Early Pink Panther or later Pink Panther

[trevthetoonfan]

Which is your favorite Pink Panthers: Theatrical or TV

[Cool Cat]

Absolutley early period:thinkpink

[Matt the Y]

My pick is definitely with the earlier theatrical Panther. My favorites are the ones from 1964-1966. The 1967-1969 ones are also quite enjoyable (particularly "In the Pink", "Psychedelic Pink", "G.I. Pink", "The Pink Package Plot", and "Pink Pest Control"). Starting in 1971, the Panther shorts are slightly less spectacular but still worth watching (I like "Pink Blue Plate" and "Pink Tuba-Dore"). Then, the Pink Panther goes in hiatus AGAIN in 1972 and when he reappeared in 1974 with "Pink Aye", his cartoons were no longer the same. Starting around this era, they were quite unfunny (to me, at least) and had plots that just kind of wandered around aimlessly with little humor or gags. There are two shorts from this late period I actually enjoy a lot (they are "Pink Campaign" and "Sherlock Pink", though I would also give a few points to "The Pink Pro") but most of the others are a miss.

As for the TV Pink Panther shorts from 1978 onward, they are easily the worst of the lot. Like the 1974-1977 theatrical Panthers, they suffer from poor plot and lack of gags and, worst of all, they don't have the original Bill Lava/Walter Greene cues the theatrical Panthers had. Instead, they had Steve DePatie do dreadful, absolutely hideous renditions of the Mancini theme which made the cartoons even worse.

I'm probably the biggest Pink Panther fan there is but the 1960's were definitely when he was in his prime (For example, I think the Panther's debut film, "The Pink Phink", is one of the greatest cartoons of all time but a cartoon like "Pink Elephant".... eeeehhh, no thanks!).

[MF TOON]

Pink Panther films were always hit or miss for me.

The ones that stand up the best are the shorts which marry the defining artistic elements and subtleties of the series in visual aesthetic, music score and film concepts to the best effect. The more artsy films like Psychedelic Pink, Pink Punch, etc and those that applied a great sense of comic timing and refinement in attentuated humor and gags like in Pink Pajamas, Dial P For Pink, Pink A Boo, The Pink Phink and so on.

That said, generally the earlier films hold up better. There's no question as to the theatrical films versus the latter TV produced entries though. That's a given.

[Jack G.]

Early all the way. For me the quality starts to go down around the time the cartoons started using different music (but not because of the music).

I like the early ones best. The ones that have the surreal humor in them are best.

[trevthetoonfan]

Actually, it's always seemed odd to me that some William Lava cues were mixed in with Walter Greene's music as the credit in the 70's cartoons always goes to Greene only. Also, editor Lee Gunther almost always used Looney Tunes SFX by Treg Brown as I've said before. In fact, both Gunther and Brown are credited on two cartoons, Dial P for Pink and Sink Pink. But Gunther gets all the credit on almost all the rest. Roger Donley, Joe Siracusa, Chuck McCann, and Rick Steward are the other editors along with Gunther and Brown and Bob Gillis. Treg Brown's name should appear on almost every cartoon just as both Walter Greene and William Lava should have received duel credit.