Many older cartoons are very much products of their time and due to this, don’t hold up so well when viewed through a modern lens. The studios behind them realize this, too, and Disney has recently reassessed several of their animated classics and slapped them with a warning or disclaimer over potentially outdated or offensive content. The latest victim of this is the Looney Tunes’ amorous skunk Pepé Le Pew, who’s been generating a lot of headlines recently.
As you may’ve seen, a New York Times columnist blasted the character the other week for glorifying ‘rape culture’ and now, it’s been revealed that Le Pew has been dropped from Space Jam: A New Legacy. Admittedly, he was cut from the movie a while back and in fact, his planned scene was never even animated, but it’s still led to a lot of outrage online that he won’t be showing up in the sequel.
In news that’s sure to cause even more of a firestorm on social media, it seems as if WB has actually cancelled Pepé Le Pew completely. Not only will he not be in Space Jam 2, but he won’t appear in any further television shows from the studio.
The Hollywood Reporter brings us the news, revealing that the character “is not featured in any current Warner Bros. TV projects and there are no current plans for the controversial cartoon skunk to return.” That seems to make it pretty clear that Le Pew has been retired, so to speak, and won’t be seen on our screens again. And like we said above, this is sure to cause a bit of a storm online.
Indeed, the news that he’d been removed from Space Jam: A New Legacy has already led to calls to cancel the film, though there are probably just as many people happy to see him go. Regardless of how you feel about it, it sounds like we can wave goodbye to Pepé Le Pew for good, and at this point, it’ll be interesting to see which cartoon character finds themselves in the firing line next.