Since I start working again soon, I thought it would be best to squeeze another cartoon today before updates start to become erratic again. Yes I will try to keep the blog up four times a week but when you have a crammed schedule it is difficult.
Right. Personally I think that Pepe Le Pew is one of the most underrated Looney Tunes character. I mean the only cartoon that is constantly broadcast is usually 'For Scent-imental Reasons' and now and then you'll be lucky enough to watch Louvre come back to me. In the 80's there was one VHS collection with 14 of Jones Pepe shorts ( 1947's the Odor-able Kitty and the Arthur Davis directed Odor of the Day {1948} were left out) but it was incredibly difficult to find and I only managed to watch it twice. Hopefully the Golden Collection vol 6 will rectify this and Pepe La Pew will be given his due.
So why do I like Pepe Le Pew so much? I just love the fact that he is oblivious to the fact that he has two completely repulsive character traits. One is that he exudes stink fumes (in fact I always laugh when people melt or die cause of his odor) and the other is that he is very overbearing and will go through any length to achieve his conquest. I'm sure we have met people like this in real life and like the tabby Pepe tries to pursue, we want to escape.
For Scenti-mental Reasons is the fourth Pepe cartoon, but the one where Jones got the character fully formed and is the template for nearly all of Pepe Le Pew shorts. Jones won an academy award for this cartoon and I can see why. It is well animated, very good coloration schemes ( mostly pink, white and green dominates) and it is entertaining. Personally i think 1962's Louvre come back to me and 1961's Scent of the Matterhorn are slightly better but i'm nitpicking.
The cartoon begins with a pansy-ish Frenchman riding through Paris on his bicycle gleefully whistling a merry tune. He walks up to his perfumery and he sees Pepe Le Pew testing out his perfumes. How Pepe got into the shop is not our concern the important thing is that he is in there and, as usual, is unaware that the perfumes have no effect on his stench.
The Frenchman is horrified and quickly runs to a gendarme for help. On realising that he cannot battle against a skunk he flees. The Frenchman stumbles upon a black female cat (well called penelope but does not have a name in this cartoon) and chucks her inside the building. She slides across the floor and hits a white hair dye ( the label is perplexedly in English), which leaves a white stripe down her back. This makes Pepe turn his head and the chase begins.
Here Pepe's egoism shows no boundaries. The cat is trying best to escape him or get rid of his scent and Pepe is under the delusion that she preparing herself for a courting session. Finally she does the intelligent thing and locks herself up in a glass cupboard. Pepe lures her out by putting a gun to his head and pulling the trigger. As the cat gets scared she opens the cupboard and finds out that he is still alive and the chase resumes. The cat is breaking the speed barrier and Pepe is bouncing with that effeminate hop that he debuted in the Odor-able Kitty. This shows that Pepe can be very cool and collected in such a situation.
The Glass Cupboard Scene
When the chase is over the cat decides to jump out of a window and Pepe thinks that she is committing suicide for his love. He runs to the sill and grabs her. Unfortunately she slips out of his hands and he decides to jump out of the window too. Pepe lands in a pot of blue paint ( labelled 'La Paint) and the cat falls into a barrel of filthy water. The paint blocks Pepe's scent and the water clogs up the cats nose, due to all the sniffing that she is doing.
As it happens the water renders the once beautiful cat into a stripe less scraggly creature and Pepe does not recognise her and is continuing the search for the skunk. It is at this point when the tables turn and the cat falls in love with Pepe. He still does not recognise that that was the cat he pursued earlier in the film and becomes frightened ( yet is still polite to her) when she locks up the perfumery and begins to chase Pepe. This time the skunk is racing along and the cat is hopping. Pepe's last lines are :
"You know, it is possible to be too attractive!"
and he zooms off.
There you have it. A twisted love story. Two deluded characters. A veritable soap opera in 7 minutes from one of the most interesting Looney Tunes characters.
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