Sink Pink

A Texan big game hunter has a bright idea to capture all the animals: build an ark and then claim that there is a flood coming. Sure enough, the animals come marching in two by two, except for one - the Pink Panther. Grabbing his gun, the hunter goes looking for the elusive cat, but he is no match for the panther that is pink.

The Pink Panther shorts are some of the ugliest cartoons this side of a Gene Deitch Tom & Jerry short, and Sink Pink is no exception - the drawings are scrappy, the colours are horrible and the animation is crude. Perhaps if the gags were exceptional, this mightn't be so much of an issue, but they're not - basic slapstick comedy inspired by the likes of Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote, only executed with very little style.

3.5/10, rounded down to 3 for when The Pink Panther talks - he speaks like Terry Thomas on Ketamine.

Pink Panther Odyssey Part V

Only five shorts in and Sink Pink hugely jumps the shark - not only with a strangely chatty Texan whose continuous exposition feels vastly unnecessary but even Pink has a little punchline (RICH LITTLE THAT IS). The whole thing feels like a purloined Looney Toons script with a crow-barred in Panther but his louche charm prevails somewhat. Marginally wonky.

A western-accented hunter builds an ark to hold his collection of an assortment of animals. The only species missing that he wants in his ark is the Pink Panther. So, he sets out on a mission to hunt him down. But, the Pink Panther, in his classic, wise and crafty self, outsmarts the hunter on every turn, from sending a swarm of bees after him to making him drop down the mountain after drawing the bridge to the ark.

It's a very funny cartoon, and one of the very few Pink Panther cartoons with dialog in it, which I thought was a tad distracting, but nonetheless entertaining. It's always great seeing the panther outsmart people, sending up lots of laughs and chuckles.

Grade A

A bit more like Looney Tunes than usual for old Pinky here. But that's to be expected when most of the Pink Panther cartoons are from Freleng and Depatie.

This time round a Texan Big Game hunter is rounding up animals for his 'ark' so he can just go about shooting fish in a barrel. Kind of takes the sport out of it but...hey ho. The last on his list is a Pink Panther and he goes after our favorite cat like Wile E. Coyote would go after the Roadrunner.

Of course Pinky outsmarts him at every turn, even causes him to go plummeting from cliffs Coyote style. And in the end, of course, he wins and talks for one of those very few times. I love the Pink Panther.

What a shock to hear someone talk right away in this cartoon! That almost never happens as these Pink Panther cartoons are 99 percent dialog-less.

Nonetheless, we hear a "Big White Hunter" type guy traveling with his guide in a jeep along the Africa plain mention about "a story about some guy who cornered all the animals in the thing called the Ark. If it can be done once, it can be done again." He builds the boat and names it after his girlfriend: "Nora's Ark."

The twist is that, unlike God producing all the rain, this guy sends fliers out to the animals, warning of a big flood and telling them to come to his ark! Pretty clever (with a few holes in the theory, but, hey, it's a cartoon).

Anyway, it works and two of all the animals trot into the boat....except the (one and only) Pink Panther. Where is he? The hunter goes after him, despite warnings that the PP is "taboo."

Overall, despite the ludicrous (and elitist) stereotyping of a big-game hunter and of a Texan, it's a fun cartoon with some nice artwork. The rain effect, and the ark and animals are all drawn really well.

The very last scene has the Panther utter a sentence, and we discover he's British!