Pepé Le Pew
| Pepé Le Pew | |
|---|---|
| Looney Tunes character | |
Pepé Le Pew
|
|
| First appearance | Odor-able Kitty (January 6, 1945) |
| Created by |
Chuck Jones Michael Maltese |
| Voiced by |
Mel Blanc (1945–1985) Greg Burson (1990–1995) Maurice LaMarche (1996–2003) Joe Alaskey (2000–2010) Billy West (2000) Bruce Lanoil (2003) Jeff Bennett (2009) René Auberjonois (2011) Jeff Bergman (2012–present) |
| Information | |
| Aliases | Henry, Stinky (see Cameo appearances) |
| Species | Striped skunk |
| Gender | Male |
| Significant other(s) | Penelope Pussycat |
| Nationality | French |
Pepé Le Pew is a fictional character from the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons, first introduced in 1945. Depicted as a French striped skunk, Pepé is constantly in search of love. However, his offensive skunk odor and his aggressive pursuit of romance typically cause other characters to flee from him in fear.
Pepé Le Pew storylines typically involve Pepé in pursuit of a female black cat, whom Pepé mistakes for a skunk ("la belle femme skunk fatale"). The cat, who was retroactively named Penelope Pussycat, often has a white stripe painted down her back, usually by accident (such as by squeezing under a fence with wet white paint). Penelope frantically races to get away from him because of his putrid odor and his overly aggressive manner or both, while Pepé hops after her at a leisurely pace.
In a role-reversal, the Academy Award-winning 1949 short For Scent-imental Reasons ended with an accidentally painted (and now terrified) Pepé being 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). It turns out that Pepé's new color is just right for her. Penelope locks him up inside a perfume shop, hiding the key down her chest, and proceeds to chase 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).
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