Little Beau Pepé

The title and the cartoon are a play on the 1924 book Beau Geste and its multiple film adaptations. The title also plays on the nursery rhyme "Little Bo Peep".

Plot[]

At Le Desert Sahara a sign in front of the fortress reads, "No Le Pouf Trespasse'" Inside the fortress a group of French soldiers are training for war. They march off singing a song. The leader dismisses them all, and they run off. As they walk we are shown the place that Penelope Pussycat is sleeping in. Penelope moves up and two painters are talking to each other. When Penelope arrives the two painters pet her. Pepe Le Pew arrives at the door, declaring that he is “the broken heart of love". He wishes to enlist in the foreign legion. He has to fill out a questionnaire, but before he can finish, the enlistment officer is scared off by Pepe's smell, and tells everyone else in the fortress, and they all run screaming out except for Penelope.

Pepe believes that they have left him because they think he'd be perfect for defending the port. As Pepe defends the fort, or so he thinks, Penelope gets up. She goes over to “Le Painte Dampe” ladder and gets a white stripe down her back. As she's walking Pepe spots her, and as usual mistakes for her a female skunk. He goes down to hold and kiss her. But as usual she tries to get away from him. Pepe thinks “she is wish to put on her face before we continue with the wooing”. He catches her sitting on the stairs, and when she sees him, she runs off, whereupon Pepe says, "But, darling, tomorrow I may be shipped overseas!" A chase ensues, during which Pepe remarks, "You know, one of the mysteries of my life is why a woman run away when all she really wish is to be captured." As Penelope is running she runs into Pepe who says the name "Josephine" in a Napoleon Bonaparte costume.

A horrified Penelope runs to a barrel hoping to hide but when she gets there Pepe is already under it, preparing a bottle of champagne. She immediately runs out of the barrel, whereupon Pepe says, "Almost like shooting fish in a barrel!" Penelope runs out to the desert, but Pepe hops after her. Penelope gets tired and thirsty, but as usual Pepe shows no signs of stopping. As Penelope runs she spots an oasis. She runs over to it, in the process causing everyone to run out because they mistake her for a skunk. As she struggles to get to the water for a much needed drink, she spots Pepe's reflection as the skunk says, "Hello, baby." Terrified, Penelope turns to run, but she is too exhausted from all her running in the desert that she passes out from the fatigue.

Pepe runs over to her and picks her up, believing that she "must have become so overwhelmed by her emotions at seeing me again." He takes her into a tent and waits for her to wake up. While he's waiting he sees a bunch of bottles of cologne and ponders over which one he should use in order to "restoke the furnace of love." He decides to use them all and mixes them up. He goes over to a guitar and starts playing a song. Penelope then smells the cologne, causing her to instantly wake up with hearts in her eyes, set on Pepe. She goes over to Pepe and starts kissing him, causing the roles to be reversed. While he runs away from her, Pepe says, "Why is it that whenever a man is captured by a woman, all he wish to do is get away?"

Availability[]

Streaming[]

Notes[]

This cartoon was featured in Bugs Bunny's Valentine.
The French Foreign Legion from this cartoon, as well as it's soldiers, would later reappear in the The Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries episode "Mirage Sale", except that in that episode the soldiers have different-colored uniforms, and Pepé Le Pew and Penelope Pussycat are noticeably absent.
This short, along with the Bugs Bunny/Yosemite Sam cartoon "Ballot Box Bunny" and the Tweety and Sylvester cartoon "Gift Wrapped", were submitted for an Academy Award in 1952 but were not nominated.^[2]

Gallery[]

TV Title Cards[]

References[]

↑ (3 October 2022) Cartoon Voices of the Golden Age, Vol. 2 (in en). BearManor Media, page 159.
↑ https://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/cartoons-considered-for-an-academy-award-1951/

External links[]

"Little Beau Pepé" on the SFX Resource

Pepé Le Pew Cartoons
1945	Odor-able Kitty
1947	Scent-imental over You
1948	Odor of the Day
1949	For Scent-imental Reasons
1951	Scent-imental Romeo
1952	Little Beau Pepé
1953	Wild over You
1954	Dog Pounded • The Cats Bah
1955	Past Perfumance • Two Scent's Worth
1956	Heaven Scent
1957	Touché and Go
1959	Really Scent
1960	Who Scent You?
1961	A Scent of the Matterhorn
1962	Louvre Come Back to Me!
1995	Carrotblanca

[1] (3 October 2022) Cartoon Voices of the Golden Age, Vol. 2 (in en). BearManor Media, page 159.

[2] ttps://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/cartoons-considered-for-an-academy-award-1951/

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