Pepé Le Pew
Encyclopedia
Pepé Le Pew is a fictional character
in the Warner Bros.
Looney Tunes
and Merrie Melodies
series of cartoons, first introduced in 1945. A French
skunk
that always strolls around in Paris
in the springtime, when everyone's thoughts are of "love", Pepé is constantly seeking "l'amour" of his own. However, he has two huge turnoffs to any prospective mates: his malodorous scent, and he cannot take 'no' for an answer, blissfully convinced that the girl is flirting with him, even when she physically assaults him. Pepé is stereotypically French in the way Speedy Gonzales
is stereotypically Mexican.
(retroactively named Penelope Pussycat
) who has had a white stripe painted down her back, often by accident (as by squeezing under a fence with wet white paint). Usually Penelope runs away from him anyway because of his putrid odor or because of his overly aggressive manner. As Penelope frantically races to get away from Pepé, he hops after her at a leisurely pace.
The Academy Award-winning 1949 short For Scent-imental Reasons
ended with an accidentally painted (and now terrified) Pepé being aggressively pursued by a madly smitten Penelope (who has been dunked in dirty water, leaving her with a ratty appearance and a developing head cold, completely clogging up her nose). Penelope locks him up inside a perfume
shop, hiding the key down her chest, and proceeds to turn the tables on the now imprisoned and effectively odorless Pepé.
In another short, Little Beau Pepé, Pepé, attempting to find the most arousing cologne
with which to impress Penelope, sprays a combination of perfumes and colognes upon himself. This resulted in something close to a love-potion, leading Penelope to fall madly in love with Pepé in an explosion of hearts. Pepé is revealed to be extremely frightened of overly-affectionate women ("But Madame!"), much to his dismay, as Penelope quickly captures him and smothers him in more love than even he could imagine.
And yet again, in Really Scent, Pepé removes his odor by locking himself in a deodorant
plant so Penelope (Or known as "Fabrette", in this instance a black cat with an unfortunate birthmark) would like him (this is also the only episode that Pepé is acutely aware of his own odor, having checked the word Pew in the dictionary). However, Penelope (who in this picture is actually trying to have a relationship with Pepé because all the male cats of New Orleans take her to be a skunk and run like blazes, but is appalled by his odor) had decided to make her own odor match her appearance and had locked herself in a Limburger cheese
factory. Now more forceful and demanding, Penelope quickly corners the terrified Pepé, who, after smelling her new stench, wants nothing more than to escape the amorous female cat
. Unfortunately, she will not take "no" for an answer and proceeds to chase Pepé off into the distance, with no intention of letting him escape. (Credited to Abe Levitow
, this cartoon is the only short in the Pepé Le Pew series not directed by Chuck Jones, save the debatable Odor of the Day—see below).
Although Pepé usually mistakes Penelope for a female skunk, in Past Perfumance, he realises that she is a cat when her stripe washes off. Undeterred, he proceeds to cover his white stripe with black paint, taking the appearance of a cat before resuming the chase.
For some unknown reason, Penelope is always mute
(more precisely - does only natural cat sounds) in these stories; only the self-deluded Pepé speaks (several non-recurring human characters are given minimal dialogue, often nothing more than a repulsed, "Le pew!").
Sometimes this formula is subverted. In his initial cartoon, Odor-able Kitty, Pepé (technically he is a different character because he is eventually revealed to be an American-accented family man named Henry) unwittingly pursues a male cat who disguises himself as a skunk. Scent-imental Over You
has Pepé pursuing a female dog who has donned a skunk pelt (mistaking it for a fur coat). In the end, she removed her pelt, revealing that she's a dog. Pepe then, 'revealed' himself as another dog and the two embrace. However, he later revealed to the viewers that he's indeed a skunk. In Wild Over You, Pepé attempts to seduce a Wild Cat
that has escaped a zoo and painted itself to look like a skunk to escape its keepers. This cartoon is notable for not only diverging from the Pepé/female-black-cat dynamic, but also rather cheekily showing that Pepé likes to be beaten up.
, Pepé's creator, wrote that Pepé was based (loosely) on the personality of his Termite Terrace
colleague, writer Tedd Pierce
, a self-styled "ladies' man" who reportedly always assumed that his infatuations were requited. Pepé's voice, provided by Mel Blanc
, was based on Charles Boyer
's Pépé le Moko from Algiers
(1938), a remake of the 1937 French
film Pépé le Moko
. Eddie Selzer
, animation producer—and Jones' bitterest foe—at Warners then once profanely commented that no one would laugh at those cartoons. However, this did not keep Selzer from accepting an award for one of Pepé's pictures several years later. There have been theories that Pepé was based on Maurice Chevalier
. However, in the short film, Chuck Jones: Memories of Childhood, Jones says Pepé was actually based on himself, but that he was very shy with girls, and Pepé obviously was not. A prototype Pepé appears in 1947's Bugs Bunny Rides Again
, but sounds similar to Porky Pig
.
