''Louvre Come Back to Me!'' is a 1962
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (WBEI), commonly known as Warner Bros. (WB), is an American filmed entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California and the main namesake subsidiary of Warner Bro ...
''
Looney Tunes
''Looney Tunes'' is an American media franchise produced and distributed by Warner Bros. The franchise began as a series of animated short films that originally ran from 1930 to 1969, alongside its spin-off series ''Merrie Melodies'', during t ...
''
cartoon
A cartoon is a type of visual art that is typically drawn, frequently Animation, animated, in an realism (arts), unrealistic or semi-realistic style. The specific meaning has evolved, but the modern usage usually refers to either: an image or s ...
directed by
Chuck Jones
Charles Martin Jones (September 21, 1912 – February 22, 2002) was an American animator, painter, voice actor and filmmaker, best known for his work with Warner Bros. Cartoons on the ''Looney Tunes'' and ''Merrie Melodies'' series of shorts. He ...
.
The short was released on August 18, 1962, and stars
Pepé Le Pew in his last cartoon of the "classic" Warner Bros. animation age.
Plot
In
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
, Pepé is strolling and causing a disturbance with his fumes. At one point
Penelope Pussycat is walking with a ginger cat and Pepé's stink causes the ginger cat to faint and Penelope to spring into the air in shock, her back making contact with a fresh white-painted flagpole before she falls right into Pepé's arms. As Pepé introduces himself, Penelope scurries away.
Pepé chases Penelope into the
Louvre
The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is a national art museum in Paris, France, and one of the most famous museums in the world. It is located on the Rive Droite, Right Bank of the Seine in the city's 1st arrondissement of Paris, 1st arron ...
, with the ginger cat following. Pepé's stench ruins a couple of sculptures (correcting one into the ''
Venus de Milo
The ''Venus de Milo'' or ''Aphrodite of Melos'' is an Ancient Greece, ancient Greek marble sculpture that was created during the Hellenistic art, Hellenistic period. Its exact dating is uncertain, but the modern consensus places it in the 2nd ...
'') as well as thwarting the ginger cat's ambush attempt (who Pepé mistakes for a sculpture due to him turning white; the cat's teeth, whiskers, tail, and nose fall off, which, after briefly fleeing, he comes back to sweep up before slinking off again) and he terrifies Penelope in the sculpture gallery, even as he paints a picture of her ("Don't move, darling. I want to remember you just as you are."), she scurries away again and Pepé "accidentally" paints the dust cloud she left onto his picture ("Aw, shucks...You moved!").
The ginger cat then pumps himself with air in an attempt to simultaneously look strong and muscular and hold his breath while he confronts Pepé. Pepé plays along with the confrontation as a duel, miming a miss and a defeat. The ginger cat in the meantime slowly suffocates and finally, the air he fights very hard to hold in is forced out, launching himself into the Hall d'Armour and trapping himself in a suit of armor. Pepé wonders where everyone has gone to and after remarking that "War is fine, but love is better", he immediately picks up on where Penelope went.
Pepé finds Penelope hiding in the air conditioning machine below the Louvre and, thinking she had found a trysting place for them, traps her in it with himself. Pepé's fumes spread through the Louvre spoiling various works of art (the limp watches on
Salvador Dalí
Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, Marquess of Dalí of Púbol (11 May 190423 January 1989), known as Salvador Dalí ( ; ; ), was a Spanish Surrealism, surrealist artist renowned for his technical skill, precise draftsmanship, ...
's ''
The Persistence of Memory'' turn erect and break while the head and insects pass out, the heads of the couple on
Grant Wood
Grant DeVolson Wood (February 13, 1891February 12, 1942) was an American artist and representative of Regionalism (art), Regionalism, best known for his paintings depicting the rural American Midwest. He is particularly well known for ''America ...
's ''
American Gothic'' retreat into their bodies in the manner of turtles, the person overseeing the workers on
Jean-François Millet's ''
The Gleaners'' shoots a starting pistol causing the workers to dash off like sprinters, and the color on
Edgar Degas
Edgar Degas (, ; born Hilaire-Germain-Edgar De Gas, ; 19 July 183427 September 1917) was a French Impressionist artist famous for his pastel drawings and oil paintings.
Degas also produced bronze sculptures, prints, and drawings. Degas is e ...
's ''Two Dancers'' falls off turning it into a paint-by-numbers picture), the cartoon ending with the fumes causing the ''
Mona Lisa
The ''Mona Lisa'' is a half-length portrait painting by the Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci. Considered an archetypal masterpiece of the Italian Renaissance, it has been described as "the best known, the most visited, the most written about, ...
'' to talk. She
breaks the fourth wall and says ("I can tell you chaps one thing. It's not always easy to hold this smile.").
Crew
*Co-Director & Layouts:
Maurice Noble
Maurice James Noble (May 1, 1911 – May 18, 2001) was an American animation production designer, background artist and layout designer whose contributions to the industry spanned more than 60 years. He was a long-time associate and right-hand ma ...
*Story:
John Dunn
*Animation:
Richard Thompson,
Bob Bransford,
Tom Ray &
Ken Harris
*Backgrounds:
Tom O'Loughlin &
Philip DeGuard
*Film Editor:
Treg Brown
*Voice Characterizations:
Mel Blanc
Melvin Jerome Blanc (born Blank ; May 30, 1908 – July 10, 1989) was an American voice actor and radio personality whose career spanned over 60 years. During the Golden Age of Radio, he provided character voices and vocal sound effects for come ...
&
Julie Bennett
Julie Bennett (January 24, 1932 – March 31, 2020) was an American actress.
Early years
Bennett was born in Manhattan, New York, on January 24, 1932. By the time she was 18, she had been living in Hollywood, Los Angeles for so long that she was ...
*Music:
Milt Franklyn
*Produced by
David H. DePatie
*Directed by
Chuck Jones
Charles Martin Jones (September 21, 1912 – February 22, 2002) was an American animator, painter, voice actor and filmmaker, best known for his work with Warner Bros. Cartoons on the ''Looney Tunes'' and ''Merrie Melodies'' series of shorts. He ...
Home media
* VHS - ''The Looney Tunes Video Show Vol. 3''
* DVD - ''
Looney Tunes Super Stars' Pepe Le Pew: Zee Best of Zee Best''
* DVD - ''
Daffy Duck's Fantastic Island''
* Blu-ray - ''
Gay Purr-ee''
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Louvre Come Back To Me!
1962 films
Looney Tunes shorts
Warner Bros. Cartoons animated short films
Short films directed by Chuck Jones
Animated films about cats
Films directed by Maurice Noble
Films scored by Milt Franklyn
Pepé Le Pew films
Parodies of paintings
1960s Warner Bros. animated short films
1960s English-language films
Animated films set in Paris
Cartoons set in art museums and galleries
Penelope Pussycat films
Films with screenplays by John Dunn (animator)
Films produced by David H. DePatie
English-language short films
1962 animated short films