For Scent-imental Reasons

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

• This cartoon can be seen with the Blue Ribbon reissue on the first volume of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 1 DVD set (disc 3) and Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Academy Awards Animation Collection (disc 1). In 2011, it also appeared in Looney Tunes Super Stars' Pepe Le Pew: Zee Best of Zee Best and Looney Tunes Platinum Collection: Volume 1.
• The oft-censored glass case/suicide sequence was used in both the Chuck Jones compilation movie The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie and Chuck Amuck: The Movie, though in the former, the scene with Penelope attempting to wash the stripe off her back is left out.
• This short was featured on the UK Rental VHS release of Singles.
• This short was included as a bonus feature on the Blu-ray release of Gay Purr-ee.^[4]

See also

• "(I Love You) For Sentimental Reasons", the song for which the cartoon is named.

References

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to For Scent-imental Reasons.

• For Scent-imental Reasons at IMDb