In the shorts, a kind of pseudo-French
or Franglais
is spoken and written primarily by adding "le" to English words (example: "le skunk de pew"), or by more creative mangling of French expressions with English ones, such as "Sacre Maroon!", "My sweet peanut of brittle", "Come to me, my little melon-baby collie!" or "Ah, my little darling, it is love at first sight, is it not, no?", and "It is love at sight first!" The writer responsible for these malapropism
s was Michael Maltese
.
Some transcribed Maltese dialogue from the Oscar-winning 1949 short For Scent-imental Reasons
:
Blanc's voice for the character closely resembles the one he used for "Professor Le Blanc", the harried violin instructor on The Jack Benny Program
.
and children!). For the remaining cartoons Jones directed, Pepé retained his accent, nationality, and bachelor status throughout, and the object of his pursuit was always (or nearly always) female.
A possible second cameo appearance is at the end of Fair and Worm-er
(Chuck Jones, 1946). This skunk doesn't speak, but looks identical (or is a close relation) and shares the same mode of travel and a slight variation of Pepé's hopping music.
A skunk often identified as Pepé appears in the Art Davis-directed cartoon Odor of the Day
(1948); in this entry, the theme of romantic pursuit is missing as the skunk (in a nonspeaking role, save for a shared "Gesundheit!" at the finish) vies with a male dog for lodging accommodations on a bitterly cold night. This should be noted as one of the two cartoons where the character, if this is indeed Pepé, used his scent-spray as a deliberate weapon: delivered from his tail in a machine gun-like fashion. The other one is Touché and Go
, where he frees himself from the jaws of a shark.
Pepé himself made a more obvious cameo in Dog Pounded
(1954), where he was attracted to Sylvester
after the latter tried to get around a pack of guard dogs, in his latest attempt to capture and eat Tweety Bird, by painting a white stripe down his back (in his only appearance in a Freleng
short).
Pepé possibly makes a small appearance as a baby skunk in Mouse-Placed Kitten (1959), where he is reluctantly adopted by a mouse couple at the cartoon end.
but was later dropped for reasons unknown.
Pepé appeared a few times on Tiny Toon Adventures
and is the mentor to the character Fifi La Fume, and also made a cameo appearance in the Histeria!
episode "When America Was Young". Pepé also has a small cameo in the Goodfeathers segment, "We're No Pigeons", on Animaniacs
.
In the 1995 animated short Carrotblanca
, a parody
/homage
of the classic film Casablanca
, both Pepé and Penelope appear: Pepé (voiced by Greg Burson
) as Captain Renault and Penelope (voiced by Tress MacNeille
) as "Kitty Ketty", modeled after Ingrid Bergman's
performance as Ilsa. Unlike the character's other appearances in cartoons, Penelope (as Kitty) has extensive speaking parts in Carrotblanca.
In "The Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries", in the episode,"Platinum wheel of Fortune", when Sylvester
gets a white stripe on his back, a skunk immediately fall in love with him. This is not Pepe, however, he does say, "What can I say, Pepe Le Pew is my third cousin. It runs in the family". However, Pepe did appear in "Tweety's High-Flying Adventure", he appears to fall in love with both Sylvester and Penelope.
Pepé was, at one point, integral to the storyline for the movie Looney Tunes: Back in Action
. Originally, once Bugs Bunny
, Daffy Duck
, and their human co-stars arrived in Paris, Pepé was to give them a mission briefing inside a gift shop. Perhaps because of the group receiving their equipment in Area 52
, Pepé's scene was cut, and in the final film, he plays only a bit part, dressed like a police officer, who tries to help one of the human co-stars (played by Brendan Fraser
) after his co-star (played by Jenna Elfman
) is kidnapped. However, some unused animation of him and Penelope appears during the end credits, thus giving viewers a rare glimpse at his cut scene, and his cut scene appears in the movie's print adaptations. Pepé also appears in Space Jam
, where his voice has curiously been changed into an approximation of Maurice Chevalier
, as opposed to more traditional vocalization.
In Loonatics Unleashed
, a human based on Pepé Le Pew called Pierre Le Pew (voiced by Maurice LaMarche
) has appeared as one of the villains of the second season of the show. Additionally, Pepé and Penelope Pussycat appear as cameos in a display of Otto the Odd, in the series. In the episode The World is My Circus, Lexi Bunny complains that "this Pepé Le Pew look is definitely not me" after being mutated into a skunk-like creature.
A 2009 Valentine's Day-themed AT&T
commercial brings Pepé and Penelope's relationship up to date, depicting Penelope not as repulsed by Pepé, but madly in love with him. The commercial begins with Penelope deliberately painting a white stripe on her own back; when her cell phone rings and displays Pepé's picture, Penelope's lovestruck beating heart bulges beneath her chest in a classic cartoon image.
