Movies - The Pink Panther

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The Pink Panther cartoon character was the protagonist and main character in a series of animated short films. The character originally appeared in the opening and closing sequences of the 1963 film The Pink Panther
. The popularity of the character spawned a series of animated short films, and the character would appear in the opening sequence of every film in The Pink Panther
series (except A Shot in the Dark
).

History

DePatie-Freleng/United Artists cartoons

The animated Pink Panther character's appearance in the opening title sequence of the original 1963 film, directed by Friz Freleng, was such a success with audiences and United Artists that the studio signed Freleng and his DePatie-Freleng Enterprises studio to a multi-year contract for a Pink Panther theatrical cartoon series.

The first short in the series, 1964's The Pink Phink
, featured the Panther harrassing his foil, a little moustached man resembling the animated version of Clouseau, by constantly trying to paint the little man's blue house pink. The Pink Phink won the 1964 Academy Award for Animated Short Film, and subsequent shorts in the series, ususally featuring the Panther opposite the little man, were successful releases.

In an early series of Pink Panther animated cartoons, the Pink Panther generally remained silent, speaking only in two theatrical shorts, Sink Pink and Pink Ice. Rich Little provided the voice of The Pink Panther, modelling the voice on that of David Niven. Years later he would overdub Niven's voice for Trail of the Pink Panther
and Curse of the Pink Panther
.

By the late-1960s, the Pink Panther cartoons were being shown on Saturday morning television. Pink Panther shorts made after 1969, were produced for both broadcast and film release, typically apeparing on television first, and released to theatres by United Artists. A number of sister series joined Pink Panther on movies screens and on the airwaves, amonmg them The Ant and the Aardvark
, The Tijuana Toads
(a.k.a. The Texas Toads), Hoot Kloot
, and Misterjaw
(a.k.a. Mr. Jaws and Catfish). There were also a series of animated shorts called The Inspector
, with the bumbling Clouseau inspired Inspector and his Spanish-speaking sidekick Sgt. Deux-Deux, whom the Inspector is forever correcting. ("Deux" is French for "two", meaning the little man's name is both a scatological pun and a play on words, "two" appearing two times in the name.) Other DePatie-Freleng series included Roland and Rattfink
, The Dogfather
(a Godfather
pastiche), with a canine Corleone family. and two Tijuana Toads spinoffs, Crazylegs Crane and The Blue Racer
.

Later television series

DePatie-Freleng was the last studio to produce new theatrical cartoons, finally ending production on Pink Panther and the other series in 1980. After ending the Panther's theatrical run, DePatie-Freleng produced several Pink Panther television specials. The studio was sold to Marvel Comics in 1981, and became "Marvel Productions". In 1984, the Pink Panther was licensed to Hanna-Barbera Productions, who produced the short-lived Saturday morning series The Pink Panther and Sons, in which the still-silent Pink Panther was given two talking sons, Pinky and Panky.

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Movies - The Pink Panther

History

DePatie-Freleng/United Artists cartoons

Later television series

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