the Pink Panther has an excellent career story: hired to help introduce a movie, became famous enough to leave the movie and spend his time making other people’s houses the wrong color.
in the original The Pink Panther, the precious object everybody is pursuing is a jewel. Peter Sellers plays Inspector Clouseau. the tall pink cat is over in the animated credits, apparently working on a much more sustainable business model.
there is something very satisfying about a spin-off that can discard practically the entire plot of the thing it came from. no homework. no explanation of who somebody’s father was. the cat has taken what he needs and left.
the introduction develops ambitions
Blake Edwards asked DePatie–Freleng to create the character for the film. in David DePatie’s account of the process, Edwards selected Hawley Pratt’s design from more than a hundred drawings. the request for an animated title sequence came later. the character was already interesting before anyone had worked out what he should do for several minutes.
his first assignment was excellent: interfere with the credits. a list of people who made a movie becomes somewhere a small nuisance can live. Henry Mancini supplies the music; the cat supplies the suspicion that he considers the whole production his property.
the AFI catalog records the enthusiasm for those opening titles and the subsequent move into standalone cartoons. that move makes sense as soon as you separate the character from the assignment. a jewel needs to be stolen. this animal only needs to encounter something he would prefer arranged differently.
an unreasonable position on paint
the premise of The Pink Phink is a decorating disagreement. a little man wants to paint a house blue. the Panther prefers pink. unfortunately, both parties have access to paint.
that is plenty. color makes the dispute legible immediately. every patch of blue is a little provocation; every patch of pink is a reply. nobody needs to explain what the house represents, or provide a childhood incident that made the Panther this way. he has a preference and an alarming amount of free time.
the short won the cartoon Oscar at the 1965 ceremony. a workplace dispute over a color swatch had successfully become cinema.
The Pink Blueprint pushes a related objection into the house plans themselves. the Panther has a preferred design and becomes the builder’s problem. the recurring pleasure is how little justification he needs. he can be graceful, stylish, and completely impossible to work with. excellent range.
you can keep the cat
the largely pantomime approach helps. DePatie’s interview makes clear that the character did sometimes speak, so “the Pink Panther never talks” needs an asterisk. but a character built around movement and visual interference can travel remarkably light. a look, a pose, a new obstacle: enough information to start.
a spin-off often arrives promising to explain more of its parent story. the Panther’s cartoons demonstrate the appeal of needing less. the live-action films can keep their detectives, thieves, and jewels. there is a whole separate kind of comedy available in watching an elegant creature make a petty decision and pursue it with unacceptable commitment.
he was supposed to introduce the stars. then someone left a paintbrush unattended.
Featured image: Pink Panther channel promotional artwork supplied on Plex, branded “Pink Panther by MGM.” © MGM; reproduced for commentary on the character and franchise.
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