Relent d'amour

This cartoon won an Oscar for Pepe Le Pew almost ten years before Bugs Bunny won for Knighty Knight Bugs. Pepe is one of my favorite characters and this is one of the better cartoons in the series, although not my personal favorite (that's Touche and Go). Pepe discovers wht it's like to have the shoe on the other foot in this one. Great fun in this one. It should be in-print. It has been in the past, most notably on the tape A Salute to Chuck Jones from the Golden Jubilee series. Cartoon Network shows it fairly often. Recommended.

Chuck Jones's 'For Scent-imental Reasons' is a brilliantly witty cartoon for which Pepe Le Pew won a well earned Academy Award on only his fourth outing. As a child I hated the Pepe Le Pew cartoons for several reasons. Of course, I thought love was yucky but also the pseudo-French gags and more verbal approach to comedy went completely over my head. Bearing in mind that these sexually charged cartoons were never meant for young eyes, it's hardly surprising that I have come round to loving Pepe and his straight-to-camera witticisms. Having said all that, even as a Pepe-hating child I still enjoyed 'For Scent-imental Reasons'. There was something about it that made it stand out over the other Le Pew shorts and clearly the Academy agreed.

Set in and around a perfume shop, 'For Scent-imental Reasons' finds Penelope the cat locked in with the amorous skunk after a bottle of white hair-dye bestows the obligatory deceptive markings down her spine. There follows a series of great gags, two of which involve aborted suicides! The best gag in the whole cartoon is when Penelope locks herself in a glass case causing Pepe to go absolutely insane with frustration until finally he pulls out a gun, puts it to his temple and walks out of sight. Hearing the shot, the guilt-ridden cat unlocks the case and leaps out straight into Pepe's arms. "I meesed" he tells her! 'For Scent-imental Reasons' is a lovely piece of work and undoubtedly one of the best Pepe Le Pew cartoons. From its familiar setup through to the table-turning ending, it's a classy and classic short.

Pepe Le Pew chases a female cat through a perfume shop, until an unexpected event reverses their roles. Sometimes, I interpret Pepe Le Pew as the sort of person whose attitude turns people off without him realizing it, much like Pepe can't help that he smells terrible. After all, isn't it good enough that he at least tries to strike up relationships with women? But even ignoring that, "For Scent-imental Reasons" is still a classic cartoon. I will say that there's a scene - you'll know it if you see the cartoon - that seems a little strange to put in a cartoon. But on the other hand, these cartoons weren't really intended as cute entertainment for children; they always had an edge. Anyway, this one definitely deserved its Oscar win.

Le meow. Le purr. Ha!

When a French perfume shop owner opens up one morning he finds Pepe Le Pew using the perfumes in his store. He runs to the police, but they are unable and unwilling to help him. Desperate, he paints his cat like a skunk in order to distract Pepe and get him out of the store.

Looking back now it is often difficult to watch these cartoons in the order they were made. For this reason it is often difficult to know which came first and which were just copies of more original cartoons. However, this short is famous as it was one of the first Pepe Le Pew cartoons and it won him an Oscar in 1950. For this reason it is one of my favourite Pepe shorts. It may not be the best but the others just kept repeating this one gag until it killed it.

The plot is the usual deal but it has some nice touches at the start and end that make it different enough to be amusing. It is unfair to really look back on this short with the knowledge that Pepe just kept doing the same stuff over and over, I don't really like him for this reason, but this short is still good and helped me get over the repeating issues.

Overall this is an enjoyable short that is better than it comes across if you try and remember that this was fresh when it was made, as opposed to his other films that generally retread this gag. Not sure it deserved to be called an Oscar winner but it was funny and the fresh quality of the film has managed to shine through despite the numerous repeats.

I'll be totally honest. I was never a big fan of Pepe Le Pew. Every one of his cartoons is the same. For some silly reason a cat will end up a white stripe on it's back and Pepe, a smelly skunk, falls in love with her. His foul scent is so strong that when he grabs her and unleashes an endless barrage of kisses, she can only become like butter in his arms with a dazed look on her face. Occasionally she will try to escape and Pepe will fob it off with something like 'You are play-eeng hard-to-geet'. Blah, blah, blah, they are all the same.

Grant, this one was the first and it won an Oscar. But that was probably the reason they made so many more. This one does have a funny twist at the end when Pepe's love falls into a barrel of water and emerges like crack-addicted rat and the tables are turned. But it's still not really THAT funny. Pepe was only ever a supporting character and never strong enough to carry a whole cartoon.

He IS very cute though.