Hit Or Miss Of The Month: DePattie-Freleng (non-WB)

[Marty26]

Yep, per request, this month's "Hit Or Miss" will be for DePattie-Freleng's non-WB cartoons. What's the overall consensus here?

I know a lot of people will probably want to hang me for this, but I have to reluctantly vote "Miss." The Pink Panther was okay, although I was never really a big fan (and pulllllllllllease, for the love of God, let's not get into the 1993 after-school cartoon series!). But I always found their other series (the Ant And The Aardvark, The Inspector - which IMO earns the Razzie for "Most Annoying Theme Song Ever In A Classic Cartoon", etc) boring and unmemorable. In fact, I'm going to be completely honest: If I had a choice between an Inspector short and a DFE-era Daffy/Speedy short, I'd easilly choose the latter.

The limited animation of DFE's non-WB cartoons also betrays them. Even more so than with their WB cartoons because at least their WB cartoons had already-established/recognizable cartoon characters to somewhat overshadow their poor production values. Their non-WB cartoons, however, were trying to sell completely new characters through cheap animation... which is difficult to do, since there's so little you can do with limited animation (hence the term "limited" animation).

Anyway, those are my two cents. I know almost everybody here will disagree with me. So, in the immortal words of Jason Alexander (as George Costanza), "Flame On!"

[Speedy Boris]

It's funny because I always felt the animation for WB cartoons was superior while they were at DePatie-Freleng compared to the later Seven Arts shorts. Lesser of two evils, I know, but still.

I do like The Pink Panther shorts but one thing that always bugged me about them is over-reliance on the Henry Mancini theme. I mean, yes, that's its signature theme, but it doesn't mean I have to hear a variant of it throughout the entire cartoon!

Haven't seen enough of The Ant & the Aardvark and The Inspector to comment.

[Glowworm]

I'm hitting! Maybe the animation was more limited than the classic cartoons of the 40s and 50s but the cartoons and storylines were much better than most of todays stuff.

My favorite of them(the non Pink Panther shorts) has to be the Tijuana Toads. The theme song is wonderfully catchy and the characters-while politically incorrect are hillarious. Also the music for most of these shorts were fantastic-for non classical music scores.

I have a weakness for Roland and Rattfink. SOmeone had posted a few of them once online(although they later were pulled from Youtube) and they were wonderfully trippy and funny.


I bought the Pink Panther and Friends Inspector DVD and had some great laughs.

[Matt the Y]

Hit, definitely. The Pink Panther series was easily the best thing to ever happen to 1960's theatrical animation. As Thad once put it, Friz was the only animation producer at this point who wanted to make cartoons that were still "cartoons" by nature. Cartoons like "The Pink Phink", "Sink Pink", "Pinkfinger", "Pink Panzer" (a brilliant social satire, IMHO), "Pink Punch", "The Pink Blueprint", "Smile Pretty, Say Pink", "Pink Posies", "In the Pink", "The Hand is Pinker Than the Eye", "Pink Outs", "Psychedelic Pink", "G.I. Pink", "The Pink Package Plot", and "Pink Pest Control" are bonafide classics, IMHO, and certainly worthy of any other era of classic theatrical animation. The series got pretty crummy as soon as the 1970's rolled around but I guess that was to be expected.

As for the studio's other series..... well, they were pretty hit-and-miss. I'm going to say right here and now that I LOVE the "Inspector" series, bashers of this series be damned (I'm still trying to locate that *&@*&&!@* DVD collection but none of the stores around here seem to carry it!), and I easily consider it the studio's second best series after the Pink Panther. The quick blackout gags with their slapstick cartoon violence involving exploding bombs, guns, falling from buildings, and other pratfalls is classic comedy at its' best! Again, "The Great DeGaulle Stone Operation", "Napoleon Blown-Aparte", "The Pique Poquette of Paris", "Sicque! Sicque! Sicque!", "Toulouse La Trick", "Sacre Bleu Cross", "Le Quiet Squad", "Le Bowser Bagger", "Le Cop on Le Rocks", "The Shooting of Caribou Lou", "Les Miserobots", "French Freud", and "Pierre and Cottage Cheese" are all classics in their right. My only quibble is how they replaced Paul Frees as the voice of the Commissioner with Marvin Miller.

