by Linda Kay

Directed by: Chuck Jones

Cat Out of the Bag Alert! This review contains some spoilers for this film!

Synopsis: Pepé Le Pew (voiced by Mel Blanc) becomes smitten with a black and white cat whom he mistakes for a skunk.

Cartoon Cat: A perfume shop owner is mortified when he finds the skunk Pepé browsing his wares. The police being no help, the man ponders what to do when a black and white female cat starts rubbing on his legs, sighing, “Le mew . . . le purr.”

The man picks the affectionate cat up by the scruff (she even tries to lick him as he does so!) and then unceremoniously throws her into the shop to deal with the smelly intruder.

The cat slides across the shop floor before hitting a table, knocking over a bottle of white hair dye onto her back to create a stripe. About this moment she first catches a whiff of Pepé’s scent.

Pepé is immediately smitten and accosts the poor cat, who tries to run for the door. But the skunk is too fast and locks her inside the shop.

Pepé starts to woo her as she struggles to get away.

The cat tries to wash off both the smell and the stripe but Pepé starts for her again.

Eventually she manages to lock herself inside a display cabinet (which very conveniently has a bolt lock on the inside!)

Communicating via mime through the glass, she and Pepé have a heated argument in which he insists she comes out. She makes it clear that she thinks he stinks.

Pepé pulls out a gun and mimes that he is going to shoot himself. As he walks out of view a shot rings out and the cat is mortified.

She rushes out to check on Pepé only to find him perfectly well. “I missed,” he explains before he starts “wooing” her again.

Running into another room, the cat is shocked to see Pepé has come through the transom above.

With nowhere else to go, the cat threatens to throw herself out the window.

Pepé rushes in to save her but she slips through his arms and falls. He jumps off after her.

The skunk lands in a bucket of blue paint while the cat lands in a water barrel. When she emerges, she is bedraggled and her nose is stuffed.

Pepé thinks this is another cat and goes off looking for his love. But with his new looks and with her nose stuffed the cat falls for him.

Now the tables have turned and the cat chases the skunk after locking him into the perfume shop!

This short film marked the debut of this cat character who would later be christened Penelope Pussycat for marketing purposes. According to sources, animator and director Chuck Jones simply referred to her as Le Cat on his model sheets and she had various other names throughout her appearances.

While the character of Pepé Le Pew has come under fire in recent years because of his unwanted advances toward those of the feminine persuasion, it might be more constructive to point out the strong resistance of Penelope, who is wise enough to reject those advances, at least as long as it suits her (since in the end she becomes the pursuer). Regardless of present day opinions, this film won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film.

Final Mewsings: Cats don’t like being accosted any more than anyone else!

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