Pink Panther

:This article is about the films and cartoons. For other uses, see The Pink Panther (disambiguation)

Cartoons

The Pink Panther animated shorts, originally directed by Friz Freleng, were first created for the opening of the Blake Edwards series of films, but they were soon spun off in their own series, sometimes with a little moustached man, resembling the animated version of Clouseau, as foil. The cartoon series was initially produced for theatrical release, and the 1964 animated short film The Pink Phink won the Academy Award for Animated Short Film (Freleng's third Oscar). The series eventually moved to television, with several Saturday morning cartoon series (including one called The Think Pink Panther Show) producing a number of additional Pink Panther cartoons. It also added episodes starring other characters including The Ant and the Aardvark, the Tijuana Toads (aka the Texas Toads), and Mr. Jaws and Catfish (aka Misterjaw). (Mr. Jaws was a shark who liked to leap out of the water and shout "Gotcha!" at unsuspecting folks, and had a meek yellow derby-wearing catfish as a sidekick.) There were also a series of animated shorts called "The Inspector", with the bumbling Clouseau inspired Inspector and his Spanish-speaking sidekick Sgt. Dieu-Dieu, whom the Inspector is forever correcting. ("Dieu" is French for "God", meaning the little man's name is both a bowel-centric pun and literally means "God-God".) In 1984, the Pink Panther got two sons, Pinky and Panky, in the short lived series The Pink Panther and Sons.

Related Topics:
Shorts - Friz Freleng - 1964 - Academy Award for Animated Short Film - Saturday morning cartoon - The Ant and the Aardvark - Sidekick - The Inspector - Bowel-centric - 1984 - The Pink Panther and Sons

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In the early series of Pink Panther cartoons, the 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. A series of cartoons in 1993 and 1994 had the Pink Panther speaking with the voice of Matt Frewer (of Max Headroom fame), a move that was initially controversial with fans who felt that the panther should never speak. (Unlike the classic animated features, not all episode titles contained the word "pink", instead many contained the word "panther".)

Related Topics:
Rich Little - David Niven - Trail of the Pink Panther - Curse of the Pink Panther - 1993 - 1994 - Matt Frewer - Max Headroom

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The cartoon character of the Pink Panther has been, since August 15, 1980, a mascot for Owens Corning fiberglass thermal insulation. The association comes from the pink coloration of the insulation. Since 2001, the Pink Panther has also been a mascot for Sweet'N Low artificial sweetener. As with Owens Corning, the association comes from the pink color of Sweet'N Low packets. In 2005, the 'Pink Panther' sunday strip, also featuring the Inspector Clouseau character, has been syndicated by Tribune Media Services. The strip is written and drawn by Eric and Bill Teitelbaum.

Related Topics:
August 15 - 1980 - Mascot - Owens Corning - Fiberglass - Insulation - 2001 - Sweet'N Low - Artificial sweetener - Sunday strip - Tribune Media Services - Eric and Bill Teitelbaum

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Jacques Clouseau, Dreyfus and Cato seem to have inspired the popular animated series Inspector Gadget.

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See also: List of The Pink Panther cartoons

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