For Scent-imental Reasons | |
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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 |
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Running time | 6:55 |
Language | English |
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).
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.