Truly Dreadful Film

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

. . . the first being that it is one of the few "Pepe Le Pew" outings in which his female black cat mating target skunk-stripes herself ON PURPOSE, in this case to repel a horde of threatening canines making her life miserable (evidently, BEFORE she's ever encountered a REAL stinker, especially Mr. Le Pew). Most likely, everything this cat knew about skunks she learned on Wikipedia (which lacks a Smell-O-Rama key). The second deviation from standard Pepe fare is that he proposes to MARRY the white-striped cat (which would be constitute bigamy, since an earlier cartoon featured his scolding wife--an actual female skunk!--and neglected kids). This nuptial offer is bracketed by Pepe first humming, then singing a snatch of "And the Band Played On," the theme of Pepe's Warner Bros. producer's live-action feature, STRAWBERRY BLONDE, in which James Cagney plays Pepe as a failed dentist. Next, Pepe calls the cool cat a "hoo," and says to the camera that all she needs is some "occupational therapy, like making love" (that is, "Hoo-Ing") to get into his good graces. Finally, this blatantly Hyper-sexualized "kids' short" concludes with Pepe about to pursue his "hoo" into a blocked off tunnel! His last words to the camera underline the most prominent anatomical difference between males and females, and then he symbolically penetrates the tunnel, preempting director Alfred Hitchcock's NORTH BY NORTHWEST climax by several years.

Pretty typical Pepé Le Pew short. Certainly not bad but nothing that special. Pepé is once again in love with a black cat that has a white stripe painted down her back. The cat does everything she can to get away from the amorous skunk but he's always one step ahead of her. If you've seen one Pepé cartoon, you know what to expect here. There's the accent, the fourth-wall breaking, the innuendos, the puns, and the little adorable hop that he does. The animation is very nice and colorful. Playful music from Milt Franklyn. Great voice work from Mel Blanc. It's an enjoyable cartoon short but not one of the best from Pepé (or Chuck Jones).

I do like Pepe LePew and his cartoons. Admittedly more now than 10 years old where the humour did go over my head. Heaven Scent is not as good as Scent-imental Romeo, For Scent-imental Reasons, Touche and Go and The Cat's Bah, but apart from the too abrupt ending it is very good. The story is not that much different either than what we've seen before, basically the whole series is a sort of one-joke formula. People will either be troubled by that or are used to it by now, I'm leering towards the latter actually but I have seen better from Looney Tunes. On the plus side, and there is much to like in Heaven Scent, the animation is still the colourful and elegant style that we are familiar with(if more in the backgrounds and colours than the secondary character designs), and the music has a very charming romantic lilt that is also very witty. The gags are very amusing, though much of the humour is mostly verbal and Pepe utters some of the sharpest and funniest lines of any of the cartoons with him starring. I always admired how risqué the humour was with the Pepe cartoons, and this is also the case here. Pepe is great value, and voiced superbly as ever by Mel Blanc, who rarely if ever put a foot wrong. All in all, very good if not one of the best. 8/10 Bethany Cox

Directed by Chuck Jones, "Heaven Scent" is a good but not hilarious Warner Brothers cartoon starring the voice of Mel Blanc as our favorite French skunk: Pepe Le Pew. The plot of this cartoon is the same as in practically any other Pepe cartoon: boy tries to get girl, girl wants to be a mile away from boy.Any scenes in this film that make me laugh? There's the sign written in phony French, warning anyone to not touch the flagpole as it contains wet paint. The cat, disguised as a skunk, emits a smug expression and an eye blink after all the dogs run and hide, then a fisherman expresses himself (again in phony French) before escaping from the cat/skunk. Upon Pepe's first appearance, he sings "Strolling through the Park One Day", then as he catches up with his reluctant partner, he continues singing while smooching in rhythm."Heaven Scent" is okay, but my major disappointment with it is that the ending leaves a dangling thread that keeps me wanting more. Oh, well. We can't have everything, can we?