The Ant & the Aardvark is a bit overrated, IMHO. They're funny enough but I don't see exactly what it is that makes them that much more revered than the other DFE series since the humor seems pretty much equal to the others. I guess people just like John Byner's voicework. Still, there are definitely stand-outs in this series such as "The Ant and the Aardvark" (the debut short), "Hasty but Tasty", "The Ant From Uncle", "Technology Phooey", "Scratch a Tiger", and "The Froze Nose Knows".

Roland & Rattfink is a VERY underrated series. I wish more people liked and paid attention to this series; it's truly great. The humor is good and well-executed. Some of my favorite shorts include "Hawks and Doves", "Hurts and Flowers" (both actually brilliant social and political satire), "The Deadwood Thunderball", "A Pair of Sneakers", "Bridgework", "Robin Goodhood", and "Gem Dandy".

Tijuana Toads is pretty mediocre. I like some of their shorts but a lot of them are just middling. They never quite break loose; often they want to set up a plotline but then just never deliver it. Anyway, there are a few shorts in this series that I like; "A Pair of Greenbacks", "Never on Thirsty", "A Snake in the Gracias", and "Mud Squad".

I won't even get into the Blue Racer, Hoot Kloot, or Dogfather cartoons; I haven't seen enough of them to judge and, from the sounds of things, they aren't even worth seeing in the first place.

Oh, and Marty26, comparing the Daffy/Speedys more preferably to the DFE cartoons? ..... Brrrrrrrrr....... Is it me or did it just get colder in here?

[Glowworm]

Roland & Rattfink is a VERY underrated series. I wish more people liked and paid attention to this series; it's truly great. The humor is good and well-executed. Some of my favorite shorts include "Hawks and Doves", "Hurts and Flowers" (both actually brilliant social and political satire), "The Deadwood Thunderball", "A Pair of Sneakers", "Bridgework", "Robin Goodhood", and "Gem Dandy".


I agree-I actually remembered seeing two of those shorts as a kid-and I'll be honest here-when I first saw "Hurts and Flowers" I thought Roland was a woman-due to all that long blond hair he sometimes had. "Hawks and Doves" "Hurts and FLowers" "A Pair of Sneakers" and "Robin Goodhood" are also my favorites. I'm really hoping they wind up on DVD sometime.

To be frank I'm not entirely fond of the Ant and the Aardvark. I'm not sure why. I saw them a lot as a kid on tv. Maybe it's because it's technically a Sylvester and Tweety like chase duo with a lot of similar gags too. The gags and voicework are fun-but I'm just not as fond of it as the Inspector.BTW did anyone ever notice that the Aardvark kept refering to himself as an anteater? The ant would call him that too. Anteaters and aardvarks are not related although they both do eat ants.

Tijuana Toads left me on the floor laughing with the short "Hop and Chop"-which introduced the hillarious Japanese Beetle. THere are some great gags in that one! THat's probably why I enjoyed a Blue Racer short entitled "Hiss and Hers" mainly because of that beetle. I haven't seen enough Blue Racer shorts to determine how I like them though.

I've also never seen Crazylegs Crane, Mister Jaw(I only saw one) and I know I'd HATE Hoot Kloot. I tried watching one of those and could not get myself to sit through the entire thing. Hoot Kloot was so unlikable.

[Matt the Y]

I've also never seen Crazylegs Crane, Mister Jaw(I only saw one) and I know I'd HATE Hoot Kloot. I tried watching one of those and could not get myself to sit through the entire thing. Hoot Kloot was so unlikable.

I've seen Crazylegs Crane; you're not missing anything! It's possibly the most obnoxious series the studio ever did (it was a made-for-TV series which was why I discounted it from the other series in my previous post). Seriously, though, the serious suffocates in non-stop dialogue, most of which is incredibly unfunny, particularly from the dragonfly character why literally NEVER stops talking to the point where you actually want him to either shut up or just actually be eaten by Crazylegs and pretty much all the gags are tired and routine. There's also no joy, pleasure, or humor in watching Crazylegs always come out a loser at the end of every episode; he usually never deserves it, yet it's somehow obligatory and we're also supposed to laugh it and find humor in it just the same. This series is definitely a misfire.