Pepe Le Pew has appeared in the "The Looney Tunes Show
" episode "Members Only" voiced by René Auberjonois. He also appeared in the Merrie Melodies segment "Cock of the Walk" sung by Foghorn Leghorn. He appeared in his own music video "Skunk Funk" in the 16th episode "That's My Baby". He also appeared again in another Merrie Melodies segment "You Like/I Like" sung by Mac and Tosh
.
based on the character.
unless otherwise indicated)
Character (arts)
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...
in the Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
Looney Tunes
Looney Tunes
Looney Tunes is a Warner Bros. animated cartoon series. It preceded the Merrie Melodies series and was Warner Bros.'s first animated theatrical series. Since its first official release, 1930's Sinkin' in the Bathtub, the series has become a worldwide media franchise, spawning several television...
and Merrie Melodies
Merrie Melodies
Merrie Melodies is the name of a series of animated cartoons distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures between 1931 and 1969.Originally produced by Harman-Ising Pictures, Merrie Melodies were produced by Leon Schlesinger Productions from 1933 to 1944. Schlesinger sold his studio to Warner Bros. in 1944,...
series of cartoons, first introduced in 1945. A French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
skunk
Skunk
Skunks are mammals best known for their ability to secrete a liquid with a strong, foul odor. General appearance varies from species to species, from black-and-white to brown or cream colored. Skunks belong to the family Mephitidae and to the order Carnivora...
that always strolls around in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
in the springtime, when everyone's thoughts are of "love", Pepé is constantly seeking "l'amour" of his own. However, he has two huge turnoffs to any prospective mates: his malodorous scent, and he cannot take 'no' for an answer, blissfully convinced that the girl is flirting with him, even when she physically assaults him. Pepé is stereotypically French in the way Speedy Gonzales
Speedy Gonzales
Speedy Gonzales is an animated caricature of a mouse in the Warner Brothers Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons. He is portrayed as "The Fastest Mouse in all Mexico" with his major traits being the ability to run extremely fast and speaking with an exaggerated Mexican accent...
is stereotypically Mexican.
Premise
Pepé Le Pew storylines typically involve Pepé in pursuit of what appears to be a female skunk ("la petite femme skunk"). But, usually, the supposed female skunk is actually a black catBlack cat
A black cat is a feline with black fur. It is not a particular breed of cat and may be mixed or of a specific breed. The Bombay, known for its sleek black fur, is an example of a black cat. The all-black pigmentation is equally prevalent in both male and female cats...
(retroactively named Penelope Pussycat
Penelope Pussycat
Penelope Pussycat is a fictional character, an anthropomorphic cat featured in the Warner Bros. classic Looney Tunes animated shorts. Though typically a non-speaker, her "meows" and "purrs" were most often provided by Mel Blanc using a feminine voice. In the 1959 short "Really Scent", she was...
) who has had a white stripe painted down her back, often by accident (as by squeezing under a fence with wet white paint). Usually Penelope runs away from him anyway because of his putrid odor or because of his overly aggressive manner. As Penelope frantically races to get away from Pepé, he hops after her at a leisurely pace.
The Academy Award-winning 1949 short For Scent-imental Reasons
For Scent-imental Reasons
For Scent-imental Reasons is a Warner Bros. Looney Tunes short released in 1949. It was directed by Chuck Jones, written by Michael Maltese, and featured the characters Pepe Le Pew and Penelope Pussycat . It won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film...
ended with an accidentally painted (and now terrified) Pepé being aggressively pursued by a madly smitten Penelope (who has been dunked in dirty water, leaving her with a ratty appearance and a developing head cold, completely clogging up her nose). Penelope locks him up inside a perfume
Perfume
Perfume is a mixture of fragrant essential oils and/or aroma compounds, fixatives, and solvents used to give the human body, animals, objects, and living spaces "a pleasant scent"...
shop, hiding the key down her chest, and proceeds to turn the tables on the now imprisoned and effectively odorless Pepé.
In another short, Little Beau Pepé, Pepé, attempting to find the most arousing cologne
Cologne
Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...
with which to impress Penelope, sprays a combination of perfumes and colognes upon himself. This resulted in something close to a love-potion, leading Penelope to fall madly in love with Pepé in an explosion of hearts. Pepé is revealed to be extremely frightened of overly-affectionate women ("But Madame!"), much to his dismay, as Penelope quickly captures him and smothers him in more love than even he could imagine.
And yet again, in Really Scent, Pepé removes his odor by locking himself in a deodorant
Deodorant
Deodorants are substances applied to the body to affect body odor caused by bacterial growth and the smell associated with bacterial breakdown of perspiration in armpits, feet and other areas of the body. A subgroup of deodorants, antiperspirants, affect odor as well as prevent sweating by...
plant so Penelope (Or known as "Fabrette", in this instance a black cat with an unfortunate birthmark) would like him (this is also the only episode that Pepé is acutely aware of his own odor, having checked the word Pew in the dictionary). However, Penelope (who in this picture is actually trying to have a relationship with Pepé because all the male cats of New Orleans take her to be a skunk and run like blazes, but is appalled by his odor) had decided to make her own odor match her appearance and had locked herself in a Limburger cheese
Limburger cheese
Limburger is a cheese that originated during the 19th century in the historical Duchy of Limburg, which is now divided among modern-day Belgium, Germany, and Netherlands. The cheese is especially known for its pungent odor commonly compared to body odor....
factory. Now more forceful and demanding, Penelope quickly corners the terrified Pepé, who, after smelling her new stench, wants nothing more than to escape the amorous female cat
Cat
The cat , also known as the domestic cat or housecat to distinguish it from other felids and felines, is a small, usually furry, domesticated, carnivorous mammal that is valued by humans for its companionship and for its ability to hunt vermin and household pests...
