Little Beau Pepé
| Little Beau Pepé | |
|---|---|
 Lobby card. | |
| Production company | Warner Bros. Cartoons |
| Distributor | Warner Bros. Pictures The Vitaphone Corporation |
| Release date | March 29, 1952 |
| Starring | Mel Blanc |
| Producer(s) | Edward Selzer |
| Music composed by | Carl Stalling |
| Story by | Michael Maltese |
| Animation | Lloyd Vaughan Ben Washam Ken Harris Philip Monroe |
| Director(s) | Charles M. Jones |
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Little Beau Pepé is the three hundred and forty-seventh Merrie Melodies theatrical short. It was released by Warner Bros. Pictures and The Vitaphone Corporation on March 29, 1952. It was produced by Edward Selzer, written by Michael Maltese, and directed by Chuck Jones.
When Pepé joins the French Foreign Legion, he soon falls in love the fortress' mascot, a female black cat, who has unknowingly painted a white stripe down her tail.
Detailed summary
Memorable quotes
Pepé: I am ze broken heart of love. I am ze disillusioned! I wish to enlist in ze Foreign Legion so I may forget! Take me!
Enlistment officer: Vous sous. Les vous le questionnaire. Donne-moi le nom de plume.
Pepé: Pepé Le Pew! (to audience) A pitiful case, am I not?
Enlistment officer: Donne-moi le socialité security number... Holy un SMOKE!
Pepé: Something?
Enlistment officer: Le skunk de pew! Le kittée quel terrible odeur!
Pepé: What is this? Oh, but of course! This small one, she has wished to put her face before we continue with ze wooing! Such dainty rabbits, these ladies... I love them.
Pepé: You know, one of the mysteries of my life is why a woman would run away, when all she really wish is to be captured?
Penelope: Le rawr, rawr!
Pepé: Why is it that whenever a man is captured by a woman, all he wish to do is get away?
Characters
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Locations
- Earth
- Africa
- Sahara Desert
- Foreign Legion fortress
- Small lake
- Sahara Desert
- Africa
Objects
- "Le paint blanc" bucket
- Perfumes
Vehicles
- None.
Production
Development
Filming
Music
The music was composed by Carl Stalling.
Release
Dates are in order of release:
- United States: March 29, 1952 in theatres
Behind the scenes
- The title is a pun on the nursery rhyme "Little Bo Peep" and the 1924 novel Beau Geste.
- It is the second cartoon to do a pun of the two subjects since Little Beau Porky.
- The plot of this cartoon is also inspired by Beau Geste, in addition to its film adaptations from 1926 and 1939.
- There is a recruitment poster next to the enlistment office featuring a character named Uncle Francois, pointing an index finger with the text, "Uncle Francois wants you!" This is a visual parody of Lord Kitchener Wants You, a 1914 poster that advertised enlistments for the British Army in World War I.
- This short, alongside Ballot Box Bunny and Gift Wrapped, were submitted for an Academy Award in 1952, but none of them were nominated.
Legacy
- This short was used in the Valentine's Day TV special Bugs Bunny's Cupid Capers.
- The Foreign Legion from this cartoon would later reappear in the The Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries episode "Mirage Sale," except they have different-colored uniforms.
Critical reception
Home availability
- In the United States:
