The Pink Blueprint

The Pink Blueprint involves the Pink Panther's efforts to replace a construction workers boring blueprints with one of his own, which would result in the construction of a crazy looking futuristic house. He and the worker get into a funny competition of sorts, each trying to use the same construction site to build totally different buildings. It's set up in a series of short scenes that each involve a run-in between the two as they work on their projects, and the Pink Panther is generally the winner of these confrontations, which usually end in some hilarious mishaps for the poor construction guy. The film is pretty dated, but it's still pretty entertaining, and it features an unexpected ending in which the Pink Panther does not exactly get the last laugh. I saw this short film on a videotape with the fourth James Bond film, Thunderball. Both were good shows.

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.

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.

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.

This cartoon was nominated for a Academy Award. It's a fairly good cartoon, although it is quite similar to The Pink Phink in conception, tone and execution. Not really a terribly novel cartoon by any means, but great fun and very entertaining. Recommended.