This one, like all the best Pepe Le Pew cartoons, depends principally on verbal humor rather than sight gags for most of the laughs (though the last gag is a sight gag that ends this one perfectly) and some of the jokes are obvious, while a few are subtle word play, such as the "ze bonds of slavery" line, when Pepe "frees" Penelope, to her horror. Pepe, like a great many folks throughout time, deludes himself. His delusion, charmingly enough, is that he is "ze great lover". That he continues his efforts in spite of his massive lack of success is either a tribute to perseverance or an indication of greater psychological trauma and detachment. I prefer the former theory. After all, to paraphrase Freud, "Sometimes a cartoon is just a cartoon." Good to excellent jokes make this a must see. Recommended.
9 Reviews
To paraphrase Carroll, "The time has come, the drunk skunk said, to talk . . . "
tadpole-596-9182561 May 2021
Warning: Spoilers
" . . . Of many things: Of cats and paint and bikini wax, of felonies and things--and why I'm full of boiling snot, and whether stinks have wings." This cartoon series about the stinker formerly known as Henry makes about as much cents as a wooden nickel. I have it on good authority that there are despicable people who gather in small groups and laugh their heads off while watching porky harridans wearing stilettos and little else stomping around, turning lemmings into lemonade. Normal citizens consider the latter activity sick and illegal. But enjoying this cartoon franchise is probably even worse.
voyeurism vs. Pepe becoming more French than ever
lee_eisenberg8 February 2007
Sometimes when I watch movies or cartoons, I feel a little bit like I'm spying on the characters. In "The Cats Bah", they put sort of a spin on that idea, as Pepe Le Pew starts out by speaking to the camera. While the Looney Tunes do that fairly often, Pepe hands the viewer champagne and a cigarette and an unidentified person - we don't even see the person's hand, though the person smokes and drinks - accepts them. After this, he goes into the story of how he chased American cat Penelope (whom he believed to be a belle femme skunk) through the casbah in what was probably Morocco. There were plenty of gags along the way.
So, it's a pretty entertaining cartoon. And that cigarette really made Pepe seem more French than ever. I mean, isn't it our stereotype of French men as foul-smelling lovers who smoke a lot? Worth seeing.
Yeah, camels do need to be ready for just about anything.
So, it's a pretty entertaining cartoon. And that cigarette really made Pepe seem more French than ever. I mean, isn't it our stereotype of French men as foul-smelling lovers who smoke a lot? Worth seeing.
Yeah, camels do need to be ready for just about anything.
One of Pepe's best
tweiss198124 March 2001
Okay, I'll admit it. I've really got a soft spot for Pepe Le Pew. He's practically the reason I started to love cartoons. He also taught me to set my mind on a goal and work up to it, not to mention take my French ancestry and love it.
This cartoon I find intriguing because the way it starts, with Pepe offering the viewer champenge gives this cartoon some depth. It helps enforce Pepe to really be one of the Warner Brothers' better characters. After so much Wile E. Coyote and RoadRunner, and so much Sylvester and Tweety, etc., they begin to lack much difference in their cartoons. So much anvils, dynamite, ACME products backfiring, and the like, it wears a little thin. But Pepe is a Looney Tune who is fairly dynamic, he's always kept fresh and funny in his cartoons (that, and he's just so cute). To me, he deserves to be appreciated a little more. "Just theenk, radiant flower, you do not need to come wiz me to zee Casbah...we are already there!" -Pepe Le Pew. It's a classic line.
BTW, this cartoon is also known for revealing the name of Pepe's primary object d'affection: Penelope. (she likes him, she is just a little shy.)
This cartoon I find intriguing because the way it starts, with Pepe offering the viewer champenge gives this cartoon some depth. It helps enforce Pepe to really be one of the Warner Brothers' better characters. After so much Wile E. Coyote and RoadRunner, and so much Sylvester and Tweety, etc., they begin to lack much difference in their cartoons. So much anvils, dynamite, ACME products backfiring, and the like, it wears a little thin. But Pepe is a Looney Tune who is fairly dynamic, he's always kept fresh and funny in his cartoons (that, and he's just so cute). To me, he deserves to be appreciated a little more. "Just theenk, radiant flower, you do not need to come wiz me to zee Casbah...we are already there!" -Pepe Le Pew. It's a classic line.
BTW, this cartoon is also known for revealing the name of Pepe's primary object d'affection: Penelope. (she likes him, she is just a little shy.)
One of Pepe's very best cartoons
TheLittleSongbird19 January 2013
I do like Pepe LePew, though I do think he is the sort of character that you appreciate more as an adult. The Cats Bah is one of his best, I'd say second only to For Scent-imental Reasons(my personal favourite). Pepe is just wonderful here, I love how out there and self-ironic he is and if you do as well you'll be more than satisfied. If you are familiar with Pepe's cartoons, you know where it is going to go from the start most of the time but they are always entertaining. When it comes to the animation, it is one of Pepe's most stylish and charmingly elegant and the colours are beautiful. The music also works perfectly, there's the unmistakable Looney Tunes musical wit but also a French amorous flavour which sets the tone beautifully. This is true for most Pepe cartoons actually. The Cat's Bah relies more on verbal humour than gags, though the gags especially the ending are imaginative. But the dialogue is deliciously witty and really fabulously written, you're also left impressed at how risqué it sounds sometimes as well. All in all, very, very good and one of Pepe's best. 9/10 Bethany Cox
A Rebuttal And An Edit (Warning: May Have Spoiler Ending. Parental Discretion Is Advised)
Angel-Marie29 September 2001
Warning: Spoilers
To skunkfanatic, I can easily say, truer words were never spoken. I was/am a closet Pepe Le Pew fan ever since I was 14 and I sometimes question why I like the character, and you (basically) answered my question. This is one of my favorite PLP (Pepe Le Pew) cartoons and most likely, the most (and only) stylish one ever done.
