The Inspector animated theatrical series, thirty four cartoons altogether from 1965 to 1969, is not a consistent one, but generally it is worth watching and one of DePatie-Freleng Enterprises' better theatrical cartoon series. Second perhaps to prime-Pink Panther. It helps that the titular character himself is one of the studio's better creations and has enough personality (and a likeable and not annoying one) to be worthy of his own series.
Most of the cartoons ranged from above average to very good, with some average ones. There were also a few great ones. Am going to be another person to consider 'French Freud' one of her favourite The Inspector cartoons, along with 'Transylvania Mania' it is one of the best of the series' late cartoons and really stands out conceptually. Not just of the whole series, but it was also made and released at a time when the series was getting tired and running out of ideas and then there were a few late The Inspector cartoons to try and do things differently and very successfully and 'French Freud' was one of them.
Like all The Inspector cartoons, the animation is very good. Fairly simple in terms of drawing but never ugly, while the somewhat abstract backgrounds have nice attention to detail and don't look sparse. But it is the deep and rich colours that stand out in this regard. The music accompanying the action, while not enhancing is not discordant at all with it either. Liked its jazzy slinkiness and it did not sound cheap either.
Reading some of the premise before watching, 'French Freud' does sound like it would be gloomy non-stop with no room for laughs. That's not the case, there isn't a shortage of gags and all of them hit the mark to never less than very amusing effect. The ending is priceless and 'French Freud' gets my vote as having the best final line of all The Inspector cartoons. The Inspector is easy to feel sympathy for here but he hasn't lost his comic timing either, and the villain is a good contrasting match. Have no problem with the voice work.
Overall, one of the series' best. 9/10
