The cheese-snatching mouse will return – voiced by a Mexican for the first time – in an animated feature film just in time to repair Mexico-US relations. ¡Arriba!

Name: Speedy Gonzales.

Age: 63.

Appearance: White smock, red kerchief, gigantic sombrero, cheeky grin, at least from his second film onwards.

Just remind me of it? Called simply Speedy Gonzales, it showed him and his friends trying to cross the US border to steal cheese that was being guarded by Sylvester the Cat.

Good old Speedy! He’s one of my all-time favourite pieces of 20th-century intellectual property. In that case, you’ll be pleased to know that he’s coming back.

Arriba, arriba! Speedy Gonzales racing to the big screen in new animated adventure Read more

I am! What’s the news? The Hollywood Reporter claims that Warner Bros is developing an animated feature film starring the well-loved Mexican actor Eugenio Derbez as Speedy.

Tremendous. Will he be outwitting other animals while running quickly and shouting “¡Andale ¡Andale!” and “¡Arriba ¡Arriba!” in an extreme Mexican accent? I’d say it’s likely that he will. Although the whole exaggerated-Mexican thing has got quite complicated in the past.

Complicated? What by? Alleged racism.

Alleged by who? Americans, mostly.

Not Mexicans? No. Speedy Gonzales has always been very popular in Mexico, and in much of the Hispanic world. But in the late 1990s, Warner’s Cartoon Network virtually banished him from its schedules, partly because of worries that he was a racist stereotype.

But isn’t he clever, quick, charming, and always successful? Yes, but he is also poor, comically exaggerated and determined to steal cheese.

Isn’t that last one more of a mouse stereotype? Maybe. Anyway, in 2002, a campaign led by the League of United Latin-American Citizens implored Cartoon Network to bring Speedy back, which it eventually did.

That is complicated. So, basically, it’s more racist to tell Mexicans what they should be offended by than to do a silly Mexican accent? I think so. And now with an actual Mexican in the lead role, his comeback will be complete. Just in time.

Just in time for what? Well, you know, in case there’s any forthcoming unpleasantness between Mexico and the US, for instance, over a certain extremely large and impossible-to-build wall?

With the word “Trump” printed on it every few yards? That’s the one.

Maybe the new movie could show Speedy Gonzales trying to stop a loudmouthed American stereotype from starting a race war? Sounds perfect.

Do say: “Didn’t Pepé Le Pew spread an exaggerated French stereotype as well?”

Don’t say: “No, that was Maurice Chevalier.”