BTW: It may be uncomforting to know that when this cartoon was on ABC as part of the "Bugs Bunny and Tweety Show" (which is now cancelled), the entire beginning, where Pepe greets the viewer with a cigarette and champagne was cut out because of its references to alcohol and tobacco. Another cut was on Nickelodeon a couple of years ago (this is the spoiler I mentioned above), in the end scene where Pepe explains that Penelope was shy and the camera shows them shackled together and Penelope tries to escape with a hacksaw (or was it a nail file?). Anyway Nick's edit to it was because the censors saw it as sexually perverted (who wouldn't?) because of the bondage. Thank God Cartoon Network airs this uncut.
BTW: It may be uncomforting to know that when this cartoon was on ABC as part of the "Bugs Bunny and Tweety Show" (which is now cancelled), the entire beginning, where Pepe greets the viewer with a cigarette and champagne was cut out because of its references to alcohol and tobacco. Another cut was on Nickelodeon a couple of years ago (this is the spoiler I mentioned above), in the end scene where Pepe explains that Penelope was shy and the camera shows them shackled together and Penelope tries to escape with a hacksaw (or was it a nail file?). Anyway Nick's edit to it was because the censors saw it as sexually perverted (who wouldn't?) because of the bondage. Thank God Cartoon Network airs this uncut.
"We can do away with the dull preliminaries . . . "
oscaralbert13 October 2015
Warning: Spoilers
" . . . and make love right away," misogynistic skunk Henry-the-serial-rapist (a.k.a., "Pepe Le Pew") remarks to the kitty Penelope, his latest inter-species molestation victim, in his hyper-sexualized Looney Tunes outing (which at least could have served as a wrong-headed PSA if it had thrown in some product placement for a KY lubricant to off-set Pepe's having dispensed with foreplay). Many people thought that they'd seen everything possible along these lines after Marlon Brando commanded the wayward bride to clip her fingernail during LAST TANGO IN PAR!S. Obviously, these folks had missed THE CAT'S BAH. The anti-woman debauchery of Brando's live-action feature film (not even targeted at very young kids) pales in comparison to the living hell Henry imposes upon victim after victim in his masochistic cartoon series. Take the final scene of THE CAT'S BAH, for instance. Surely it inspired the writers of the initial SAW film (a movie definitely NOT intended for the Looney Tunes crowd). The arrogant Henry has been chain-smoking throughout THE CAT'S BAH (as he continually talks to the camera). For his grand finale, in a touch reminiscent of Hitchcock, the camera pulls back from the Bloviating skunk to reveal that he's used ankle shackles to affix Penelope to himself as a semi-permanent Sex Slave. This abused Kitty grabs a saw, and is about to sacrifice a foot in her desperation to flee Henry's second-hand smoke (if an STD doesn't kill her, cancer surely will!). Mercifully, Warner flings up an "That's all, folks" on the screen as this juncture.
Pepe le Pew's Casbah
ja_kitty_7115 February 2017
"The Cat's Bah" is another cartoon favorite starring Pepe le Pew after watching the 1938 movie "Algiers," which gave some inspiration for Pepe's character. Also I had wondered what the Casbah is in the phrase "Come with me to the Casbah."
This cartoon is basically Pepe being interview about "the greatest love" of his life, and as his story unfolds we see him meet Penelope Pussycat as a pet of an American tourist; then white paint splats on her back from a ship painter's brush. This cartoon was also the first one in which Penelope's name was mention, and was officially given the name ever since.
As I had said before: I do not have one particular scene I like because I love this cartoon from beginning to end.
This cartoon is basically Pepe being interview about "the greatest love" of his life, and as his story unfolds we see him meet Penelope Pussycat as a pet of an American tourist; then white paint splats on her back from a ship painter's brush. This cartoon was also the first one in which Penelope's name was mention, and was officially given the name ever since.
As I had said before: I do not have one particular scene I like because I love this cartoon from beginning to end.
This is also a satire but politically incorrect today
bpatrick-815 May 2018
Specifically, "The Cat's Bah" bears more than a passing resemblance to "The Continental," a television series of that era in which an actor named Renzo Cesana played an amorous type who offers champagne and cigarettes (and says supposedly-romantic things) to an unseen woman in his apartment, represented by the camera. That is essentially the setup for this cartoon. While funny enough, perhaps the ultimate Pepe cartoon, it is somewhat dated, not only in the presence of cigarettes but his overall treatment of females (in this case, a cat). It is perhaps no wonder that the cartoon has been so chopped up for television airing.
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