. Unfortunately, she will not take "no" for an answer and proceeds to chase Pepé off into the distance, with no intention of letting him escape. (Credited to Abe Levitow
Abe Levitow
Abraham "Abe" Levitow was an American animator who worked at Warner Bros. Cartoons, UPA and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer ....
, this cartoon is the only short in the Pepé Le Pew series not directed by Chuck Jones, save the debatable Odor of the Day—see below).
Although Pepé usually mistakes Penelope for a female skunk, in Past Perfumance, he realises that she is a cat when her stripe washes off. Undeterred, he proceeds to cover his white stripe with black paint, taking the appearance of a cat before resuming the chase.
For some unknown reason, Penelope is always mute
Muteness
Muteness or mutism is an inability to speak caused by a speech disorder. The term originates from the Latin word mutus, meaning "silent".-Causes:...
(more precisely - does only natural cat sounds) in these stories; only the self-deluded Pepé speaks (several non-recurring human characters are given minimal dialogue, often nothing more than a repulsed, "Le pew!").
Sometimes this formula is subverted. In his initial cartoon, Odor-able Kitty, Pepé (technically he is a different character because he is eventually revealed to be an American-accented family man named Henry) unwittingly pursues a male cat who disguises himself as a skunk. Scent-imental Over You
Scent-imental Over You
Scent-imental Over You is a Warner Bros. Looney Tunes animated short film featuring Pepé Le Pew . It was produced by Warner Bros. Cartoons, Inc., directed by Chuck Jones, and written by Michael Maltese and Tedd Pierce...
has Pepé pursuing a female dog who has donned a skunk pelt (mistaking it for a fur coat). In the end, she removed her pelt, revealing that she's a dog. Pepe then, 'revealed' himself as another dog and the two embrace. However, he later revealed to the viewers that he's indeed a skunk. In Wild Over You, Pepé attempts to seduce a Wild Cat
Wild cat
The wildcat is a small cat with several subspecies and a very broad distribution, found throughout most of Africa, Europe, and southwest and central Asia into India, China, and Mongolia. It is a hunter of small mammals, birds, and other creatures of a similar or smaller size. Sometimes included is...
that has escaped a zoo and painted itself to look like a skunk to escape its keepers. This cartoon is notable for not only diverging from the Pepé/female-black-cat dynamic, but also rather cheekily showing that Pepé likes to be beaten up.
Production
Chuck JonesChuck Jones
Charles Martin "Chuck" Jones was an American animator, cartoon artist, screenwriter, producer, and director of animated films, most memorably of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts for the Warner Bros. Cartoons studio...
, Pepé's creator, wrote that Pepé was based (loosely) on the personality of his Termite Terrace
Warner Bros. Cartoons
Warner Bros. Cartoons, Inc. was the in-house division of Warner Bros. Pictures during the Golden Age of American animation. One of the most successful animation studios in American media history, Warner Bros. Cartoons was primarily responsible for the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies theatrical...
colleague, writer Tedd Pierce
Tedd Pierce
Tedd Pierce , was an American animated cartoon writer, animator and artist. Pierce spent the majority of his career as a writer for the Warner Bros. "Termite Terrace" animation studio, working alongside fellow luminaries such as Chuck Jones and Michael Maltese. Pierce also worked as a writer at...
, a self-styled "ladies' man" who reportedly always assumed that his infatuations were requited. Pepé's voice, provided by Mel Blanc
Mel Blanc
Melvin Jerome "Mel" Blanc was an American voice actor and comedian. Although he began his nearly six-decade-long career performing in radio commercials, Blanc is best remembered for his work with Warner Bros...
, was based on Charles Boyer
Charles Boyer
Charles Boyer was a French actor who appeared in more than 80 films between 1920 and 1976. After receiving an education in drama, Boyer started on the stage, but he found success in movies during the 1930s. His memorable performances were among the era's most highly praised romantic dramas,...
's Pépé le Moko from Algiers
Algiers (film)
Algiers is a 1938 American drama film directed by John Cromwell and starring Charles Boyer, Sigrid Gurie, and Hedy Lamarr. The Walter Wanger production was a remake of the successful 1937 French film Pépé le Moko, which derived its plot from the Henri La Barthe novel of the same name...
(1938), a remake of the 1937 French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
film Pépé le Moko
Pépé le Moko
Pépé le Moko is a 1937 French film directed by Julien Duvivier and starring Jean Gabin. It depicts an infamous gangster, Pépé le Moko who tries to escape the police by hiding in the casbah of the city of Algiers...
