Just what I expected

A Masterpiece!

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Blistering performances.

I like it. I think it is funny. My favorite character is The Hooded Claw. Paul Lynde played The Hooded Claw. Paul Lynde was never seen in the credits. I wish Paul Lyde got more credit. He really is a funny actor. Some times I wish The Hooded Claw's plans worked. I have a question I bet all The Perils of Penelope Pitstop fans would ask. How come when The Hooded Claw and The Ain't Hill Mob get in The Hooded Claw's traps for Penelope Pitstop it does not hurt? Then why does The Hooded Claw think it will hurt Penelope Pitstop. If any of you The perils of Penelope Pitstop fans want to watch it it comes on Boomerang at 7:30 AM central time. I never could stand it when Penelope Pitstop yelled "Help!". Could Penelope Pitstop fight? The Hooded claw always grabbed her. Why didn't she kick him or punch him. She always was a damsel in distress. There's one good thing. She aways could get out of The Hooded Claw's traps.

I have two major problems with "The Perils of Penelope Pitstop". First, it isn't completely consistent with the original cartoon, "The Wacky Racers", of which it's a spin off. On that show, Penelope was a professional race car driver. Now she's supposedly an "heiress to a vast fortune", as the narrator said at the beginning of each episode, and she has a legal guardian. So presumably she's still under the age of 21. Don't you have to be at least 21 to race professionally? Or was the spin off supposed to be a prequel, and didn't they say so in order to keep us in suspense about whether Penelope would survive the series? (I don't mean to spoil it for you, but she did.) The second problem is one of basic, psychological plausibility, and it's a question that I'm sure everyone who's ever watched at least one season of this show has asked: How could this girl possibly have gone two seasons without ever realizing that the mysterious masked stranger who called himself the Hooded Claw, who tried to kill her in every single episode, was none other than her own guardian, Sylvester Sneekly? Okay, maybe she just couldn't handle the truth; after all, how would you feel if you woke up one day and realized that your late parents entrusted your very life to someone who wants you dead? So I could go along with it for a little while, maybe, but two whole years? She must have been the dumbest professional racer ever.

This spin off is good not great, but still good. Penelope is in line for an vast fortune but her guardian, Selevester Sneekley aka, the Hooded Claw. For you see, he wants her money. To stop him she teams up with her Wacky Races co stars The Ant Hill Mob. The cast are Gary Owens, Mel Blanc, Janet Waldo, Paul Winchell, Don Messick, and Paul Lynn. The henchmen of the Claw, The Bully Brothers always seem to bungle it. The series was based on an old silent film series featuring an girl named Pauline who always gets herself in trouble as well. Most likely it was set in the early 20th century and still good after all these years and the cast was perfect. Today, Bommerang has the season on the air and it's on DVD so if you want to see it those are your only ways to see the series.Overall score: an 9 out of 10

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.