A Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass Double Feature is a 1966 animated short film (six minutes) by John and Faith Hubley.
It is—no prizes for guessing correctly—a double feature consisting of two videos set to the music of mariachi combo Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass, source of many an ear worm from the 1960s. The film consists of opening credits set to an excerpt from Alpert's "Mexican Shuffle", before the two cartoons, which are connected by nothing other than Alpert's music:
- "Spanish Flea": This, probably the best known Alpert song, is here set to a cartoon in which a flea watches with displeasure as his regular habitat is ruined by the construction of a tacky resort.
- "Tijuana Taxi": A mariachi band in danger of missing a flight piles into a taxi, which goes on a desperate, madcap race to the airport.
Tropes:
- Animated Music Video: Two of them, in fact. These little cartoons are a Trope Maker for the Animated Music Video, and in fact they may be the Ur-Example, if one doesn't count music-set-to-video examples like "Flowers and Trees" from Disney.
- Anthology Film: Probably the shortest one ever, but it does consists of two entirely separate short cartoons.
- Clown Car: Way too many musicians cram into that car when it takes off for the airport.
- Cool Car: The second cartoon ends with the taxi taking off into flight after the plane takes off.
- Disturbed Doves: Crossed with Fruit Cart. As the taxi careens through the town square it plows through a salesman's stack of doves in cages.
- Limited Animation: A typical example of the cheaper animation style that became very common in the 1960s, with sketch animation against crudely drawn backgrounds and a White Void Room.
- Obstructive Bureaucrat: The taxi makes it to the airport just in time—until the Customs guy intercepts them and takes forever reviewing their papers, causing the band to miss the flight.
- White Void Room: The whole cartoon is drawn against one of these.
