Little Beau Pepé (1952)

Strong and Moving!

recommended

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

The movie is made so realistic it has a lot of that WoW feeling at the right moments and never tooo over the top. the suspense is done so well and the emotion is felt. Very well put together with the music and all.

. . . as the last refuge of the stinky skunks fleeing their wives and kids, so you'd think that the self-styled "Pepe Le Pew" (a.k.a., Henry the wayward dad and husband) would fit right in. But as Germany proved twice between 1914 and 1939, the French are total pushovers when it comes to any kind of invasion. True to form, one glimpse of Pepe proves enough to send an entire outpost of Frenchmen fleeing at the beginning of the Warner Bros. animated short, LITTLE BEAU PEPE. The main action then starts when the post's Left Behind female cat rubs the fresh whitewash off the bottom rung of a ladder with her back. Pepe erroneously concludes that this tainted kitty is a virginal skunk, opening another episode in his serial stalking career. Sensing a possible B.O. problem, Pepe next sprays himself with an ultra-smelly cocktail made from an entire shelf of exotic perfumes, which he's mixed together. A stray feline pheromone heats up the previously frigid kitty. As soon as the tables are turned, Pepe flees his prey-turned-pursuer, showing that his true stripes are Yellow.

This is yet another fun and typical Pepe Le Pew cartoon. While the formula is pretty well set and there are no huge surprises, it is a fun and very pleasant cartoon--and features some wonderful Chuck Jones animation.The film begins in a fort in North Africa manned by the French Foreign Legion. Their mascot is a cat and NATURALLY she is accidentally painted to look like a skunk. When a real skunk appears (Pepe), the Legionaires run--leaving Pepe to pursue la petite femme skunk! The action seems like a combination of a Foreign Legion film and THE SHEIK and what's best about it is its funny ending when the hunter becomes the hunted. Great stuff and hard to beat entertainment.

The whole premise of the Pepe Le Pew cartoons is based on a whopping bit of irony-a French skunk styling himself as "the great lover" (think Charles Boyer squared) but, for reasons obvious to everyone save himself, he finds it difficult to get a date on Saturday nights. Like a great many would-be Lotharios, when the tables turn, Pepe turns chicken and runs. A very funny cartoon, with a joke that will be particularly enjoyable for horse racing fans, at least older ones anyway. One party-pooper note: by law (unless it's been changed) French nationals cannot join the French Foreign Legion, which, given the name, should be stunningly obvious. Well worth tracking down. Recommended.

Warning: May contain spoilers that may shock or disturb younger or more sensitive viewers. Please don't sue if your kid reads this and cries.Though "The Cats Bah" took first place for Most Stylishly Done PLP (Pepe Le Pew) Cartoon, I have to give this one honorary mention, because of the styling of the Sahara Desert, the oasis, and the tent with the many purple and pink throw pillows and lace curtains (I can still see it when I shut my eyes!)Anyway...Like I said about "Scent Of The Matterhorn", "Two Scents Worth"...well, pretty much all 17 of the Jones-directed Pepe Le Pew cartoons (except for "Dog Pounded, which was directed by Freleng, and "Odor of the Day", directed by Arthur Davis--and including the 1959 one directed by Jones' animator, Abe Levitow), this one just oozes a subtle (sometimes overt) sense of sex appeal that only WW-II era cartoons and "Three's Company" could measure up to, but never beat. The entire last part where Pepe carries his unconscious object of desire to a tent all the way out in an oasis decorated with what I had mentioned earlier and makes an aphrodisiac out of really strong perfumes that work too well, which sends Pepe racing across the desert while his aphrodisiac-affected Penelope pursues him (reminiscent of "For Scent-imental Reasons, BTW) unsettled me (at first) and Pepe's ending remark, "Why is it that whenever a man is captured by a woman, all he wish to do is get away?" was a little sexist, but true to life.9 stars out of ten.