NiCK Crush

Alright, i have never had any interest at all in these films... nor the new one coming out with Steve Martin... but i gotta ask...

What does the cartoon Pink Panther have to do with the movies? Does he ever appear in any of them ever? and if not, why is it called The Pink Panther?

Ha, thanks

-NiCK

DonnachaOne

The diamond in the first film, a huge rock, has a flaw; a pink streak in the center that, when held up at an angle, looks like a springing panther. It is known as "The Pink Panther".

The cartoon pink panther is there during the credits as Clouseau tries to get him. The rest of the film is live action, and is more of a David Niven caper flick than a Peter Sellers film.

The rest of the films just used the Pink Panther motif in the titles, but had unrelated stories. Same thing happened with the Powell/Loy Thin Man flicks.

The cartoon series has realy nought to do with the films, but hey, I'll take any reason to hear that Mancini music...

garmonbozia

yup...the animated opening credits of the first film were so popular that it spawned a spinoff cartoon of sorts....

NiCK Crush

ah, i see... thanks.

-NiCK

devilshalo

I'm still waiting for the Ant and the Ardvaark films.

bhk

It was fun watching those cartoons when I was recovering from a bermp to the head.

Cameron

the minkey

duff beer

Rival11

Not trying to tell you what to watch or anything, but think about checking them out - they're pretty damn funny.

Rival11

I would love to see it happen!!!

nightmaster

Ka-tOooo......where are you my yellow friend.....

Grimm1

Mostly true....the second Clouseau movie A Shot in the Dark had nothing to do with the "Pink Panther" gem and so had a different title. But the 3rd Clouseau movie "Return of the Pink Panther" did deal with the gem the "Pink Panther" being stolen again. It also included the character "Sir Charles Lytton" which had been played by Niven in the first film as the "starring" actor of the first film. In Return the character was played by Christopher Plummer. So being a true sequel to the first film the title made sense.

For the fourth and fifth (I'm not counting the ones after Sellers death) they kept using the "Pink Panther" in the title for marketing reasons I would guess. People new that a "Pink Panther" film was going to be a comedy with Sellers as Clouseau and that's all that mattered.

The Pink Panther cartoon character was created by Friz Freleng's company when Blake Edwards approached them to do the titles for the first Pink Panther movie. Freleng had been a Senior Director at Warner Brothers animation involved with all the classic Warner Brother cartoons. The titles for the movie were a hit and spawned a Pink Panther theatrical cartoon series that had nothing to do with the original films. Edwards would continue to use the character in the opening credits in the rest of the Pink Panther films.

Freleng also did the title animation for A Shot in the Dark but this time using a character based on Clouseau which spawned demands for yet another theatrical cartoon series known as "The Inspector".

Groucho

Don't forget "Inspector Clouseau" starring Alan Arkin! Another Clouseau film without "The Pink Panther" in the title.