Back in May, I did some commentary on two cartoons with Anthony Kotorac. Sadly, the videos links in that post of mine no longer work because Anthony had some trouble with the Warner Bros legal team over copyright issues and so had to take that particular video down. He's also had to reformat every one of his videos in order to keep his channel going. Thankfully, he's managed to do that and so he's back up and running. Here's hoping his channel and his dedication gives him all the admiration he deserves.
That video embedded at the top is the most recent commentary I did on that channel. As you can see, it's for a cartoon called Odor of the Day. I put forth the notion that the skunk in that cartoon is NOT Pepe Le Pew even though it quite often is listed as such. Ever since this cartoon was put onto a Le Pew VHS set back in the 1980's it always puzzled me as to why it was included. The skunk didn't seem to be Pepe Le Pew at all to me. However, on that same cassette is a cartoon about a squirrel and a coconut called Much Ado About Nutting which had nothing to do with Pepe even remotely. But, of course, that one was just added to break up what to some might seem like a monotony of just Pepe's cartoons. So that's what I chalked up the inclusion of Odor of the Day to be as well, just a one off added for variety.
However, as time went on, I noticed that this cartoon was being put within Le Pew's filmography quite often. Whether it was a casual mention on an internet message board or some dvd release or TV broadcast, it was always categorized as a Pepe cartoon. That raised my eyebrow every time. But, of course, I always kept it floating at the back of my mind because I always had more immediate situations in my life to worry about, still do. Then, the aforementioned Mr. Kotorac came along with his commentary channel, so I decided to use this opportunity to air that minor grievance and see what happens. I'll also use this blog post to further elaborate on my position because that video could only be so long. Here we go:
As mentioned in the video, one big BIG difference between this skunk and Pepe Le Pew is that...
...this skunk knows full well that he stinks and even wields that stinky tail of his like a weapon.
Not only that, when the dog catches a cold with a stuffy nose, he can no longer smell that odorous tail. The skunk's reaction to that development is devastation. That's not like Pepe Le Pew at all.
A big part of Pepe's schtick is for his odor to linger over people and be completely oblivious to its effects. That, plus the lack of any love interest, is too big a departure to simply be "director Art Davis' own take on the Pepe character".
This leads me to another point that I didn't find a chance to make in that commentary: I don't think Chuck Jones would've allowed such a deviation from one of his characters. He was very adamantly protective of everything he created. He kept tabs on how they looked, how they acted, and how they felt. One big example I can give is in the 1990's when the WB Network used Michigan J Frog in all of their commercials for it. Chuck hated that with a passion. He said that Michigan's character is to only sing for whoever discovers him, just like that construction worker in One Froggy Evening did. For that worker, Michigan never stops singing but for everyone else, he just flops down and acts like a regular frog. So, for the WB to make Mr J Frog sing for all of America was violation of his character that Chuck couldn't stand. With that in mind, I doubt that if Art Davis had approached Chuck and said, "Hey, I'd like to use your skunk character in a cartoon of mine. However, he won't be French and he won't fall in love with
any girls that look like skunks. Instead he will compete for shelter with a dog and even deliberately attack him with the stink from his tail" that Chuck would be fine with that. I think Chuck would've, at the very least, exploded onto Art for even suggesting such a change. Chuck Jones wrote not one but two autobiographies. You'd think at least in either one of those there'd be some rant about Mr. Davis sullying his Pepe character. So, since there is no such rant in those books and I haven't heard of any such rant anywhere else, this leads me to fully conclude that the skunk in Odor of the Day is not Pepe Le Pew at all. Really, if Art Davis had wanted to change Pepe so drastically for this cartoon, why wouldn't he just use a whole other character? That seems to make the most sense to me.
There has been some reaction to the video so far. The responses on both Youtube and Facebook have been mixed for, against, or 'starting to lean towards but not quite all the way towards' my argument. Such as:
This guy on Facebook agrees that this is not Pepe. So, point for me I guess.
This Facebook person says "100% Pepe" and makes a point thusly. I can see the point he makes but I think he might've glossed over some stuff, but that's for a whole other post at a whole other time.
I grabbed both of these Facebook comments at the same time because they were exact opposites right next to each other. One says "no" while the other says "yes". Who knew this cartoon could be so divisive.
Over on Youtube, things are a little more nuanced. This guy gives a rather lengthy paragraph basically saying "maybe". But, he does raise the point that there are more questions than answers when it comes to this cartoon's origin.
This Youtuber says "yes" to this being Pepe and sites animation historian Jerry Beck as a source. Yes, Mr. Beck is indeed a tremendous source of animation information as well as being a lovely approachable person. I met him in person once in Ottawa about 11 years ago. He's a tiny little leprechaun of a man but inside the mind of this pseudo-gaelic gnome is a guy who's as nice and as knowledgable as I mentioned before.
However, he is still a mortal human and thus subject to err and/or make a too quick leap to judgement. He has certainly declared Odor of the Day as a bonefide Pepe Le Pew cartoon, but I'd like to know on what grounds he bases that opinion. Is it just in his own opinion or is there an unpublished or unreleased interview with the now late Art Davis that would fill in this puzzle piece? What does he know? Either way, this would certainly be a topic for discussion that I'd like to have with him someday.
Actually, speaking of Jerry, on the topic of this very cartoon I've noticed that some opinions from historians are also mixed. For instance, in this book...
...A Complete Illustrated Guide to the Warner Bros. Cartoons, in the listing for Odor of the Day it does have Pepe Le Pew as one of the characters.
However, the same can't be said for Steve Schneider's book That's All Folks! The Art of Warner Bros. Animation.
There's a complete filmography in the very back of this book. In there, Odor of the Day is simply listed as what's called a "one shot".
So, who's correct, Jerry or Steve? This may be a trivial question to some, but such questions are always worth discussing to any historian. Just as other scholarly historians may speculate and postulate on what started the fire at the Library of Alexandria, so too do animation historians stop to ponder the origin and the storyboard pitch as well as any other back room happenings that may have lead to the creation of this cartoon. Keep searching for the truth, my friends.
