BREAKING MOVIE/TV NEWS

Friday, October 08, 2010

Myers Sniffs Out "Pepe Le Pew"

Warner Bros. Pictures is developing a live-action/CG feature based on their 'French Skunk' cartoon character 'Pepé Le Pew'.

To be voiced by Mike Myers, Warner’s Le Pew and his love interest, 'Penelope Pussycat', would be CG characters, with the rest of the film, live action.

Created in 1945 by Chuck Jones, the Pepé Le Pew character starred in over a dozen animated short films for Warners, with Jones' "For Scent-imental Reasons", winning an Oscar for Best Animated Short Subject (Cartoons) in 1949.

The charming skunk, would stroll around Paris in the springtime, looking for 'l'amour' conquests, while his malodorous stank, unknown to him, chased everyone away.


Storylines typically involve Pepé in pursuit of what appears to be a female skunk, that is actually a black cat ('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 Pepé, not only because of his putrid stench, but also because of his obnoxious, seductive manner.

'Franglais' was spoken/written in the cartoons, primarily by adding 'le' to English words (example: 'le skunk de pew'), or by mangling French expressions with English ones, such as "Sacre Maroon!", "my sweet peanut of brittle" and "Come to me, my little melon-baby collie!"

Pepé's voice, provided by Mel Blanc, was based on actor Charles Boyer's performance in 'Pépé le Moko from Algiers' (1938).

Click the images to enlarge...