O Gato Fedorento

. . . "A rose by another name would smell just like a skunk." We went to the zoo yesterday, but all the skunks from last summer were gone. The zookeeper who gave me a lift to the gift shop at closing time informed me that menagerie personnel had live-trapped and removed most if not all of the stinkers this spring. Be that as it may, only the most hopeless maggot would refer to the Warner Bros. White striper as anything other than "Henry," or perhaps "Hank." This malingering miscreant's pathetic attempts to avoid child support payments while pursuing inter-species relationships beyond the pale of acceptable behavior leaves Hank in a weak position as a permanent butt of crude jokes.

This short, a formative cartoon featuring Pepe Le Pew, concerns a cat who thinks he'll solve all his problems by pretending to be a skunk. Trouble is, he attracts the most unwelcome attention of an honest and for truly skunk (our hero, Pepe, entering stage left) being decidedly more attentive, shall we say, than M. Cat would like. Every great plan has its drawbacks, but this one's a corker! I wonder if Jack Warner got a call from the Hays Office over the fact that Pepe and the object of his adoration were both male. After all, Betty Boop was in part responsible for the Production Code coming into existance. Subsequent "conquests" were clearly and most definitely female. Very good cartoon, but Pepe is a character who works better as the focal point, rather than supporting. Well worth watching. Recommended.

Pepe Le Pew is not one of my favourites, but he is a likable character and the sort that you appreciate much more as an adult. Odor-able Kitty is his debut, and is a very credible one. Okay, it is different to what we are used to from Pepe, perhaps there is a notion of not quite finding their feet yet- which is natural when it comes to debuts- and Pepe does look a little awkward here. On the other hand, the animation on the whole is very good, perhaps not as elegant as the later Pepe cartoons but it has a nice style to it. The music is typical Carl Stalling, the orchestration is lush and there is so much characters that proves a vital part of the humour. The dialogue has the freshness and wit that you'd expect from Looney Tunes, the cat bags the best lines actually. The gags, the best being the ending, are clever and imaginatively timed. Pepe is memorable for a first outing, though not as amorous or witty as he would be later, while the cat is a strong support character that I like even better than Penelope. Mel Blanc's(with his Pepe as ever sounding eerily like Maurice Chevalier) vocal characterisations don't disappoint. All in all, a more than credible debut, even if there was better to come. 8/10 Bethany Cox

. . . controversial piece of animation given the dread snipping of the ubiquitous censor bots employed by this site. Compounding this travesty, these evil bots are totally clueless--they give commentators absolutely no tips as to how a review can be modified to pass their incomprehensible scrutiny. Perhaps merely typing in the title of what is being reviewed constitutes an unforgiveable transgression in their dim eyes, as some of the outside discussion threads suggest. Maybe it is the use of certain forbidden words, which could share a syllable or letter with something on their E-list. Possibly exceeding the bot limit on words of six letters or more is enough to do in a "user review." Only The Shadow knows.

And thus was born the most amorous skunk ever to grace the silver screen. While the plot has an abused cat painting himself like a skunk and inadvertently attracting Pepe Le Pew (called Henry here), Pepe certainly steals the show. No doubt Chuck Jones realized that this love-seeking member of the genus Mephitis had that special something necessary to be a star in his own right, and so he cast Pepe in "For Scent-imental Reasons" four years later, firmly establishing PLP's enduring presence on screens everywhere.

So, while "Odor-Able Kitty" may be a place holder otherwise, I try to imagine watching it for the very first time in 1945. Could anyone have guessed that this supporting character would soon join the ranks of Bugs, Daffy, Porky, and the rest? Whether or not anyone did, Pepe remains one of the most likable characters to this day. C'est l'amour!