Cartoon Stars Re-Animated: The Pink Panther

 

Cartoon Stars Re-Animated title card

I think first thing people remember about this cartoon is the groove.

That specific groove comes to the world via composer Harry Mancini (the same person who composed “Baby Elephant Walk”). And it wasn't composed for a cartoon originally. It was originally created for a 1963 mystery spoof about a bumbling detective searching for a stolen pink diamond that had a flaw that, when viewed closely, looked like a leaping panther. The film was, of course, The Pink Panther, created by Blake Edwards and Maurice Richlin, starring the incomparable Peter Sellers and produced by The Mirisch Company and United Artists (note: United Artists will sometimes be referred to as UA going forward). That movie went on to be a comedy classic and spawn eight sequels and two reboot films. But a funny thing happened along the way.

The movie had an animated opening title sequence in which an anthropomorphic pink panther meant to represent the villains of the story and the stolen diamond, repeatedly get the better of a cartoon inspector. The intro was made by DePatie-Freleng Enterprises, a studio founded by executive David H. DePatie and animation director/composer/producer Friz Freleng after the closing of Warner Bros. Animation in that same year of 1963. And while the Sellers movie was popular, the animated opening sequence was surprisingly well-received. So immediately well-received that actor David Niven, who played the film's villain nearly sued for being upstaged by a cartoon character. Anyway, this convinced Depatie-Freleng and United Artists that people might want to see more of this cool cartoon cat.

The Pink Panther

The first of The Pink Panther's theatrical shorts was titled The Pink Phink and it ranwith UA's film Kiss Me Stupid in 1964. It was also the only Pink Panther short to win an Academy Award. The Pink Panther starred in 92 theatrical shorts, though it wasn't always clear sailing. By the 1970s, the family audience which was the main audience for the cartoons was in decline at cinemas and UA considered ending the series. However, the series was saved when a backlog of DePatie-Freleng cartoons were licensed to NBC and aired as The Pink Panther Show. After that, they started making the shorts for TV and putting them out into theaters afterward.

The Pink Panther and the Little Man

But before moving on to the Pink Panther's cultural legacy, let's focus on what the appeal of the Pink Panther cartoons is. They're hardly the first cartoons to star a non-speaking animal protagonist. But there's a certain something that's different about them. Probably because of the era and the conditions under which he was first created. The art is more abstract. The music is jazzier and more laid-back. The main character isn't as manic as most cartoon animals. There's a certain vibe of 1960s cool that pervades them even as the jokes start flying. And they don't necessarily shy away from hallmarks of that era, either. In 1968, there was actually a cartoon entitled Psychedelic Pink. And going into the 1970s, they would have cartoons like 1976's Rocky Pink which made fun of the Pet Rock fad. The most well-remembered Pink Panther cartoons are probably the ones where he has to deal with the ever-uptight Little Man (yes, that's the official name of the character). Sometimes the Panther is just pranking him for an entire cartoon. Other times, the Panther has his own goal but ends up getting in the Little Man's way by accident thus evoking his very petty wrath, resulting in a duel of wits. One thing that surprised me is that the Pink Panther is notg always cool and in control, which is what I remembered. He's often bothered by any number of annoyances ranging from fleas, scientifically-altered fruit flies, vicious dogs, yowling cats and many other things. He also seems to be down-and-out a lot, being broke and living in what's basically a shack. Though, I wonder if the collective memory of him being cool and unflappable (or at least unflapped) is what makes the cartoon work. Like we're all watching to see if the Pink Panther regains his chill. I mean, cool and unflappable is pretty uch the only vibe that matches with the voice Rich Little gave him.

Yeah. The Pink Panther has a voice. Are you surprised?

The truth is that nearly every classic wordless cartoon character has talked at some point in their existence, either on screen or on the printed page. Tom & Jerry both talked in the 1992 film Tom & Jerry the Movie. Snoopy talked, or rather his thoughts were heard, when they adapted the musicals You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown and Snoopy the Musical into animation. Heck, the Road Runner would talk in rhyme in the old Gold Key and Dell comic books he was adapted into. And in the early days of the Pink Panther, he was voiced by impressionist Rich Little doing an impression of David Niven (the actor who wanted to sue for being upstaged by a cartoon). He first talks at the end of the cartoon Sink Pink, and it serves as a really great surprise. The problem is that the more the Pink Panther talks, the less it works. Which is something I think cartoon studios had to figure out the hard way.

Pink Panther's short-lived TV sons Pinky and Panky

The Pink Panther Show is not the end of the Pink Panther's TV career. In 1978, The Pink Panther Show changed networks and changed its name to The All New Pink Panther Show. There was a series of television specials. In 1984, there was the cartoon Pink Panther and Sons, starring the traditional Pink Panther but also his sons Pinky and Panky. The Pink Panther parts were what you'd expect, but the Pinky and Panky parts were the usual slice-of-life kids adventures you'd expect from early '80s cartoons. Then in 1993, there was a new show entitled The Pink Panther. Once again, the Panther has a voice. This time it's provided by Matt Frewer (the guy who played Max Headroom back in the '80s, though his voice pops up in a lot of places). The show wasn't bad, but Frewer's voice doesn't really feel like it adds anything to the show. They could have kept the Panther silent, and it wouldn't have been much of a problem. And in 2010, Cartoon Network aired Pink Panther and Pals, which featured an adolescent version of the Pink Panther.

