Der rosarote Schmierfink

This Academy Award-winning short was the first Pink Panther theatrical release (at least as a short subject) and is a winner on all counts. Hilarious, well animated, marvelous story and use of music-everything is wonderful. There wee other very good shorts in the series, but none of them even came close to equaling this first one. I've always felt sorry for the poor little guy in this cartoon! Most highly recommended.

With the success of Blake Edwards' 1963 comedy caper film "The Pink Panther" starring David Niven, Peter Sellers, and Claudia Cardinale, the iconic cat that we see in the opening credits, created by Friz Freling and David H. DePatie, would be spun off into a series of shorts released under United Artists, further cementing the character into pop culture for years to come. The first one of these shorts, and arguably one of the best of the bunch is "The Pink Phink", directed by Freling and released one year after the release of the original feature he made his debut on.

The plot goes like this: The Pink Panther, the silent cool cat himself, disagrees with the decorator's choice of color for a house, which happens to be blue. The panther then decides to make the changes himself by painting the house pink, much to the dismay of the decorator, would eventually be known as "The Little Man" and later as "Big Nose".

For an animated short, it's a simple premise, but really, a simple premise is all it needs, because the short itself is simple in and of itself. The animation, while not as minimalistic as a UPA cartoon, is pretty minimal, and understandably so, because the budgets for animated shorts at the time were at an all-time low. Some would even outsource their animation out of the states. However, like a lot of animators and directors in Hollywood at the time, they were still able to adapt to the budget cuts and still make an entertaining short on par with a lot of the classics that came before it. In fact, "The Pink Phink" won the Oscar for Best Cartoon Short Subject, meaning it doesn't have to be the animated equivalent of the Mona Lisa to be good. Not only is it simple, but it's also rather funny.

The film would be followed by many other shorts starring The Pink Panther, which would later lead to spin off series that would be associated with the character, such as "The Inspector" and "The Ant and the Aardvark". Overall, "The Pink Phink" is definitely worth a look if you're a fan of Blake Edwards' "Pink Panther" movies and animation in general.

I didn't often love the "Pink Panther" but I always thought Henry Mancini's theme with that seedy saxophone a piece of genius. This time, the painter is trying to paint things blue but the panther is having none of it. What was grey must be blue/pink; pink/blue - it's a war of attrition. It could go on for ever, or at least until one of them runs out of paint. Narked, the painter decides to deal with his pesky nemesis once and for all. Will it work? It's a bit repetitive, we get the gist after about three minutes, but it's still quite entertaining - especially the garden sprinkler. I didn't love the end, though.

The amiable if somewhat limited cartoon character of "The Pink Panther" was introduced in the animated opening credits of Blake Edwards' 1964 classic caper comedy of the same name; in the film proper, it was the nickname taken by cat burglar David Niven but the eventual franchise revolved around the antics of his inept nemesis Inspector Clouseau (which would soon become Peter Sellers' signature role).

In the concurrent cartoon series (which I used to watch as a kid on local TV and have subsequently acquired on DVD), the silent rosy feline took centre stage, albeit usually employed in more mundane occupations, like a house painter as in this very first instance – even if it was still pitted against a bungling, moustached albino who was Clouseau in all but name. The latter wants to paint the house in question blue and the protagonist, inevitably, wants it painted pink. The ensuing confrontation is certainly pleasant if hardly providing outstanding entertainment value, but it was enough for the short under review to cop an Academy Award.

This is the first in a collection of Pink Panther cartoons, where the pointy nose man is painting a house entirely blue. However, the Pink Panther has something to say to that and slyly paints the colors over with pink paint. What results is a back and forth paint duel between man and panther.

There is not much of a plot in this cartoon, just a lot of painting around. However, there are plenty of laughs and some slapstick comedy you will get out of this cartoon short. The animation look kind of dated, but unique, and there is, like almost all of the other Pink Panther cartoons, no dialog - just sound effects and a funny sounding music soundtrack.

It's fun stuff for the entire family.

Grade A