Release Date:

March 24, 1951

Main Character(s):

Pepe Le Pew, Penelope

Summary:

In order to get free meals at the zoo, Penelope paints a white stripe on her back to look like a skunk, placing herself where the skunk resides. The zoo’s skunk habitat turns out to be the residence of Pepe Le Pew, who which she tries to evade the clutches of.

That’s Not All, Folks:

The production number is 1157 and was released as a Merrie Melodie.

The cartoon was given a Blue Ribbon reissue.

Although he had been doing layouts by this point, Peter Alvarado did the backgrounds for this cartoon rather than Philip DeGuard.

This is the second time in a Pepe cartoon where his object of desire intentionally makes himself/herself look like a skunk. The first was in his debut, “Odor-Able Kitty” (where he unknowingly pursued a male cat). Other instances include “Wild Over You” (1953), the final gag in “Dog Pounded” (1954) that leads to him making a cameo appearance, and “Heaven Scent” (1956). The latter cartoon is the only other instance where Penelope does this.

During the scene where Pepe is appalled to find out he’s been smooching a man in the “Tunnel of Love”, the man is so freaked out by the awkward experience that he silently enlists in the Foreign Legion before collapsing. Coincidentally, Pepe’s next cartoon, “Little Beau Pepe” (1952) involves him attempting to enlist in the Foreign Legion, only for everyone to flee upon realizing he’s a skunk, and for him to chase Penelope, who’s their mascot in that one.

Along with Charles Boyer, Maurice Chevalier was one of the inspirations behind Pepe. The most memorable scene has him imitating Chevalier singing “Baby Face”.

The title is a pun for “sentimental Romeo”, as in a sentimental lover (although Pepe is dressed as the Shakespeare character in the title card).

What I Like About This One:

In the park, a popcorn vendor’s machine labeled “Corn Le Pop” alerts him to move the kernels around in the pan by whistling “Le (whistle noise)! Le (whistle noise)! Le (whistle noise)!” (animated by Phil Monroe)

A man sitting on a park bench tosses some of his popcorn out to some pigeons, “Avec la popcorn, pigeon. Avec”, despite a sign saying, “No Advance Nourishment Aux Pigeons” (animated by Monroe).

At the zoo, the zookeeper comes out of his headquarters with his wagon full of meats and assures the growling animals, “Eh, patience avante. The food it forth comes” as Penelope follows him (animated by Monroe). The lion, with the sign next to his habitat marked as “Le Leon” and who always says “Le” before roaring, is the first to get his steak. Penelope is dismayed after the zookeeper tosses the steak to the lion and rubs against his legs as he tells her, “Ma no. Ma no. No le have sustenance por vous, mamselle kitty” and then gently shoos her away. He laments, “Pouvre le petite pussy. Famish un starvation” (animated by Ben Washam).

Penelope’s disappointment ends when she spots the habitat of “Le Skunque. Animal Unique”. She then dashes into “Le Paint Shoppe”, paints a white stripe down her back to resemble a skunk, and takes a ladder with her to enable herself to cross the chasm between the outside of the habitat and the habitat itself. Shortly after she has gotten in, the zookeeper with a clothespin on his nose, throws the steak intended for Pepe in. Delighted, Penelope starts to eat it before the real Pepe wakes up from behind a tree and walks out from behind it, as Penelope begins to smell his presence (animated by Lloyd Vaughan).

Seeing Penelope, Pepe figures she is “Ah, ze petite femme skunk. Ze rendezvous, no?” He then catches her in an embrace and starts making love: “Ah, my darling. How beautiful you are! How lonesome it has been that I have without you! Ah, ze sweet nothings! Ah, ze sweet somethings! Ah… ze tender enrapturements!” He then remembers, “But I forget! But of course! Ze rendezvous!” (animated by Monroe)

To the tune of “The Latin Quarter”, Pepe pulls down various shades out of nowhere resembling those of a house around him and Penelope before he sits her down at an equally out of nowhere table. After turning on a record playing romantic music, Pepe prepares to open a bottle of wine while singing “While Strolling Through the Park One Day” in fractured French. By the time he has poured a glass for her and walking it over to her, he stops his singing to see that she is attempting to get out the fake window (animated by Monroe). Pepe assumes, “So, she is afraid of herself, this highly seasoned one. Come, my little you-are-afraid-of-yourself! Return to my arms!” Bumping into the fake window, Penelope starts clawing up the shade before turning around while panting and seeing Pepe calmly declaring, “En garde, pigeon” (animated by Washam).

Penelope ends up tearing through the fake door and out of the habitat with Pepe assuming, “She want to play at ze lover’s chase. It is the little girl in her. C’est l’amour” (animated by Washam). Pepe hops after her out of his habitat and out into the park. Wondering, “Where are you, my stutz bearcat of love? All over, I am looking someplace for you?”, he starts to walk instead, “Where does it that you are secreting itself, you? Where is it your hiding place?” Pepe ends up coming face to face with a poodle who is so scared upon seeing Pepe that all of its hair sticks around its neck before it runs away in fear hairless with its hair following after it! (animated by Monroe)

Pepe eventually finds Penelope around a corner, “Yoo-hoo. Rabbit. Sorte vous, sorte vous, wherever you- are”, before she hits him with a mallet. Unaffected by the hit, he just says, “Flirt”. Penelope runs off into one of the boats for a tunnel of love, “Le Tunnel d’Amour” with Pepe boarding another one (animated by Vaughan).

The next scene fades in to where Pepe has seemingly caught up to her in one of the boats exiting before it’s revealed that he’s unknowingly been making love to a random gentleman, who is appropriately disgusted: “Ah, my darling. At last, we are alone together. Ah, ze amour. Ah, ze toujour. Ah, ze grand illusion! Ah, ze-”. Upon seeing who he’s been saying this to, Pepe lets out a half-disgusted half-bewildered gasp before he becomes angry: “What is the meaning of this, monsieur!? You shall hear from my second!” The gentleman exits the boat in a robotic-like manner, signs up to join the Foreign Legion, salutes, and faints (animated by Monroe).

Climbing up onto a wall, Penelope finds Pepe dressed as Maurice Chevalier and saying, “Baby Face” before he sings the song of the same name. She runs off again and stops to catch her breath at a corner but finds Pepe on the next corner dressed like an Apache dancer, “Hello, baby”. He grabs her hand before she can get away, making her his unwilling partner for an Apache dance. Noticing a club, Penelope grabs it as Pepe starts smooching before she bashes him over the head with it. Dazed, Pepe sees three vibrating images of Penelope and decides, “The one in the middle may remain. The rest of you- another day” (animated by Ken Harris).

He regains his senses when she once more flees. Pepe’s attempt to go after her is thwarted by the zookeeper who has come to take him home, holding his nose all the way back. Accepting having to say goodbye, Pepe shrugs, “C’est la guerre” before waving goodbye sadly, “Au revoir, pigeon. Sweeting is such part sorrow!” After getting tossed back in, Pepe sighs while feeling a lump on his head from the club before saluting, “You know, she may have been a headache, but vive l’amour!” (animated by Harris)

Where Can I Watch It?

At archive.org!

Carrot Rating:

🥕🥕🥕🥕 ½