Friday, October 8, 2010

Pepe Le Pew Movie? The Bad Reviews Just Write Themselves

Corpsman RHPT sent me a link that WB is attempting to reinvigorate their cast of cartoon characters with a slate of new projects including a possible live action/ CGI movie featuring Pepe Le Pew. 

Here.

The article states that comedian Mike "The Love Guru" Myers is associated with the project and will, one way or another, play the WB's amorous french skunk  (despite his turn as another black and white furry scamp in The Cat in the Hat, the movie that terrified kids and turned a generation off of Dr. Seuss.).

If I may:  why on Earth, given the track record of live action movies featuring formerly popular franchises, would you pick the one character that will give every film critic on a global scale the opportunity to use the word "stink" in their review?

And the movie will stink.  As will box office. 

I foresee weeks upon weeks of entertainment headlines pounding and pounding away on the idea that this movie stinks, and just by virtue of going to my iGoogle or Yahoo! account, my eyes will be bombarded by this clever play on words from a million different sources, over and over. 

Also, Mssr. Le Pew's romantic tactics would get the rape whistle blown at him in this day and age.  I'm not sure who in a modern audience is going to find it hilarious that this stalker of a skunk manhandles a helpless cat against her will for the duration of the film, even if in the third reel he learns a little lesson from WB's HR about appropriate workplace behavior and not being "handsy".  And, of course, the kitty decides she misses the attention (got that, girls...?  you're gonna miss Mr. Handsy Stalker when he's gone!).

In this modern age, I am not sure Mr. Le Pew will work quite as well as he once did, in days gone by when interspecies sexual assault was good for a laugh. 

Yeah, I think I've even creeped myself out at this point
I don't have any advice for the WB. How about trying to be actually funny?  You know, the way Chuck Jones, Bob Clampett and others were able to do without resorting to ridiculous CGI for the sake of CGI nonsense?

Also, the appropriate amount of time from when an anvil enters the image to when it makes contact?  13 frames.  13 frames is funniest.  Everybody knows that.

1 comment:

Nathan said...

I hope Meyers is only "voicing" Pepe Le Pew, and not playing him like he did with Cat in the Hat.

I'm sure they'll play up the "wooing" aspect of Mssr. Le Pew, and not so much the jumping all over the cat aspects.