Tevin Campbell played the movie’s fictional pop star, Powerline, and the themes of fatherhood and generational tensions eerily echo those in the play “Fences,” written by Black playwright August Wilson.

Of course, in the case of a character like Speedy Gonzales, depictions can become more nuanced as cultural norms and sensitivities change. Jorge R. Gutiérrez is set to direct the animated feature. If his work on films like “The Book of Life” is any indication, he’ll be well-equipped to bring cultural awareness to the animated feature – even if Speedy continues to sport his big, floppy sombrero.

Jared Bahir Browsh is the Assistant Teaching Professor of Critical Sports Studies at University of Colorado Boulder.

This article is shared through a Creative Commons License by The Conversation.

Quite a few of our favorite '80s cartoons have gotten modern remakes or live-action adaptations. But they will never match the pure nostalgia of the originals. Here are seven of the cartoons that made our Saturday mornings and weekday afternoons magical.

Smurfs (1981-1989 )

Smurfs was based on the Belgian comics, written by Peyo (Pierre Culliford), about little blue creatures who lived in mushrooms. The Smurfs are a peaceful people, but they are constantly under threat from the wizard Gargamel, who wants their magic. He also had a strange obsession with trying to eat them.

Smurfs exploded in popularity and ran for a decade on Saturday mornings. Though it was technically the second animated series about the Smurfs, with the first premiering in the 1960s, it became the most well-known media featuring Peyo's characters. From Smurfs in the '80s, the beloved franchise spawned several films and a rebooted series in 2021.

See the rest of the list here.

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Remember back in 2013, 2014, thereabouts? You'd be at a party, and someone would mention Game of Thrones, and the conversation would bubble along for a bit, but you'd already stopped paying attention because you were girding your loins, knowing what was about to happen, because it always happened? Like clockwork?

Namely: Someone in the group would snort with outsized, performative derision. "Uch, dragons," they would say, rolling their eyes. "I don't see how anyone could care about like, dragons and magic and all that made-up fantasy nonsense." (They didn't say "nonsense," of course; they used another word.)

There have always been people who wear their disdain for the most popular aspects of pop culture as badges of honor, intelligence, discernment, etc. But I have good news for them: A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, premiering Sunday night on HBO, is a show for you.

Yes, it's about a knight (Peter Claffey) and his squire (Dexter Sol Ansell) trying to make their way.

And yes, it's set in the fantasy world of George R.R. Martin, on the continent of Westeros, where both Game of Thrones and its prequel, House of the Dragon, largely take place. And eventually the Targaryen family does show up, and they're pretty much the same rich jerks they are in those other shows.

But that's where the commonalities end. Instead of a sweeping, lore-dense epic filled with so many characters and locations that each episode needed to orient viewers with a world map (GoT) or a set of family trees (HotD), A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms requires no homework; it's a small, grounded story you can watch it without a wiki open on your phone.

In fact, it's easier to start by listing the stuff A Knight of the Seven Kingdomsdoesn't have, before getting to the stuff it does.

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After more than 13 years at the helm of Lucasfilm, Kathleen Kennedy is stepping down from the “Star Wars” factory founded by George Lucas.

The Walt Disney Co. announced Thursday that it will now turn to Dave Filoni to steer “Star Wars,” as president and chief creative officer, into its sixth decade and beyond. Filoni, who served as the chief commercial officer of Lucasfilm, will inherit the mantle of one of the movies marquee franchises, alongside Lynwen Brennan, president and general manager of Lucasfilm’s businesses, who will serve as co-president.

“When George Lucas asked me to take over Lucasfilm upon his retirement, I couldn’t have imagined what lay ahead,” said Kennedy. “It has been a true privilege to spend more than a decade working alongside the extraordinary talent at Lucasfilm.”

Kennedy, Lucas’ handpicked successor, had presided over the ever-expanding science-fiction world of “Star Wars” since Disney acquired it in 2012. In announcing Thursday’s news, Bob Iger, chief executive officer of the Walt Disney Co. called her “a visionary filmmaker.”

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The private deal for “Action Comics No. 1” was announced Friday. It eclipses the previous record price for a comic book, set last November when a copy of “Superman No. 1″ was at sold at auction for $9.12 million.

The Action Comics sale was negotiated by Manhattan-based Metropolis Collectibles/Comic Connect, which said the comic book’s owner and the buyer wished to remain anonymous.

The comic — which sold for 10 cents when it came out in 1938 — was an anthology of tales about mostly now little-known characters. But over a few panels, it told the origin story of Superman’s birth on a dying planet, his journey to Earth and his decision as an adult to “turn his titanic strength into channels that would benefit mankind.”

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The title of the film already indicates a lot. Jay and Silent Bob have been dynamic characters with a big arc in Smith’s films. They’ve also often served as symbolic or metaphorical figures, reflecting changing times in the world, or phases in the director’s life, most often illustrated by “Silent” Bob’s standalone moments giving sage-like monologues. Clerks III (2022) was Smith’s unabashed rumination on his own near-death experience and new reality as a middle-aged man, but it also had a funny subplot joke about Jay and Silent Bob’s place in the changing world.

“For those who recall and still follow this closely, in Clerks III, they now run their own dispensary, since weed is legal in New Jersey,” Smith explains. “Store Wars is basically Spy vs. Spy. Another dispensary opens up across the street, and they spend the whole movie fighting and trying to destroy one another. So, it’s a stoner comedy, man, of the highest order, and I’m happy as hell.”

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As such, MTV today stopped showing a 24-hour feed of music videos in the UK after 38 years in rotation. MTV Music, MTV 80s, MTV 90s, Club MTV and MTV Live have all stopped broadcasting in the UK as well as Ireland, France, Germany, Austria, Poland, Hungary, Australia and Brazil.

They went out just as the original American 24/7 music video channel began, according to the BBC’s Jono Reed: with the Buggles’ sunny “Video Killed the Radio Star.” 

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Though it has been 25 years since a new daily “Peanuts” comic strip was drawn, it remains a force in popular culture, and the museum holds a great variety of artifacts showing the work of its creator, Charles M. Schulz, and revealing how the strip and its characters have won a prominent place in entertainment history. Schulz announced his retirement in December 1999 after being diagnosed with colorectal cancer. His last newly drawn daily, Monday through Saturday, strip appeared on January 3, 2000, and, in a shocking coincidence, his final full-color Sunday strip ran on February 13 of that year, just one day after he died.

Among the National Museum of American History’s trove of “Peanuts”-related paraphernalia are a pen, pencil, brush and artist’s board used by Schulz. An original hand-drawn comic strip, a camera-ready strip and cels from animated TV productions reflect Schulz’s creative work, and the museum also holds everyday items bearing the likenesses of “Peanuts” characters, such as mugs, lunchboxes, musical banks, thermoses, yo-yos and a 1973 Mother’s Day plate.

While “Peanuts” ended, in a sense, in 2000, it has since found new audiences through continued syndication in thousands of newspapers and productions in other media. Today, Peanuts Worldwide, which owns the “Peanuts” characters, has millions of followers across its social platforms, where “Peanuts” comic strips, graphics and clips are regularly shared. At the same time, the Charles M. Schulz Museum in Santa Rosa, California, welcomes guests to explore the artist’s life and work.

Charlie Brown, who Schulz said was modeled on himself, “was dealing with an existential crisis,” says Jentsch. He believes that Charlie Brown’s confrontation with his failures and the way he dealt with them “really resonated with not only kids, but obviously adults, because it’s a universal condition.”

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On any given weeknight, promptly at 7 p.m., hundreds of thousands of Americans sit down in front of the television set to watch the goings-on at the 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital in Uijeongbu, South Korea.

The show, “M*A*S*H,” hasn’t produced a single new episode since 1983 — the same year its finale was viewed by more than 105 million people in the United States. But the program still draws a strong amount of interest from Americans who have rediscovered Hawkeye and the gang as viewers incorporate more free broadcast TV into their media diets.

During a single week in October, rebroadcasts of M*A*S*H at 7 p.m. attracted 764,000 viewers over the age of two and its double-header episode at 7:30 p.m. pulled in 789,000 viewers, according to Nielsen data reviewed by The Desk.