. Eddie Selzer
Eddie Selzer
Edward "Eddie" Selzer was an American film producer, most noted for been the producer of Warner Bros. Cartoons from 1944 to 1957....
, animation producer—and Jones' bitterest foe—at Warners then once profanely commented that no one would laugh at those cartoons. However, this did not keep Selzer from accepting an award for one of Pepé's pictures several years later. There have been theories that Pepé was based on Maurice Chevalier
Maurice Chevalier
Maurice Auguste Chevalier was a French actor, singer, entertainer and a noted Sprechgesang performer. He is perhaps best known for his signature songs, including Louise, Mimi, Valentine, and Thank Heaven for Little Girls and for his films including The Love Parade and The Big Pond...
. However, in the short film, Chuck Jones: Memories of Childhood, Jones says Pepé was actually based on himself, but that he was very shy with girls, and Pepé obviously was not. A prototype Pepé appears in 1947's Bugs Bunny Rides Again
Bugs Bunny Rides Again
Bugs Bunny Rides Again is a 1947 Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies short, released in 1948, directed by Friz Freleng, and written by Tedd Pierce and Michael Maltese. Voice characterizations are performed by Mel Blanc. The cartoon features Bugs Bunny and Yosemite Sam. This is a sequel, of sorts, to the...
, but sounds similar to Porky Pig
Porky Pig
Porky Pig is an animated cartoon character in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons. He was the first character created by the studio to draw audiences based on his star power, and the animators created many critically acclaimed shorts using the fat little pig...
.
In the shorts, a kind of pseudo-French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
or Franglais
Franglais
Franglais , a portmanteau combining the French words "français" and "anglais" , is a slang term for an interlanguage, although the word has different overtones in French and English....
is spoken and written primarily by adding "le" to English words (example: "le skunk de pew"), or by more creative mangling of French expressions with English ones, such as "Sacre Maroon!", "My sweet peanut of brittle", "Come to me, my little melon-baby collie!" or "Ah, my little darling, it is love at first sight, is it not, no?", and "It is love at sight first!" The writer responsible for these malapropism
Malapropism
A malapropism is an act of misusing or the habitual misuse of similar sounding words, especially with humorous results. An example is Yogi Berra's statement: "Texas has a lot of electrical votes," rather than "electoral votes".-Etymology:...
s was Michael Maltese
Michael Maltese
Michael "Mike" Maltese was a long-time storyboard artist and screenwriter for classic animated cartoon shorts.-Career:...
.
Some transcribed Maltese dialogue from the Oscar-winning 1949 short For Scent-imental Reasons
For Scent-imental Reasons
For Scent-imental Reasons is a Warner Bros. Looney Tunes short released in 1949. It was directed by Chuck Jones, written by Michael Maltese, and featured the characters Pepe Le Pew and Penelope Pussycat . It won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film...
:
- Pepé: (sings) Affaire d'amour? Affaire de coeur? Je ne sais quoi ... je vive en espoir. (Sniffs) Mmmm m mm ... un smella vous finez ... (Hums)
- Gendarme: Le kittee quel terrible odeur!!
- Proprietor: Allais Gendarme!! Allais!! Retournez-moi!! This instonce!! Oh, pauvre moi, I am ze bankrupt ... (Sobs)
- Cat/Penelope: Le mew? Le purrrrrrr.
- Proprietor: A-a-ahhh. Le pussy ferocious! Remove zot skunk! Zot cat-pole from ze premises!! Avec!!
- Cat/Penelope: (Smells skunk) Sniff, sniff, sniff-sniff, sniff-sniff.
- Pepé: Quel es? ... Ahhh ... la belle femme skunk fatale!! Tch-tch.
Blanc's voice for the character closely resembles the one he used for "Professor Le Blanc", the harried violin instructor on The Jack Benny Program
The Jack Benny Program
The Jack Benny Program, starring Jack Benny, is a radio-TV comedy series that ran for more than three decades and is generally regarded as a high-water mark in 20th-century American comedy.-Cast:*Jack Benny - Himself...
.
Cameo appearances
Chuck Jones first introduced the character (originally named Stinky) in the 1945 short Odor-able Kitty. This differs from later entries in several areas: Pepé spends his time in (unknowing) pursuit of a male cat, who has deliberately disguised himself as a skunk for reasons of his own; and in the closing gag, Pepé is revealed to actually be a philandering American skunk named Henry (complete with wifeAdultery
Adultery is sexual infidelity to one's spouse, and is a form of extramarital sex. It originally referred only to sex between a woman who was married and a person other than her spouse. Even in cases of separation from one's spouse, an extramarital affair is still considered adultery.Adultery is...
and children!). For the remaining cartoons Jones directed, Pepé retained his accent, nationality, and bachelor status throughout, and the object of his pursuit was always (or nearly always) female.
A possible second cameo appearance is at the end of Fair and Worm-er
Fair and Worm-er
Fair and Worm-er is a 1946 cartoon short created by Warner Brothers. The cartoon was directed by Chuck Jones and featured what might be a brief cameo by Pepe Le Pew. The cartoon is considered one of Warner Brothers' greatest chase sequence shorts, done largely in silent slapstick Only a few of the...
