You may call me Streetcar because of my desire for … Our June Film Feature, A Scent of the Matterhorn is a 1961 Warner Bros. Looney Tunes cartoon written and directed by Chuck Jones (credited as M. Charles Jones), featuring Pepé Le Pew and Penelope Pussycat.

To celebrate the anniversary of this animated short, we are offering a Contemporary Lobby Card Print gift with any Pepé Le Pew art purchased during the month of June … mention ‘A Scent of the Matterhorn’ to receive yours with any qualifying art purchase.

The smooth-talking, romantic French skunk was first introduced in Jones’ Odor-able Kitty (1945), but his personality wasn’t fully developed until Sentimental Over You (1947) and For Scent-Imental Reasons (1949). Pepé was the leading star of nearly one cartoon per year thereafter, and between 1959 and 1962 appeared in Really Scent (1959), Who Scent You? (1960), A Scent of the Matterhorn (1961), and finally, Louvre Come Back to Me (1962).

The only time that Jones made a film because he had a title in mind was A Scent of the Matterhorn. According to Jones’ account, “I woke up in the middle of the night with the idea of separating the A from Ascent. I couldn’t discard a title like that, so I made a picture.”

Before Jones drew Pepé for his first appearance in any cartoon, he drew more than 200 drawings until he was confident that the character would work according to the animation team’s conception of him. Maurice Noble created the delicate French backgrounds for Pepé le Pew’s adventures in the same style that he did for the Road Runner’s desert backgrounds. And even though Jones’ received some initial resistance to using the Pepé le Pew character at all, Scent-imental Reasons won an Oscar in 1949 (the first Chuck Jones-directed cartoon and the second short produced by Warner Bros.).

By the time Jones’ created A Scent of the Matterhorn, Pepé was well-developed and ready for his second-to-last starring role on the big screen. This hilarious short follows the misadventures of the love-struck French skunk, Pepé le Pew who travels to the French Alps looking for love in all the wrong places. What could possibly go wrong?

According to Chuck Jones’s daughter, Linda Jones Clough, “Pepé Le Pew is, I think, more than a Lothario … like many of the other comedic characters, both animated and live, I think the underlying theme is one of exaggerating those characteristics we all (or those of us who are honest) recognize to some degree in ourselves. That’s much of what comedy is …” You can read more of Jones’ statement about Pepé Le Pew HERE

Whether you’re a fan of old-school cartoons or you’re just looking for lighthearted, animated fun, this is sure to be your Looney Tunes cartoon pick for June!