Pink Panther Flakes box

The Panther also journeyed into the realms of merchandising and endorsements. There was a Pink Panther Flakes cereal from Post. I believe the pink food dye from that cereal was eventually banned by the FDA. He also had his own Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade balloon, like a lot of the characters I cover in this series. And he's been a pitchman for IBM, Safeco Insurance, the Virginia Lottery and Owens-Corning Insulation (I remember that last one from when I was a kid. Back then, I thought it was a bit odd that they were using a cartoon to try and sell insulation to all the hardware store-going dads out there).

So, is there a future for the Pink Panther in today's media landscape? Well, maybe. Not necessarily under the same hands as the ones who started it. UA has since been absorbed into MGM. DePatie-Freleng got bought out by Marvel in 1980 (yes, that Marvel), at that point it became Marvel Productions and started to produce a lot of cartoon tie-ins to popular toy lines. Marvel Productions then got bought up by Saban Entertainment, which in turn got bought up by Disney. And at this point, who knows what's left of it. The character's rights remain at MGM, though.

Pink Panther and Pals

There is one bright spot. One of the problems with past Pink Panther revivals is that even when they were pretty good, they didn't necessarily feel like Pink Panther. They were either too chatty or shifted the focus to new side characters. But the thing is, 2010's Pink Panther and Pals was actually pretty good and felt pretty close to classic Pink Panther. Sure, the premise of “classic cartoon character as a teenager” has come to be a red flag for cartoon fans that the studio is trying too hard to be hip. But this time it works. It's the good old silent Pink Panther only now he's a bit more sprightly and a bit more mischevious, and his comic situations include youthful activities like going to the skate park, playing video games or delivering pizzas. Plus, it also gives us a new take on another DePatie-Freleng cartoon, The Ant and the Aardvark. Give it a try if you're interested. The show is available on Amazon Prime Video (naturally, considering they own MGM now) and you can watch samples of it on the Official Pink Panther YouTube channel.

So, we might not see a Pink Panther revival all that soon. Maybe we will. Maybe we won't. But the last attempted revival actually wasn't that bad. And it feels like they've finally got a grasp of what makes the character work. So, here's hoping MGM keeps it up next time we see this cool cat.

Cartoon Stars Re-Animated: Casper the Friendly Ghost.

 

Cartoon Stars Re-Animated

This post probably should have gone up on Halloween, but we'll have to settle for early November.

Title card for Famous Studios' Casper

Casper the Friendly Ghost is a character that originated at Famous Studios, the cartoon studio that usaed to be Fleischer Studios after it was purchased by Paramount. The details of his creation are debated, but he was created by either Seymour Reit or Joe Oriolo. Oriolo claimed he created Casper to ease his four-year-old daughters fear of the dark. He created a cardboard cutout of a friendly ghost to hang from a tree to show his daughter that not all ghosts were scary. Reit claims that he created Casper for a short story andgave the story to Oriolo to illustrate. They intended to sell the initial story to Fleischer Studios where they both worked or to a children's storybook publisher. They eventually did line up a deal with the publisher Grossett & Dunlap. While Reit was away doing military duty, Oriolo sold the rights to the book to Famous Studios (formerly Fleischer) for $175. That one time payment was the only pay Oriolo received for what would eventually become a series of animated cartoons. Reit didn't receive any money at all.

An early sketch of Casper.  Possibly for the storybook?

Under Famous Studios and later Paramount Cartoon Studios, there were 55 Casper theatrical shorts produced and released. The grand majority of them follow the same formula. Casper is lonely because he wants a friend and other ghosts tease him because he doesn't want to scare anyone. He sets out to make a friend, encounters some trouble, but then saves the day from some calamity and makes multiple friends in the process. So, despite him making a whole bunch of friends in each cartoon, the status quo would reset by the next cartoon. While formulas are common in theatrical cartoons, this one has received some criticism for feeling repetitive.

Casper's first design, as a roly-poly little fellow.