(Chuck Jones, 1946). This skunk doesn't speak, but looks identical (or is a close relation) and shares the same mode of travel and a slight variation of Pepé's hopping music.
A skunk often identified as Pepé appears in the Art Davis-directed cartoon Odor of the Day
Odor of the Day
"Odor of the Day" is a 1948 animated short in the Looney Tunes series starring Pepé Le Pew. It is the only short in which he appears not as a lover; it is also the only short in which Pepe does not speak, save for one line at the end...
(1948); in this entry, the theme of romantic pursuit is missing as the skunk (in a nonspeaking role, save for a shared "Gesundheit!" at the finish) vies with a male dog for lodging accommodations on a bitterly cold night. This should be noted as one of the two cartoons where the character, if this is indeed Pepé, used his scent-spray as a deliberate weapon: delivered from his tail in a machine gun-like fashion. The other one is Touché and Go
Touché and Go
Touché and Go is a 1957 Merrie Melodies Pepé Le Pew cartoon directed by Chuck Jones.-Plot:As a street painter paints out a white line in the middle of a road, Penelope is being chased by a dog and runs right under the paint tank and getting a white line across her spine whilst the dog crashes into...
, where he frees himself from the jaws of a shark.
Pepé himself made a more obvious cameo in Dog Pounded
Dog Pounded
Dog Pounded is a Looney Tunes animated cartoon short starring Tweety and Sylvester. Released January 2, 1954, the cartoon is directed by Friz Freleng. The voices were performed by Mel Blanc...
(1954), where he was attracted to Sylvester
Sylvester (Looney Tunes)
Sylvester J. Pussycat, Sr., Sylvester the Cat or simply Sylvester, is a fictional character, a three-time Academy Award-winning anthropomorphic Tuxedo cat in the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies repertory, often chasing Tweety Bird, Speedy Gonzales, or Hippety Hopper...
after the latter tried to get around a pack of guard dogs, in his latest attempt to capture and eat Tweety Bird, by painting a white stripe down his back (in his only appearance in a Freleng
Friz Freleng
Isadore "Friz" Freleng was an animator, cartoonist, director, and producer best known for his work on the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons from Warner Bros....
short).
Pepé possibly makes a small appearance as a baby skunk in Mouse-Placed Kitten (1959), where he is reluctantly adopted by a mouse couple at the cartoon end.
Later appearances
Pepé was going to have a cameo in Who Framed Roger RabbitWho Framed Roger Rabbit
Who Framed Roger Rabbit is a 1988 American fantasy-comedy-noir film directed by Robert Zemeckis and released by Touchstone Pictures. The film combines live action and animation, and is based on Gary K. Wolf's novel Who Censored Roger Rabbit?, which depicts a world in which cartoon characters...
but was later dropped for reasons unknown.
Pepé appeared a few times on Tiny Toon Adventures
Tiny Toon Adventures
Steven Spielberg Presents Tiny Toon Adventures, usually referred to as Tiny Toon Adventures or simply Tiny Toons, is an American animated television series created by Tom Ruegger and produced by Amblin Entertainment and Warner Bros. Animation. It began production as a result of Warner Bros....
and is the mentor to the character Fifi La Fume, and also made a cameo appearance in the Histeria!
Histeria!
Histeria! is a 1998 American animated series created by Tom Ruegger and produced by Warner Bros. Animation. Unlike other animated series produced by Warner Bros. in the 1990s, Histeria! stood out as the most explicit edutainment program in order to meet FCC requirements for...
episode "When America Was Young". Pepé also has a small cameo in the Goodfeathers segment, "We're No Pigeons", on Animaniacs
Animaniacs
Steven Spielberg Presents Animaniacs, usually referred to as simply Animaniacs, is an American animated series, distributed by Warner Bros. Television and produced by Amblin Entertainment and Warner Bros. Animation. The cartoon was the second animated series produced by the collaboration of Steven...
.
In the 1995 animated short Carrotblanca
Carrotblanca
Carrotblanca is a 1995 8-minute Looney Tunes cartoon. It was originally shown in cinemas alongside The Amazing Panda Adventure and The Pebble and the Penguin...
, a parody
Parody
A parody , in current usage, is an imitative work created to mock, comment on, or trivialise an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation...
/homage
Homage
Homage is a show or demonstration of respect or dedication to someone or something, sometimes by simple declaration but often by some more oblique reference, artistic or poetic....
of the classic film Casablanca
Casablanca (film)
Casablanca is a 1942 American romantic drama film directed by Michael Curtiz, starring Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman and Paul Henreid, and featuring Claude Rains, Conrad Veidt, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre and Dooley Wilson. Set during World War II, it focuses on a man torn between, in...
, both Pepé and Penelope appear: Pepé (voiced by Greg Burson
Greg Burson
-Biography:Greg Burson was given the responsibility of voicing Bugs Bunny in the 1995 Carrotblanca, a well-received 8-minute Looney Tunes cartoon originally shown in cinemas alongside The Amazing Panda Adventure and The Pebble and the Penguin...
