For Scent-imental Reasons

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For Scent-imental Reasons
For Scent-Imental ReasonsTitle.jpg
The title card of For Scent-imental Reasons
Directed by Charles M. Jones [1]
Story by Michael Maltese
Produced by Edward Selzer
(uncredited)
Starring Mel Blanc
Bea Benaderet
Music by Carl Stalling
Animation by Ben Washam
Ken Harris
Phil Monroe
Lloyd Vaughan
Layouts by Robert Gribbroek
Backgrounds by Peter Alvarado
Color process Technicolor
Production
company
Distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures
The Vitaphone Corporation
Release date
  • November 12, 1949 (1949-11-12)
Running time
6:55
LanguageEnglish

For Scent-imental Reasons is a 1949 Warner Bros. Looney Tunes short directed by Chuck Jones and written by Michael Maltese. [2] The short was released on November 12, 1949, and featured the debut of Penelope Pussycat. [3]

Contents

It won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film in 1949 and was the first Chuck Jones-directed cartoon and the second short produced by Warner Bros. Cartoons to win this award (after Tweetie Pie won in 1947). Lloyd Vaughan

Plot

The owner of a perfume shop in Paris is shocked to find Pepé Le Pew testing the wares inside his shop. He seeks help from a strong and powerful gendarme, but the gendarme is repulsed by Pepé's odor and runs away. The shop owner notices Penelope Pussycat and flings her into the store, demanding that she "remove that polecat pole from the premises." Penelope hits a desk, causing a bottle of white dye to spill and run down her back and tail. Pepé immediately mistakes her for a female skunk and falls madly in love with her.

The cat smells Pepé's odor and immediately tries to run away, chased by Pepé. As she attempts to wiggle free from Pepé's embrace, he makes comments like, "It is love at sight first, no?" and "We will make beautiful music together." She breaks free and attempts to wash the stripe and the smell off, but is unsuccessful, with Pepé assuming she is making herself dainty. She runs to a window and tries to open it, but it is stuck, with Pepé thinking she is seeking a "tristing place" for them. She finally takes refuge inside a locked glass cabinet, much to Pepé's chagrin. Pepé first tries to lure her out sweetly, then demands that she come out of the cabinet. She refuses, indicating that it is due to his odor. Pepé Le Pew becomes saddened, pulls out a gun, walks out of sight and fires the weapon, presumably killing himself. Panicked, the cat rushes out, only to run directly into Pepé's arms. He tells her, "I missed, fortunately for you." The chase continues until Pepé finds the cat on the windowsill. He believes she is trying to prove her love for him by committing suicide, and declares that he will save her. Pepé grabs for her, but she slips through his arms. Pepé then calls out: "Vive l'amour, we die together" and steps off the window ledge. The cat falls into a barrel of water under a rain-spout off-screen, while Pepé lands in a can of blue paint.

The water washes the white stripe off Penelope and gives her a cold that prevents her from smelling his odor. When Pepé climbs out, he is blue. He sees the ragged-looking, sneezing wet cat but does not recognize her. He wanders off to find the "beautiful young lady skunk." The soaked black cat watches his blue muscular form walking away and she falls for him. When Pepé goes back into the perfume shop to look for the female skunk, he hears the door shut and the lock click behind him. When he turns, he sees the drenched female cat leering at him and begins to panic, realizing that he is now the victim of love. She drops the key to the lock down her neckline as the startled Pepé says, "Oh, no!" and runs away. As Pepé runs as fast as he can, the cat follows using Pepé's familiar hopping pace. The short ends with Pepé telling the audience: "You know? It is possible to be too attractive," while continuing to run.

Notes

In 1957, this cartoon was reissued as a Blue Ribbon Merrie Melodies. However, like all cartoons reissued between 1956 and 1959, the opening title ( The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down ) music still plays and the original ending title was kept.

Home media

See also

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References

  1. ↑ "For Scent-imental Reasons". BCDB.com. Archived from the original on December 19, 2016. Retrieved August 17, 2012.
  2. ↑ Beck, Jerry; Friedwald, Will (1989). Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies: A Complete Illustrated Guide to the Warner Bros. Cartoons. Henry Holt and Co. p. 204. ISBN   0-8050-0894-2.
  3. ↑ Lenburg, Jeff (1999). The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons. Checkmark Books. p. 117. ISBN   0-8160-3831-7 . Retrieved 6 June 2020.
  4. ↑ "Warner Archive Announces August Releases".
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