Os Apuros de Penélope Charmosa

I've been catching reruns of this old cartoon on Cartoon Network over the last couple of weeks, and frankly I'm probably in the minority. I actually like this show. It stars Penelope Pitstop (a female racer from "Wacky Races") who is being constantly on the run by her laywer Sylvester Sneekly (aka The Hooded Claw who is just Sneekly in disguise) whom wants to elude of her since she inherited a fortune, and would give it to him if something were to happenn to her (you know like death or something like that for an example). But Penelope has protection thanks to my fave characters from "Wacky Races" the Ant Hill Mob (those guys rule!!!!!) who will keep our damsel in distress from being captured by the Hooded Claw.

I really like this cartoon a lot. I know that Hanna Barbera has made some lame spinoffs in the past, but this is great. 10/10

I liked this series when I was a boy. The horrid cackle of the evil Hooded Claw (brilliantly voiced by veteran US actor the late Paul Lynde)used to give me goosebumps. I recently watched the whole series online and while I still very much enjoyed it,I was rather bemused at all the elaborate traps devised by HC to bump off his female victim The finale ending the series was inconclusive. I had hoped the evil Claw might himself be killed by one of his own devices thus ridding Penelope of him for good or being captured and unmasked as the treacherous Sneekley Indeed he did blow himself up at the very end by accidentally tripping and falling on a detonator plunger but sadly he survived it,and swearing to continue to think up further nefarious ideas to murder Penelope. Verdict? Still very watchable but disappointed there was no definite outcome to the series.

I am a fan of Hanna-Barbera and have enjoyed watching some of their TV series and films, such as "Charlotte's Web" and "Heidi's Song." I have nostalgic memories of watching Wacky Races on Teletoon many years ago. Penelope Pitstop and her Compact Pussycat were always my favorite racers. I was perplexed by her car's moniker, The Compact Pussycat, because it bore no resemblance to a cat. The show was a success, spawning spin-off shows such as Dastardly and Muttley in their Flying Machines and The Peril of Penelope Pitstop. In the 1960s, Wacky Races set the stage, but the characters and settings of The Perils of Penelope Pitstop strongly resembled the 1920s and 1930s.

I'd bought the complete series on DVD, and after watching all seventeen episodes, I thought it's a very funny show; it has scenes you will remember and make you laugh your head off. In this series, Penelope's sinister guardian (voiced by Paul Lynde), Sylvester Sneekly, aka The Hooded Claw, constantly chases her, as she is unaware she is a heiress to a vast fortune. The Ant Hill Mob (also from Wacky Races) and their anthropomorphic car Chug-A-Boom (like Herbie from Disney's The Love Bug) are always there to help her. But they sometimes screw up the rescue, and it's always Penelope who ends up saving them.

They never explain why Penelope is a wealthy woman. Why are the Ant Hill Mob Penelope's friends? They just jump right through it. I have an imagination. Penelope was the daughter of a wealthy family. When her parents died, Sylvester Sneekly, her "dear daddy's" secretary, became her constant companion. He was her oracle, guide, and hero. Maybe that's why she refuses to believe that Sylvester is the Hooded Claw. The Ant Hill Mob are her friends because she may have reformed them with her kind heart, or perhaps they had already reformed years ago. So overall, I love this series and would watch it again and again.

It's been many years since I saw this show, but as I recall it was a lot of fun with a combination of slapstick humor and clever dialog. I often caught my parents laughing at it. Penelope was a wealthy fashion plate Southern gal and The Hooded Claw (now there's a name!) was always cooking up ingenious ways to destroy her (e.g., explosive pastries called "bombs-bombs") and get his grubby hands, err, claws, on her fortune. He was aided by identical twins, the Bully Brothers, who did everything in unison, even when crying "Oh no!" when a plot backfired on them. But they always failed, often due to the timely intervention of the Ant Hill Gang in a smart car long before KITT came along.

I used to enjoy this as a kid but it always puzzled me how the Hooded Claw hoped to bump off Penelope by tying her to a railway track when she inhabited the same world where Dick Dastardly could be run over by a train and although he might feel a bit flat for a while generally he was OK at the end of the day. What's more the Anthill Mob were often blown up by the dynamite the Claw had intended for Penelope and it didn't seem to do them much harm. Penelope has a big following and I upset this girl I know who used to be a fan by saying it was kinky the way the Claw was always tying her up. She said I'd spoiled her illusions! Still, great fun.