) as Captain Renault and Penelope (voiced by Tress MacNeille
Tress MacNeille
Tress MacNeille is an American voice actress best known for providing various voices on the animated series The Simpsons, Futurama, Tiny Toon Adventures, Animaniacs, Disney's House of Mouse, Courage the Cowardly Dog, Rugrats, All Grown Up!, Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers, and Dave the...
) as "Kitty Ketty", modeled after Ingrid Bergman's
Ingrid Bergman
Ingrid Bergman was a Swedish actress who starred in a variety of European and American films. She won three Academy Awards, two Emmy Awards, and the Tony Award for Best Actress. She is ranked as the fourth greatest female star of American cinema of all time by the American Film Institute...
performance as Ilsa. Unlike the character's other appearances in cartoons, Penelope (as Kitty) has extensive speaking parts in Carrotblanca.
In "The Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries", in the episode,"Platinum wheel of Fortune", when Sylvester
Sylvester (Looney Tunes)
Sylvester J. Pussycat, Sr., Sylvester the Cat or simply Sylvester, is a fictional character, a three-time Academy Award-winning anthropomorphic Tuxedo cat in the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies repertory, often chasing Tweety Bird, Speedy Gonzales, or Hippety Hopper...
gets a white stripe on his back, a skunk immediately fall in love with him. This is not Pepe, however, he does say, "What can I say, Pepe Le Pew is my third cousin. It runs in the family". However, Pepe did appear in "Tweety's High-Flying Adventure", he appears to fall in love with both Sylvester and Penelope.
Pepé was, at one point, integral to the storyline for the movie Looney Tunes: Back in Action
Looney Tunes: Back in Action
Looney Tunes: Back in Action is a 2003 American live action/animated adventure comedy film directed by Joe Dante and starring Brendan Fraser, Jenna Elfman, Timothy Dalton, and Steve Martin. The film is essentially a feature-length Looney Tunes cartoon, with all the wackiness and surrealism typical...
. Originally, once Bugs Bunny
Bugs Bunny
Bugs Bunny is a animated character created in 1938 at Leon Schlesinger Productions, later Warner Bros. Cartoons. Bugs is an anthropomorphic gray rabbit and is famous for his flippant, insouciant personality and his portrayal as a trickster. He has primarily appeared in animated cartoons, most...
, Daffy Duck
Daffy Duck
Daffy Duck is an animated cartoon character in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons, often running the gamut between being the best friend and sometimes arch-rival of Bugs Bunny...
, and their human co-stars arrived in Paris, Pepé was to give them a mission briefing inside a gift shop. Perhaps because of the group receiving their equipment in Area 52
Area 51
Area 51 is a military base, and a remote detachment of Edwards Air Force Base. It is located in the southern portion of Nevada in the western United States, 83 miles north-northwest of downtown Las Vegas. Situated at its center, on the southern shore of Groom Lake, is a large military airfield...
, Pepé's scene was cut, and in the final film, he plays only a bit part, dressed like a police officer, who tries to help one of the human co-stars (played by Brendan Fraser
Brendan Fraser
Brendan James Fraser is a Canadian-American film and stage actor. Fraser portrayed Rick O'Connell in the three-part Mummy film series , and is known for his comedic and fantasy film leading roles in major Hollywood films, including Encino Man , George of the Jungle , Dudley Do-Right , Monkeybone ,...
) after his co-star (played by Jenna Elfman
Jenna Elfman
Jennifer Mary "Jenna" Elfman is an American television and film actress. She is known for her role as Dharma on the ABC sitcom Dharma & Greg and as Billie on the short-lived CBS sitcom Accidentally on Purpose....
) is kidnapped. However, some unused animation of him and Penelope appears during the end credits, thus giving viewers a rare glimpse at his cut scene, and his cut scene appears in the movie's print adaptations. Pepé also appears in Space Jam
Space Jam
Aside from Jordan, a number of NBA players and coaches appeared in the film. Larry Bird portrays a friend of Jordan who joins him for a game of golf. When the Monstars steal the NBA players' talent, they invade a game between the Phoenix Suns and the New York Knicks, causing the Knicks' Patrick...
, where his voice has curiously been changed into an approximation of Maurice Chevalier
Maurice Chevalier
Maurice Auguste Chevalier was a French actor, singer, entertainer and a noted Sprechgesang performer. He is perhaps best known for his signature songs, including Louise, Mimi, Valentine, and Thank Heaven for Little Girls and for his films including The Love Parade and The Big Pond...
, as opposed to more traditional vocalization.
In Loonatics Unleashed
Loonatics Unleashed
Loonatics Unleashed is an American animated television series produced by Warner Bros. Animation that ran on the Kids' WB for two seasons from 2005 to 2007 in the United States, Teletoon in Canada, Kids Central in Singapore, Cartoon Network's Boomerang in Australia, Cartoon Network in the UK,...