[Glowworm]

I liked Crazylegs in the Tijuana Toads cartoons though. Especially "A SNake in the Gracias" Despite getting amnesia and tricked into thinking that he was a frog-Crazylegs was really cool in that one.

[frizfrelengfan]

A mixed bag. Most of the Pink Panther cartoons are good to great (and I actually feel sorry for the big-nosed man). I especially like "The Pink Phink," "Pink DaVinci," "Psychedelic Pink," and "Sherlock Pink."

I like The Ant and the Aardvark, mainly because of John Byner's voicework. How can you not like an ant who talks like Groucho Marx and a blue aardvark (or anteater, or whatever it is) who talks like Jackie Mason? Without Byner the cartoons would be ordinary.

I like the Blue Racer, mainly because of his weirdness. I like Crazy Legs Crane in the Blue Racer cartoons, but his own made-for-TV cartoons make the Hanna-Barbera cartoons of the time look like masterpieces.

Not crazy about The Inspector. I think they are too talky, like some of Bob McKimson's WB cartoons. And why does a man named Deux-Deux speak with a Spanish accent?

I haven't seen enough of the others to comment.

[Matt the Y]

Not crazy about The Inspector. I think they are too talky, like some of Bob McKimson's WB cartoons. And why does a man named Deux-Deux speak with a Spanish accent?



That's just it. It doesn't make sense and it's intentionally not supposed to. It's the ultimate non-sequitor. That's where the humor comes from ("And don't say si. Say oui!").

[J. J. Hunsecker]

I say hit, but by default. No one else was making good cartoons in the 60's, and at least the Pink Panther, Ant & Aardvark, and Inspector cartoons were funny, and had some interesting backgrounds. Although one has to weigh it against De-F's poor Daffy/Speedy cartoons and other series they produced that were not up to the Pink Panther standards. Even their best series had problems. As the decade wore on their cartoons looked cheap, with limited animation and xeroxed cels.

[Dave Mackey]

I think when DFE was on, they were on. BUT.....not everything they did was a gem - there are some Pink Panther cartoons I just can't sit through. But if you think of the talent that passed through that studio, especially in their early years, then they couldn't help but make good cartoons. Mostly Warner Bros. veterans, and a few good pickups from other studios like LaVerne Harding and the designer Dick Ung. There are some simply brilliant cartoons early on - "Bully for Pink" is probably the best cartoon they ever did with some great animation from Norm McCabe, Warren Batchelder and Don Williams. (I saw it last night on VOOM, and it's amazing how that one cartoon in particular has held up so well.) The whole idea of the Pink Panther cartoons eventually becoming pantomime comedies is what saved them, because some of those earliest ones were very talky talky talky, and trying too hard to give work to Paul Frees, Rich Little, Mel Blanc and others. It flew in the face of the dialogue-heavy shorts of the last years of WB, and I'm sure it's the kind of films Freleng and his directors were proud to make.

If there's one failing to the DePatie-Freleng studio, it was their TV-dictated production schedule that brought some series to a screeching halt after making just enough episodes to fill out a TV season. This insistence on, say, making 17 Ant & Aardvarks by such and such a date sometimes meant putting the Pink Panther on hiatus, and thus Pink came back a weaker character each time.

[thornhill]

Compared to what came before, they're awful, but given the time and context, they came out great, particularly in comparison to what Jones was doing.

Hawley Pratt was a very underrated artist, and was probably the best animation director working during that time. Bully for Pink, Pink of the Litter, The Hand is Pinker Than The Eye, and especially Psychedelic Pink are all great cartoons that hint that Pratt could have been an even better director in animation's golden age.

Gerry Chiniquy seemed to be on auto-pilot, though, and his Panther's usually blow. He did direct most of The Inspector's, though, which are usually hilarious. The Ant and Aardvark are clever too. Jackie Mason chasing Dean Martin! Oy!

[angilbas]

Hit. As a 10-year-old in 1965 I was impressed by The Pink Phink. Over the next eight years almost every Panther, Inspector, Ant and Aardvark, and Blue Racer I saw in a theater was a winner. Only when Hoot Kloot and The Dogfather showed up did I become convinced that D-FE was running low on creativity.


-Tony

[Mr. Semaj]

Hit, for the most part.

I usually enjoyed the Pink Panther and Ant & Aardvark stories. The Inspector ones were okay. The rest I often skipped.