Odor-Able Kitty

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.

The brilliant Chuck Jones, master of Warner Bros. cartoon comedy, brings us the first (?) Pepe LePew cartoon. An alley cat, tired of being pushed around, paints himself in the colors of a skunk, and with a healthy dose of Limburger, turns the tables on his tormentors. Then along comes Pepe, and you know the rest. Many of Pepe's famous gags were born here, including his chase/hop, in which he hops casually along while his prey runs himself to exhaustion.

In my opinion, Warner Bros. cartoons became less inventive and more ho-hum in the 50s. This 1947 'toon is one of the few examples of Mel Blanc putting his absolutely crazy voice into Pepe's mouth. But the kicker is the ending, where Pepe is revealed to be an American "wolf in skunk's clothing"! A must see! Classic Warner Bros...

. . . 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.

ODOR-ABLE KITTY is Pepe's first short, and he does well but for the ending. I like this cartoon but for that.

The animation is rather strange, but besides Pepe it looks fine. 8/10

The story is good, a nice change from the white stripe routine, though that's still good. But the ending leaves much to be desired. 7/10

The lines are good, but there's still room for improvement in this department. 8/10

The visual jokes are, of course, minimal, except for the beginning and the end. 6.5/10

Overall, this cartoon is a good effort, and from me it recieves an average of 72.5% and a solid B+.

This is the first Pepe Le Pew cartoon and in some ways it's very similar to the later ones but in a few other odd ways it is not. While the object of Pepe's affections IS a cat, oddly it appears to be a BOY cat! This whole predicament occurs because a cat is tired of being abused by others and dresses up like a skunk and tries to smell like a skunk so it can be left alone. Unfortunately, this attracts our hero, Pepe. Most of the action is pretty typical until the very funny and unexpected ending--and this actually makes this one of the best of all cartoons in the series. Excellent animation (though the style is different than later examples), excellent writing and a good sense of humor make this one a keeper.