, a human based on Pepé Le Pew called Pierre Le Pew (voiced by Maurice LaMarche
Maurice LaMarche
Maurice LaMarche is an Emmy Award winning Canadian-American voice actor and former stand up comedian. He is best known for his voicework in Futurama as Kif Kroker, as Egon Spengler in The Real Ghostbusters, Verminous Skumm and Duke Nukem in Captain Planet and the Planeteers, Big Bob Pataki in Hey...
) has appeared as one of the villains of the second season of the show. Additionally, Pepé and Penelope Pussycat appear as cameos in a display of Otto the Odd, in the series. In the episode The World is My Circus, Lexi Bunny complains that "this Pepé Le Pew look is definitely not me" after being mutated into a skunk-like creature.
A 2009 Valentine's Day-themed AT&T
AT&T
AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications corporation headquartered in Whitacre Tower, Dallas, Texas, United States. It is the largest provider of mobile telephony and fixed telephony in the United States, and is also a provider of broadband and subscription television services...
commercial brings Pepé and Penelope's relationship up to date, depicting Penelope not as repulsed by Pepé, but madly in love with him. The commercial begins with Penelope deliberately painting a white stripe on her own back; when her cell phone rings and displays Pepé's picture, Penelope's lovestruck beating heart bulges beneath her chest in a classic cartoon image.
Pepe Le Pew has appeared in the "The Looney Tunes Show
The Looney Tunes Show
The Looney Tunes Show is a packaged show, created for Cartoon Network, and broadcast from 2002 to 2005. It was produced by Warner Bros. Animation. The show featured cartoon shorts from the original Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies theatrical cartoon series produced from 1930 to 1969.-External links:...
" episode "Members Only" voiced by René Auberjonois. He also appeared in the Merrie Melodies segment "Cock of the Walk" sung by Foghorn Leghorn. He appeared in his own music video "Skunk Funk" in the 16th episode "That's My Baby". He also appeared again in another Merrie Melodies segment "You Like/I Like" sung by Mac and Tosh
Goofy Gophers
The Goofy Gophers are animated cartoon characters in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons. The gophers, named Mac and Tosh, are small and brown with tan bellies and buck teeth...
.
Film
In October 2010, it was announced that Mike Myers will voice Pepe in a feature-length live-action filmFilm
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
based on the character.
Pepé Le Pew shorts
(Directed by Chuck JonesChuck Jones
Charles Martin "Chuck" Jones was an American animator, cartoon artist, screenwriter, producer, and director of animated films, most memorably of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts for the Warner Bros. Cartoons studio...
unless otherwise indicated)
- Odor-Able Kitty (1945)
- Scent-imental Over YouScent-imental Over YouScent-imental Over You is a Warner Bros. Looney Tunes animated short film featuring Pepé Le Pew . It was produced by Warner Bros. Cartoons, Inc., directed by Chuck Jones, and written by Michael Maltese and Tedd Pierce...
(1947) - Odor of the DayOdor of the Day"Odor of the Day" is a 1948 animated short in the Looney Tunes series starring Pepé Le Pew. It is the only short in which he appears not as a lover; it is also the only short in which Pepe does not speak, save for one line at the end...
(1948, the only cartoon in which Pepé is not a "lovebird" nor does he have a French accent; directed by Arthur Davis) - For Scent-imental ReasonsFor Scent-imental ReasonsFor Scent-imental Reasons is a Warner Bros. Looney Tunes short released in 1949. It was directed by Chuck Jones, written by Michael Maltese, and featured the characters Pepe Le Pew and Penelope Pussycat . It won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film...
(1949), Academy AwardAcademy AwardsAn Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers... - Scentimental RomeoScentimental RomeoScentimental Romeo is a 1950 animated short featuring Pepé Le Pew and Penelope Pussycat.-Plot:It is springtime in Paris, and Penelope Pussycat is starving, trying to beg the local zookeeper to give her some of the lions' food, who gently but sternly refuses. She then deliberately paints a stripe on...
(1951) - Little Beau Pepé (1952)
- Wild Over You (1953)
- The Cat's Bah (1954)
- Past Perfumance (1955)
- Two Scent's Worth (1955)
- Heaven Scent (1956)
- Touché and GoTouché and GoTouché and Go is a 1957 Merrie Melodies Pepé Le Pew cartoon directed by Chuck Jones.-Plot:As a street painter paints out a white line in the middle of a road, Penelope is being chased by a dog and runs right under the paint tank and getting a white line across her spine whilst the dog crashes into...
(1957) - Really Scent (1959) (directed by Abe LevitowAbe LevitowAbraham "Abe" Levitow was an American animator who worked at Warner Bros. Cartoons, UPA and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer ....
with Jones' animators, etc.) - Who Scent You? (1960)
- A Scent of the Matterhorn (1961)
- Louvre Come Back to Me!Louvre Come Back to Me!Louvre Come Back to Me! is a 1962 Looney Tunes cartoon directed by Chuck Jones. It is the last Pepé Le Pew cartoon .-Plot:...
(1962)