For Scent-imental Reasons

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For Scent-imental Reasons
The title card of For Scent-imental Reasons
Directed byCharles M. Jones[1]
Story byMichael Maltese
Produced byEdward Selzer
(uncredited)
StarringMel Blanc
Bea Benaderet
Music byCarl Stalling
Animation byBen Washam
Ken Harris
Phil Monroe
Lloyd Vaughan
Layouts byRobert Gribbroek
Backgrounds byPeter Alvarado
Color processTechnicolor
Production
company
Distributed byWarner 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]

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).

Plot

Set in Paris, the proprietor of a perfume establishment is taken aback when skunk Pepé Le Pew ventures into his shop to sample the fragrances. Seeking assistance, the proprietor calls upon a robust gendarme, only to find the law enforcement officer recoiling from Pepé's scent and fleeing the scene. The proprietor then employs Penelope Pussycat to remove Pepé from the premises, inadvertently causing a spill of white dye upon Penelope.

Pepé, mistaking Penelope for a female skunk due to the dye's resemblance to his own markings, becomes enamored with her. Despite Penelope's efforts to escape Pepé's advances, he persistently pursues her, expressing romantic sentiments and attempting to woo her. Penelope's futile attempts to cleanse herself of the dye only serve to reinforce Pepé's misguided belief in their romantic compatibility. A series of comedic misinterpretations and misadventures ensue involving mistaken identity, romantic pursuit, and the unpredictability of attraction. It culminates in a scene where Pepé, believing Penelope is attempting to end her life out of love for him, dramatically leaps from a window ledge. Miraculously, both Pepé and Penelope emerge unharmed, albeit drenched from a barrel of water and a can of blue paint, respectively.

Following the fortuitous cleansing of Penelope's fur, she loses her ability to detect Pepé's odor due to a cold. Meanwhile, Pepé, now blue from the paint, fails to recognize Penelope's altered appearance. Mistaking each other for unfamiliar entities, their roles become reversed as Penelope, now infatuated with Pepé, begins to pursue him relentlessly.

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

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".

External links

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