'Tijuana Toads' debuted in a
1969 short directed by Hawley
Pratt. Like most DFE series,
it was released by United
Artists. The main characters
were Toro, a fat, grumpy toad
who is the boss of the pond,
and his skinny, dim-witted
friend Pancho, who talks like
Slowpoke Rodriguz.
The cartoons usually involves
either Toro and Pan
more

'Tijuana Toads' debuted in a
1969 short directed by Hawley
Pratt. Like most DFE series,
it was released by United
Artists. The main characters
were Toro, a fat, grumpy toad
who is the boss of the pond,
and his skinny, dim-witted
friend Pancho, who talks like
Slowpoke Rodriguz.
The cartoons usually involves
either Toro and Pancho, two
Mexican toads wearing a
sombrero, fighting over a
grasshopper, or the duo hiding
from a dim-witted bird, which
the Toads keep confusing as a
tall, skinny chicken (which in
reality, is actually a crane).

Hawley Pratt directed most of
the 'Tijuana Toads' cartoons,
along with animation vetern
Arthur Davis directing handful
of the series, and few from
Gerry Chiniquy. Former MGM
animator and co-producer of
Grantray-Lawrence Studios,
Grant Simmons, directed one
('Hop and Chop').

'Tijuana Toads' was one of the
handful of the series selected
to be shown in NBC's 'Pink
Panther Laugh and the Half
Hour and a Half Show' in 1976.
Unfortunatly, NBC refused to
air the series because of the
blatent Mexican streotypes.
They solved the issue by
renaming the toads as Fatso
and Banjo, and redubbing all
their dialogues. The series
was also renamed, as 'Texas
Toads'. Other changes
including reanimating scenes
to either get rid of Mexican
themes or to remove violence,
which was then outlawed in
animation.
In addition to 17 theatrical
shorts, there were also
several 'Texas Toads' animated
skits shown in 'The Pink
Panther Laugh and a Half
Hour', between cartoons. They
are very rare, although two of
them are fairly common in
video trading.

Toro was voiced by Don Diamond
(who previously played Crazy
Cat in 'F Troop'). The voice
of Pancho was provided by Tom
Holland, who voiced many
Mexican characters in 'Looney
Tunes'

Category Film & Animation

Tags Tijuana, Toads