More than 200 local TV stations across the country continue to air M*A*S*H each week on digital broadcast TV through their affiliation with MeTV, a network owned by Weigel Broadcasting. The network started as a multi-hour vintage programming block on a single Chicago-area TV station and has since grown to the modern equivalent of a super station — similar to the one Ted Turner built in the 1970s with WTBS (Channel 17) in Atlanta.

Neal Sabin, the Vice Chairman of Weigel Broadcasting, says MeTV broadcasts more than 60 shows during the week, making it the network with the largest schedule of unique programs in the country. Each show is selected for its ability to withstand the test of time — the show must be character-driven, have good story lines and resonate with older and younger viewers alike.

“Classic is one of the most overused terms in television — classic is a euphemism, in a lot of cases, for old,” Sabin said in an interview with The Desk. “Shows like Andy Griffith and M*A*S*H, those are true classics. They were written amazingly well. They’re very different shows — they have characters that are timeless and memorable, and they offer a consistent escape from the world today — and that is part of what makes MeTV work really well.”

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Read the interview here.

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A rare copy of Superman #1 comic book was found and recently sold for $9 million.

See more about it here:

Here are your 2025 inductees acording to a report from AP News:

Outkast: American rap duo that began in the 1990s. Key songs: “Hey Ya,” “Ms. Jackson” and “Roses”

Salt-N-Pepa: American rap group formed in the 1980s. Key songs: “Push It,” “Let’s Talk About Sex” and “Shoop”

Bad Company: English rock band formed in the 1970s. Key songs: “Feel Like Makin’ Love,” “Can’t Get Enough,” “Bad Company”

Chubby Checker: American singer who began releasing records in the 1950s. Key songs: “The Twist,” “Limbo Rock,” “Let’s Twist Again”

Joe Cocker: English singer who began releasing records in the 1960s and died in 2014. Key songs: “You Are So Beautiful,” “Up Where We Belong,” “With a Little Help From My Friends”

Cyndi Lauper: American singer and songwriter whose solo career began in the early 1980s. Key songs: “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun,” “Time After Time,” “True Colors”

Soundgarden: American rock band formed in 1984. Key songs: “Black Hole Sun,” “Fell on Black Days,” and “Outshined.”

Warren Zevon, American singer-songwriter who began releasing solo records in the early 1970s and died in 2003. Key songs: “Lawyers, Guns and Money,” “Werewolves of London,” “Keep Me in Your Heart”

The White Stripes: American rock band that began in the 1990s. Key songs: “Seven Nation Army,” “We’re Going to Be Friends,” “Doorbell.”

See the rest of the inductees and find out how you can watch the ceremony here.

The collectibles giant behind the Pop Vinyl brand posted net sales of $250.9 million for the third quarter of 2025, down 14% from the same period last year, and recorded a net loss of roughly $1 million, according to its latest financial filing. The company cited falling demand, higher tariffs, and tighter retailer inventories as major challenges in what it described as a “difficult retail environment.

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Funko’s troubles follow years of explosive growth fueled by its vinyl collectibles, which once dominated shelves at Walmart, Target, and comic book stores. But as overproduction flooded the market and consumer interest waned, the company’s once-steady profits began to collapse. Reports from industry tracker ICv2 show that Funko’s U.S. sales plunged 20% year-over-year, accounting for most of its overall revenue drop.

“Substantial doubt” over Funko’s future

In its latest SEC filing, Funko said there is “substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern for the next 12 months,” acknowledging that without new funding or an acquisition, it could breach loan covenants and default on debt obligations. The company has roughly $250 million in total debt and has already amended its credit agreement twice in 2025 to secure covenant relief.

I found a video of this interaction and man, the lady doing the interview couldn’t have been any more slimy and smarmy if she tried. And try as she might, she wasn’t getting that “gotcha” moment she was looking for. Here’s the gist of the interaction:

That look isn’t a vapid, blank stare LOL. She saw through that crap and shut it down.

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With the anticipated release of the new Master of the Universe movie scheduled for release in 2026, this might be a good time for a primer on the backstory and mythology of the beloved toy line and cartoon.