The Pink Blueprint

This cartoon story turns into a competition to see how can build a better house: the Pink Panther or his rival, The Little White Man. At first, they have the same project site but each doesn't like the other guy's designs. The Man has blueprints for a standard house while the PP's plans call for some futuristic design.

Most of the story involves the PP playing havoc with the White Man's attempts to build the house. The Panther also gets effective assistance from a runaway buzz saw.

This was "okay," nothing super, and, sad to say, marred by the always-insult laugh track, something totally uncalled-for in a cartoon. We can decide when to laugh, thank you. I wound up playing most of this with the sound off, so as not be annoyed. However, I missed hearing the sound-effects.

The pointy nose man is building a generic-looking house, while the Pink Panther wants him to build a huge, modern and slick-style house mansion. He attempts to exchange his blueprint with the man's, but his plan doesn't work. Therefore, the panther secretly uses the man's materials to build the house according to his plans.

It's a pretty slick and funny cartoon, with a good helping of slapstick humor and gags, including the part where a bed of nails lands on the man. There's a lot of back and forth of building, and tearing down and rebuilding. But, it has a good pace to it and serves us quite a bit of laughs.

Grade B+

Pink Panther Odyssey Part XVIII

This Oscar-nommed short (and the first to be played on telly) feels like a wise doubling-down on the original Pink format a bit - going back to the template of the original and essentially just being a series of abstract obfuscations involving only the panther and the "little man". It's solid, gently surreal but the laugh track is a dated contrivance that prevents it from absolutely recapturing the original's vibe.

I do like most of the Pink Panther cartoons a good deal. And I do like The Pink Blueprint, though it is not the Pink Panther at his best. The story is not much new and is rather predictable at times, and I agree that the laughter track is both annoying and unnecessary. Despite these, The Pink Blueprint does have some very funny gags, there's a lot of them and a lot of outsmarting and it all works. The ending especially is great. They do help let the cartoon go at a good pace despite a story that could have easily make it do otherwise. The animation style is simple but clean and carefully and beautifully coloured. Both Pinky and the construction worker are well drawn too. The music is fittingly orchestrated and matches the gags and action very nicely, it is also catchy. The theme tune is still infectious even for a theme tune that is as iconic and oft-heard as it is, there are theme tunes around that are so good that they can't get annoying and that is the case with that for the Pink Panther. Pinky is cool and funny, and the construction worker works well with him without outshining him.

Overall, an entertaining Pink Panther cartoon but not one of the best or among my favourites from him. 8/10 Bethany Cox

If an average person saw this cartoon today, they'd probably have a laugh or two and enjoy it. As a kid, I saw this and many other Pink Panther cartoons and also enjoyed them. However, looking at the cartoon today as a reviewer, I have less than enthusiastic feelings. While the film is watchable and slight, it's hard to believe that it was Oscar nominated for Best Animated Short. The fact is, however, that the 1960s was a rather dismal period for these shorts, as frame-rates (the number of cels per second) were very low (half that of films of the 1940s and 50s), backgrounds were ultra-simple and the overall look of the cartoon is very, very cheap--much cheaper than cartoons made today. To make things worse, the film has a god-awful laugh track!! Imagine putting a laugh track in a cartoon! It's like they didn't have enough faith in the material, so they are subconsciously encouraging the audience to laugh or telling them when to laugh!!

Overall, it's an inoffensive little short about the white guy (who appears as a foil for the Panther in many shorts) trying to build a house while the Pink Panther messes with him incessantly. Nothing else or earth-shattering about this one.