Now, Casper's cartoon stardom would not live forever, but he would find another platform. Casper first started appearing in comic books in 1949 from St. John Publications. But it was in 1959 that Harvey Comics started publishing Casper comic books. It was in these comics that Casper's current design was formed and where they started using what I refer to as the “Casper rule”. Basically, the idea that Casper was not the ghost of a dead child (hinted at in Famous Studios cartoons) but that ghosts were just a type of magical creatures separate from humans and that ghost children are simply born from ghost parents. This rule comes in and out of vogue with different versions of the character. Anyway, in 1959, Harvey Comics bought the character of Casper outright, along with other Famous Studios characters like Little Audrey, Baby Huey and Herman and Katnip. They would join the stable with Harvey in-house creations like Little Dot, Little Lotta, Hot Stuff and Richie Rich. Casper was a very prolific character under Harvey Comics, having 36 different titles over the course of his run there (note: the record for highest number of different comic titles for a single character actually goes to Casper's Harvey Comics compatriot Richie Rich, with over 50 different titles). Anyway, it's such that more people probably know Casper as a comic book character than as a character from theatrical cartoons. It also led to spin-off characters like Spooky the Tuff Little Ghost, Wendy the Good Little Witch and The Ghostly Trio (note: The Ghostly Trio's names seem to change frequently. Originally they were Fatso, Fusso and Lazo. Then Eeko, Stretcho and Fatso. Then in the 1995 film, Stretch, Fatso and Stinkie. Fatso remains constant). After Harvey's run ended, Casper would appear as a licensed character in some other comics like Arden Entertainment's 2009 miniseries Casper and the Spectrals (I actually rather liked that one).

A typical Harvey Comics Casper title.

Casper has also had his share of television cartoons. Five in total. They are Matty's Funday Funnies (sponspored by Mattel, hence the name), The New Casper Cartoon Show, Casper and the Angels (a Hanna-Barbera production that starred Casper but also tried to capitalize on the popularity of Charlie's Angels and ChiPs but set in the future. I'm not even kidding), The Harveytoons Show, The Spooktacular New Adventures of Casper (this one was a spin-off from 1995 Casper movie, which I will talk about further on.  It also apparently doesn't have an intro, so I linked a compilation of clips) and Casper's Scare School.

Casper and the Spectrals.  Featuring new takes on Casper, Wendy and Hot Stuff.

People around my age and a bit younger will probably remember Casper best from Amblin and Universal's 1995 film Casper. The film was popular and was one of the first to feature a CGI main character. One of the memorable things it did was discarding the previously mentioned “Casper rule” and gave a back story to who Casper was before he became a ghost. In this version, he was a 12 year-old boy who died of pneumonia which he caught after he stayed out playing in the snow too late. Loss, grief and having trouble moving on become central themes of the movie. The film also made some odd choices with the character. Like playing the friendship between Casper and Christina Ricci's character Kat Harvey (Ha! I see what you did there!) as something more akin to a romance. I guess they decided that if they were going to bother going dark and grown-up on the origin story, they might as well pull the trigger on that too. Anyway, the movie spawned two straight-to-video prequels Casper: A Spirited Beginning and Casper Meets Wendy. The latter of which featured future Disney Channel star Hilary Duff as fellow Harvey Comics character Wendy the Good Little Witch. It also spawned a sequely cartoon on Fox Kids which was apparently called The Spooktacular New Adventures of Casper (I watched that cartoon when it aired and don't remember anyone ever calling it that). Anyway, it followed the events of the movie and included other Harvey characters like Spooky the Tuff Little Ghost and his girlfriend Poil (not Pearl. Poil. The Brooklyn accent is built into her name). It also followed the movies vibe of having a more adolescent Casper. Not by playing up any romance this time, but by hgaving Casper be a bit more of a little smart aleck.

Casper and Kat Harvey (Christina Richie) from the 1995 Casper movie.

Casper's appearances have been sparing over the past few years since Casper's Scare School ended in 2012. He appeared in a Geico insurance commercial in 2019. He also appeared in an episode of the Netflix cartoon Harvey Girls Forever which stars other Harvey Comics characters Little Audrey, Little Dot and Little Lotta. But that's about it.

So, is there a future for Casper the Friendly Ghost in the current media landsape?

Well, first let's figure out where he is. He started at Famous Studios, which was owned by Paramount. Then he got bought by Harvey Comics. Then, Harvey Comics got bought by Classic Media (an IP firm that has also bought up the Jay Ward library, UPA, Veggie Tales and Western Media. Western Publishing being the parent company of both Dell Comics and Little Golden Books. Along with probably others). Then Classic Media was bought by Dreamworks, which is currently owned by Universal Studios. So, Casper is ultimately owned by Universal (the same studio that made the 1995 movie) but is specifically part of the Dreamworks stable.

Casper.  Just a friendly little guy.

As for Casper's future? I don't know. Looking at the character's history, specifically the story about him being made for a four-year-old girl, the initial sale to a storybook publisher, the pro-social nature of the character and the simple story formula, I can't help but think the best recourse would be to skew even younger. He feels like a character designed especially for little kids, unlike other theatrical cartoon characters that were designed for kids and adults alike. Casper as a preschool show? Why not? I could see him talking to his TV friends from behind the screen like some sort of spectral Dora the Explorer. And if that route can be taken with franchises like Spider-Man, Iron Man, Star Trek and Doctor Who, it seems like an easy leap for a friendly little ghost.

I do hope Casper has some kind of pop culture future. I can't help but root for a character whose own theme song says they're “kind to every living creature”.